The poem is in the modern sense, any large or medium-sized poetic work. Initially, the term was applied to the mythological heroic and didactic epic (Homer, Hesiod), but already antiquity knew the irocomic poem (“The War of Mice and Frogs”), from which later burlesque and satirical poems originated. By analogy, “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” is often considered a poem, which is non-poetic and unique in terms of genre. Romances of chivalry, which arose as poetic ones, were not considered poems and were later even opposed to them as works of insufficient seriousness. However, related to them, “The Knight in the Tiger’s Skin” (12th century) by Shota Rustaveli entered the history of world literature as a poem. Varieties of medieval poems had their own genre names. In France, heroic poetic works (about a hundred of them have been preserved in records of the 11th-14th centuries, some exceeding Homer's in volume) were called chansons de geste (see) - songs about deeds; the largest - the late ones (13-14 centuries) were influenced by courtly literature. At the turn of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance arose poem with title, which at that time simply meant a happy ending, is Dante’s “Comedy,” called “Divine” by his enthusiastic fans. However, from the Renaissance to classicism, the ancient poem served as a model for poets - not so much the Iliad, but the Aeneid (1st century BC) by Virgil, who allegedly streamlined and improved the poetics of Homer.

An indispensable requirement was compliance with the external structure of the poem, right down to the appeal to the muse and a statement about the subject of the chanting at the beginning. Renaissance poems based on violent fairy-tale fiction - “Roland in Love” (1506) by M.M. Boiardo and the continuation of this plot “Furious Roland” by L. Aristo (at the turn of the 15th-16th centuries) - were classified by contemporaries and later theorists as novels. In the 17th century, the most original poem was “Paradise Lost” (1667) written in blank verse by J. Milton. In the 18th century, a poem was created according to the ancient model, transformed according to the classicist understanding; innovation beyond a certain limit was often condemned. V.K. Trediakovsky assessed Voltaire’s “Henriad” (1728) extremely harshly due to the implausible combination of the fictional actions of the famous historical figure, Henry IV (presented as a philosopher king, an enlightened monarch), and documentary information about him. Russian poets of the 18th century, who considered the epic poem to be the highest genre (in the West it was often preferred to tragedy), repeatedly, but unsuccessfully, tried to glorify Peter I in this genre. M.M. Kheraskov, who wrote several poems based on others, was recognized as the creator of the Russian epic poem. Topics; The heavyweight "Rossiyada" (1779), which contained allusions to the recent war with Turkey - about the capture of Kazan by Ivan the Terrible, was considered the standard. The irocomic poem was also unofficially recognized (“Elisha, or Irritated Bacchus” by V.I. Maykov, 1771). Many Russians were fond of Voltaire’s ironic and frivolous poem “The Virgin of Orleans” (1735), published in 1755. Without its influence, A.S. Pushkin’s “Gabrieliad” (1821) would not have appeared. Pushkin's poem "Ruslan and Lyudmila" (1820) was oriented towards several traditions, most notably the tradition of Aristo.

Adherents of classicism did not agree to consider it a poem. The poet left his subsequent poems without a genre subtitle or called them stories. The widespread romantic poem, the founder of the curtain, J. Byron, became lyrical-epic, the plot in it was sharply weakened, as in “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage” (1809-18). Partly on the model of Byron's Don Juan (1818-23), it was begun and called a novel in verse, Eugene Onegin (1823-31). Such a genre definition was then an oxymoron; it synthesized the “low”, almost not legalized novel and the highest genre of the poem; the novel was introduced into high literature. V.G. Belinsky preferred to call “Eugene Onegin” a poem. After M.Yu. Lermontov, the romantic poem is the lot of epigones. I.S. Turgenev in his early poems paid tribute to both romanticism and the “natural school”. N.A. Nekrasov radically updated the poetic narrative: he “proseized” it, introduced folk peasant themes, and at the end of his life he wrote a unique peasant epic poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” (1863-77). He is also the creator of the first Russian lyrical plotless poems “Silence” (1857) and “A Knight for an Hour” (1860). Lyricization of poems also occurred in the West. S. T. Coleridge first included his “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” in the collection “Lyrical Ballads” (1798), but then refined it as a poem. In American literature, the lyricization of poems occurred in the works of W. Whitman, although already “The Raven” (1845) by E. A. Poe, in fact, is a small lyrical poem. This genre reaches its peak in the Russian Silver Age and is used later: “By the right of memory” (1969) by A.T. Tvardovsky, “Requiem” (1935-40) by A.A. Akhmatova consist of cycles of lyrical poems that form epic poems. poem to the spirit.

The word “poem” has retained a connotation of solemnity and “sublimity.” When N.V. Gogol applied it to satirical prose, it was partly irony, partly an indication of a majestic plan. F.M. Dostoevsky also loved this word, also using it both ironically and seriously (the poem about the Grand Inquisitor in The Brothers Karamazov). Soviet writers N.F. Pogodin, A.S. Makarenko and others included the word “Poem” in a non-genre sense in the titles of their works in order to “increase” their sound.

The word poem comes from Greek poiema, from poieo, which means - I do, I create.

The section is very easy to use. Just enter the desired word in the field provided, and we will give you a list of its meanings. I would like to note that our site provides data from various sources - encyclopedic, explanatory, word-formation dictionaries. Here you can also see examples of the use of the word you entered.

The meaning of the word poem

poem in the crossword dictionary

Explanatory dictionary of the Russian language. D.N. Ushakov

poem

(by), poems, w. (Greek poiema - creation).

Narrative work of art in verse (lit.). An epic poem (depicting some major events in the life of humanity, a people or a large social group). Lyric poem (alternating the narrative with lyrical digressions). Meanwhile, I lost myself in reading excerpts from northern poems. Pushkin.

The name of certain literary works, large in size or ideological content, in verse or prose (lit.). Gogol's poem "Dead Souls". Petersburg poem by Dostoevsky "The Double". The novel "War and Peace" is a heroic poem about the twelfth year.

trans. About something. extraordinary, striking with its beauty, grandeur, merits (colloquial, humorous, outdated). The view of the Caucasus Range at sunrise is a whole poem!

The name of certain musical works (music). "Poem of Ecstasy" by Scriabin. Symphonic poems by Liszt.

Explanatory dictionary of the Russian language. S.I.Ozhegov, N.Yu.Shvedova.

poem

A large poetic work on a historical heroic or sublime lyrical theme. Epic poems of Homer, etc. Pushkin "Gypsies".

trans. About something. sublime, beautiful. P. love. P. spring.

adj. poetic, -aya, -oe (to 1 meaning).

New explanatory and word-formative dictionary of the Russian language, T. F. Efremova.

poem

1. A narrative work of fiction in verse.

   The title of major works in verse or prose, distinguished by depth of content and wide coverage of events.

A musical work for an orchestra (or orchestra and choir) or a separate instrument, having a poetic and figurative content.

trans. Something that amazes with its beauty, grandeur, and virtues.

Encyclopedic Dictionary, 1998

poem

POEM (Greek poiema)

a poetic genre of large volume, mainly lyric epic. In ancient times and the Middle Ages, a monumental heroic epic (epic) - “Iliad”, “Odyssey”, “Song of Roland” - is called a poem, which genetically indicates the epic nature of the poem genre and explains a number of its “hereditary” features (historicity and heroic content, legendary, pathetic). Since the time of romanticism, a specifically “poem” event is the very collision of the lyrical and epic principles as the fate and position of the individual with impersonal (historical, social or cosmic) forces (“The Bronze Horseman” by A. S. Pushkin). In the modern poem, the epic demand for “visible” eventfulness is consistent with openly expressed lyrical pathos; the author is a participant or inspired commentator of the event (V.V. Mayakovsky, A.T. Tvardovsky). In the 20th century a plotless lyrical poem is also approved ("Poem without a Hero" by A. A. Akhmatova).

In music - a small lyrical piece of free structure, a large one-movement symphonic work, usually a program (symphonic poem), sometimes a choral or vocal-instrumental composition.

Poem

(Greek póiema), a large poetic work with a narrative or lyrical plot. P. is also called ancient and medieval epic (see also Epic), nameless and authored, which was composed either through the cyclization of lyric-epic songs and tales (the point of view of A. N. Veselovsky), or through “swelling” (A. Heusler) one or more folk legends, or with the help of complex modifications of ancient plots in the process of the historical existence of folklore (A. Lord, M. Parry). P. developed from an epic depicting an event of national historical significance (Iliad, Mahabharata, Song of Roland, etc.). There are many genre varieties of theater known: heroic, didactic, satirical, burlesque, including heroic-comic, poetry with a romantic plot, and lyrical-dramatic. For a long time, the leading branch of the genre was considered to be literature on a national historical or world-historical (religious) theme (“The Aeneid” by Virgil, “The Divine Comedy” by Dante, “The Lusiads” by L. di Camoens, “Jerusalem Liberated” by T. Tasso, “Lost” paradise" by J. Milton, "Henriad" by Voltaire, "Messiad" by F. G. Klopstock, "Rossiyad" by M. N. Kheraskov, etc.). At the same time, a very influential branch in the history of the genre was literature with romantic plot features (“The Knight in the Leopard’s Skin” by Shota Rustaveli, “Shahname” by Ferdowsi, to a certain extent “Roland the Furious” by L. Ariosto), connected to one degree or another with tradition medieval, mainly knightly, novel. Gradually, personal, moral and philosophical issues come to the fore in P., lyrical and dramatic elements are strengthened, and a folklore tradition is discovered and mastered - features already characteristic of pre-romantic P. (Faust by J. W. Goethe, poems by J. Macpherson, V. Scott). The heyday of the genre occurs in the era of romanticism, when the greatest poets of various countries turned to the creation of P.

The “peak” works in the evolution of the genre of romantic poetry acquire a socio-philosophical or symbolic-philosophical character (“Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage” by J. Byron, “The Bronze Horseman” by A. S. Pushkin, “Dziady” by A. Mickiewicz, “The Demon” by M. . Yu. Lermontov, “Germany, a winter’s tale” by G. Heine).

In the 2nd half of the 19th century. the decline of the genre is obvious, which does not exclude the appearance of individual outstanding works (“The Song of Hiawatha” by G. Longfellow). In the poems of N. A. Nekrasov (“Frost the Red Nose”, “Who Lives Well in Rus'”), genre tendencies characteristic of the development of poetry in realistic literature (synthesis of moral descriptive and heroic principles) are manifested.

In P. 20th century. the most intimate experiences are correlated with great historical upheavals, imbued with them as if from within (“Cloud in Pants” by V. V. Mayakovsky, “The Twelve” by A. A. Blok, “First Date” by A. Bely).

In Sov. In poetry, there are various genre varieties of poetry: reviving the heroic principle (“Vladimir Ilyich Lenin” and “Good!” by Mayakovsky, “Nine Hundred and Fifth” by B. L. Pasternak, “Vasily Terkin” by A. T. Tvardovsky); P. lyrical-psychological (“About this” by Mayakovsky, “Anna Onegin” by S. A. Yesenin), philosophical (N. A. Zabolotsky, E. Mezhelaitis), historical (“Tobolsk Chronicler” by L. Martynov) or combining moral and socio-historical issues (“Mid-Century” by V. Lugovsky).

P., as a synthetic, lyric-epic, and monumental genre that allows one to combine the epic of the heart and “music,” the “element” of world upheavals, intimate feelings, and historical concepts, remains a productive genre of world poetry: “Breaking the Wall” and “Into the Storm” by R. Frost, “Landmarks” by Saint-John Perse, “The Hollow Men” by T. Eliot, “The Universal Song” by P. Neruda, “Niobe” by K. I. Galczynski, “Continuous Poetry” by P. Eluard, “Zoe” by Nazim Hikmet.

Lit.: Hegel, Aesthetics, vol. 3, M., 1971: Veselovsky A. N., Historical poetics, Leningrad, 1940; Zhirmunsky V.M., Byron and Pushkin, L., 1924; Golenishchev-Kutuzov I. N., Dante’s creativity and world culture, M., 1971; Sokolov A. N., Essays on the history of Russian poems of the 18th and first half. 19th centuries, M., 1956; Theory of literature..., [book. 2], M., 1964; Bowra S., Heroic poetry, L., 1952.

E. M. Pulkhritudova.

Wikipedia

Poem (disambiguation)

Poem:

• A poem is a large poetic work with a narrative or lyrical plot.
• The poem is an instrumental piece of lyrical-dramatic nature.

Poem

Poem- literary genre.

A large or medium-sized multi-part poetic work of a lyric-epic nature, belonging to a specific author, a large poetic narrative form. Can be heroic, romantic, critical, satirical, etc.

Throughout the history of literature, the genre of the poem has undergone various changes and therefore lacks stability. Thus, Homer’s “Iliad” is an epic work, and Akhmatova’s “Poem without a Hero” is exclusively lyrical. There is also no minimum volume (for example, Pushkin’s poem “The Robber Brothers” is 5 pages long).

Sometimes prose works can be called a poem (for example, “Dead Souls” by N.V. Gogol, “Moscow - Petushki” by V.V. Erofeev, “Pedagogical Poem” by A.S. Makarenko).

Poem (music)

Nikolaevich Scriabin The prototype of the poem was a symphonic poem first written by Franz Liszt in 1848. Poems often have programmatic titles and definitions. The most popular poems by Alexander Scriabin are: “To the Flame”, “Prometheus”, “Satanic Poem”, Poem of Ecstasy, etc.

It is also customary to call large one-movement orchestral program works a poem. The poem in this definition has been used by some composers to replace the symphonic poem. An example of such a work is the poems of Richard Strauss. In the 20th century, some vocal works began to be called a poem, for example, “10 Poems for Choir” (1951) by Dmitry Shostakovich, “Poem in Memory of Sergei Yesenin” (1956) by Georgy Sviridov, etc.

Examples of the use of the word poem in literature.

At the last moment, Abramov managed to stuff poem into the bag, but they still discussed for a long time whether Beluga would be smart enough to decipher the acrostic and figure out Emelya.

Tao, Kundalini - concepts of eastern mysticism Agramant - character poems L.

Unknown poem Nizami caused a sensation among specialists and simply lovers of poetry, as she revealed to humanity new facets of the talent of the great Azerbaijani poet.

Cousin Aquitaine, by his own admission, cannot even write two lines, let alone epic ones. poems.

This akyn gave oak in his yurt with too much drink, that is, he died, died, but while the bitter news reached Moscow, my acquaintance translator for another five years wrote more and more new legends for the deceased and poems, and the newspapers praised the akyn, not knowing that the shaitan had taken him.

I give the correct meaning of the word here because many people believe that Alastor is the name of the hero poems.

Alcuin also talks about his time, then the last part poems in historical terms, it is especially valuable: from here we learn a lot of interesting things about Alcuin’s teachers, about the state of the York school, about its library, about teaching methods, etc.

However, at the same time, they removed a very important comma from the text, which is why the allusion that determines the meaning disappears poems.

Numerous allusions show that the author of this additional epilogue poem describes the Rutland castle of Belvoir and is sad about the absence of its owner, Elizabeth Sidney-Rutland, who wrote earlier addresses to the queen and the noble ladies - her friends, and herself poem about the passion of Christ, which gave the book its title.

In the courtyard he saw Ansari himself, a bent old man busy writing down poems.

According to this poem at the beginning of everything, Chaos reigned, a single watery abyss in which three cosmic monsters coiled: Apsu, Tiamat and their son Mummu.

Seryozha once visited him and brought information about him poem, from which I remember only one verse: Since in different parts the language is not the same, But changeable and diverse, - He, having left the pharmacy store here, opened an Arsky pharmacy store there.

Malory as the most complete example of the writings of the Arthurian circle, giving it preference over earlier Welsh poems and legends.

It is also reliably known that the archdeacon was inflamed with a special passion for the symbolic portal of the Cathedral of Our Lady, for this page of black book wisdom, set out in stone inscriptions and inscribed by the hand of Bishop Guillaume of Paris, who undoubtedly ruined his soul by daring to attach to this eternal building, to this divine poem blasphemous title.

Instructions

Open a book with a work of art. Ask yourself what form the text is written in: in or ? This will be useful because... of all fiction into these two main varieties occurs not only on the basis of formal criteria, but also semantic ones. Prose most often contains a narrative about some events or events, while answering the questions what?, where? and when? A poetic work strives to convey the feelings, emotions, impressions of the lyrical hero and, as a rule, has no plot.

Please note that the term “literary genre” is used in this connection, and the two types of works given above refer to the epic and lyrical genres, respectively.

Open the work of A. S. Pushkin “Ruslan and Lyudmila”. Make sure it is written in verse and try to identify the feelings and emotions expressed by the lyrical hero. There is no doubt that this has caused you difficulties. It is not surprising, because in the poem there is no lyrical hero with his feelings at all. But there is a plot, and it will not be difficult for you to retell in all the details the vicissitudes of Ruslan’s fate on his way to Lyudmila’s heart. It is obvious that in the poem two genera - lyrical and epic - are combined together and form an intermediate, borderline genus, which is called lyric-epic. Thus, we can conclude that the distinctive feature of the poem is the poetic form in combination with a detailed storyline.

Video on the topic

note

In the history of literature, these lyric-epic works - poems - have been known for a long time and are found quite often. Even in Antiquity, the titans of literary expression Homer and Virgil wrote their epic poems - the well-known “Iliad” and “Odyssey”.

Poems were especially popular in the era of Romanticism, when writers sought to find new, synthetic genres that would allow them not only to tell, but also to sensually describe life. Then J. Byron wrote his poem “Child Harold’s Pilgrimage”, S. Coleridge - “The Poem of the Ancient Mariner”, W. Wordsworth - “Michael”.

Poems are also such well-known works of Russian authors as “The Demon” by M. Lermontov, “Who Lives Well in Rus'” by N. Nekrasov, “Requiem” by A. Akhmatova, “Cloud in Pants” by V. Mayakovsky, “Anna Snegina” by S. Yesenin, “Vasily Terkin” by A. Tvardovsky.

Poem!

Poem ( Old Greek Ποίημα) is a poetic genre. A large epic poetic work belonging to a specific author, a large poetic form. Can be heroic, romantic, critical, satirical, etc.

A poem is a work of narrative or lyrical content written in verse. Also called a poem are works created on the basis of folk tales, legends, and epic stories. The classic type of poem is considered to be an epic. Translated from Greek, a poem is a creation.

Having emerged in a primitive tribal society in the form of songs, the poem firmly took shape and developed widely in subsequent eras. But soon the poem lost its significance as a leading genre.

Poems from different eras have some common features: the subject of the image in them is a certain era, judgments about which are given to the reader in the form of a story about significant events in the life of an individual (in epic and lyric-epic) or in the form of a description of a worldview (in lyric poetry).

Unlike poems, poems are characterized by a message, since they proclaim or evaluate social ideals. Poems are almost always plot-driven, and even in lyrical poems, individual fragments tend to turn into a single narrative.

The poems are the earliest surviving monuments of ancient writing. They were and are original “encyclopedias” of the past.

Early examples of epic poems: in India - the folk epic "Mahabharata" (no earlier than the 4th century BC), in Greece - Homer's "Iliad" and "Odyssey" (no later than the 8th century BC), in Rome - “Aeneid” by Virgil (1st century BC), etc.

The poem received its greatest completeness in Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, classic examples of this genre - epics. They reflected big events, and the integrity of the coverage of reality made it possible to dwell on the little things and create a complex system of characters. The epic poems affirmed a broad national meaning, the struggle for the strength and significance of the people.

Since the conditions for the formation of ancient Greek poems could not be repeated, the poems in their original form could not reappear - the poem degrades, receiving a number of differences.

In ancient Europe, parody-satirical (anonymous “Batrachomyomachy”, no earlier than the 5th century BC) and didactic (“Works and Days” of Hesiod, 8-7 centuries BC) poems appeared. They developed in the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and later. The heroic epic poem turned into a heroic “song” with a minimum number of characters and plot lines (“Beowulf”, “The Song of Roland”, “The Song of the Nibelungs”).

Its composition was reflected in imitative historical poems (in “Africa” by F. Petrarch, in “Jerusalem Liberated” by T. Tasso). The plot of the mythological epic was replaced by a lighter plot of the knight's poem (its influence is noticeable in L. Ariosto's Orlando Furioso and Spenser's The Fairy Queen). The traditions of the didactic epic were preserved in allegorical poems (in Dante’s “Divine Comedy”, in F. Petrarch’s “Triumphs”). In modern times, the classicist poets were guided by the parody-satirical epic, creating ironic poems (“Naloy” by N. Boileau).

Poem! The poem is often called a novel in verse.

The heyday of the poem genre occurs in the era of romanticism, when the greatest poets of various countries turned to creating poems. The poems acquire a socio-philosophical or symbolic-philosophical character (“Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage” by J. Byron, “The Bronze Horseman” by A. S. Pushkin, “The Demon” by M. Yu. Lermontov, “Germany, a Winter’s Tale” by G. Heine).

In Russian literature of the early 20th century, a tendency arose to transform a lyric-epic poem into a lyrical one. The most intimate experiences are correlated with historical shocks (“Cloud in Pants” by V.V. Mayakovsky, “The Twelve” by A.A. Blok, “First Date” by A. Bely). In A. A. Akhmatova’s poem “Requiem,” the epic plot is hidden behind the alternation of lyrical statements.

In Soviet poetry, there were various genre varieties of poems: reviving the heroic principle (“Good!” by Mayakovsky, “Vasily Terkin” by A.T. Tvardovsky), lyrical-psychological poems (“About this” by V.V. Mayakovsky, “Anna Snegina” by S. . A. Yesenin), philosophical, historical, etc.

The poem as a lyric-epic and monumental genre, which allows one to combine the epic of the heart and “music”, the “element” of world upheavals, intimate feelings and historical events, remains a productive genre of world poetry, although there are few authors of this genre in the modern world.

Other articles in this section:

• Language communication systems! Languages ​​as the main factor in the system of knowledge development!
• Traditions. What is tradition? Tradition in the dialectical development of society.
• Space and time. Laws of space. Open space. Movement. Space of worlds.
• Evolution and coevolution. Evolution and co-evolution in the system of modern knowledge. Principles of evolution and coevolution. Biological evolution and coevolution of living nature.
• Synergetics and laws of nature. Synergetics as a science. Synergetics as a scientific approach and method. The universal theory of evolution is synergetics.
• It is possible or it is not! A kaleidoscope of events and actions through the prism is impossible and possible!
• World of religion! Religion as a form of human consciousness in awareness of the surrounding world!
• Art - Art! Art is a skill that can inspire admiration!
• Realism! Realism in art! Realistic art!
• Abstract art! Abstraction in art! Abstract painting! Abstractionism!
• Unofficial art! Unofficial art of the USSR!
• Thrash - Thrash! Trash in art! Trash in creativity! Trash in literature! Trash cinema! Cybertrash! Thrash metal! Teletrash!
• Painting! Painting is art! Painting is the art of an artist! Canons of painting. Masters of painting.
• Vernissage - “vernissage” - the grand opening of an art exhibition!
• Metaphorical realism in painting. The concept of “metaphorical realism” in painting.
• The cost of paintings by contemporary artists. How to buy a painting?

A poem (Greek póiēma, from poieo - I do, I create) is a large poetic work with a narrative or lyrical plot. An ancient and medieval epic (Mahabharata, Ramayana, Iliad, Odyssey) is also called a poem. There are many known genre varieties: heroic, didactic, satirical, burlesque, romantic, lyrical-dramatic. Poems are also called works on a world-historical theme (“Aeneid” by Virgil, “The Divine Comedy” by Dante, “The Lusiads” by L. di Camoes, “Jerusalem Liberated” by T. Tasso, “Paradise Lost” by J. Milton, “Henriad” by Voltaire , “Messiad” by F. G. Klopstock, “Rossiyada” by M. M. Kheraskov, etc.). In the past, poems with a romantic plot (“The Knight in the Tiger’s Skin” by Sh. Rustaveli, “Shahname” by Ferdowsi, “Roland the Furious” by L. Aristo) became widespread in the past.

In the era of romanticism, poems acquired a socio-philosophical and symbolic-philosophical character (“Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage” by J. Byron, “The Bronze Horseman” by A. S. Pushkin, “Dziady” by A. Mickiewicz, “The Demon” by M. Yu. Lermontov, “ Germany, a winter's tale" by G. Heine). A romantic poem is characterized by the image of a hero with an unusual fate, but who certainly reflects some facets of the author’s spiritual world. In the second half of the 19th century, despite the decline of the genre, some outstanding works appeared, for example, “The Song of Hiawatha” by G. Longfellow translated by I. A. Bunin. The work is based on the tales of Indian tribes about the semi-legendary leader, the wise and beloved Hiawatha. He lived in the 15th century, before the first settlers appeared on American lands.

The poem talks about how

Hiawatha worked
so that his people are happy,
so that he goes towards goodness and truth...
“Your strength lies only in agreement,
and powerlessness in discord.
Be reconciled, O children!
Be brothers to each other."

Poem is a complex genre, often difficult to understand. To be convinced of this, it is enough to read a few pages of Homer’s “Iliad”, Dante’s “Divine Comedy” or J. V. Goethe’s “Faust”, try to answer the question about the essence of “The Bronze Horseman” by A. S. Pushkin or “The Twelve” by A. A. Blok.

The poem requires knowledge of the historical context, makes you think about the meaning of human life, about the meaning of history. Without this, it is impossible to comprehend in its entirety such poems known to everyone from school as “Frost, Red Nose”, “Who Lives Well in Rus'” by N. A. Nekrasov, “Vasily Terkin” by A. T. Tvardovsky, etc.

What allows us to consider many dissimilar works as poems, sometimes with author’s subtitles that do not correspond to this definition. Thus, “Faust” by I. V. Goethe is a tragedy, “The Bronze Horseman” by A. S. Pushkin is a St. Petersburg story, and “Vasily Terkin” by A. T. Tvardovsky is a book about a fighter. They are united by the breadth of coverage of the phenomena of reality, the significance of these phenomena and the scale of the problems. The developed narrative plan is combined in the poem with deep lyricism. Particularly complete interpenetration of the lyrical and epic principles is characteristic of the poem of the Soviet period (“Vladimir Ilyich Lenin” by V.V. Mayakovsky, “Vasily Terkin” by A.T. Tvardovsky, etc.).

Intimate experiences in the poem are correlated with great historical upheavals; private events are elevated to a cosmic scale. For example, in “The Bronze Horseman” the space of a specific city - St. Petersburg is transformed into the endless, boundless space of the global flood, the “last cataclysm”:

Siege! attack! evil waves,
Like thieves, they climb into windows. Chelny
From the run the windows are smashed by the stern.
Trays under a wet veil,
Fragments of huts, logs, roofs,
Stock trade goods.
The belongings of pale poverty,
Bridges demolished by thunderstorms,
Coffins from a washed-out cemetery
Floating through the streets!
People
He sees God's wrath and awaits execution.

The time and space of the poem are huge and limitless.

In The Divine Comedy, first through the circles of Hell and then through Purgatory, the author of the poem is accompanied by the great Roman poet Virgil, who lived thirteen centuries before Dante. And this does not prevent Dante and his guide from communicating in the same time and space of the “Divine Comedy”, coming into contact with sinners and righteous people of all times and peoples. The concrete, real time of Dante himself coexists in the poem with a completely different type of time and space of the grandiose afterlife.

The problems of the most general, the eternal are touched upon in every poem: death and immortality, the finite and the eternal, the meeting and collision of them - this is the seed from which the poem arises.

The chapter “Death and the Warrior” is central in the poem “Vasily Terkin” by A. T. Tvardovsky. It’s like a poem within a poem, just like the scene of the “collision” between Eugene and the monument to Peter I in “The Bronze Horseman” by A. S. Pushkin. The author of the poem looks at the world from a special point of view, which allows him, a person of a specific era, to look at the events of his time in order to see in them something that can help highlight the essence of the era and artistically formulate this essence: Eugene and the galloping monument to Peter I, Vasily Terkin and Death.

Thus, in contrast to stories in verse, novels in verse, numerous poems-imitations and preliminary and laboratory poems (for example, Lermontov’s early poems), a poem is always an artistic understanding of modernity in the context of ongoing time.

Multiple plots, often multiple characters, compositional complexity, semantic richness of both the whole and individual episodes, symbolism, originality of language and rhythm, versatility - all this makes reading the poem as difficult as it is fascinating.