The theme of the poet and poetry in the works of Pushkin and Lermontov occupies one of the leading places. In works devoted to this topic, Pushkin and Lermontov pose and resolve the following questions: what spiritual traits should a poet have, what is the role of a poet in society, what is the essence of the creative process itself, what should be the attitude of a poet to the world around him, what are his merits before society. Both poets are convinced that freedom is a necessary condition for creativity. Pushkin talks about this in his poem “To the Poet”. The author experienced “the judgment of fools and the laughter of a hungry crowd,” but did not lose faith in himself and his calling. Pushkin calls on the poet:
...on the road to freedom
Go where your free mind takes you.
You are your own highest court;
You will be able to evaluate your work more strictly...
A poet, according to Pushkin, should create “without demanding rewards for a noble deed.” Lermontov also believes that the work of a poet should be selfless. He talks about this in the poem “Poet”. This work is an extensive comparison of the fate of the dagger and the poet. The dagger was once a formidable weapon, but over time it “lost its purpose” and turned into a golden toy. What happened to the dagger reminds the author of the poet’s fate. Lermontov accuses the poet of exchanging “for gold” “that power to which the world listened in silent reverence.” Lermontov believes that “glitz and deception” are alien to true art. The poet’s voice should sound “like a bell on a veche tower. In days of celebration and troubles of the people.” In the last lines, the images of poetry and the dagger merge:
Will you wake up again, mocked prophet!
You can’t snatch your blade from a golden scabbard,
Covered with the rust of contempt?
This poem, like many of Lermontov’s works devoted to this topic, is full of civic pathos. The author argues that the poet must take an active civic position. The poet’s word is a formidable weapon, capable of igniting a “fighter for battle,” the crowd needs it, “like incense during hours of prayer.” Lermontov inherited the concept of citizenship in poetry from Pushkin, who was the first to proclaim it in his works. Pushkin himself, as is known, took part in the December movement. ristov. He talks about this in the poem “Arion”:
There were many of us on the boat;
Others strained the sail,
Others unanimously resisted
The oars are powerful in the depths.
The poet defines his role in the Decembrist movement with the following words: “I sang to the swimmers.” Despite the fact that the uprising ended in the defeat of the Decembrists, Pushkin remained faithful to their ideals. He openly states this in the last lines of the poem:
I sing the same hymns...
The idea that a poet must actively relate to the world around him, influence people with his words, also sounds in Pushkin’s poem “The Prophet”. But in order for the poet-prophet to be able to do this, he, according to Pushkin, must have certain talents. In the poem mentioned above, the author talks about how, during a spiritual crisis, a six-winged seraph appeared to him and awarded him amazing vision and sensitive hearing. As a result of miraculous transformations, instead of a “sinful tongue”, the poet found “the sting of a wise snake”, instead of a “quivering heart” - “a coal blazing with fire”. All these qualities are needed not by a romantic poet, but by a realist poet, who reflects in his work the problems of the reality around him, and for real art it is not enough just to retell one’s thoughts and feelings. It is necessary that the poet’s soul be filled with “divine will.” Only in this case can the poet-prophet begin to fulfill his mission - to burn “the hearts of people” with a “verb”. Lermontov in his poem of the same name continues Pushkin's theme. He begins his story from the moment where Pushkin left off:
Since the eternal judge
He gave me the omniscience of a prophet,
I read in people's eyes
Pages of malice and vice.
Trying to help people, the prophet began to preach “pure teachings of love and truth.” But his words only caused anger in people, and the prophet was forced to flee into the desert. Unlike Pushkin’s “Prophet,” Lermontov’s poem is marked by tragic pathos. Lermontov's prophet is not only a divine chosen one, but also a poor exile. Lermontov believed that the fate of a lonely exile was inevitable for a true poet. Therefore, in the poem “The Death of a Poet,” Lermontov speaks of the tragic death of Pushkin as a natural consequence of his loneliness:
...why are we crying now?
An unnecessary chorus of empty praises,
And the pathetic babble of excuses?
Fate has reached its conclusion.
The poem is full of conflicting feelings. It contains Lermontov's love, hatred, and sorrow. The author easily reproaches Pushkin for the fact that “he entered this envious and stuffy world for a free heart and fiery passions.” And he boldly names those who are to blame for the death of the great poet:
...you arrogant descendants,
You, standing in a greedy crowd at the throne,
Executioners of Freedom, Genius and Glory!
The accusation grows into a curse:
And you won't wash away with all your black blood
Poet's righteous blood!
By writing this poem, Lermontov declared himself as a successor to the traditions of Pushkin's poetry. Pushkin himself identified the main features of his work and described them in the poem “Monument”:
And for a long time I will be so kind to the people,
That I awakened good feelings with my lyre,
That in my cruel age I glorified Freedom
And he called for mercy for the fallen.
Rumors about me will spread throughout Great Rus',
And every tongue that is in it will call me,
And the proud grandson of the Slavs, and the Finn, and now wild
Tungus, and friend of the steppes Kalmyk...
In the last stanza, Pushkin says that during his lifetime his work will not be correctly understood and appreciated. Therefore, he believes that his muse should be obedient only to “the command of God.” The poem “Monument” sums up Pushkin’s thoughts on the purpose of the poet and poetry. Lermontov, continuing this theme in his work, went further than his brilliant predecessor. He significantly expanded the range of questions posed and answers them with his philosophical reasoning. The reflections of Lermontov and Pushkin on the role of the poet and poetry played an important role in shaping the views of their followers.
The theme of the poet and poetry in the lyrics of A. S. Pushkin
The lyrics of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin are very diverse, but the leading place in it is occupied by the theme of the poet and poetry, because poetic creativity was his main occupation, and he highly appreciated the role and character of the poet. He has written more than a dozen poems that reveal the theme of the poet and poetry from different angles. The most important of them: “The Prophet” (1826), “Conversation between a bookseller and a poet” (1824), “The Poet” (1827), “The Poet and the Crowd” (1828), “To the Poet” (1830), “Echo” (1831) , “From Pendimonti” (1836), “I erected a monument to myself not made by hands...” (1836). What, in Pushkin’s understanding, is the purpose of a poet and the tasks of poetry in this world?
In a poem "Prophet" the poet is compared to a prophet. The work talks about the properties that a poet must have, in contrast to an ordinary person, in order to worthily fulfill his destiny. “The Prophet” is based on the story of the biblical prophet Isaiah, who saw the Lord. This poem differs from others in which, speaking about poetry and the poet, Pushkin used images of ancient mythology (Muses, Apollo, Parnassus). The lyrical hero of the work goes from a sinner who “dragged” without a goal in the “dark desert” to a reborn, purified, prophet who penetrated into the secrets of existence. This awakening of the Pushkin prophet was prepared by his condition: he was “We are tormented by spiritual thirst.” The Messenger of God, Seraphim, transforms the entire nature of man in order to make a poet out of him. The sinner's eyes are opened:
The prophetic eyes have opened,
Like a frightened eagle...
Man received a sensitive ear, instead of a “sinful”, “idle-talking”, “evil” tongue - “the sting of a wise serpent”, instead of a “quivering heart” - “a coal blazing with fire”. But even this complete transformation, a change in a person’s feelings and abilities, is not enough to become a real poet: “I lay like a corpse in the desert.” We also need a high goal, a high idea, in the name of which the poet creates and which revives, gives meaning, content to everything that he sees and hears so deeply and accurately. And at the end, the Lord puts His divine will into the prophet:
Arise, prophet, and see and listen,
Be fulfilled by my will,
And, bypassing the seas and lands,
Burn the hearts of people with the verb.
This is precisely what Pushkin sees as the purpose of a poet: if God has gifted him with poetic talent, then he must use all the power and beauty of his words in such a way as to truly “burn the hearts of people,” showing them the true, unvarnished truth of life.
The poems “The Poet”, “The Poet and the Crowd”, “The Poet”, “Echo” are dedicated to the tragic fate of the poet, his loneliness, and difficult relationships with the “crowd”, that is, the secular mob.
In the poem “Poet” Pushkin emphasizes the divine origin of the poetic gift. In the first part of the work we see that the poet is an ordinary person, like everyone else; he is immersed “in the worries of the vain world”:
His holy lyre is silent;
The soul tastes a cold sleep,
And among the insignificant children of the world,
Perhaps he is the most insignificant of all.
But in the second part there is a transformation. Moreover, transformations in the poet’s soul occur thanks to the “divine verb.” And in this sense, the poem “Poet” is akin to “Prophet”. The sinner’s path through the desert was as aimless as the “cares of the vain world” in which the poet was immersed. But thanks to a higher power, a transformation occurs, and the soul of the poet awakens, like the soul of the prophet. Now the “fun of the world” and human rumor are alien to the lyrical hero. Now he yearns for the environment in which he previously moved. The prophet goes to people to “burn” their hearts with the word of God. But the poet has no place among people, among the crowd that does not understand him, and he runs, “wild and harsh,”
On the shores of desert waves,
In the noisy oak forests…
He is full of “sounds and confusion”, his inspiration seeks outlet, and his “holy lyre” can no longer remain silent. This is how poems are born that can shake human souls, that can “burn” people’s hearts.
But people do not always heed the poet’s calls, and he does not always find understanding among them. Most often, the poet is alone in society, in the “crowd,” by which Alexander Sergeevich means the secular mob. There's a poem about this “The Poet and the Crowd.”
Pushkin is outraged by the spiritual poverty of the crowd, its sleepy existence, without upward impulses, without aspirations for beauty. What is the opinion of such a crowd worth, unable to hear and understand the great poet? He doesn't need her recognition and love. The singer does not want to “correct the hearts of his brothers,” because such hearts will not revive the “lyre’s voice.” And the poet was born “not for everyday excitement,” but for “inspiration, for sweet sounds and prayers.”
The poem (sonnet) “To the Poet” is devoted to the same topic. The author calls on the nameless poet not to pay attention to the “judgment of a fool” and the “laughter of a cold crowd”:
You are the king: live alone. On the road to freedom
Go where your free mind takes you.
The author claims that the best judge of his creativity is the poet himself. The opinion of the unenlightened crowd, deeply indifferent to true poetry, does not matter. But if a “discriminating artist” is satisfied with his work, then his work is really worth something. And then
...let the crowd scold him
And spits on the altar where your fire burns,
And your tripod shakes in childish playfulness.
The poet’s loneliness and the readers’ misunderstanding are also spoken of in the poem “Echo.” The author's mood at the beginning and at the end of this work is not the same. At the beginning, Pushkin talks about how poetry is born. Any sound encourages the poet to create, inspires inspiration: the roar of an animal, thunder, the singing of a girl, and the cry of shepherds. The poet “for every sound” has “its own response in the empty air.” That is why the singer is compared to an echo. But, like an echo, the poet does not receive an answer to his “responses”. Thus, the ending of the poem is sad, because the poet’s fate is sometimes tragic: not all of his calls awaken the hearts of people, not everyone is close to his poems.
In the poems “Poet”, “To the Poet”, “Poet and the Crowd” Pushkin proclaims the idea of freedom and independence of creativity from the crowd, the secular mob. Alexander Sergeevich wants to preserve the independence of his talent from encroachments on him from the world. The poem is imbued with this mood “From Pindemonti.” The poet talks about what kind of freedom a person needs. According to the author, “loud rights” to “challenge taxes or prevent kings from fighting each other” mean nothing. They make you “dizzy,” but such a “sweet fate” does not promise real freedom. What are the “better rights” and “better freedom” that Pushkin “needs”?
...Nobody
Don’t give a report, only to yourself
To serve and please; for power, for livery
Don’t bend your conscience, your thoughts, your neck;
To wander here and there on a whim...
This is what the author considers to be the highest happiness, true rights. This is the goal that, according to Alexander Sergeevich, we should strive for. Pushkin makes the final statement of the poet’s civic duty and sums up his creative activity in a poem (ode) “I erected a monument to myself, not made by hands...” where he says that his whole purpose, the whole meaning of his creativity lies in
That I awakened good feelings with my lyre,
That in my cruel age I glorified Freedom
And he called for mercy for the fallen.
The poem is a kind of testament of the poet. Addressing the Muse, the author calls on her to be obedient to the “command of God,” to accept “praise and slander” with indifference and, most importantly, “not to challenge a fool.” This call is addressed to the poet who will create in the future.
In the poem “I erected a monument to myself not made by hands...” there is a consciousness of fulfilled duty to the people. And this duty, in Pushkin’s opinion, lies in serving Russia, in defending the advanced ideas of his time, in awakening people’s hearts, in depicting the true, unvarnished truth of life. Pushkin introduces the principle of citizenship into poetry, which will later be continued by other great Russian poets.
The poet, according to Pushkin, should not depend on anyone, “not bow his proud head to anyone,” but should worthily fulfill his destiny - “to burn the hearts of people with his verb.” At the age of fifteen, in the poem “To a Poet Friend,” Pushkin stated:
And know, my lot has fallen, I choose the lyre.
Let the whole world judge me as it wishes,
Be angry, shout, scold, but I am still a poet.
Later, Pushkin would say: “The goal of poetry is poetry,” and he would remain true to this to the end.
M.Yu. Lermontov. Theme of the poet and poetry
In 1837, after the untimely death of Pushkin, Lermontov’s “voice of noble passion” was heard. He created the poem “The Death of a Poet.” He was worried about opposite feelings: love and hatred, grief and anger, admiration and contempt. For him, Pushkin is the ideal of a poet and a person, crowned during his lifetime with a “solemn wreath” of glory. He is a “wonderful genius” with a “wonderful power” of talent and “wonderful songs.” Lermontov especially admires his “free, bold” poetic gift. Lermontov is enthusiastic about the poet and deeply mourns his death, for which he blames “the greedy crowd standing at the throne.” He castigates the “envious and stuffy world”, the “executioners of freedom” and believes that Pushkin’s death must be avenged:
And you won't wash away with all your black blood
Poet's righteous blood!
This accusatory, angry poem quickly spread throughout the country and glorified the name of the author, establishing him as a poet.
The history of Russian poetry, perhaps, has never known poetry of such power, with such naked political meaning and, most importantly, with such an openly named address. With the epithets “righteous blood”, “free heart”, “proud head”, “free, bold gift”, “envious, stuffy light”, “black blood”, “greedy crowd”, “insignificant slanderers” Lermontov expresses his attitude towards the world and Pushkin, actively directing the writer’s feelings, reveals the tragedy of the loneliness of a poet living in such a society. By writing this poem, Lermontov declared himself not only as the poetic heir of Pushkin, but also as the successor of his love of freedom. Pushkin's fate became his fate.
In 1841 Lermontov wrote a poem "Prophet" Like Pushkin, the author calls the poet a prophet, whose role is to “burn the hearts of people with a verb.” Pushkin in the poem “The Prophet” showed the poet before he began high service. Lermontov, in his poem of the same name, depicts the fate of a poet ridiculed by people for his preaching. Lermontov has a tragic interpretation of the topic. In the poem, the prophet himself speaks about his fate. The prophet-poet, endowed with the gift of omniscience, learned to read “in the eyes of people” “the pages of malice and vice.”
I began to proclaim love
And the truth is pure teachings, -
All my neighbors are in me
They threw stones wildly.
His preaching truly aroused embitterment in people, and the prophet leaves the cities and flees to the desert, where communication with nature brings him moral satisfaction.
And the stars listen to me
Joyfully playing with rays.
Young Lermontov-romantic. He looks at the poet as a lonely chosen one. The poet lives with his dreams, his sufferings, which are not accessible to the “crowd”. In the mature period of his creativity, Lermontov sees in the poet not a solitary seer, a herald of “age-old truths,” but a people’s tribune. The image of such a poet, prophet and citizen is depicted in the poem “The Poet”. The poem is based on an extensive comparison of the poet and the dagger. In the first six stanzas, the author told the story of the dagger, and in the next five, he expressed his view of poetry and its attitude to life. The main meaning of the history of the dagger is to show the inglorious fate of the weapon, which became a golden toy. The poet recalls the combat service of the dagger. He has served as a rider for many years, “he has drawn a terrible mark across more than one chest and torn more than one chain mail.” But his master died, and the dagger “lost its purpose.” It was sold to an Armenian merchant, and the dagger, trimmed with gold, turned into a shiny, harmless decoration. What happened to the dagger reminds Lermontov of the poet’s fate. In the past, the poet's fate was high and honorable. The poet served people:
It used to be that the measured sound of your mighty words
Ignite the fighter for battle
The crowd needed him like a cup for feasts,
Like incense during prayer hours.
Reflecting on the role and purpose of poetry, Lermontov creates a majestic image of the poet. A true poet is always connected with people, his poetry is always necessary. Using predicate verbs (ignited, rushed, sounded, etc.), Lermontov emphasized the high role of poetry. However, true poets are not recognized in the “old world,” their “simple and proud language” is not needed where they amuse themselves with “sparkles and deceptions.” In the last stanza, the image of poetry and the image of the dagger merge:
Will you wake up again, mocked prophet?
You can’t snatch your blade from a golden scabbard,
Covered with the rust of contempt?..
The ending is in the form of a question, but this question also contains a call that expresses the author’s main idea. Real art shuns “rich carving”; entertaining, embellished poetry will not console anyone. The poem expresses the poet's concern for the fate of his native literature both allegorically and directly. Glorifying the poet, whose verse “like God’s spirit hovered over the crowd,” Lermontov probably thought about Pushkin, Ryleev, Odoevsky, whose works were an echo “noble thoughts”, and for today’s reader such a poet is Lermontov himself.
Continuing the best traditions of Pushkin and the Decembrists in understanding the place of poetry in the life of society, Lermontov introduced a new, his own understanding of poetry, affirming the idea of it as a sharp military weapon.
V. Mayakovsky about the poet and poetry
In the Russian poetic tradition, starting from the 19th century, there were two answers to the question of what art and poetry serve. The first answer belongs to Pushkin: art serves the eternal values of existence, “the service of the muses does not tolerate fuss”, it is independent of the trends of the times, urgent immediate needs, the category of benefit is unfamiliar to it. The second answer is given by Nekrasov: “I dedicated the lyre to my people.” In the “poet/citizen” opposition, he chooses the citizen, saying that poetry should serve “the great purposes of the age,” the century, not eternity.
The name of Mayakovsky is firmly associated with the idea of an innovative poet. No poet of the 20th century has made such bold radical changes in poetry.
In a poem “Could you?” (1913) Mayakovsky created a vivid image of his poetry: he will play a nocturne on the drainpipe flute. This poem formulated the creative task of the poet - the transformation of life through the means of poetry.
In a poem “Here!” we read that a poet is one who confronts the crowd. He is a rich man among the poor in spirit:
Here you are, man, you have cabbage in your mustache
Somewhere there is half-eaten, half-eaten cabbage soup;
Here you are, woman, you have thick white on you,
You are looking at things as an oyster from the shell.
He is a “rude Hun” with a “butterfly heart.” It’s a paradoxical combination, but the poet in the wolf world cannot be any other, because the crowd, the “hundred-headed louse,” is merciless to everyone who is not like it. The lot of all who have a feeling heart in this rough world is pain. And therefore the poet does not have words, but “convulsions stuck together in a lump.” He is not like ordinary people, but he pays for this dissimilarity with his own soul. Challenging the world around him, the poet painfully feels his loneliness.
For him, poetry is a kind of weapon.
The poetic word should not only convey a thought to the reader and excite him, but also induce immediate action, the meaning and essence of which is building a new world. Poetry turns out to be a weapon in the great war of past and future.
The same figurative system is also in Mayakovsky’s later poem - “Conversation with the financial inspector about poetry”. The work of a master poet is justified by the profound impact of a well-aimed word on the minds and hearts of people. Just like Pushkin, who saw the poet’s task as “burning the hearts of people with a verb,” so Mayakovsky writes about the “sizzling burning of these words.”
What if I
people's driver
and at the same time -
people's servant?
Mayakovsky himself works in “Windows of ROST”, writes propaganda, draws posters in support of the young Soviet Republic, sincerely believing in new ideals. The poet believes that creativity and the creation of poetry is the same hard work as a worker.
Poetry - The same radium mining.
Per gram production,
A year of work. Harassing
For the sake of a single word
Thousands of tons
Word ore.
A verse is a bomb, a whip, a banner, a powder keg that should blow up the old world. A poet is a worker, a toiler, and not a chosen one or a priest; he must do the most difficult work for the sake of the present and the future.
Isn’t this what Mayakovsky is talking about in the unfinished introduction to the poem? “At the top of my voice” (1930)?
Poems are “ an old but formidable weapon.” Poet - “a sewer truck and a water carrier, mobilized and called up by the revolution.” His verse will come into the future, like “In our days, a water supply system has come, built by the slaves of Rome.”
According to Mayakovsky, people need poetry like the sun. And here it is no coincidence that real poetry is compared with a luminary, which has long been considered a symbol of life on earth, without which there would be neither heat nor light. Poems warm the soul of every person, filling it with the eternal fire of life, making them realize that they are an integral part of the vast world.
And the sun too:
“You and I, there are two of us, comrade!
I will pour my sunshine, and you will pour yours,
poems."
In the poem "An Extraordinary Adventure..." the theme of two suns arises: the sun of light and the sun of poetry. This theme develops further in the work, finding a very precise and apt embodiment in the poetic image of the “double-barreled sun,” from one trunk of which sheaves of light burst out, and from the other, the light of poetry. Before the power of this weapon, the “wall of shadows, the prison of nights” falls prostrate. The poet and the Sun act together, replacing each other. The poet declares that when the Sun “gets tired” and wants to “lie down,” then “it will dawn at full strength - and the day will ring again.”
Mayakovsky did not exaggerate at all when speaking about the great role of poetry in the life of the people. We know that an effective word called to battle and to work, and led millions of people. In conclusion, the poet proudly asserts that, like the sun, he will:
Always shine, shine everywhere, until the last days
bottom, shine - and no nails!
This is my slogan - and the sun!
The motive of poetic immortality
The theme of the immortality of the poet and poetry also appears in a previously written poem "Yubileinoe" dedicated to the 125th anniversary of the birth of A.S. Pushkin.
Mayakovsky recognizes the eternity of Pushkin; discussing the meaning of his poetry, he states that
After death
almost standing next to each other...
And after that he gives a description of his contemporaries, regretting that
Too
my country
poets are poor!
But the most striking expression of Mayakovsky’s attitude to the role of the poet and poetry was introduction to the poem “At the top of my voice”- one of the most recent works of the poet.
The introduction is an appeal to descendants, and is also a kind of summing up of the poet’s work, his life, and an attempt to look at himself from the outside.
The poet says that the revolution so grossly changed the task of literature; but here poetry is a capricious woman, from which Mayakovsky separates himself, separates himself from the “lyrical outpourings” of young poets; he acts as an agitator, a loudmouth leader, asserting his dignity in the future and hoping for the understanding of his descendants.
Perhaps Mayakovsky accepted the revolution out of a thirst for something new, hitherto unknown, out of a desire to keep up with the times, to participate in the creation of a new life, new ideals, and not at all because he deeply believed in the ideas of communism. The revolution "devours" its children. The poet, stepping on the throat of his own song, turned into a stamp maker, a singer of Mosselprom:
But I myself
humbled by becoming
own song.
Let's remember what they said about the role of the classical poet. Pushkin called to “burn the hearts of people with a verb” and “called for mercy for the fallen.” Lermontov likened poetry to a military weapon, asserting the effectiveness of the poetic word in transforming society. Nekrasov believed that a poet should be, first of all, a citizen. Mayakovsky was precisely such a citizen of his socialist republic.
One can say about Mayakovsky that he truly selflessly served people, and even despised personal glory:
I do not care
a lot of bronze,
I do not care
to marble slime...
let us
will be a common monument
built
The topic of the poet's role in society always worried Pushkin. He began to think about this when he wrote the poem “To a Poet Friend.” He defined his place in poetry with poems, and speaks about this in his other works.
Pushkin wrote the poem “To a Poet Friend” while studying at the Lyceum. Even then, in his youth, he thought about the role of poetry. The lectures of Professor Kunitsyn also had a significant influence on his thinking.
Meanwhile, Dmitriev, Derzhavin, Lomonosov.
Immortal singers, and honor and glory of the Russians,
They nourish a sound mind and teach us together
The first thing the young poet pays attention to is education, to the fact that poetry should nourish a sound mind and teach. Pushkin says that poetry is not always fame and money. Names famous writers who died in poverty because they did not know how to bend to anyone and stuck to their ideas, their truths.
Pushkin spent a lot of time in the archives, studying historical documents. With his works, although not always written in the style of realism, he sought to acquaint his readers and Russian society with his native history, and thus nourish a sound mind and teach.
The poem, “To N. Ya. Pluskova,” written in 1819 and published by Pushkin in “Competitor of Enlightenment and Charity” could have alerted the royal celestials, because the poet openly admits that he did not and will not become a court poet. The only thing he is ready to serve and glorify is Freedom.
Only by learning to glorify freedom,
Sacrificing poetry only to her,
I was not born to amuse kings
My shy muse.
True, he admits that he sang the praises of Empress Elizabeth, daughter of Peter I. But this was from sincere motives, and knowing the love of the common people for the empress. Because
This poem clearly defines the civic position of twenty-year-old Pushkin, which becomes prevalent for him for the remaining years. It is worth noting that this was the basis for his conflict with Emperor Nicholas I, who sought to tame Pushkin. He dreamed of having his own court poet, and Pushkin strove for creative freedom. Many believed that personal imperial censorship, the appointment of Pushkin as a palace chamberlain cadet, and the persecution of the poet that followed in the 30s stemmed from this conflict. Although, on the other hand, everyone knows that despite his genius, Alexander Sergeevich’s character was not sweet and he often needlessly insulted and humiliated other people.
Written in the form of a dialogue between a poet and a bookseller in 1824. The poet gets older, and gradually his views change. And the point is not that he becomes greedy, it’s just that, unlike 14-year-old Pushkin, the time has come when he has to take care not only of spiritual food, but also of his daily bread. Therefore, he agrees with the seller when he says
What about Slava? - Bright patch
On the singer's shabby rags.
We need gold, gold, gold:
Save up your gold until the end!
Poetry should teach readers to bring spiritual pleasure, but it should feed the poet himself, regardless of civic positions and worldviews.
In 1826, Pushkin felt himself a prophet. The poem “The Prophet” was suffered through moral torment and long reflection. Pushkin realized that he had to burn people’s hearts with a verb. It is generally accepted that with this poem Pushkin speaks of calls to fight for freedom. But
...God's voice called to me:
“Rise up, prophet, and see and listen,
Be fulfilled by my will,
And, bypassing the seas and lands,
Burn the hearts of people with the verb.”
God, as we know, never called for a fight with those in power. Jesus taught non-resistance to evil through violence. Is it possible to understand Pushkin’s last lines as meaning that he intends to call a person to moral self-improvement, patience and fulfillment of God’s commandments? We must assume that yes. Many of his works tell us this, especially those related to late philosophical lyric poetry.
Pushkin is a child of his era. And in the first half of the 19th century, the nobles considered the people to be something like children, incapable of expressing their will. The nobles themselves had to make policy in the state, overthrow the kings and free the people from serfdom. By the way, Alexander Sergeevich himself was in no hurry to free his peasants. With the poem “The Poet and the Crowd” Pushkin showed his attitude towards the people. It is expressed in the words of the mob addressed to the poet
You can, loving your neighbor,
Give us bold lessons,
And we will listen to you.
Pushkin loved the Russian people, but in the words of the poet in the poem, he demonstrates the attitude of other poets towards the people, not his own.
With the poem “To the Poet,” Pushkin demonstrates his attitude to criticism and freedom of creativity, which he valued very highly. This work echoes “Monument,” written six months before his death.
You are your own highest court;
You know how to evaluate your work more strictly than anyone else.
Are you satisfied with it, discerning artist?
Satisfied? So let the crowd scold him
With the poem “Monument” Pushkin, as it were, sums up his work. He talks about
And for a long time I will be so kind to the people,
That I awakened good feelings with my lyre,
That in my cruel age I glorified Freedom
And he called for mercy for the fallen.
And the last stanza is a testament to current and future poets:
By the command of God, O muse, be obedient,
Without fear of insult, without demanding a crown,
Praise and slander were accepted indifferently
And don't challenge a fool.
To summarize, we can say that Pushkin saw the purpose of poetry as teaching his readers to see the beauty in life and nature, to teach love for their native land and native history. He saw freedom in personal freedom, that is, in the ability to create, regardless of anyone, to be able to move around the world depending on one’s desires and capabilities. In his work, a poet should be as indifferent to criticism as possible. The highest critic is himself, the creator of his works.
The main motives of the lyrics of A. S. Pushkin. Reading one of the poems by heart.
RESPONSE PLAN
1. A word about the poet.
2. Freedom-loving lyrics.
3. Theme of the poet and poetry.
4. Philosophical lyrics.
5. Landscape lyrics.
6. Theme of friendship and love.
7. The meaning of A. S. Pushkin’s lyrics.
1. A. S. Pushkin entered the history of Russia as an extraordinary phenomenon. This is not only the greatest poet, but also the founder of the Russian literary language, the founder of new Russian literature. “Pushkin’s muse,” according to V. G. Belinsky, “was nourished and educated by the works of previous poets.” Throughout his entire creative career, the poet was on par with “the century,” remaining a great optimist, a bright lover of life, a great humanist, uniting people of high morality, nobility, and sublime feelings.
Poetry, drama, prose, critical articles, notes and letters - all types of literature that A. S. Pushkin touched bear the stamp of his genius. The poet left to his descendants unfading images of freedom-loving, philosophical, love, and landscape lyrics. But no one wrote so much in prose and poetry about the Poet, about his civic position, about relations with the world, as Pushkin. He was the first to show the reading public “poetry in all its charming beauty” and taught them to respect and love literature.
Freedom-loving lyrics.
The first quarter of the 19th century was the time of the emergence of new political ideas, the emergence of the Decembrist movement, and the rise of social thought after the victory in the War of 1812.
In 1812, A. S. Pushkin entered the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum. This is where the creative life of the young poet begins. The sentiments caused by the War of 1812 and the ideas of the liberation movement were close to Pushkin and found fertile soil among the lyceum students. The development of Pushkin’s free-thinking was greatly influenced by the works of Radishchev, the writings of French educators of the 18th century, meetings with Chaadaev, conversations with Karamzin, communication with friends from the lyceum - Pushchin, Kuchelbecker, Delvig.
Pushkin's lyceum poems are imbued with the pathos of freedom, the idea that peoples prosper only where there is no slavery. This idea is clearly expressed in the poem “Licinia” (1815).
Rome grew by freedom, but was destroyed by slavery!
During the St. Petersburg period, Pushkin’s lyrics were especially rich in freedom-loving political ideas and sentiments, most clearly expressed in the ode “Liberty”, in the poems “To Chaadaev” and “Village”. The ode “Liberty” (1817) denounced with crushing force the autocracy and despotism that ruled in Russia:
Autocratic villain!
I hate you, your throne,
Your death, the death of children
I see it with cruel joy.
They read on your forehead
Seal of the curse of the nations,
You are the horror of the world, the shame of nature,
You are a reproach to God on earth.
The poet calls for “vice to be defeated on the thrones” and for the reign of the Law:
Lords! you have a crown and a throne
The Law gives, not nature;
You stand above the people,
But the eternal law is above you.
Hating tyranny, he exclaims:
Tyrants of the world! tremble!
And you, take courage and listen,
Arise, fallen slaves!
The ode “Liberty” is written in verse close to the odes of Lomonosov and Derzhavin - it is a high, solemn verse that emphasizes the importance of the topic. In the poem “To Chaadaev” (1818), the internal plot develops the idea of a person’s civic maturation. Love, hope, quiet glory, animating the young man, give way to a selfless struggle against “self-government”:
While we are burning with freedom,
While hearts are alive for honor,
My friend, let's dedicate it to the fatherland
Beautiful impulses from the soul!
Pushkin sees the forces hindering the liberation of his homeland. “The oppression of the fatal power” opposes the impulses of the “impatient soul.” The poet calls for devoting the best time of your life to your homeland:
Comrade, believe: she will rise,
Star of captivating happiness,
Russia will wake up from its sleep,
And on the ruins of autocracy
They will write our names!
In the poem “Village” (1819), Pushkin passionately denounced the foundations of the serf system - lawlessness, tyranny, slavery, and exposed the “suffering of peoples.” The poem contrasts the idyllic first part and the tragic second. The first part of “The Village” is a preparation for the angry verdict that is pronounced in the second part. The poet at first notices “traces of contentment and labor everywhere,” since in the village the poet joins nature, freedom, and frees himself “from vain shackles.” The limitlessness of the horizon is a natural symbol of freedom. And only such a person to whom the village “opened” freedom and whom it made “a friend of humanity” is capable of being horrified by the “wild lordship” and “skinny slavery.” The poet is indignant:
There seems to be a barren heat burning in my chest
And hasn’t the fate of my life given me a formidable gift?
This “formidable gift” could make Russia wake up, awaken the people, and bring closer the freedom that man deserves.
The poem ends not with a call, but with a question.
"Village":
I'll see, oh friends! unoppressed people
And slavery, which fell due to the king’s mania,
And over the fatherland of enlightened freedom
Will the beautiful dawn finally rise?
The poet no longer sees freedom as a distant “star of captivating happiness,” but as a “beautiful dawn.” From the passionate message “To Chaadayev” and the bitter anger of “The Village”, Pushkin moves to doubt, dictated by impatience (“Who, the waves, abandoned you ...”), to the crisis of 1823 (“The Sower”), caused by the fact that Pushkin turns out to be witness the suppression and death of European revolutions. He is not confident in the readiness of peoples to fight for freedom:
Desert sower of freedom,
I left early, before the star;
With a clean and innocent hand
Into the enslaved reins
Threw a life-giving seed -
But I only lost time
Good thoughts and works...
Pushkin’s epigrams on Arakcheev and other reactionary figures of Alexander’s reign also date back to the St. Petersburg years. It was during these years that Pushkin became the spokesman for the ideas of the progressive youth of his time, progressive national aspirations and anti-serfdom popular sentiments. During the period of southern exile, Pushkin's poetry reflected the rise of revolutionary sentiments among the Decembrists; it is full of responses and hints associated with the liberation movement. In his message to “Delvig” (1821), Pushkin confirms:
One freedom is my idol ...
In the message "V. L. Davydov" (1821) he expresses hope that the revolution is near. In the same year, the poet wrote the poem “Dagger”. Calling for the fight against autocracy through direct, revolutionary violence:
Where Zeus's thunder is silent, where the sword of law slumbers,
You are the executor of curses and hopes,
You are hidden under the shadow of the throne,
Under the shine of festive clothes.
……………………………………
A silent blade shines in the villain's eyes,
…………………………………
Majestic memories:
Napoleon was dying there.
There he rested amidst torment.
And after him, like the noise of a storm,
Another genius rushed away from us,
Another ruler of our thoughts.
Disappeared, mourned by freedom,
Leaving the world your crown...
In the elegy “To the Sea,” the thirst for elemental freedom collides with the sober consciousness of the “fate of people” who live according to their own laws. In the meantime, the poet has only one thing left to do - to preserve the memory of the beautiful indomitable element:
In the forests, in the deserts are silent
I’ll bear it, I’m full of you,
Your rocks, your bays,
And the shine, and the shadow, and the sound of the waves.
The theme of freedom in a variety of variations is also manifested in the poems “Why were you sent and who sent you?”, “To Yazykov”, “Conversation between a bookseller and a poet”, “Defenders of the whip and whip”, etc. Throughout A.S. Pushkin was faithful to the ideals of Decembrism. He did not hide his spiritual connection with the Decembrist movement. And the defeat of the Decembrists on December 14, 1825 did not undermine the poet’s devotion to freedom. To his Decembrist friends exiled to Siberia, he wrote a message “In the depths of the Siberian ores” (1827), in which he expresses the belief that
The heavy shackles will fall,
The dungeons will collapse and there will be freedom
You will be greeted joyfully at the entrance,
And the brothers will give you the sword.
And in the poem “Arion” he confirms his devotion to his friends with the words:
I sing the same hymns...
Although the poet was left alone, he was faithful to his friends and true to the ideals of freedom.
In the poem “Monument,” summing up his life and work, the poet says that his descendants will remember him for the fact that “in a cruel age he glorified... freedom and mercy for the fallen.”
Theme of the poet and poetry
The theme of the poet and poetry runs through the entire work of A. S. Pushkin, receiving different interpretations over the years, reflecting the changes taking place in the poet’s worldview.
It is significant that in his first printed work, the message “To a Poet Friend” (1814), Pushkin says that not everyone is given the gift of being a real poet:
Arist is not the poet who knows how to weave rhymes
And, creaking his feathers, he does not spare paper.
Good poetry is not so easy to write...
And the fate prepared for a true poet is not easy, and his path is thorny:
Fate has not given them even marble chambers,
The chests are not filled with pure gold.
The shack is underground, the attics are high -
Their palaces are magnificent, their halls are magnificent...
Their life is a series of sorrows...
Pushkin the lyceum student is alien to the image of the official “gloomy rhymer” (“To Galich”, 1815), “boring preacher” (“To My Aristarch”, 1815) and the image of a freedom-loving poet-thinker, a fiery-stern denouncer of vices is sweet:
I want to sing freedom to the world,
To defeat vice on the thrones...
In the poem “Conversation between a Bookseller and a Poet” (1824), the poet and bookseller express their attitude towards poetry in the form of a dialogue. The author's view of literature and poetry is somewhat down-to-earth here. A new understanding of the tasks of poetry is emerging. The hero of the poem, the poet, speaks of poetry that brings “fiery delight” to the soul. He chooses spiritual and poetic freedom. But the bookseller says:
Our age of trade; in this iron age
Without money there is no freedom.
Both the bookseller and the poet are right in their own way: the laws of life have extended to the “sacred” area of poetry. And the poet is quite satisfied with the position that the bookseller offers him:
Inspiration is not for sale
But you can sell the manuscript.
Pushkin considers his work-poetry not only as the “brainchild” of inspiration, but also as a means of livelihood. However, to the bookseller’s question: “What will you choose?” - the poet answers: “Freedom.” Gradually the understanding comes that no political freedom is possible without inner freedom and that only spiritual harmony will make a person feel independent.
After the massacre of the Decembrists, Pushkin wrote the poem “The Prophet” (1826). The mission of the prophet is beautiful and terrible at the same time: “To burn the hearts of people with the verb.” It is impossible to cleanse the world of filth without suffering. The poet is a chosen one, a seer and a teacher, called to serve his people, to be prophetic, wise, and to encourage them to fight for truth and freedom. The motive of chosenness sounds especially strong here. The poet stands out from the crowd. He's taller than her. But this chosenness is bought through the torments of creativity, at the cost of great suffering. And only “God’s voice” grants the hero his great path.
The process of human transformation is nothing other than the birth of a poet. “The eyes of the prophet were opened” in order to see the world around us, “the sting of a wise snake” was given instead of a tongue, and instead of a tremulous heart - “a coal blazing with fire.” But this is not enough to become the chosen one. We also need a high goal, an idea in the name of which the poet creates and which revives and gives meaning to everything that he so sensitively hears and sees. “God’s voice” commands to “burn the hearts of people” with a poetic word, showing the true truth of life:
Arise, prophet, and see and listen,
Be fulfilled by my will
And, bypassing the seas and lands,
Burn the hearts of people with the verb.
The poem has an allegorical meaning, but in this case the poet affirms the divine nature of poetry, which means that the poet is responsible only to the Creator.
In the poem “The Poet” (1827), the motive of the divine election of the poet also appears. And when inspiration descends, “the divine verb touches the sensitive ear,” the poet feels his chosenness, the vain amusements of the world become alien to him:
He runs, wild and harsh,
And full of sounds and confusion,
On the shores of desert waves,
In the noisy oak forests...
In the poems “To the Poet”, “The Poet and the Crowd”, Pushkin proclaims the idea of freedom and independence of the poet from the “crowd”, “rabble”, meaning by these words the “secular rabble”, people deeply indifferent to true poetry. The crowd does not see any benefit in the poet’s work, because it does not bring any material benefits:
Like the wind, his song is free,
But like the wind she is barren:
What benefit does it have to us?
This attitude of the “uninitiated” crowd irritates the poet, and he says to the crowd with contempt:
Be silent, senseless people,
Day laborer, slave of needs, worries!
I can't stand your impudent murmur,
You are a worm of the earth, not a son of heaven...
……………………………………
Go away - who cares
To the peaceful poet before you!
Feel free to turn to stone in depravity,
The voice of the lyre will not revive you!
Poetry is for the elite:
We were born to inspire
For sweet sounds and prayers.
This is how Pushkin formulates the goal in whose name the poet comes into the world. “Sweet sounds” and “prayers”, beauty and God - these are the guidelines that guide him through life.
The poem “To the Poet” (1830) is imbued with the same mood. Pushkin calls on the poet to be free from the opinion of the crowd, which will never understand the chosen one:
Poet! do not value people's love.
There will be a momentary noise of enthusiastic praise;
You will hear the judgment of a fool and the laughter of a cold crowd,
But you remain firm, calm and gloomy.
Pushkin calls on the poet to be demanding of his work:
You are your own highest court;
You know how to evaluate your work more strictly than anyone...
Reflecting on the purpose of poetry in the fate of a poet, Pushkin compares himself to an echo (poem “Echo”, 1831). The echo responds to all the sounds of life; it, like the poet, is in love with the world:
For every sound
Your response in the empty air
You will give birth suddenly.
In these words one can hear the readiness to accept the world in all its manifestations, even when there is “no response.” For the poet, the main thing is serving eternal values: goodness, freedom, mercy, and not the whims of the “crowd” and “rabble.”
This is exactly what Pushkin will write about in his poem “I have erected a monument to myself not made by hands...” (1836):
And for a long time I will be so kind to the people,
That I awakened good feelings with my lyre,
That in my cruel age I glorified Freedom
And he called for mercy for the fallen.
In this poem, Pushkin places poetry above the glory of kings and generals, for it is closer to God:
By the command of God, O muse, be obedient.
Man is mortal, but the creations of his spirit acquire eternal life:
No, all of me will not die - the soul is in the treasured lyre
My ashes will survive and decay will escape.
Philosophical lyrics
The subject of Pushkin's poetry has always been life itself. In his poems we will find everything: real portraits of time, and philosophical reflections on the main issues of existence, and the eternal change of nature, and the movements of the human soul. Pushkin was more than a famous poet on a global scale. He was a historian, philosopher, literary critic, a great man who represented the era.
The poet’s life in the lyrics is seen “through a magic crystal” of beauty and humanity. The measure of beauty for him lay in life itself, in its harmony. Pushkin felt and understood how unhappy a person was who could not build his life according to the laws of beauty. The poet’s philosophical thoughts about the meaning and purpose of existence, about life and death, about good and evil are heard in the poems “Do I wander along the noisy streets...” (1829), “The Cart of Life” (1823), “Anchar” (1828) , “Scene from Faust” (1825), “Oh no, I’m not tired of life...” and others. The poet is haunted by inevitable sadness and melancholy (“Winter Road”), tormented by spiritual dissatisfaction (“Memories”, 1828; “Faded Fun of Crazy Years”, 1830), and frightened by a premonition of impending troubles (“Premonition”, 1828).
But all these adversities did not lead to despair and hopelessness. In the poem “On the hills of Georgia lies the darkness of the night...” the poet says:
My sadness is light.
The poem “Elegy” (1830) has tragic notes in the first part
My path is sad
Promises me work and grief
The coming troubling sea...
are replaced by an impulse to live no matter what:
But, oh my friends, I don’t want to die,
I want to live so that I can think and suffer.
The poem “To Chaadaev” (1818) reflects Pushkin’s dreams of change in Russia:
Russia will wake up from its sleep,
And on the ruins of autocracy
They will write our names!
The theme of the infinity of existence and the continuity of generations, the indissoluble connection of the past, present and future is heard in the poem “... Again I visited...” (1835), which Pushkin wrote during his last visit to Mikhailovskoye. Contemplation of his native places and Russian nature gives rise to memories in him and sets him up for philosophical reflection. The sight of three pines, a “young family,” “a young, unfamiliar tribe,” inspired Pushkin to think about the eternity of existence. This is not only the joy of eternal renewal of life, but also the confidence that man is given rebirth in future generations. In the lyric poetry of the 30s, when the poet’s creative powers reached their highest peak, the experiences of the lyrical hero Pushkin became especially diverse: heartfelt melancholy and bright insight, the pain of loneliness and thoughts of a poetic vocation, enjoyment of nature and moral and philosophical quests. But the lyrics of recent years are permeated with sadness:
I can’t sleep, there’s no fire;
There is darkness everywhere and a boring dream.
The clock ticks only monotonously
It sounds near me...
But the poet does not give in to despondency and finds support in “humanity that cherishes the soul,” seeing in it a manifestation of universal human life experience:
Hello tribe
Young, unfamiliar! not me
I will see your mighty late age,
When you outgrow my friends
And you will cover their old head
From the eyes of a passerby. But let my grandson
Hears your welcoming noise...
Pushkin was not only a poet of genius, but also a mature man, a citizen endowed with philosophical breadth, political sobriety and concrete historical thinking.
Landscape lyrics.
Landscape lyrics occupy an important place in the poetic world of A. S. Pushkin. He was the first Russian poet who not only himself knew and fell in love with the beautiful world of nature, but also revealed its beauty to readers.
For Pushkin, poetry is not only a merging with the natural world, but also complete harmony, dissolved in the “eternal beauty” of this world. It is nature in its eternal cycle that creates the artist himself. In his poems, the poet is as polyphonic and complex as nature. The romantic works of A. S. Pushkin, containing pictures of nature, include such poems as “The mighty ridge of clouds is thinning,” “The daylight has gone out...”, “To the sea” and others. In the poem “The Sun of Day Has Gone Out” (1820), the poet conveys the sad state of mind of the lyrical hero, who in his memories strives for “the sad shores of his foggy homeland.” The twilight of the evening turned the sea into a “gloomy ocean”, which evokes sadness, melancholy and does not heal “former wounds of the heart.”
And in the poem “To the Sea” (1824), the poet paints the “solemn beauty” of the sea, inspiring the poet:
I loved your reviews so much
Muffled sounds, abyssal voices,
And silence in the evening hour,
And wayward impulses!
The free element of the sea is opposed by a “boring, motionless shore.” The element of the sea personified freedom, of which Pushkin was an adherent. Saying goodbye to the “free elements”, the poet takes an oath of allegiance to it:
Goodbye sea! I won't forget
Your solemn beauty
And I will hear for a long, long time
Your hum in the evening hours...
The poem “Winter Morning” (1829) reflects the harmony of the state of nature and human mood. When in the evening “the blizzard was angry,” the poet’s girlfriend “sat sadly,” but with the change in the weather, the mood also changes. Here Pushkin paints a wonderful picture of a winter morning:
Under blue skies
Magnificent carpets,
Glistening in the sun, the snow lies,
The transparent forest alone turns black,
And the spruce turns green through the frost,
And the river glitters under the ice.
A. S. Pushkin was a true poetic painter of nature; he perceived it with the keen eye of an artist and the subtle ear of a musician. In the poem “Autumn” (1833) A. S. Pushkin is polyphonic and complex, like nature itself. The poet does not like the seasons, which seem monotonous and monotonous to him. But every line that creates the image of my favorite time of year - autumn, is filled with love and admiration:
It's a sad time! charm of the eyes!
I am pleased with your farewell beauty -
I love the lush decay of nature,
Forests dressed in scarlet and gold...
For the poet, autumn is sweet “with its quiet beauty, humbly shining,” “of the annual times, he is glad only for it.” In autumn, the poet experiences a surge of mental, physical and poetic strength:
And I forget the world - and in sweet silence
I'm sweetly lulled to sleep by my imagination,
And poetry awakens in me...
……………………………………………
And the thoughts in my head are agitated in courage,
And light rhymes run towards them,
And fingers ask for pen, pen for paper,
A minute - and the poems will flow freely.
“The short day is fading,” but “poetry is awakening.” “Poetry awakens” only when the poet himself is “full of life.”
A. S. Pushkin wrote the poem “...Once again I visited...” (1835) during his last visit to Mikhailovskoye. Contemplation of familiar, native places of Russian nature gives rise to memories in him and sets him up for philosophical reflection. He draws Mikhailovsky's real landscape, but not for the sake of details, but to prepare the reader for the perception of his thoughts. Nature inspired the poet to write this poem and inspired Pushkin to think about the eternity of existence.
The poet addresses his descendants with hope, with faith in their best destiny. He bequeaths to them those noble aspirations, high ideals, to the service of which the lives of the best minds of his generation were devoted. And the finale of the poem opens with a stanza in which joy sounds:
Hello tribe
Young, unfamiliar!..
The poet’s appeal to fresh pine shoots passes the baton of memories - this “connection of times” - to future generations.
The poem “...Once again I visited...” is permeated with a feeling of connection between different eras of human life, generations, nature and man.
Theme of friendship and love.
The cult of friendship inherent in Pushkin was born at the Lyceum. Throughout the poet's life, the content and meaning of friendship changes. What brings friends together? In the poem “Feasting Students” (1814), friendship for Pushkin is a happy union of freedom and joy. Friends are united by a carefree mood. Years will pass, and in the poem<19 октября» (1825) дружба для поэта - защита от «сетей судьбы суровой» в годы одиночества. Мысль о друзьях, которых судьба разбросала по свету, помогла поэту пережить ссылку и преодолеть замкнутость «дома опального». Дружба противостоит гонениям судьбы.
The poet's house is disgraced,
Oh my Pushchin, you were the first to visit;
You sweetened the sad day of exile,
You turned his lyceum into a day.
You, Gorchakov, have been lucky from the first days,
Praise be to you - fortune shines cold
Didn't change your free soul:
You are still the same for honor and friends.
……………………………………………
We met and hugged brotherly.
The heat of the heart, lulled for so long,
And I cheerfully blessed fate.
Friendship for Pushkin is spiritual generosity, gratitude, kindness. And for a poet there is nothing higher than the bonds of friendship.
My friends, our union is wonderful!
He, like a soul, is indivisible and eternal -
Unshakable, free and carefree -
He grew together under the shadow of friendly muses.
Wherever fate throws us,
And happiness wherever it leads,
We are still the same, the whole world is a foreign land to us;
Our Fatherland is Tsarskoe Selo.
The poet had a hard time experiencing the failure of the Decembrist uprising, among whom were many of his friends and acquaintances. “The hanged are hanged,” he wrote, “but the hard labor of one hundred and twenty friends, brothers, comrades is terrible.” The poet writes to his friends the poem “In the depths of the Siberian ores...”, supporting them in difficult moments, and messages “To Chaadaev”, “I. I. Pushchin”, “To Yazykov” and others. In the poem “October 19” (1827), deep concern for the fate of his friends inspires Pushkin:
God help you, my friends,
And in storms and in everyday grief,
In a foreign land, in a deserted sea,
And those dark abysses of the earth!
Pushkin dedicated the poem “It was time: our holiday is young...” to the last anniversary of the Lyceum. Here the beginning of life and its end are compared; time changes the feelings, appearance, historical panorama of the century, but the loyalty to the Lyceum brotherhood, thinning year by year, to its bright dreams and hopes is unbreakable.
It's time for everything: for the twenty-fifth time
We celebrate the Lyceum's cherished day.
The years have passed in unnoticed succession,
And how they changed us!
No wonder - no! - a quarter of a century has flown by!
Do not complain: this is the law of fate;
The whole world revolves around man, -
Will he really be the only one who doesn't move?
Pushkin's love lyrics are sincerity, nobility, delight, admiration, but not frivolity. Beauty for the poet is a “shrine” (poem “Beauty”).
In the Lyceum, love appears to the poet as spiritualizing suffering (“Singer”, “To Morpheus”, “Desire”).
My love's torment is dear to me -
Let me die, but let me die loving!
During the period of southern exile, love is a fusion with the elements of life, nature, a source of inspiration (poems “The flying ridge of clouds is thinning”, “Night”). Pushkin's love lyrics, reflecting the complex vicissitudes of life, joyful and sorrowful, acquire high sincerity and sincerity. The poem “I remember a wonderful moment...” (1825) is a hymn to beauty and love. Love not only enriches, but also transforms a person. This “wonderful moment” is the element of the human heart. Love turns out to be not killed by either the languor of “hopeless sadness” or “anxious noisy bustle.” She is resurrected, and a moment turns out to be stronger than years.
And the heart beats in ecstasy,
And for him they rose again
And deity and inspiration,
And life, and tears, and love.
The phenomenon of the “genius of pure beauty” inspired the poet with admiration for the ideal, intoxication with love, and enlightened inspiration. Without love there is no life, no divinity and no inspiration.
Sadness, separation, suffering, hopelessness accompany Pushkin’s best love poems, which reached the heights of warmth and poetry: “Don’t sing, beauty, in front of me...” (1828), “I loved you...” (1829), “On hills of Georgia..." (1829), "What's in my name for you-?.." (1830), "Farewell" (1830). These poems enchant with the overflow of truly human feelings - silent and hopeless, rejected, mutual and triumphant, but always immensely tender and pure.
I loved you silently, hopelessly,
Now we are tormented by timidity, now by jealousy;
I loved you so sincerely, so tenderly,
How God grant that your beloved be different.
With each of his poems about love, Pushkin seems to be saying that love, even unrequited, unrequited love, is a great happiness that ennobles a person.
7. The work of A. S. Pushkin, diverse in themes and genres, is a perfect reflection of one of the greatest stages of Russian history. Surrounded by a crowd of enemies who could not forgive him for his bold independence, suppressed by the iron control of Nicholas I, he did not give up, did not retreat and continued to follow his “free path” to the end. He knew that his feat would be appreciated by future generations and with them in mind he created his immortal works. At the beginning of his creative career, in one of his poems, he asked:
My flying messages
Will the offspring bloom?..
And shortly before his death, as if summing up his work, he expressed his firm confidence that “the people’s path to him will not become overgrown.” Pushkin’s dream of a “monument not made by hands” came true, and his work will awaken “good feelings” in all generations. Pushkin's lyrics gave Gogol every reason to say:
“Pushkin is an extraordinary phenomenon and, perhaps, the only manifestation of the Russian spirit: this is Russian man in his development, in which he may appear in two hundred years.”
Ticket number 16
By the command of God, O muse, be obedient.” The prophetic mission of the poet in the lyrics of A. S. Pushkin (using the example of 2-3 works). Reading by heart one of the poet’s poems (of the student’s choice).
The theme of the poet and poetry in the lyrics of A.S. Pushkin.
The theme of creativity (the purpose of the poet and poetry) attracted many poets. It also occupies a significant place in Pushkin’s lyrics. He speaks about the high purpose of poetry, its special role in more than one poem: “Prophet” (1826), “Poet” (1827), “I erected a monument to myself not made by hands...” (1836). Poetry is a difficult and responsible matter, Pushkin believes. And the poet differs from mere mortals in that he is given the ability to see, hear, understand what an ordinary person does not see, does not hear, does not understand. With his gift, the poet influences him; he is able to “burn the hearts of people with his words.” However, the poet's talent is not only a gift, but also a heavy burden, a great responsibility. His influence on people is so great that the poet himself must be an example of civil behavior, showing steadfastness, intransigence to social injustice, and be a strict and demanding judge towards himself. True poetry, according to Pushkin, should be humane, life-affirming, and awaken good, humane feelings.
In the poems “The Desert Sower of Freedom...” (1823), “The Poet and the Crowd” (1828), “To the Poet”
(1830), “Echo” (1831), “I erected a monument to myself not made by hands...” (1836) Pushkin talks about the freedom of poetic creativity, about the complex relationship between the poet and the authorities, the poet and the people.
“The prophet is the ideal image of a true poet in his essence and highest calling__
All that everyday content that fills the hearts and minds of busy people, their whole world should become a dark desert for a true poet... He thirsts for spiritual satisfaction and drags towards it. Nothing more is required on his part: the hungry and thirsty will be satisfied...
The poet-prophet, with sophisticated attention, penetrated into the life of nature, higher and lower, contemplated and heard everything that happened, from the direct flight of angels to the winding course of reptiles, from the rotation of the heavens to the vegetation of plants. What next?.. Whoever has gained sight to see the beauty of the universe, feels the more painfully the ugliness of human reality. He will fight her. His action and weapon is the word of truth... But in order for the word of truth, emanating from the sting of wisdom, not only to sting, but to burn the hearts of people, it is necessary that this sting itself be kindled by the fire of love... In addition to the biblical image of the six-winged seraphim , basically taken from the Bible and the last action of this messenger of God:
And he cut my chest with a sword, and took out my trembling heart, and pushed a coal, blazing with fire, into the open chest.
The general tone of the poem also belongs to the Bible, imperturbably majestic, something unattainably sublime... The absence of subordinate clauses, relative pronouns and logical conjunctions with the inseparable dominance of the conjunction “and” (it is repeated twenty times in thirty verses)... brings Pushkin closer here. language to the biblical...” (V. Soloviev).
8. Poems A.S. Pushkin about love. Reading one of them by heart. (Ticket 6)
Pushkin's love lyrics are full of tender and bright feelings for a woman. The lyrical hero of poems about love is distinguished by dedication, nobility, depth and strength of feeling. The theme of love, revealing a wide palette of human experiences, is reflected in the poems “The daylight has gone out...” (1820), “I have outlived my desires...” (1821), “Keep me, my talisman...” (1825). , “K***” (“I remember a wonderful moment...”, 1825), “On the hills of Georgia lies the darkness of the night...” (1829), “I loved you: love is still, perhaps...” (1829), etc.
Love and friendship are the main feelings depicted by Pushkin. The hero of Pushkin's lyrics is beautiful in everything - because he is honest and demanding of himself.
Love in Pushkin's lyrics is the ability to rise above the petty and random. The high nobility, sincerity and purity of the love experience are conveyed with brilliant simplicity and depth in the poem “I loved you...” (1829). This poem is an example of absolute poetic perfection. It is built on a simple and ever-new recognition: “I loved you.” It is repeated three times, but each time in a new context, with a new intonation, conveying the experience of the lyrical hero, a dramatic love story, and the ability to rise above one’s pain for the sake of the happiness of the woman he loves. The mystery of these poems lies in their complete artlessness, naked simplicity and at the same time incredible capacity and depth of human emotional content. What is striking is the unselfishness of love that is characteristic of very few people, the sincere desire not just for happiness for a woman who does not love the author, but for a new, happy love for her.
Almost all words are used by the poet in their literal meaning, the only exception is the verb “faded away” in relation to love, and even this metaphorical nature does not look like some kind of “expressive device”. Parallels and repetitions of similar constructions play a huge role: “silently, hopelessly”; “either timidity or jealousy”; “so sincerely, so tenderly.” These repetitions create energy and at the same time an elegiac fullness of the poetic monologue, which ends with Pushkin’s brilliant discovery - the confession is replaced by a passionate and farewell wish: “...How may God grant that you, beloved, be different.” By the way, the combination “God bless you” is often used in the context of farewell.
The theme of the purpose of the poet and poetry is traditional for Russian literature. It can be traced in the works of Derzhavin, Kuchelbecker, Ryleev, Pushkin, Lermontov. The work of N.A. was no exception. Nekrasov: he wrote a lot about the purpose of the poet and poetry, their role in the life of society.
Kuchelbecker was the first to show the connection between poetry and prophecy in Russian poetry. Nekrasov offers a different view of the poet compared to his predecessors. The poet Nekrasov is a prophet who was “sent to people by the god of anger and sadness.” The calling of such a prophet is to walk with a punishing lyre in his hands, indignant and denouncing. He understands that people will not love such a poet: “He is haunted by blasphemies: he catches the sounds of approval not in the sweet murmur of praise, but in wild cries of anger.” But Nekrasov does not change his position: “A son cannot look calmly at the grief of his dear mother.” This position is that of a poet-citizen.
This position is most clearly shown in the poem “The Poet and the Citizen” (1856), written in the form of a dialogue. In it, Nekrasov argues with those who consider poetry to be an elegant art, alien to the earthly suffering of the people. The main idea that Nekrasov affirms in this dispute sounds like a slogan, like a call: “You may not be a poet, but you must be a citizen.” The same theme is repeated in the poem “Elegy,” which directly begins with the lines:
Let changing fashion tell us,
What an old theme is the suffering of the people
And that poetry should forget her,
Don’t believe it, young men, she doesn’t age.
In the poem “To the Sowers,” Nekrasov calls for sowing “reasonable, good, eternal,” because these seeds of enlightenment will certainly bear fruit, for which “the Russian people will thank you from the bottom of their hearts.”
In Nekrasov’s works, the image of the Muse, which inspired his work, is very often found (“Muse”, “Yesterday, about six o’clock”, “Oh, Muse! I’m at the door of the coffin”, etc.). Nekrasov’s muse is not a beautiful woman, a goddess, but a suffering peasant woman:
Yesterday, around six o'clock
I went to Sennaya.
There they beat a woman with a whip,
A young peasant woman.
Not a word from her chest
