Is there such a thing as the power of words?
In our lives, we speak as naturally as we breathe, as a result of which we often think that our words have little power. Many times we say words without any conscious thought - in fact, we rarely stop and think about what we are saying.
Thousands of words pour out of our mouths every day. We freely express our thoughts, opinions, judgments and beliefs to other people. However, we often forget the positive or negative effect that these words have on us and the people around us.
The power of words is impressive. Words transmit energy that creates a reaction in others. Everything you say has an effect in the world.
Whatever you say to a particular person has an impact on that person. We are constantly creating something - either positive or negative - with our words.
The reaction to our words often comes back to us in multiplied form. For example, if we speak judgmental words to someone, they will judge us back, probably with greater intensity, using the pain and anger that our words caused.
On the contrary, words of kindness and acceptance will create a warm and grateful reaction in a person. The other person's words in response will be stronger because they will have the positive emotions created by our words. The power of words has a boomerang effect in our lives.
The great power of words - positive and negative
May your words always be positive. To make sure of this, you. What is inside you will also appear outside - in your mouth.
Weigh your speech before you pour it out. The Bible says that even a fool can be considered wise if he uses his words carefully. You can use your words to appreciate, praise, support, bring out the best in people and reinforce good behavior. Let your speech show compassion and concern for others.
With negative words you can kill the enthusiasm or talent in others with just a few words of criticism. You can quickly ruin what was the greatest relationship or opportunity of your life by not paying attention. With negative speech you will lose a lot, and if you gain something, you will gain very little. Words spoken in a fit of anger can cause more harm than any other.
Various scientists have conducted research on water crystals. Water samples were taken - it was frozen, and then scientists photographed the crystals that formed in it. Both positive and negative words were written on the water test tubes.
In those test tubes that had positive messages (such as love, gratitude, etc.), the crystals were beautiful. However, the crystals in the bottles containing negative words (such as hatred and evil) were very different, and the water, in some cases, did not form crystals at all. Experiments were also carried out using words in different languages. Scientists were also involved in experiments who did not know what these words meant. The results were similar in all cases.
Words have power, and great power at that. The human body, as we know, consists of ninety percent water. Think about it, if words have such a powerful effect on water, what is the effect of positive and negative words on our bodies?
Words have power in our lives
An important key to success in life is to understand the power of words.
A word is a thought expressed. Compared to thought, it can never be taken back; once it comes out of our mouths, it will have an effect. Our words are even more powerful than our thoughts because they not only affect us, but also the world and people around us.
Controlling their words instead of being controlled by them. Successful people understand that they need to speak positively rather than negatively in order to see success in their lives. They know the importance of speaking words that will build self-esteem and confidence, build relationships, and create opportunities. They speak words of affirmation, mutual support, love, acceptance and correct understanding.
To have personal success in our lives, our words must be in accordance with our vision and our dreams. Words can determine our destiny. Equally important, they can have a noticeable positive impact on the lives of those people with whom we interact every day.
Before you say anything, ask yourself: “Will what I say uplift, inspire and motivate the listener? Will this create momentum for them moving forward? Will I create a positive or negative effect by saying this?” .
The power of words must be unleashed for positive change. The word that comes out of your mouth will determine your success or failure. Speak only what you want to see manifested in your life.
To change reality, you must change the words you speak on a daily basis. The power of the word is such that it carries with it the ability to kill or heal, bless or curse, destroy or build, create or destroy.
You must take control of your mind and mouth! Who you are, what you think or feel is always revealed when you speak. To summarize, your life is determined by your dominant thoughts and words. Your words are a self-fulfilling prophecy.
When you talk about achieving your goals, you attract all the elements necessary to help you achieve those goals. When people talk about business or entrepreneurship development, they attract business ideas, initiatives and plans. And so in any area of life. You literally attract what you say.
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Words have power, but we have the power to choose our words. We really need to take note of what we say. When we open our mouths, we "launch" words to work through all eternity. Josh Billings once said, “Kind words may be short, but their impact is truly endless.”
The word is like a living organism, capable of growing, changing, spreading and influencing the world - directly or indirectly, through others. We have the right to free speech, but there are always consequences to what we say, whether we realize it or not.
We can exercise our right to choose, because life is a choice that we make every minute. What choice will you make?
WITH A WORD YOU CAN KILL, WITH A WORD YOU CAN SAVE, WITH A WORD YOU CAN LEAD SHELVES
There are many words on earth. There are daily words -
They show the blue of the spring sky.
There are night words that we talk about during the day
We remember with a smile and sweet shame.
There are words - like wounds, words - like judgment, -
They do not surrender and are not taken prisoner.
A word can kill, a word can save,
With a word you can lead the shelves with you.
In a word you can sell, and betray, and buy,
The word can be poured into striking lead.
But there are words for all words in our language:
Glory, Motherland, Loyalty, Freedom and Honor.
I don’t dare repeat them at every step, -
Like banners in a case, I treasure them in my soul.
Who often repeats them - I don’t believe him
He will forget about them in fire and smoke.
He won't remember them on the burning bridge,
They will be forgotten by someone else in a high position.
Anyone who wants to profit from proud words
Countless dust insults the heroes,
Those in dark forests and damp trenches,
Without repeating these words, they died for them.
Let them not serve as bargaining chips, -
Keep them in your heart as a golden standard!
And do not make them servants in small households -
Take care of their original purity.
When joy is like a storm, or grief is like night,
Only these words can help you!
Vadim Shefner
I like these poems by Vadim Shefner. I know very well the value of the human word, because I have been working with people all my life and always think before I say anything to a person...
Is it possible to kill with a word? I think it certainly is. Naturally, this cannot be done directly physically, but on a moral or psychological level it can be done. You can kill immediately by saying something terrible, tragic, shocking, or you can destroy slowly and gradually, every day with words killing in a person his aspirations, dreams, faith in a happy future, instilling in him some terrible thought, leading him to suicide...
Absolutely everyone, without exception, is capable of “saving with words.” Only some people do it better, others do it worse. The most obvious example of this is the numerous helplines and hotlines for psychological help. The only “weapon” of psychologists in this case is the word, so in order to work there, you need to be fluent in the language. In everyday life, we also sometimes, without realizing it, “save” with a word, consoling someone, expressing sympathy to someone, and our words, like a lifebuoy in an ocean of problems, support and help someone get to the shore.
And finally, “lead the shelves” - I think it’s possible. To do this, there must be people who know how to speak, ready to find words that would force the masses to follow them. There have been many such people in our history; commanders have used this property of the word since ancient times; before important battles, with their speeches they inspired soldiers to heroic deeds. Almost all the great commanders were excellent speakers, they can be listed endlessly. Very talented people have always lived in Rus'... but where they have gone now is a mystery to me...
There is a power of grace
In the consonance of living words,
And an incomprehensible one breathes,
Holy beauty in them.
M. Yu. Lermontov
Language is the confession of the people,
His soul and life are dear.
P. A. Vyazemsky
Blessed is he who rules firmly with his word
And keeps his thoughts on a leash.
A. S. Pushkin
Pushkin sounds so wonderful,
Our tongue writhes in anguish,
When they send ungodly
On it, in Russian.
E. A. Evtushenko
Language, our magnificent language,
River and steppe expanse in it,
It contains the screams of an eagle and the roar of a wolf,
The chanting, and the ringing, and the incense of pilgrimage.
K. D. Balmont
And we will save you, Russian speech,
Great Russian word.
We will carry you free and clean,
We will give it to our grandchildren and save us from captivity
Forever!
A. A. Akhmatova
Friends, take care of yourself,
When you speak Russian.
After all, this is our native language -
Save it for your grandchildren!
E. Ya. Vesnik
He came to us by inheritance,
For us it is more valuable than anything,
We replace with someone else's copper
We don't dare gold it.
Like a guardian of a precious chalice,
We must preserve the gift of centuries
And the new shine of our life
Enrich your native speech.
S. N. Sergeev-Tsensky
Learn Russian
If you want to beat fate,
If you are looking for joy in a flower garden,
If you need solid support -
Learn Russian language!
He is your great, mighty mentor,
He is a translator, he is a guide.
If you storm knowledge steeply -
Learn Russian
S. Abdullah
... our language is wonderful,
Metallic, sonorous, humming.
Our wild, accurate tongue!
N. M. Yazykov
Word
The tombs, mummies and bones are silent, -
Only the word is given life:
From ancient darkness, on the world graveyard,
Only the Letters sound.
And we have no other property!
Know how to take care
At least to the best of my ability, in days of anger and suffering,
Our immortal gift is speech.
I. A. Bunin
The rulers also disappeared
Instantly and for sure
When they accidentally encroached
To the Russian essence of the language.
Y. V. Smelyakov
There are speeches - meaning
Dark or insignificant
But they don't care
It's impossible to listen.
How full their sounds are
Madness of desire!
They contain tears of separation,
They have the thrill of a date.
Will not meet with an answer
Among the noise of the world
Of flame and light
Born word;
But in the temple, in the middle of the battle
And wherever I will be,
Hearing him, I
I recognize it everywhere.
Without finishing the prayer,
I will answer that sound,
And I'll throw myself out of battle
I will meet him.
M. Yu. Lermontov
Words
There are many words on earth. There are daily words -
They show the blue of the spring sky.
There are night words that we talk about during the day
We remember with a smile and sweet shame.
There are words - like wounds, words - like judgment, -
They do not surrender and are not taken prisoner.
A word can kill, a word can save,
With a word you can lead the shelves with you.
In a word you can sell, and betray, and buy,
The word can be poured into striking lead.
But there are words for all words in our language:
Glory, Motherland, Loyalty, Freedom and Honor.
I don’t dare repeat them at every step, -
Like banners in a case, I treasure them in my soul.
Who often repeats them - I don’t believe him
He will forget about them in fire and smoke.
He won't remember them on the burning bridge,
They will be forgotten by someone else in a high position.
Anyone who wants to profit from proud words
Countless dust insults the heroes,
Those in dark forests and damp trenches,
Without repeating these words, they died for them.
Let them not serve as bargaining chips, -
Keep them in your heart as a golden standard!
And do not make them servants in small households -
Take care of their original purity.
When joy is like a storm, or grief is like night,
Only these words can help you!
V. S. Shefner
Native language!
I have known him since childhood.
It was the first time I said “mom”
On it I swore stubborn allegiance,
And every breath I take is clear to me.
Native language!
He is dear to me, he is mine,
On it the winds whistle in our foothills,
It was the first time I heard
Sometimes the birds babble in green to me.
But, like a native,
I love the Russian language
I need him like heaven
Every moment.
It has lively, quivering feelings.
Opened up to me.
And the world opened up in them.
I understood the word “happiness” in Russian,
It's a great happiness to live in a big country,
With him I am not afraid of grief and bad weather,
With him I will not burn in any fire.
Two rivers flow in the heart without growing shallow,
They become one river...
Having forgotten my native language, I will go numb.
Having lost Russian, I will become deaf.
T. M. Zumakulova
***
The old style attracts me.
There is charm in ancient speech.
It happens in our words
both more modern and sharper.
Shout out: “Half a kingdom for a horse!” -
what irascibility and generosity!
But it will come down on me too
the last enthusiasm is futility.
Someday I'll wake up in the dark,
forever losing the battle,
and now it will come to my memory
madman's ancient decision.
Oh, what half a kingdom is for me!
A child taught by centuries,
I'll take the horse, I'll give the horse
in half a moment with a person,
beloved by me. God be with you,
O my horse, my horse, my zealous horse.
I am your reason for free
I'll weaken - and my dear herd
you'll catch up, you'll catch up there,
in the steppe empty and reddish.
And I'm tired of the chatter
these victories and defeats.
I feel sorry for the horse! I'm sorry love!
And in a medieval manner
falls under my feet
just a trace left by a horseshoe.
B. A. Akhmadulina
Word
On that day, when over the new world
God bowed his face, then
Stopped the sun with a word
In short, they destroyed cities.
And the eagle did not flap its wings,
The stars huddled in horror towards the moon,
If, like a pink flame,
The word floated above.
And for the low life there were numbers,
Like livestock, livestock,
Because all shades of meaning
Smart number conveys.
Patriarch gray-haired, under his arm
Conquered both good and evil,
Not daring to turn to sound,
I drew a number in the sand with a cane.
But we forgot that it is shining
Only a word among earthly anxieties,
And in the Gospel of John
It is said that this word is God.
We set a limit for him
The meager limits of nature,
And like bees in an empty hive,
Dead words smell bad.
N. S. Gumilev
Native language
My faithful friend! My enemy is insidious!
My king! My slave! Native language!
My poems are like altar smoke!
How furious a challenge is my cry!
You gave wings to a crazy dream,
You have tied your dream in chains.
Saved me in hours of powerlessness
And he crushed with excess strength.
How often in the secret of strange sounds
And in the hidden sense of words
I found the melody of the unexpected,
Poems that took possession of me!
But often, exhausted by joy
Or quietly intoxicated with melancholy,
I waited in vain to be in tune
With a trembling soul - your echo!
You wait like a giant.
I bow my face to you.
And yet I won’t get tired of fighting
I am like Israel with a deity!
There is no limit to my persistence.
You are in eternity, I am in short days,
But still, as a magician, submit to me,
Or turn the madman to dust!
Your wealth, by inheritance,
I, impudent, demand for myself.
I issue a call - you answer,
I'm coming - get ready to fight!
But the winner is defeated,
I will equally fall before you:
You are my avenger, you are my savior,
Your world is forever my abode,
Your voice is the sky above me!
V. Ya. Bryusov
Sayings about the Russian language
The Russian language is a language created for poetry; it is unusually rich and remarkable for the subtlety of its shades.
P. Merimee
The Russian language, as far as I can judge of it, is the richest of all European dialects and seems deliberately created to express the subtlest shades. Gifted with wonderful conciseness, combined with clarity, he is content with one word to convey thoughts when another language would require whole phrases for this.
P. Merimee
Charles the Fifth, the Roman Emperor, used to say that it is decent to speak Spanish with God, French with friends, German with the enemy, and Italian with the female sex. But if he were skilled in the Russian language, then, of course, he would have added that it is decent for them to speak with all of them, for he found in him the splendor of Spanish, the liveliness of French, the strength of German, the tenderness of Italian, and, moreover, a rich and strong brevity in the images Greek and Latin languages.
The language that the Russian state commands over a great part of the world, due to its power, has natural abundance, beauty and strength, which is not inferior to any European language. And there is no doubt that the Russian word could not be brought to such perfection as we are surprised at in others.
M. V. Lomonosov
The beauty, greatness, strength and richness of the Russian language is abundantly clear from books written in past centuries, when our ancestors not only did not know any rules for writing, but they hardly even thought that they existed or could exist.
M. V. Lomonosov
You marvel at the preciousness of our language: every sound is a gift: everything is grainy, large, like the pearl itself, and, truly, another name is even more precious than the thing itself.
N.V. Gogol
There is an abyss of space in every word, every word is immense...
N.V. Gogol
The greatest wealth of a people is its language! For thousands of years, countless treasures of human thought and experience accumulate and live forever in the word.
M. A. Sholokhov
Every nation has distinguished itself in its own way, each with its own word, with which, expressing whatever object it is, it reflects in its expression a part of its own character. The word of a Briton will echo with heart knowledge and wise knowledge of life; The short-lived word of a Frenchman will flash and spread like a light dandy; the German will intricately come up with his own, not accessible to everyone, clever and thin word; but there is no word that would be so sweeping, lively, would burst out from under the very heart, would seethe and vibrate so much, like a well-spoken Russian word.
N.V. Gogol
Read common folk tales, young writers, to see the properties of the Russian language.
A. S. Pushkin
Language is the centuries-old work of an entire generation.
V. I. Dal
May there be honor and glory to our language, which in its native richness, almost without any foreign admixture, flows like a proud, majestic river - it makes noise, thunders - and suddenly, if necessary, softens, gurgles like a gentle brook and sweetly pours into the soul, forming all measures that consist only in the fall and rise of the human voice.
N. M. Karamzin
Our Russian language, more than all the new ones, is perhaps capable of approaching the classical languages in its richness, strength, freedom of arrangement, and abundance of forms.
N. A. Dobrolyubov
To use a foreign word when there is an equivalent Russian word means to insult both common sense and common taste.
V. G. Belinsky
That the Russian language is one of the richest languages in the world, there is no doubt about it.
V. G. Belinsky
Only having mastered the initial material, that is, our native language, to the possible perfection, will we be able to master a foreign language to the possible perfection, but not before.
F. M. Dostoevsky
In days of doubt, in days of painful thoughts about the fate of my homeland - you alone are my support and support, oh great, mighty, truthful and free Russian language! Without you, how can one not fall into despair at the sight of everything that is happening at home? But one cannot believe that such a language was not given to a great people!
I. S. Turgenev
The Russian language in skillful hands and experienced lips is beautiful, melodious, expressive, flexible, obedient, dexterous and capacious.
A. I. Kuprin
Language is the history of a people. Language is the path of civilization and culture. That is why studying and preserving the Russian language is not an idle activity because there is nothing to do, but an urgent necessity.
A. I. Kuprin
To handle language somehow means to think differently: inaccurately, approximately, incorrectly.
A. N. Tolstoy
The word is the great weapon of life.
V. O. Klyuchevsky
The Russian language is inexhaustibly rich and everything is being enriched with amazing speed.
M. Gorky
Our speech is predominantly aphoristic, distinguished by its conciseness and strength.
M. Gorky
The greatest value of a people is its language. The language in which he writes, speaks, thinks.<...>Language and thinking are closely related. If language becomes impoverished, thinking will also become impoverished. Language relies in its development on writing, and in it mainly on literature. And literature is of enormous importance for the development of morality.<...>Much has been written about the Russian language as the language of the people. This is one of the most perfect languages of the world, a language that has developed over more than a millennium, giving in the 19th century the best literature and poetry in the world.
D. S. Likhachev
Language is a ford across the river of time, it leads us to the home of the departed; but no one who is afraid of deep water will be able to come there.
V. M. Illich-Svitych
The Russian language is fully revealed in its truly magical properties and wealth only to those who deeply love and know their people “to the bone” and feel the hidden charm of our land.
K. G. Paustovsky
True love for one's country is unthinkable without love for one's language.
K. G. Paustovsky
There are no sounds, colors, images and thoughts - complex and simple - for which there would not be an exact expression in our language.
... You can do wonders with the Russian language!
K. G. Paustovsky
We have been given possession of the richest, most accurate, powerful and truly magical Russian language.
K. G. Paustovsky
Many Russian words themselves radiate poetry, just as precious stones radiate a mysterious shine...
K. G. Paustovsky
The natural richness of the Russian language and speech is so great that without further ado, listening to the times with your heart, in close communication with the common man and with a volume of Pushkin in your pocket, you can become an excellent writer.
M. M. Prishvin
Reflecting the geographical expanses and “civility” of different peoples, the image of “ever-creating Russia,” the Russian language carries the enduring values of beauty and grace, which, according to Dostoevsky, “will save everything.”
V. G. Kostomarov
A truly strong and healthy, balanced person will not speak loudly unnecessarily, will not swear or use slang words. After all, he is sure that his word is already significant.
D. S. Likhachev
Sayings about literature
Literature in all its forms is nothing more than the shadow of a good conversation.
R. Stevenson
Literature gives us a colossal, vast and profound experience of life. It makes a person intelligent, develops in him not only a sense of beauty, but also understanding - an understanding of life, all its complexities, serves as a guide to other eras and to other peoples, opens the hearts of people to you. In a word, it makes you wise.
D. S. Likhachev
Literature is the expression of society, just as the word is the expression of man.
L. G. A. Bonald
Literature is the guidance of the human mind for the human race.
V. Hugo
No genre of literature contains as much fiction as biography.
W. E. Channing (Channing)
Literature has been removed from the laws of decay. She alone does not recognize death.
M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin
Learned literature saves people from ignorance, and elegant literature saves people from rudeness and vulgarity.
N. G. Chernyshevsky
Literature is born from the depths of the people's soul.
A. Mitskevich
Society finds in literature its real life, elevated to an ideal, brought to consciousness.
V. G. Belinsky
Literature... must be faithful to the people, must passionately and zealously advocate for their progress, prosperity and happiness.
Charles Dickens
Literature is when the reader is as talented as the writer.
M. A. Svetlov
Literature is an activity in which you have to prove again and again that you have talent to people who are devoid of any talents.
J. Renard
Literature deteriorates only to the extent that people become more depraved.
I. Goethe
The trouble with other literature is that thinking people do not write, and those who write do not think.
P. A. Vyazemsky
In literature, as in life, one must remember one rule: a person will repent a thousand times for saying a lot, but never for saying little.
A. F. Pisemsky
Just as in politics one well-aimed word, one wit often has a more decisive effect than an entire Demosthenes speech, so in literature miniatures often live longer than thick novels.
S. Zweig
Many literary works owe their success to the poverty of the author’s thoughts, for it is akin to the poverty of the public’s thoughts.
N. Chamfort
Manuscripts don't burn.
What is the power of the poetic word? In my opinion, it lies in the fact that the works of poets can influence people’s mood. It was precisely this problem of the power of the poetic word that Viktor Petrovich Astafiev considered.
The text presented for analysis tells not only about the Russian village, but also about the famous poet Sergei Alexandrovich Yesenin. The narrator shares with the reader his attitude towards him: “I often feel so close and dear to him that I talk to him in my sleep, call him brother, younger brother, sad brother, and I console him, I console him...” Why did he become close and dear people? Because his poems are imbued with the same feelings and emotions that every Russian person experiences.
In this text, melodious works evoke anxiety and sadness about Russia. Viktor Petrovich Astafiev focuses on the fact that the poet’s soul will always be open to the people, since it remains forever in his poems. This is the main idea of the text, which is contained in sentence No. 33: “Only his bright soul hovers over Russia and worries, worries us with eternal sadness.”
I believe that the author’s position is formulated in sentence No. 29: “He suffers for all people, for every living creature, with a divine torment inaccessible to us, which we often hear in ourselves and therefore cling, reaching out to the word of the Ryazan guy, so that it will respond again and again , his pain, his universal melancholy stirred our souls.” The author claims that a poetic word can awaken various feelings in a person and make him think about the most important thing. The poems of Sergei Aleksandrovich Yesenin fill the village man with sadness and bitter delight.
I completely agree with the opinion of Viktor Petrovich Astafiev. After all, any lyrical work can evoke completely different emotions. In turn, the power of the poetic word influences the lives and creativity of people.
We are convinced of this by reading Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov’s poem “The Death of a Poet,” dedicated to Sergei Alexandrovich Pushkin. The author admires the gift of the great poet, accuses the cruel killer of a genius, and sympathizes with his sad fate. After reading the work, we understand that the work of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin influenced the development of Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov as a poet. Consequently, the power of the poetic word influences the creative activity of people.
Another example is Konstantin Balmont’s poem “To Lermontov,” filled with respect and admiration for the famous poet. The author loves Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov for his melancholy, for his passionate ardor. He compares genius to thunder for his open contempt for soulless people. The power of the poetic word influenced the work of Konstantin Balmont.
Thus, poems can change moods, influence attitudes and beliefs, so the power of the poetic word is of great importance in people's lives.
Gumilyov wrote the poem “The Word” in 1919 in Petrograd. It was published in 1921 in the collection “Pillar of Fire”. The title of the collection is biblical. Such a pillar led the people of Israel at night through the desert to the promised land. The pillar is a symbol of what will lead Gumilyov’s people out of the darkness and chaos into which the country plunged into revolution and civil war. The poem “The Word” echoes the idea of the collection.
Of course, the writer did not imagine that he would be shot that same year at the age of 35. But it was precisely the word, the fair or unfair accusation of counter-revolutionary activity that became the cause of his death.
Gumilyov was always direct, did not know how to adapt, fidget, and declared his views publicly, and not only in poetry. At a poetry evening, Gumilyov once declared his monarchist beliefs. And in his poems he said that he does not consider himself red or white, but identifies himself as a poet. Therefore, those researchers who narrow the meaning of the poem “The Word” to Gumilyov’s affirmation of his own faith are wrong. Yes, the poet did not hide his Orthodoxy. But the poem is deeper and broader than its biblical allusions.
Biblical allusions of the poem
First of all, the contrast between the spiritual word (God is called the Word in the Bible) and numbers seems biblical. The Book of Numbers in the Old Testament tells about historical events and rules, that is, about earthly things. There is a mention of the sun being stopped by a word in the Book of Joshua, who during the battle to conquer the Promised Land stopped the sun by calling out to God. The wall of the city of Jericho was also destroyed under the leadership of Joshua by the cry of the people and trumpets according to the will of God.
The patriarch drawing a number in the sand is a rather antique image. Some associate him with Pythagoras, others with Archimedes, who died in Syracuse when the city was attacked by the Romans. Archimedes sat over the drawings. It was the concentration on numbers and the request not to interfere that caused his death. The word is omnipotent, but numbers are destructive.
Some researchers see in the gray-haired patriarch Moses, who was tongue-tied, words were not given to him, unlike numbers.
Literary direction and genre
The poem has pronounced features of Acmeism. Gumilyov embodies, makes material even such abstract concepts that, it would seem, cannot be represented in the form of an artistic image: a word, a number. But this idea is drawn from the Bible.
The poem belongs to the genre of philosophical lyrics.
Theme, main idea and composition
The poem consists of 6 stanzas. The first 4 refer to that distant time when the Word was revered and his deeds were noticeable (the sun stopped, destroyed cities). In the first two stanzas we talk about the greatness of the word; in 3 and 4 it is contrasted with numbers, which already in ancient times were only “for low life.” The last two stanzas are dedicated to modern times. In our time, the lyrical hero does not find balance between the spiritual and the material. The “meager limits of nature” consume humanity.
The theme of the poem is the power of words, which is not remembered today.
Main idea: “Dead words smell bad.” When a word loses its divine essence, it loses its holiness and majesty. Dead words are precisely those devoid of spirit, empty or evil.
Some researchers argue that the poem exposes atheism, asserts that life without faith is impossible, and leads to spiritual death. Gumilyov, as a poet, first of all, asserted the power of the poetic word. Indeed, this is one of the poet’s most famous poems.
Paths and images
In the first stanza, Gumilev uses three mythological images. New world (epithet) – opposed to the Soviet “we are ours, we will build a new world.” This is peace with God, intended by God. Therefore, God bows his face to him (metaphor).
The next two biblical events in the poem refer to the Word of God and create a metaphor for the power of the word.
The second stanza is similar to a fresco in a church. The eagle is one of the biblical animals, but it also obeys the word. Even the heavenly bodies are subject to him; God created them with a word. The word is compared to a pink flame (Gumilyov could not make it red). In the flame - destruction and creation at the same time.
In the third stanza, numbers are compared to livestock. They are enslaved by man, tamed. to meet his intellectual and material needs. Therefore, numbers are called smart (metaphorical epithet).
The patriarch depicted in the fourth stanza is smart, he does not dare to turn to sound, does not throw words to the wind. The metaphor “who subjugated both good and evil under his own hand” precisely testifies to his wisdom and God’s chosenness.
Combining two ancient worlds, ancient and Old Testament, in the image of the patriarch, Gumilyov contrasts them with his own world on the principle of spirituality and lack of spirituality.
In the fifth stanza the author's “we” appears. Gumilyov does not oppose himself as someone who knows the truth to other contemporaries. He doesn't shirk responsibility. The metaphor of the first part of the fifth stanza is explained by a direct and almost literal reference to the Bible. The Word is illuminated because it is God.
The word “limit” repeated twice in the last stanza is not accidental. It is included in phraseology put a limit.
The tautology emphasizes the down-to-earth nature of contemporaries who have stopped developing. Repetition of roots in metaphorical epithets dead – deadened creates a double tautology in one stanza. The second repetition is a consequence of the first.
The imagery of the last two lines refers to the biblical connection between holiness and fragrance, and uncleanness with a bad odor. The comparison of words with hardworking bees, dead words (metaphorical epithet) with dead bees contains the main idea of the poem.
The high style of the poem is provided by Church Slavonicisms.
Meter and rhyme
The poem was written by a dolnik, which brings the speech as close as possible to colloquial speech. The rhyme is cross, female rhyme alternates with male rhyme.
