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The theme of death in the poetry of Russian poets. As in the lyrics of A.S.

The theme of death in the poetry of Russian poets. As in the lyrics of A.S.

In his work, A.S. Pushkin repeatedly addressed the theme of life and death. Many of his writings raise this issue; Like every person, the poet tries to understand and comprehend the world around him, to comprehend the secret of immortality.
The evolution of the worldview, the perception of Pushkin's life and death went on throughout the entire creative path of the poet.
During his lyceum years, Pushkin revels in his youth, his poems do not burden thoughts about death, about the hopelessness of life, he is carefree and cheerful.
Under the table of cold sages
We will take over the field
Under the table of scientific fools!

/> We can live without them,
- the young poet wrote in the poem “Feasting Students”, 1814. The same motives are heard in the 1817 work “Krivtsov”:
Don't scare us, dear friend,
Coffin close housewarming:
Right, we are such idleness
Engage in leisure.
Youth is full of life – life is full of joy. The motto of all lyceum students is: “As long as we live, live!..” Pushkin's days seem to be passing in enthusiastic jubilation, joyful oblivion. And among these pleasures of youth, the poet writes “My testament to friends”, 1815. Where do thoughts of death arise in a poet who is still quite inexperienced, who has not known life? And although the poem is fully consistent with the Anacreontic mood of the lyceum students, Epicurean philosophy, which influenced the lyrics of that period, elegiac motifs of sadness and romantic loneliness also sound in it:
And let on the coffin where the singer
Disappear in the groves of Helikon,
Your fluent cutter will write:
“Here lies a young man - a sage,
Pet neg and Apollo.
Here, though still very indefinitely, the beginning of the creative path that will lead the poet to writing "Monument", and here, perhaps for the first time, Pushkin thinks about immortality.
But now the lyceum is behind, and the poet is entering a new life, he is already faced with more serious, real problems, a cruel world that requires tremendous willpower so as not to get lost among the “rushing” and “winding clouds” and “demons”, so that their “mournful lamentation” did not “tear the heart” so that the “evil genius” and his “stinging speeches” could not enslave, could not control the poet.
In 1823, during the southern exile, the poet is experiencing a deep crisis associated with the collapse of poetic hopes that “a beautiful dawn” will rise “above the fatherland of enlightened freedom”. As a result of this, Pushkin wrote the poem "The Cart of Life":
Though it is sometimes heavy in her burden,
The cart on the go is easy;
Dashing coachman, gray time,
Lucky, will not get off the irradiation.
The burden of life is heavy for the poet, but at the same time he recognizes the full power of time. The lyrical hero of Pushkin's poetry does not rebel against the "gray-haired coachman", so it will be in the poem "It's time, my friend, it's time", 1834.
Days fly after days, and every hour takes away
A piece of life. And we are together
We expect to live...
And look - just die.
Already in 1828 Pushkin writes: “A gift in vain, a gift accidental…”. Now life is not only a “heavy burden”, but a vain gift of “hostile power”. For the poet now life is a useless thing, his “heart is empty”, “an empty mind”. It is remarkable that life was bestowed upon him by a “hostile” spirit, which agitated the mind with doubt, filling the soul with passion. This is the result, a certain stage of life that the poet went through in his work, because the poem was written on May 26 - the poet's birthday, the day when the brightest thoughts should come to mind.
In the same year, Pushkin created "Do I wander along the noisy streets." The inevitability of death, constant thoughts about it follow the poet. He, thinking about immortality, finds it in the next generation:
I caress the sweet baby,
I'm already thinking: I'm sorry!
I give you a place:
It's time for me to smolder, for you to bloom.
Pushkin also sees immortality in merging with nature, in turning into an integral part of the “sweet limit” after death. And here again there is the idea of the inevitable power of time over a person, it is free to dispose of his fate at its discretion:
And where will fate send me death?
Is it in battle, in wandering, in waves?
Or the neighboring valley
My will take the cold dust? ..
Immortality ... Reflecting on this topic, the poet comes to the following conclusion: life ends, and death, perhaps, is only a stage of life. Pushkin is not limited to the earthly life of one person - the immortality of each in his grandchildren and great-grandchildren - in his offspring. Yes, the poet will not see the “powerful, late age” of the “young, unfamiliar tribe”, but he will rise from non-existence when, “returning from a friendly conversation”, “full of cheerful and pleasant thoughts”, the poet’s descendant will “remember” him, - so Pushkin wrote in the poem “I visited again”, 1835.
But the poet sees his immortality not only in procreation, but also in creativity itself, in poetry. In the "Monument" the poet predicts immortality for centuries:
No, all of me will not die - the soul in the cherished lyre will survive my ashes and run away from decay, And I will be glorious, as long as at least one piit is alive in the sublunar world.
The poet reflects on death and life, on the role of man in the world, on his fate in the world order of life, on immortality. The man in Pushkin's poetry is subject to time, but not pitiful. A man is great as a man - it was not in vain that Belinsky spoke of poetry “filled with humanism”, elevating a person.

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Many Russian poets thought about the problem of life and death in their works. For example, A.S. Pushkin (“Do I wander along the noisy streets ...”) and A.A. Akhmatova ("Primorsky Sonnet"). Let's compare these works with the poem by S.A. Yesenin "Now we are leaving a little ...".

The justification for comparing the Pushkin poem with Yesenin's poem is that the lyrical heroes of the poems are reflections of the authors, and the fact that both poets perceive death as something inevitable, but treat it differently.

So, A.S. Pushkin writes about death: "We will all descend under the eternal vaults." That is, the poet is aware of the naturalness and inevitability of death. In the same way, Yesenin agrees with Pushkin's conviction, as evidenced by the first line of the poem: "Now we are leaving a little." But the attitude of lyrical heroes to death differs from each other. “Maybe soon I’ll be on the road / Collect mortal belongings,” Yesenin writes, not at all afraid of the approaching end. The poet's poem is imbued with calmness, and the lyrical hero thinks not about the fact that the finale of fate is very close, but about how he lived his life:

I thought a lot of thoughts in silence,

I composed many songs about myself,

And on this gloomy earth

Happy that I breathed and lived.

Pushkin's hero is afraid of death, wants to postpone death as far as possible: "But closer to the sweet limit / I would still like to rest." In the poem, the poet uses the epithets "oblivious", "cold", "insensible", which testifies to the gloomy atmosphere of the work and the author's unwillingness to accept death.

The author's reflection is also the lyrical hero of the previously mentioned poem by A. A. Akhmatova. The rationale for comparing this poem with the poem by S.A. Yesenin is served by the fact that both poets relate to death without fear and tragedy. So, Akhmatova replaces the word "death" with a romantic metaphor "the voice of eternity." “There,” says the poetess, “among the trunks it is even brighter.” Such an emotional coloring of the poem conveys the true attitude of Akhmatova to death. Yesenin is also convinced that "there" reigns "peace and grace." And therefore the lyrical hero of the poem does not seek to postpone death, he only humbly says goodbye to the world, summing up his life.

Thus, S.A. Yesenin, and A.S. Pushkin, and A.A. Akhmatova discussed the theme of life and death, and all the named poets are united in one thing - death, in their understanding, is quite natural.

Updated: 2019-01-01

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wrote the young poet in the poem "Feasting Students", 1814. The same motives are heard in the 1817 work "Krivtsov":

Don't scare us, dear friend,
Coffin close housewarming:
Right, we are such idleness
Engage in leisure.
Youth is full of life - life is full of joy. The motto of all lyceum students: “As long as we live, live! ..” In enthusiastic jubilation, joyful oblivion, it seems, the days of Pushkin pass. And among these pleasures of youth, the poet writes "My testament to friends", 1815. Where do thoughts of death come from?

Arise in a very inexperienced poet who has not known the life of a poet? And although the poem is fully consistent with the Anacreontic mood of the lyceum students, Epicurean philosophy, which influenced the lyrics of that period, elegiac motifs of sadness and romantic loneliness also sound in it:
And let on the coffin where the singer
Disappear in the groves of Helikon,
Your fluent cutter will write:
"Here lies a young man - a sage,
Pet neg and Apollo.
Here, though still very indefinitely, the beginning of the creative path that will lead the poet to the writing of "Monument", and here, perhaps for the first time, Pushkin thinks about immortality.
But now the lyceum is behind, and the poet is entering a new life, he is already faced with more serious, real problems, a cruel world that requires tremendous willpower so as not to get lost among the “rushing” and “winding clouds” and “demons”, so that their “plaintive lamentation” did not “tear the heart” so that the “evil genius” and his “stinging speeches” could not enslave, could not control the poet.
In 1823, during the southern exile, the poet is experiencing a deep crisis associated with the collapse of poetic hopes that "a beautiful dawn" will rise "above the fatherland of enlightened freedom." As a result of this, Pushkin wrote the poem "The Cart of Life":
Though it is sometimes heavy in her burden,
The cart on the go is easy;
Dashing coachman, gray time,
Lucky, will not get off the irradiation.
The burden of life is heavy for the poet, but at the same time he recognizes the full power of time. The lyrical hero of Pushkin's poetry does not rebel against the "gray-haired coachman", so it will be in the poem "It's time, my friend, it's time", 1834.
Days fly after days, and every hour takes away
A piece of life. And we are together
We expect to live...
And look - just die.
Already in 1828, Pushkin wrote: "A gift in vain, a gift accidental ...". Now life is not only a “heavy burden”, but a vain gift of “hostile power”. For the poet now life is a useless thing, his "heart is empty", "an empty mind". It is remarkable that life was bestowed upon him by a "hostile" spirit, which excited the mind with doubt, filling the soul with passion. This is the result, a certain stage of life that the poet went through in his work, because the poem was written on May 26 - the poet's birthday, the day when the brightest thoughts should come to mind.
In the same year, Pushkin created "Do I wander along the noisy streets." The inevitability of death, constant thoughts about it follow the poet. He, thinking about immortality, finds it in the next generation:
I caress the sweet baby,
I'm already thinking: I'm sorry!
I give you a place:
It's time for me to smolder, for you to bloom.
Pushkin also sees immortality in merging with nature, in turning into an integral part of the “sweet limit” after death. And here again there is the idea of the inevitable power of time over a person, it is free to dispose of his fate at its discretion:
And where will fate send me death?
Is it in battle, in wandering, in waves?
Or the neighboring valley
My will take the cold dust? ..
Immortality ... Reflecting on this topic, the poet comes to the following conclusion: life ends, and death, perhaps, is only a stage of life. Pushkin is not limited to the earthly life of one person - the immortality of each in his grandchildren and great-grandchildren - in his offspring. Yes, the poet will not see the “powerful, late age” of the “young, unfamiliar tribe”, but he will rise from non-existence when, “returning from a friendly conversation”, “full of cheerful and pleasant thoughts”, the poet’s descendant will “remember” about him - so Pushkin wrote in the poem “I visited again”, 1835.
But the poet sees his immortality not only in procreation, but also in creativity itself, in poetry. In the "Monument" the poet predicts immortality for himself through the ages:
No, all of me will not die - the soul in the cherished lyre will survive my ashes and run away from decay, And I will be glorious, as long as at least one piit is alive in the sublunar world.
The poet reflects on death and life, on the role of man in the world, on his fate in the world order of life, on immortality. The man in Pushkin's poetry is subject to time, but not pitiful. A man is great as a man - it was not in vain that Belinsky spoke of poetry "filled with humanism", elevating a person.

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Thinking about the end human life many pages of "A Hero of Our Time" are permeated, whether it be the death of Bela, or Pechorin's thoughts before the duel, or the challenge that Vulich poses to death.

In poems about life and death, related to the mature lyrics of Lermontov, this theme is no longer a tribute to the romantic tradition, but is filled with deep philosophical content. The search for harmony with the world by the lyrical "I" turns out to be futile: one cannot run away from oneself, there is no peace of mind either in the environment of nature, or "in a noisy city", or in battle. The tragedy of the lyrical hero, whose dreams and hopes are doomed, is growing, the dramatic worldview is intensifying.

More and more symbolic poems filled with philosophical generalizations appear in later lyrics. The lyrical hero of the early Lermontov is close to the poet himself, and in his mature work the poet increasingly expresses "alien" consciousness, thoughts and feelings of other people. However, their attitude is also full of suffering, which allows us to think that the tragedy of life is an immutable law of being, destined in heaven. Hence such a routine and prosaic perception of death, disbelief in immortality and human memory. Death is for him, as it were, a continuation of life. The powers of the immortal soul do not disappear anywhere, but only fall asleep forever. Therefore, the communication of human souls becomes possible, even if one of them has already left the body. The eternal question of life remains unanswered. Where to find the salvation of the soul? Learn to live in an unfair and controversial world or leave it forever?

Philosophical theme in lyrics

The works of Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov are characterized by motives of longing, disappointment, loneliness. And this is not only a reflection of some personality traits of this particular author, but a kind of “sign of the times”. The gap between reality and the ideal seemed insurmountable; the poet did not see the application not only own forces but also to the forces of the whole generation. The rejection of reality, the denunciation of vices, the thirst for freedom - themes that occupy an important place in Lermontov's lyrics, but, it seems to me, the motif of loneliness is the defining, explaining the views of the poet.

The motif of loneliness is already reflected in the early lyrics. The lyrical hero experiences disunity with reality, with earth and sky “Earth and sky”, “I am not for angels and paradise”, he is closed, gloomy, his love is often unrequited. All this led to a growing sense of hopeless loneliness. Lermontov creates bitter, pessimistic lines: “I look back - the past is terrible; I look ahead - so there is no soul of my own. And the sail, which has become a symbol of Lermontov's lyrics, is by no means "lonely" by chance. Even in the author's programmatic poem "Duma" this theme is already heard. Condemning his generation, consciously revealing his “future”, which is “either empty or dark,” Lermontov still does not separate himself from his peers, but already looks at them somewhat from the side.

Belinsky, who noted that "these verses are written in blood, they came from the depths of an offended spirit," was certainly right. And the poet's suffering is caused not only by the absence of an "inner life" in society, but also by the fact that his mind, his soul searched in vain for a response. Lermontov tried to find someone who could understand him, but he felt only disappointment, a growing sense of loneliness. In the poem “Both boring and sad,” Lermontov not only speaks of his disappointment in society, people, but also sincerely regrets that “there is no one to give a hand in a moment of spiritual adversity.” It was about this work that Belinsky wrote: "Terrible ... this soul-shattering requiem of all hopes, all human feelings, all the charms of life."

Chapter 1. Life and death in various existential registers.

§ 1.1. "Duality" in life and poetic opposition to the work of A.A. Feta…………………. ………………………………………………………FROM. 13.

§ 1.2. Life and death in love lyrics, messages and dedications

A.A. Feta ..…………………………………………………………………………………….

Chapter 2. Philosophical understanding of the theme of life and death in the work of A.A. Feta.

§ 2.1. The Question of Human Existence in Philosophical Lyrics

A.A. Feta…………………………………………………………………………. S. 62.

§ 2.2. Philosophy of life and death in the artistic and autobiographical prose of A.A. Feta………………………………………………………………... P. 77.

Chapter 3. Life and death in the figurative-poetic system of A.A. Feta.

§ 3.1. Life in the figurative-poetic system of A.A. Feta…………………… S. 98.

§ 3.2. Death in the figurative-poetic system of A.A. Feta…………………. S. 110.

§ 3.3. Borderline images conveying attitudes towards life and death.…S. 125.

Conclusion………………………………………………………………….... P. 143.

List of used literature…………………………………………....С. 148.

Introduction

In Russian culture, rather close attention is paid to the issues of life and death, the understanding of which takes place within the framework of philosophical, religious and moral reflections. “The study of attitudes towards death can shed light on people's attitudes towards life and its basic values. Therefore, the perception of death, the afterlife, the connection between the living and the dead are topics, the discussion of which could significantly deepen the understanding of the socio-cultural reality of past eras.”

Over time, the surrounding reality forces a person to approach various ontological problems more and more seriously and consciously. “… one of the obvious trends late XIX- the beginning of the 20th century is guessed in the irresistible, to the point of self-forgetfulness and self-sacrifice, the desire of a significant part of the Russian intelligentsia to find some unconditional absolute ... ". This time is characterized as a period of denial of habitual life forms, an orientation to a wide variety of philosophical and esoteric teachings is revealed, special importance is attached to the general occult tradition, new possibilities for interpreting religious issues, all kinds of rituals, traditions, and more broadly, ideas about human existence are discovered. In the twentieth century, the multifunctional science of thanatology is developing, covering the medical, religious, philosophical and psychological aspects of death.

In literature, the problem of human existence is solved ambiguously, and the depiction of life and death in the works of many writers is as diverse as the interpretation of other "eternal" themes - love, friendship, nature or religious faith. It is possible to single out the metaphysical poems of F.N. Glinka, V.K. Küchelbecker, philosophical lyrics by D.V. Venevitinov, translations of the English "graveyard" poetry of Thomas Gray V.A. Zhukovsky. Particularly indicative are the searches of A.S. Pushkin, E.A. Baratynsky, N.V. Gogol, L.N. Tolstoy, N.A. Nekrasov, F.M. Dostoevsky, F.I. Tyutchev.

The opposition "living-non-living", "life-death" often acts as the basis of all knowledge, not only in works of scientific and philosophical, but also of a literary nature. L.N. Tolstoy writes: “If life is good, then good and death, which is necessary condition life." In the story "The Death of Ivan Ilyich" this situation clearly illustrates the state of the protagonist, who is on the verge of life and death. The writer demonstrates "one of the most striking descriptions of dying" in Russian literature, where the physical extinction of a person leads to his moral rebirth. Only realizing his death, he began to fully perceive spiritual phenomena that were inaccessible to him before. Tolstoy often explains the impossibility of knowing life and death by objective biological laws: “All human bodily life is a series of changes that are imperceptible to him, but subject to observation. But the beginning of these changes, which took place in the first childhood, and their end - in death - are inaccessible to human observation. In his "Confession", a work that is the result of a long ideological search, he already speaks of another opposition "meaningless life - meaningful life." Here the writer departs from the biological interpretation of the question of human existence, focusing on ethical issues.

Topics addressed to the fundamental properties of being are touched upon in almost every work of F.M. Dostoevsky. The question of the meaning of life is indicated by the author in the famous conversation between Ivan Karamazov and Alyosha, one of the key ones is the problem of human existence for Rodion Raskolnikov. In The Brothers Karamazov, the writer gives quite capacious descriptions that characterize the life of his heroes: only the scratching of rats reminds Fyodor Pavlovich of life in the dead silence of the night. Already from one gospel epigraph to this work, one can understand the author's ideas about the need for a human sacrifice made in the name of awareness of life and spiritual immortality: “Truly, truly, I say to you: if a grain of wheat, falling into the ground, does not die, it will bear much fruit.”

At the beginning of the 20th century, I.A. Bunin, V.S. Solovyov, a fairly wide range of poets of the Silver Age. The decadents' proud renunciation of the world leads them to general philosophical and social pessimism. The cult of the "foggy charm" of death is preached, which is conceived as the final liberation of the "I" from reality. Exploring the circle of the most frequent metaphors in the poetry of the early twentieth century, N.A. Kozhevnikova comes to the conclusion that "in the first place both in terms of prevalence and significance are variations on the theme life - death, death - birth, death - immortality ...":

I want white unfading light

(K. Balmont "Hymn to Fire").

I'm not expecting the extraordinary.

Everything is simple and dead.

Neither scary nor secret

(Z. Gippius "Deafness").

Consideration of the attitude of this or that writer to the problems of life and death allows us to trace the evolution of his work, philosophical and religious views, the degree of closeness to the spiritual sources of art. “When a writer often addresses the subject of death over a long period of his life, we can deduct a lot about himself from his writings.” At the same time, one of the key points is at what time and in connection with what events, consciously or unconsciously, the theme of death is addressed. So, being an aspiring poet and student Petersburg University, A. Dobrolyubov inspires friends with the idea of suicide, and in the book “Natura naturans. Natura naturata" sings of his loneliness and death. A.S. Pushkin creates ontological poems while still at the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum (“Unbelief”). They already feel a special authorial manner, but there is no truthfulness and depth that distinguishes Pushkin's later attempts to consider questions about human existence, where in the face of death he professes fidelity to life:

But I don't want, oh friends, to die;

I want to live in order to think and suffer;

And I know I will enjoy

Between sorrows, worries and worries ...

(A.S. Pushkin "Elegy")

In many cases, the artistic appeal to the theme of death occurs under the influence of intensifying life experiences. So, the works of A. Bely from the collections "Ashes" and "Urn", in which the tragedy of self-immolation and death sounds, were dictated to the poet by the time of serious dramatic events. The era of revolutions coincided for him with the period of unrequited love for L.D. Blok, therefore, the pessimistic moods and bitter conclusions of the author in these books seem completely justified:

Untraceable life. Unrealistic excitement.

You are from time immemorial in a strange, distant land ...

The untimely pain of disbelief

Timelessness will wash away tear current.

(A. Bely "Reassurance").

Among the poets of the 19th century, who demonstrate their own methods of conveying life impressions and having a special system of views on the issue of human existence, one can single out A.A. Feta. Contemporaries, successors and researchers of Fetov's creativity emphasize the idea of the life-affirming basis of his poetry. The closest friend of the poet N.N. Strakhov on the fiftieth anniversary of Fet's muse notes the characteristic features of his lyrics: “... we will not find in Fet a shadow of pain, no perversion of the soul, no ulcers that constantly ache in the heart. Any modern fragmentation, dissatisfaction, incurable discord with oneself and with the world - all this is alien to our poet. ... he himself is distinguished by a completely ancient health and clarity of spiritual movements, he nowhere crosses the line that separates the bright life of a person from all sorts of demonic areas. The most bitter and difficult feelings have in him an incomparable measure of sobriety and self-control. Therefore, reading Fet strengthens and refreshes the soul.

According to the symbolists, the poetry of A. Fet is valuable precisely for its life-affirming power. In the work “Elementary words of symbolic poetry”, K. Balmont writes that his favorite poet is truly “in love with life”. In the article “A.A. Fet. Art or life? V. Bryusov notes that Fet did not find any other purpose for poetry than “service to life”, but not the one that “makes noise in the markets and noisy bazaars”, but the one “when enlightened, it becomes a window to eternity, a window through which the light of the “sun of the world” streams. In a public lecture given in 1902, he speaks of Fet as a poet of the fullness and charm of life in its fleeting moments. As your own life credo on your fiftieth birthday in Russian Academy In the artistic sciences, the symbolist quotes the quatrain of his predecessor: “As long as I’m on the chest of the earth / Although I will hardly breathe, / All the thrill of a young life / I will be audible from everywhere.”

The theme of death in the poetry of Russian poets. As in the lyrics of A.S.

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Introduction