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Nekrasov is one of the most famous poets in Russia. First of all, it is a folk poet. “I dedicated my lyre to my people,” he writes about himself. Indeed, Nekrasov was a defender of the peasants, the poor, ordinary people, suffering, oppressed. And the Muse of such a poet cannot be what she is usually represented: a gentle, beautiful, harmonious messenger of beauty.
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This is understandable: can a pampered girl work, endure suffering and empathize with them - not the sensual torment of falling in love, impatience, living only within the mind, but real, associated with humiliation, with physical pain, blood, not in a metaphorical sense?
No, Nekrasov's muse is not like that: she is “crying, grieving, aching”. This Muse is not just a “dear sister” to the peasant woman, she herself is so, devoid of any aristocracy and fabulous mystery - real, simple, she herself is a peasant woman who shares the pain and suffering of the people. This muse is not a girl, a woman. A Russian woman, whose fate will forever become one of Nekrasov's main themes.
The stern muse, "Bent down by labor, killed by the torment", the one "Whose gold is the only idol" is unfriendly, unloved, calling for revenge, pouring curses, the one that gives rise to hatred in Nekrasov's soul - does not leave the poet even when fierce battle. " She led "Through the abyss of dark Violence and Evil, Labor and Hunger", and also "taught her sufferings and blessed the light about them."
But this rage, vengefulness is combined with patience, a whisper: "Farewell to your enemies!" Humble, she steadfastly endures all the torment, and only a Russian cannot look without love at "this pale, bloody, whipped muse."
Updated: 2017-10-30
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(335 words) "I dedicated the lyre to my people ..." - writes Nekrasov in one of his poems. The poets of that time were inspired by sophisticated ladies in tight dresses, and the Muse of the Sovremennik editor was special - a young peasant woman working in the field. The poet is inseparable from the spirit of his time, he is the voice of this spirit, therefore the inspirer of Nekrasov shows us the people for whom the desperate Russian liberal wrote his poems.
The world learned about Nekrasov's Muse from the poem "Yesterday at six o'clock ..." only ten years after his death, it was then that the work was first published. And the image of a proud peasant woman lived and worked with the poet side by side all his life. This is the voice of the humiliated and insulted, at the same time sublime and strong, not afraid of the whips of fate and social injustice. The peasant woman is beaten in the most democratic place of the capital (where the attempt of the Decembrists to change gendar Russia did not take place) with a whip - a symbol of shame and humiliation, and the girl herself is a symbol of the abused homeland, which proudly endures all the hardships of fate. It was not by chance that the author chose this particular image. The situation of a commoner at that time was very disastrous, public flogging did happen in the squares of the capital. But the Nekrasov peasant woman does not cry and does not ask for help, she is silent, and before our eyes a formidable, strong-willed nature is being created. The poet highly appreciated these traits in compatriots and was inspired by them, condemning the world for its unjustified cruelty and depravity.
Nekrasov did not leave the image of the Muse-peasant for a long time. Such women are depicted in the poems "Frost the Red Nose" and "Peddlers". These are strong personalities, ready to endure all adversity with dignity. But not only the villager became a faithful companion for the poet. In the poems "Princess Trubetskoy" and "Princess Volkonskaya", the reader is presented with the image of a noble woman who also shares the difficult lot of the Russian sufferer. Both heroines go to hard labor for their Decembrist husbands. Along the way, their character undergoes changes, throughout the entire poem we see the formation of a powerful national spirit. The scene of Trubetskoy's struggle with the Irkutsk governor is full of genuine drama, and Volkonskaya's self-awareness grows stronger with every segment of the path she travels.
Thus, Musa Nekrasova is strong, unshakable like a rock, always walks with her head held high and never kneels before her oppressor.
Interesting? Keep it on your wall!The theme of poet and poetry occupies a special place in the work of Nekrasov. Its originality is determined by the fact that for Nekrasov the problem of the appointment of an artist was not only aesthetic. Comprehending it meant solving the cardinal question of the appointment of a person-citizen in society. "A special flair for suffering", which both contemporaries of Nekrasov and researchers of his work note as a characteristic feature of the poet, manifested itself in Nekrasov's perception of his era as tragic, as "years of grief." A witness of the people's suffering, "deeply wounded" by this suffering, as Dostoevsky just said, Nekrasov saw his poet's duty not only to tell the world about these sufferings, to "sing" them, but also to "turn reality", "Re-create minds."
The illusory nature of such hopes for the ability of the poetic word to change life will very soon become apparent to the poet. IN poem 1845 "Poems! rhymes! long time ago I was a genius "recalling the dreams and aspirations that united the young poets, Nekrasov will say with bitter irony about the utopian plans of the young poets:
"Chosen of Heaven", we sang, sang
And re-create minds with songs
They wanted to turn reality
And we dreamed that our work was not empty,
Not childish delirium that the Almighty himself is with us
And the hour of the blissfully fatal is close,
When our labor will bless our neighbor!
The bitter notes sounded in this early poem, caused by a clear consciousness of the naivety of such dreams, the understanding of the impossibility of remaking the world with a poetic word, will become the leitmotif in later Nekrasov's poems. The poet in his other works will more than once express the idea of \u200b\u200bthe impotence of the poetic word, its inability to change people. "Where are the fruits of that useful work?" - he asks bitterly in poem of 1857 "About the weather" on numerous books about the "curious life of the poor." Shedding "tears like a river" over books, readers were in no hurry to alleviate the existence of real poor, not books. However, the irony caused by the disbelief in the ability of the artistic word to "turn reality" was never accompanied by Nekrasov's doubts about the purpose of the writer "to remind the crowd that the people are in poverty while it rejoices and sings."
The conviction that the vocation of a writer is to be a figure actively intervening in life has also determined a new understanding of poetry. Nekrasov does not deny the divine origin of the poetic gift: the poet in his work will also be called “the chosen one of heaven”, and not always with irony, as in the poem “Poems! rhymes! long ago I was a genius too. " But at the same time, Nekrasov insists that poetry is also “hard work” (for example, in the poem of 1856 “A little bit without saying:“ you are sheer insignificance ”). The Russian writer, in a poem addressed to his fellow writers ("Russian Writer", 1855), he calls "a toiler-worker on the basis of Thought and Good."
Nekrasov was clearly aware of the peculiarity of his aesthetic position and strove to emphasize the difference between his views on poetry and the views of his predecessors. So, the beginning of a poem with a very traditional title - "Muse" (1852) - a kind of declaration of independence. Describing his Muse-inspirer, the author diligently emphasizes the dissimilarity of his “eternally crying and incomprehensible maiden” to the affectionately singing Muse of Russian poets. The description is based on a deliberate opposition dominated by denials: "no", "I don't remember":
No, Muses tenderly singing and beautiful
I do not remember the sweet-voiced song above me!
In heavenly beauty, inaudible like a spirit,
Flying from a height, my infant hearing
She did not teach magic harmony<...>
His Muse is different: "unloved", "a sad companion of the sad poor." The poet creates a multifaceted, contradictory image of the Muse-inspirer. She is not a heavenly guest, but a beggar, a martyr, begging for alms and worshiping only wealth: “weeping, grieving and sick, / Hourly thirsty, humiliatingly asking, / Whose gold is the only idol”. Conveying the meaning of her songs, now mournful, now "riotous", Nekrasov, as it were, recreates a short sketch of his bitter youth. Describing the melodies of his Muse's songs, the poet noted the dominant "sound" in them - the "groan", which will indeed become the dominant sound image in the picture of Russian life he himself created:
<...>But the same mournful groan
It sounded even more piercing in noisy revelry.
Everything was heard in him in a mad mix:
Calculations of petty and dirty fuss,
And beautiful dreams of youthful years,
Lost love, suppressed tears
Curses, complaints, powerless threats.
The muse, the grieving beggar, is only one face of the inspirer. Her melancholy complaints are instantly replaced by rage and threats to the unrighteous world, and instead of the beautiful Maiden Muse, which is familiar to the Russian reader, filled with heavenly harmony, the avenging goddess - Nemesis appears:
In a fit of rage, with human untruth
The madwoman vowed to start a stubborn battle.
Indulging in wild and dark fun
Played madly with my cradle
Shouted: "Revenge!" - and violent language
The Lord's thunder called for accomplices!
A burst of "wild passions" and "fierce grief" is sometimes replaced by a "divinely beautiful minute"
When the sufferer, drooping his head,
"Farewell to your enemies!" whispered over me ...
The relationship between the poet and his Muse is devoid of harmony. In Nekrasov's poem, for the first time, the motive of the struggle with the Muse sounds. The “fierce battle”, into which the hero enters with his “wild”, “insane” Muse, ends with the triumph of the “incomprehensible maiden”: she forces the hero to walk through the circles of earthly hell. Opening this terrible world of suffering and humiliation to him, Muse teaches him to feel someone else's pain in order to tell the world about it:
Through the abyss of dark Violence and Evil,
Labor and Hunger, she led me -
She taught me how to feel my suffering
And she blessed the light to announce them ...
In this poem of 1852, Nekrasov expressed his understanding of his mission in literature, his vocation, about which he, many years later, summing up the creative path, will say the same as in the early 1850s: “I was called to sing your suffering, / Amazing people with patience. " But the poet is not only the “singer” of the people's suffering. The image of God's thunder as the "accomplice" of the Muse is very important in this poem. The poet - in the understanding of Nekrasov - is not just "the chosen one of heaven", but a companion of God, an assistant in a fair trial over earthly falsehood. And in later poems, embodying his ideal of a poet, Nekrasov appeals to him: "Arm yourself with heavenly thunders / Raise our fallen spirit to the heights!" (To the Poet (in memory of Schiller), 1874), connecting with the image of God's storm his idea of \u200b\u200bthe highest, just retribution - purification, renewal of unrighteous life, deliverance of society from moral stuffiness and stagnation.
But another task was no less important to him - teaching, educating the reader by the power of the poetic word of a new consciousness, a new attitude to life. The idea that literature "at all costs, under whatever circumstances may be" "should not step back a step from its goal - to raise society to its ideal - the ideal of goodness, light and truth!" - becomes the writer's soulful idea.
In the same year, 1852, Nekrasov created his other well-known poem dedicated to the appointment of the poet - "Blessed is the gentle poet"... Like the poem "Muse", it is built on an antithesis: the composition is based on the opposition of the fates of two poets - "not malignant" and "embittered". The very opposition, as you know, goes back to the seventh chapter of the poem by N.V. Gogol's "Dead Souls". It should be noted that, while asserting the unconditional well-being of the fate of the "gentle" poet, Nekrasov is overly categorical. Neither criticism nor readers were sympathetic to those poets who "disdained impudent satire." It is no coincidence that in response to this poem, Ya.P. Polonsky, one of those whom Nekrasov understood under the name of "gentle" poets, responded with a poem-confession about the dramatic fate of the "peace-loving lyre". But the excessive polemics of Nekrasov's poem was caused not only by the desire to draw public attention and sympathy to the fate of those poets who saw their purpose in correcting the vices of society, in "denouncing the crowd." The author strove to show the true meaning and true purpose of the “hatred” that fills the works of the “embittered” poet, makes him stigmatize the vices of society. The source of this hatred is true love, the highest goal of the poet is also love - love for people, love for one's country:
Feeding my chest with hatred
Armed mouth with satire,
He goes through a thorny path
With your avenging lyre<...>
And believing and not believing again
Dream of a high calling
He preaches love
The hostile word of denial<...>
From all sides they curse him
And, just seeing his corpse,
How much he did, they will understand
And how he loved - hating!
But, it is characteristic that, while affirming such a high mission of the poet, Nekrasov never idealized either his hero-poet or his contemporary poets. The hero-poet in Nekrasov's lyrics is devoid of the aura of infallibility. He never appears as the bearer of higher knowledge or truths. The image of the prophet as the spokesman for the word of God will be close to Nekrasov, but he will call "prophet" not a poet, but a revolutionary democrat, N.G. Chernyshevsky, who consistently defended his beliefs. The hero-poet in Nekrasov's poems is not endowed with a talent that would allow him to feel his obvious superiority over the "unenlightened". He is not a genius and is marked by many human weaknesses: inconsistency in asserting his position, weakness, a tendency to compromise. According to V.V. Kozhinov, one of the discoveries of Nekrasov lies in the fact that he “for the first time introduces into the poetry the“ everyday ”person, the whole person, including in a non-poetic state. For the first time he presents the poet as a person “under the yoke” of all kinds, including “petty” everyday “worries”, with an unenlightened soul, not raised above them.
The contradiction between the high mission of the artist and the human weaknesses of the hero-poet will become the source of one of the dramatic motives in Nekrasov's lyrics - the motive of an unfulfilled duty. For the first time, he sounded sharp, strong, tragic in a poem "Poet and Citizen" (1855-1856), in many ways and defining his ideological and artistic originality: the declaration of the high appointment of the artist, words are inextricably linked here with the bitter confession of the poet, who admits his inability to follow them.
The poem is constructed as a dialogue: the poet and the citizen express their opinions about the role of the poet and the purpose of poetry. The poet and citizen are in many ways like-minded people. But there are also certain differences in their views. There is also a difference in human characters: a consistent, integral, persistent, unshakable citizen is opposed to the poet. This is a man endowed with talent and a proud, just soul, but a cowardly and inconsistent defender of his ideals, the truth he has realized.
In the declarations of a citizen, some researchers see the ideals of V.G. Belinsky and N.G. Chernyshevsky. And at the same time, in the research literature, an objection is rightly expressed against the "simplified interpretation of the poem and the reduction of its images to prototypes." A.M. Garkavi argues that the images of both the poet and the citizen "have the meaning of artistic generalizations" and "are carriers of the lyrical principle": "Nekrasov's aesthetic views are formulated in the statements of the poet and the citizen." And indeed: it is precisely the citizen Nekrasov who trusts his dear thoughts about the purpose of poetry, which have been expressed more than once in lyrics, letters, and critical articles. So, for example, in a letter to L.N. Tolstoy (1856) sounds the central idea, asserted in the poem by a citizen: “<...> In our country, the role of a writer is, first of all, the role of a teacher and, if possible, an intercessor for the mute and humiliated, "wrote Nekrasov.
Researchers see in this work a polemic with Pushkin's poem "The Poet and the Crowd". Like Pushkin's, Nekrasov's poem is constructed as a dialogue, an argument. But if the poet in Pushkin is opposed to the "senseless" crowd, then the antagonist of the poet in Nekrasov is the citizen, the embodiment of moral responsibility and a sense of duty to the motherland. The controversy begins with the lines of Pushkin quoted by the poet - the words about the poet's purpose: "Not for everyday excitement, / Not for greed, not for battles, / We were born for inspiration, / For sweet sounds and prayers." With these words, as you know, Pushkin's poem ended.
For a Nekrasov poet, these lines are an absolute truth, proof of the poet's right not to participate in the life of society. The attitude of a citizen to Pushkin's lines is much more restrained. Researchers see in his position a polemic with Pushkin. Indeed, the citizen does not share the poet's enthusiasm and admits that he takes his poems "more vividly to heart" than Pushkin's. However, this recognition does not mean denying the significance of Pushkin's word. The statement of N.N. Skatov that this is "not a refutation of the irrefutable Pushkin," but a "refutation of a poet" who is "not Pushkin." The poet's poems do not seem to the citizen artistically perfect. He calls his poems "stupid", about his elegies he says that they are "not new", "satires are alien to beauty, / Unnoble and offensive", "the verse is viscous." Pushkin is also an unattainable model for a citizen. It is important that further Pushkin becomes a citizen of the sun, and the poet - to the stars: he is "visible", "but without the sun the stars are visible." It can be assumed that these words are also polemical, but in relation to Chernyshevsky. In the mid-1850s. Chernyshevsky wrote to Nekrasov, placing his talent above Pushkin's: “We have never had a poet like you. Pushkin, Lermontov, Koltsov as lyricists cannot be compared with you. "
Why does a citizen see not in Pushkin's poetry, but in the poet's imperfect lyrics, a source of power that should awaken society? The reason for his persistent attention is an era completely different from that of Pushkin. This is the time when "the sun is not visible from anywhere", this is the "time of grief." Describing his era, a citizen uses one of the traditional images found in Pushkin's lyrics: a ship country. The present time is likened to them as a formidable storm, and it dictates a different role to the poet. Poetry, when “the storm groans”, should not be sleepy “sweet sounds”, it should awaken the desire to resist the “earthly thunders”:
But thunder struck; the storm groans
And he tears the tackle, and tends the mast, -
It's not time to play chess
It's not time to sing a song!
Here is a dog - and that danger knows
And barking madly into the wind:
He has no other business ...
What would you do, poet?
Really in a cabin distant
You would become an inspirational lyre
Sloths ears to delight
And drown out the roar of the storm?
This symbolic picture of time, drawn by a citizen, is close to the author: in the image of the era, which Nekrasov repeatedly creates in his poems, the same metaphor dominates - a storm, a thunderstorm. For example, in the poem "Woe of Old Naum": "But I was born out of place - / It was a dashing time!<...> / The thunder rumbled incessantly, / And the whirlwind was terrible, / And the man stood under it / Frightened and mute. " One of the direct sources of this metaphor may be the well-known Pushkin's poem "Arion", in which a boat that died during a thunderstorm symbolizes the tragic end of the Decembrist uprising on December 14, 1825. In this Pushkin's poem, the thought about the fate of the poet, who inspired swimmers with his songs, was extremely important ... "Thrown" ashore by a "thunderstorm", Pushkin's singer saw his purpose in singing "old hymns" - an expression whose essence is in recognizing the singer's unchanging loyalty to his deceased friends, their "hymns" to their ideals. But Nekrasov is not satisfied only with the idea of \u200b\u200bthe poet's loyalty to lofty ideals, his role is thought to be more effective - it is to actively resist "earthly thunder".
We can assume another possible source of images of Nekrasov's poem: while drawing an image of a poet who is anti-ideal for him, trying to drown out the “roar of the storm” and “delight” the ears of the “sloths” with an inspired lyre, Nekrasov polemizes not so much with Pushkin as with the poem by Ya.P. Polonsky "Pitching in a Storm" (1851). The lyrical hero Polonsky, indeed, sought to escape from the sea storm, symbolizing life's hardships, shocks, into "golden dreams" - memories of the past happiness. The poet's "dream" "in a time of grief," according to the Nekrasov citizen, is shameful. He persistently repeats these words to the poet: "now you shouldn't sleep", "you only temporarily fell asleep: / Wake up: boldly smash the vices", "with your talent it is a shame to sleep." Determining his requirements for a poet, a citizen proceeds from the requirements of the time itself. Poetry in a "time of grief" should not lead readers away from real problems into an ideal world: it is a shame "in a time of grief / The beauty of valleys, heavens and the sea / And to sing sweet caress ...". Both inaction and silence in a tragic time for the country are shameful. It is important to note that among those whom the citizen enrolls in the "camp of the harmless", considering them untrue citizens of the country, inactive in the "time of grief", are put side by side: money-grubbing, thieves, "sweet singers" and "wise men" whose purpose is "conversations ".
The son cannot look calmly
On the mother's grief,
There will be no worthy citizen
To the homeland is cold in soul
There is no bitter reproach to him ...
Go into the fire for the honor of the fatherland,
For beliefs, for love ...
Go and perish flawlessly.
You will not die for nothing: the matter is solid,
When blood flows through them ...
Many of Pushkin's definitions sound in the statements of a citizen: the poet, the citizen also believes, is “the chosen one of heaven”, “herald of the age-old truths”, his “strings” are “prophetic”. "Service to art" is also recognized by him as the poet's purpose. But at the same time, he emphasizes another task: serving people. A citizen utters the words that Nekrasov himself has repeatedly expressed: about the inseparability of serving art with serving society, one's neighbor. So, in one of his letters, Nekrasov stated: “Only one theory is true: love the truth disinterestedly and passionately, more than anything and, by the way, more than yourself, and serve it, then everything will turn out okay: if you start serving art, you will serve society too, if you begin to serve society, you will serve art as well. " In the poem, this thought is embodied in a clear poetic formula:
Be a citizen! serving art,
Live for the good of your neighbor
Submitting your genius to feeling
All-embracing Love<...>
What is “All-embracing Love”? Written with a capital letter, the word "Love" means a feeling that does not separate a person from the world, but, on the contrary, promotes unity with people and the unity of all people. A citizen speaks of love for the country and people: for a poet, Love should be expressed in fiery words about goodness and beauty.
The statement of the poet following these words is not a dispute with the convictions of a citizen. The poet does not reject the words of a citizen, he only does not recognize his right to follow these words: "to teach others is a need for genius, / A strong soul is needed." And therefore, he puts the figure, the citizen, above the poet, but he understands his role in his own way: a true citizen, unlike a poet, silently performs his duty, going towards the intended goal:
Blessed is the silent citizen:
He, alien to muses from the cradle,
Master of your deeds
Leads them to a rewarding goal
And his work is successful, a dispute ...
The citizen does not agree with this definition of "citizen": "a silent citizen", in his opinion, is only pathetic. He also disagrees with the word "blessed", more precisely, with the possibility of such a definition of the citizen's share: "blessed", in his opinion, is not a "dumb citizen", but a "chattering poet." A true citizen is one who "as his own, wears on his body / All the ulcers of his homeland." When he utters the famous words: "You may not be a poet, / But you must be a citizen," then we are talking about the acute need for true citizens that the country is experiencing. In addition, these words, dating back, as you know, to the poem by K.F. Ryleev's "Voinarovsky", at the same time contained an indication of a certain poetic tradition, which should be followed by a true poet.
The dispute is essentially over. But not because the poet changed his beliefs, his position. She remained the same. In essence, when a poet argues with a citizen, or when he expresses the idea of \u200b\u200bpoetry as an inspired prayer and sweet sounds, he is arguing not with the citizen, but with himself. The dialogue gradually turns into a poet's monologue-confession, and the reader understands that the indifference to public issues proclaimed by the poet at the beginning of the conversation, his passivity and longing - are the source of the experienced drama. The reader is presented with the story of a man who left the struggle, frightened of responsibility for the bitter truths that he expressed in his poems. Evaluating the past life from the point of view of the values \u200b\u200band responsibilities that the citizen proclaimed and which he himself recognizes as unconditional, the poet severely judges himself for apostasy from these covenants. These covenants are love and hate: love for the unfortunate and disadvantaged, love for the fatherland and man, hatred for what prevents a man from being happy:
No disgust, no fear
I went to prison and to the place of execution,
I went to courts and hospitals.
I will not repeat what I saw there ...
I swear I honestly hated!
I swear I truly loved!
And what? .. hearing my sounds,
Considered them black slander;
I had to fold my hands humbly
Or pay with your head ...
<...> The soul retreated fearfully.
Nekrasov conveys deeply personal experiences to his hero: his own pain, his own suffering. Repentance seems overly passionate, perhaps even exaggerated, especially if one considers Nekrasov's genuine merits to Russian society. But this passion and power of repentance can be explained by the highest ideal of a man-citizen, who recognized Nekrasov for himself and to whom he was invariably devoted:
<...> I do not hide the bitter truth
And timidly bow my head
At the word: an honest citizen.
That fatal, vain flame
To this day it burns the chest
And I'm glad if someone
Throw a stone at me with contempt.
No one reproaches himself so passionately and ardently for violating the "duty of a sacred person" as the Nekrasov poet. He is keenly aware of the fact that the refusal of honest civil service has become the reason for the loss and creative gift. Lack of civic courage, which in poetry manifests itself as a departure from social issues and a fear of describing the vices of the rulers, and leads to the fact that the Nekrasov poet ceases to be not only a citizen, but also a poet:
But how afraid! how afraid!
When my neighbor was drowning
In waves of essential grief -
Either the thunder of heaven, now the fury of the sea
I chanted good-naturedly.
Scourging little thieves
For the pleasure of the big ones,
I wondered at the insolence of the boys
And he was proud of their praise.
The soul bent under the yoke of years
She has cooled to everything
And Muse turned away completely,
Full of proud contempt.
The idea of \u200b\u200bserving the poet primarily for the good of society is one of the central ideas in Nekrasov's ideas about the purpose of the poet and poetry. Nekrasov realized how difficult it is to fulfill this goal. At the same time, it was not only about the civic courage of the author, but also about the possibility of his spoken word to go through censorship. The poet's clashes with the adamant censor were embodied in the image of the Muse cut off with a whip, the Muse in a crown of thorns, found in a number of Nekrasov's poems ("A holiday of life - youth years", 1855, "I am unknown. I have not acquired you," 1855, "Oh Muse! I am at the door of the coffin ", 1877). The crown of thorns of Nekrasov's Muse - an invariable detail of her appearance - emphasizes the idea of \u200b\u200bthe poet as a sufferer for faith, for a high idea. In the poem “I am unknown. I did not acquire you, ”it is also said about the death of the Muse under the whip:
No! She took her crown of thorns,
Without flinching, the dishonored Muse
And under the whip she died without a sound.
The same understanding of creativity and the idea of \u200b\u200b\\ u200b \\ u200bthe path of the poetic word to the reader as a "thorny path" filled with suffering and torment, was expressed in the poem "Yesterday, at six o'clock", where in the fate of a peasant woman punished with a whip on Sennaya Square, the lyric hero guessed his Muse. The researchers noted that Nekrasov's poem could not be a response to a direct impression: such punishments had already been canceled in 1848. But, choosing a young peasant woman, publicly punished, humiliated, as a symbol of his poetry, the poet undoubtedly wanted to emphasize the tragedy of the artist's fate: the muse that inspired him was likened to the most powerless, defenseless and most unfortunate creature on earth - a young peasant woman. Calling her "Muse of revenge and sorrow", Nekrasov speaks of those two main feelings that become the source of his poetic motives: love and hate. “That heart will not learn to love / Which is tired of hating” - these lines from the poem “Shut Up, Muse of Revenge and Sorrow” express the writer's moral credo and really define the pathos of his work.
Love and hate are the components of Nekrasov's relationship to the world. It is no coincidence that in poem 1855 "Demon" it is they who dominate the character's self-characterization:
Whether I see it straight or crooked
I only boil with my soul:
I hate so deeply
I love so selflessly!
Love and hate, love and revenge are recognized by Nekrasov as characteristic features of his poetry. IN poem of 1855 "The holiday of life - years of youth"defining the originality of his poetic gift and the pathos of his work, Nekrasov writes:
There is no free poetry in you,
My harsh, awkward verse!
There is no creative art in you ...
But living blood boils in you
The vengeful feeling prevails
Burning out, love glimmers<...>
In this recognition-reflection, the author, in fact, takes the position of opponents of his work, insisting on the "unpoeticness", artistic imperfection of Nekrasov's work. Perhaps he evaluates his poetry even more severely than his critics. Explaining the low assessment of talent, which sounded in a number of Nekrasov's poems and which is "in blatant contradiction with the real social and aesthetic significance of Nekrasov's poetic activity", B.O. Korman sees its source in the fact that the lyric hero of Nekrasov “constantly correlates his poetic activity with the needs of social development, with the position of the people. Dissatisfaction with oneself, harsh self-esteem, bitter and unfair words about his poetry - all this is determined in the lyrics of Nekrasov by his characteristic folk criterion for assessing reality. "
Denying the artistic perfection of his poems, Nekrasov puts much higher the feelings that should inspire the poet and which inspired him himself - love and hate. What kind of love is the poet talking about? For Nekrasov, this is the highest justice, love-service, love-compassion for one's neighbor. But it is this kind of love that makes a person hate what brings people suffering and pain. This love-hatred, "that glorifies the good, / That brands the villain and the fool / And endows a wreath of thorns / Defenseless singer ...", and sings Nekrasov.
The motives of "living blood" and "boiling" seem to be very important in this self-characterization. The verb "boils" - one of the constant in the lyrics of Nekrasov - clearly conveys the extraordinary intensity, fullness of feelings of the lyric hero, always passionately surrendering to his experience - love or hate, revenge, compassion or anger. The motive of "living blood" as the basis of the poetic word is also significant for Nekrasov's understanding of the essence of poetry. It is no coincidence that Nekrasov likens poetic works that suffered from the censor's scissors to a peasant woman who was excised with a whip, or blood was shed in vain. In the first part of the poem "On the Weather" Nekrasov creates the image of the indignant and suffering A.S. Pushkin, who saw the poem mutilated by the censor. In his words, uttered to the messenger, one can hear living pain, understandable to the lyrical hero of Nekrasov: “This is blood, he says, is being shed, - / My blood<...>»
Much in Nekrasov's aesthetic views is also clarified by another soulful motive of the poet: the assertion of the dependence of his poetic word on the world of his native nature and the sad melodies of folk songs. This thought was expressed in poem "Newspaper"... The world of the "native side" appears here as an eternal bad weather: a storm, wind, thunderstorm makes the Russian forests bend and groan, and this groan merges with a sad folk song, echoing in the melancholy tunes of the Russian poet:
If we have written and written like that, -
So there is a reason for that!
Not ordered to the free wind
Sing dreary songs in the fields
Not ordered to the hungry wolf
Mournful groans in the woods;
Since time immemorial they pour rain
Heaven is over the home side
Bend, groan, break under the storm
From time immemorial native forests,
From time immemorial the work of the people
Boils under a sad song
Our free muse echoes her,
Either echoes her - or honestly keeps silent.
The drama in the sound of the theme of the poet and poetry intensifies in the last decade of Nekrasov's life. It is largely determined by the consciousness of unfulfilled debt. One of the poems, where this motive takes on a tragic acuteness, was written in 1867. Already the first line: “I will die soon. A miserable inheritance ... "denotes his main motives: a bitter premonition of imminent death and the need to summarize and the creative and human path. Caused by severe reproaches for double-mindedness, in the discrepancy between the poetic appeals and human behavior of Nekrasov, this poem becomes the confession of a person who believes in his ideals, that the purpose of his muse is only to praise the sufferings of the people, but has not become a consistent guide of these ideals. The leitmotif of the poem is a prayer for forgiveness addressed to the homeland: “For a drop of blood in common with the people, / Forgive me, oh homeland! forgive me! .. "The hero tries to understand the reasons for his cowardice and apostasy. One of these reasons is the trials and sufferings experienced in youth:
I spent my childhood under the fateful yoke
And youth is in a painful struggle.
A short storm strengthens us,
Even though we are instantly embarrassed by her,
But long - forever settles
There are habits of timid silence in my soul.
"Habits of timid silence" are named as the main reason for the hero's involuntary apostasy:
I did not sell lyre, but it used to be
When unrelenting fate threatened
Lyra made the wrong sound
My hand...
But the hero does not ask for forgiveness, he severely reproaches himself, punishes himself for apostasy. Denying his right to remain in the memory of the people, the hero no less passionately asserts the true duty of the writer - to be a teacher, an educator, ready to give his life for a lofty goal:
I was called to sing of your suffering,
Patience amazing people!
And throw a single ray of consciousness
On the path that God leads you
But, loving life, to its momentary benefits
Chained by habit and environment
I walked towards the goal with a hesitant step,
I didn't sacrifice myself for her.
One of the last Nekrasov poems dedicated to the theme of the appointment of a poet so significant for him - "Elegy" (1874). Researchers call it "Pushkin". Indeed, in this poem-testament, addressed to the "young men" - the younger generation, Nekrasov's thought organically merges with Pushkin's behests. The most important idea of \u200b\u200bthe poem is not only the recognition of the unchanging significance for the poet of the theme of "suffering of the people", but also the statement as the highest purpose of every poet - serving the people:
<...> Alas! bye peoples
Suffer in poverty, submitting to the scourges,
Like skinny herds in mown meadows,
Mourn their fate, a muse will serve them,
And in the world there is no stronger, more beautiful union! ..
The poetic formulas included in these lines from Pushkin's poem "The Village" ("subduing the scourges", "lean herds" dating back to Pushkin's "lean slavery") allow Nekrasov, according to the exact observation of N.N. Skatov, "to derive their pedigree from Pushkin, not declaring it, but confirming with the whole system of their" Pushkin's "verses here." In Nekrasov's poem, you can see the echo of other Pushkin's motives, in particular, a certain polemic in relation to Pushkin's poem "Desert sower of freedom ..." (1823), with the despair of the lyrical "I" that did not believe in the possibility of awakening the people with the power of the life-giving word. :
Desert sower of freedom,
I went out early, before the star;
With a pure and innocent hand
Into the enslaved reins
Threw a life-giving seed -
But I only lost time
Good thoughts and works ...
Graze, peaceful peoples!
You will not be awakened by a cry of honor.
Why do the flocks need the gifts of freedom?
They must be cut or trimmed.
Their inheritance from generation to generation
A yoke with rattles and a whip.
Nekrasov's comparison of a submissive people with a herd undoubtedly goes back to this poem. But if Pushkin sounded disbelief in the possibility of "waking up peaceful peoples", then Nekrasov's hero is full of desire to serve the unfortunate and obedient "slaves".
Researchers see in Nekrasov's "Elegy" echoes of another Pushkin's poem - "Echo", in which the poetic word was interpreted as an echo of the voices of the world. But Nekrasov does not repeat Pushkin's motive, he develops it: poetry, a poetic word according to Nekrasov, also gives rise to an echo, an echo in the world. This idea is devoid of optimistic sound: conquering the "valleys and fields", forcing them to echo their song, the poet, alas, is powerless to evoke a response from the one to whom his words are dedicated. With this dramatic recognition, the motive of the silent people, the poem ends:
I wander thoughtfully in the evening twilight,
And the song composes itself in the mind,
Living incarnation of recent, secret thoughts:
I call blessing for rural labors,
I will curse the people's enemy,
And I pray to a friend in the heavens of power,
And my song is loud! .. She is echoed by valleys, fields,
And the echo of the distant mountains sends her its responses,
And the forest responded ... Nature listens to me,
But the one about whom I sing in the evening silence,
To whom are the poet's dreams dedicated -
Alas! he does not heed - and does not give an answer ...
In one of his last poems - "Zine"(1876) the lyric hero will again speak of the inevitability of the people forgetting his name, and again he will see in this a just retribution for his inability to be a “fighter” - either in public service or in poetry. Only civil service is affirmed as the only ideal:
Who, serving the great purposes of the age,
He gives his life entirely
To fight for a human brother
Only he will survive himself ...
Nekrasov in his later lyrics is not inclined to belittle the significance and power of the poetic word: it is no coincidence that poetic work is likened to an ascetic feat in one of the poems of 1877 ("Zina"): and this work is interpreted as a condition of salvation, "life-giving" of man. Poetry is a “lucky gift,” but it only makes sense when the poet is endowed with the “resolve” to fight to the end. This thought is stated in the poem To the poet (1877), which sounds like a will and a confession:
Love and Labor - under heaps of ruins!
Wherever you look - betrayal, enmity,
And you stand - inactive and sad
And slowly you burn out with shame.
And you send a reproach to the sky for a happy gift:
Why did it crown you with them,
When the soul is dreamy and fearful
Determination to fight is not given? ..
But it would be wrong to say that in the later lyrics the path traveled is interpreted only pessimistically. Along with tragic intonations, belief in the lofty meaning of perfect work can also sound. This belief sounded, for example, in the poem "Dream". The plowman becomes the symbol of the poet here, clearly recalling the tragic intonations and images of the poem "The Uncompressed Strip" (1854). In the poem "Dream", one of the last, created by Nekrasov, the image of a plowman who did not collect ears of corn is already associated with his own destiny:
I dreamed: standing on a cliff,
I wanted to throw myself into the sea,
Suddenly an angel of light and peace
He sang a wonderful song for me:
“Wait for spring! I'll come early
I will say: be a man again!
I will remove the fog from the head
And sleep from heavy eyelids;
And I will return the voice to the muse,
And again the blissful hours
You will gain by picking up an ear
From its uncompressed strip.
This poem is devoid of dramatic notes, on the contrary, it is full of faith in the possibility of returning to interrupted, unfinished work, faith in the feasibility of good impulses.
Today in the lesson we will talk about the image of the muse in Nekrasov's poems; get acquainted with the poetry of Nekrasov and the tradition of civil poetry; let's analyze and compare thematically related poems by Nekrasov, Pushkin, Fet.
Figure: 1. N.A. Nekrasov ()
Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov (Fig. 1) not only realizes the revolution that he is making in the history of Russian poetry, especially in relation to the previous romantic tradition, but also endows the image of the muse with unusual properties that are extremely far from traditional romantic ideas. The most striking in this sense is the poem, which is called “The Muse”, written in 1852. It begins with the fact that Nekrasov reproduces the very romantic image of the Muse - the goddess of poetry (Fig. 2):
No, Muses tenderly singing and beautiful
I do not remember the sweet-voiced song above me!
In heavenly beauty, inaudible like a spirit,
Flying from a height, my infant hearing
She did not teach magic harmony,
I haven't forgotten my flute in my diapers,
Among the amusements of my and adolescent thoughts
A vague dream did not disturb the mind
And suddenly did not appear to an enthusiastic gaze
A loving friend at that blissful time,
When our blood is agitated
Inseparable and Muse and Love ...
Figure: 2. Sculpture of the Ancient Muse ()
This, through negation, created, on the one hand, the image of the Greek goddess, and on the other hand, the romantic image of the muse is unknown to the poet. This is how the muse appeared in his fate:
But early on, the bonds weighed over me
Another, unkind and unloved Muse,
The sad companion of the sad poor
Born for labor, suffering and bondage -
That Muse crying, grieving and aching,
Always thirsty, humiliatingly asking,
Which gold is the only idol ...
And it is clear that the content of the poetry that such a muse carried in itself should have been completely different.
Everything was heard in him in a mad mix:
Calculations of petty and dirty fuss
And beautiful dreams of youthful years,
Lost love, suppressed tears
Curses, complaints, powerless threats.
In a fit of rage, with human untruth
The madwoman vowed to start a stubborn battle.
Indulging in wild and dark fun
Played madly with my cradle
Shouted: revenge! and violent language
The Lord thunder called on the heads of the enemies! ..
So eternally crying and incomprehensible virgin
The harsh tunes cherished my ears,
Until finally the usual line
I did not engage in a fierce battle with her.
But from childhood, a lasting and blood union
Muse was in no hurry to break up with me:
Through the abyss of dark Violence and Evil,
Labor and Hunger, she led me -
She taught me how to feel my suffering
And she blessed the light to announce them ...
The creative process in the poem is described in a strange and unusual way. The poet is fighting a fierce battle with the muse. The muse itself turns out to be a kind of embodiment of the tragic destinies of people who are forced to earn their living by their own labor, for whom creativity and free poetry are outside the framework of their existence. And only Nekrasov's muse makes it possible to hear this never before heard voice of tragic human destinies. Of course, Nekrasov did not immediately come to this radically unusual image of the muse. Let us dwell on the poem "Yesterday, at six o'clock ...", written in 1848.
Yesterday, at six o'clock,
I went to Haymarket;
There they beat a woman with a whip,
A young peasant woman.
Not a sound from her chest
Only the whip whistled, playing ...
And I said to Muse: “Look!
Your dear sister! "
In reality, the Nekrasov hero could not observe such a scene on Sennaya Square, since public punishments, especially women, were not carried out on Sennaya Square (Fig. 3).
Figure: 3. Sennaya Square. St. Petersburg. 1830 ()
But such an image was not created by the poet by chance. In this case, the author compares the woman who was excised with a whip with the excised muse, meaning the crossing out in red ink in the censorship office of manuscripts with the parallel arising here: on the one hand, a suffering people, and on the other hand, suffering poetry, which is addressed to this people. But since the very comparison of the beaten peasant woman and the muse looked completely unusual, very sharp, Nekrasov so far makes the comparison very carefully. He seems to point out to his muse that in this case she turned out to be the sister of this suffering peasant woman.
In 1855, another poem will be written, in which the images found in the poem "Yesterday, at six o'clock ..." will be further developed:
I am unknown. I have not acquired you
No honors, no money, no praise,
My poems are the fruit of an unhappy life,
At the rest of the stolen hours,
Hidden tears and fearful thoughts;
But I did not praise the fools with you,
But he did not enter into an alliance with meanness, -
No! She took her crown of thorns
Without flinching, the dishonored Muse
And under the whip she died without a sound.
And if in the previous poem there was only a comparison of the muse and the beaten peasant woman, now this very muse suddenly turned out to be dead soundlessly under the whip. And, of course, Nekrasov will no longer be able to get away from this plot. And in his later work we will again find the development of this motive, once successfully found by him.
Here is a poem from 1876:
Muse
O muse! Our song has been sung.
Come close your poet's eyes
To the eternal sleep of nothingness
Sister of the people - and mine!
The very image of the muse turns out to be unusual here.
In 1877 - the year of his death - in the poem "O Muse! I am at the door of the coffin! .. ”Nekrasov seems to collect all the previous motives and create a poem that completes a kind of Nekrasov cycle.
O Muse! I'm at the door of the coffin!
Even if I am to blame a lot
Let it increase a hundred times
My guilt is human malice -
Do not Cry! our lot is enviable,
They will not abuse us:
Between me and honest hearts
You won't let me break for a long time
Living, blood union!
Not Russian - will look without love
On this pale, in blood,
With a whip, the excised Muse ...
And instead of the former ancient goddess, we again face the national image of the Russian muse, exhausted, sad, pale, covered in blood, excised with a whip.
In conclusion, let us turn to another poem by Nekrasov, where he talks with his muse - a poem of 1856, which was highlighted by the author himself and completes his first collection of poetry:
Shut up, Muse of revenge and sorrow!
I don't want to disturb someone else's dream,
You and I have cursed enough.
Alone I die - and I am silent.
Why mope, mourn the loss?
If only it would have been easier!
To myself, like the creak of a prison door,
The groans of my heart are disgusting.
It's all over. By storm and storm
My dark path is darkened for a reason,
The sky above me will not brighten
Will not throw a warm ray into the soul ...
A magical ray of love and rebirth!
I called you - in my dreams and in reality,
In labor, in struggle, at the turn of the fall
I called you - now I'm not calling!
I myself would not like to see that abyss,
That you can light up ...
That heart won't learn to love
Tired of hating
Here, another important Nekrasov idea is formed - the idea of \u200b\u200blove-hate: because, on the one hand, we hate the negative and dark sides of the surrounding life, and on the other hand, it is to them that our loving muse is addressed. Thus, we can say that not only an unusual, extraordinary image of his muse arises in Nekrasov's poetry, but a certain fundamental dialogue arises between her and the poet, which together makes it possible to evaluate the almost revolutionary revolution that Nekrasov is making in Russian poetry.
This special image of the muse, which took shape in the poetry of Nekrasov, had a certain tradition in the history of Russian poetry in that aspect of it, which is commonly called civic poetry. It is no coincidence that next to the figure of the poet, Nekrasov will always have the figure of a citizen. This is understandable, because his poet and his muse live by civil, public, social interests. And of course, Nekrasov continues to develop the tradition associated with the Decembrist civil romanticism. First of all, one can recall K.F. Ryleev (Fig. 4).
Figure: 4. K.F. Ryleev ()
The poetic foreword to the poem "Voinarovsky" contains the following lines:
As Apollo's strict son,
You will not see art in them:
But you will find living feelings, -
I am not a Poet, but a Citizen.
In the poem "The Poet and the Citizen", which opens the Nekrasov collection of poems of 1856, there will be another motive, but clearly processing the aforementioned Ryleev's line: "You may not be a poet, // But you must be a citizen."
Of course, A.S. Pushkin (Fig. 5).
Figure: 5. A.S. Pushkin ()
But in Pushkin's work, the image of the poet, the image of the muse is so diverse that, first of all, I want to remember the prophet with his word, which should burn the hearts of people. And, of course, Nekrasov also remembers the civil invectives of M.Yu. Lermontov (Fig. 6).
Figure: 6. M.Yu. Lermontov ()
Oh, how I want to embarrass their gaiety
And boldly throw an iron verse in their eyes,
Drenched in bitterness and anger! ..
The relationship between Pushkin's tradition and Nekrasov's poetry is complex. For example, Nekrasov's poem "Muse" in many respects polemically rethinks one of the images that appears in Pushkin's poetry.
Confidante of magic antiquity,
Friend of fictions, playful and sad,
I knew you in the days of my spring,
In the days of joys and initial dreams.
I was waiting you; in the evening silence
You were a funny old lady
And she sat above me in shushun,
In big glasses and with a playful rattle.
You, baby rocking the cradle,
I captivated my young ears with tunes
And left a pipe between the shroud,
Which she herself bewitched.
Infancy passed like a light dream.
You loved a carefree youth,
Among the important muses he only remembered you,
And you quietly visited him;
But was that your image, your dress?
How sweet you are, how quickly you have changed!
With what fire did the smile liven up!
What fire flashed the welcoming gaze!
The veil, swirling in a disobedient wave,
Slightly overshadowed your half-air camp;
All in curls, entwined with a wreath,
The head of the adorable woman was fragrant;
Chest white under yellow pearls
Blushed and trembled quietly ...
In this poem, written by Pushkin in 1822, the muse appears, on the one hand, in the form of a cheerful old woman, most likely, Pushkin's grandmother, Maria Alekseevna Hannibal, was supposed (Fig. 7).
Figure: 7. M. A. Hannibal ()
On the other hand, when he grows up and turns into a young man, she is a kind of beauty that resembles the image of the ancient muse, the ancient goddess of poetry. Then the amazing contrast that arises in Nekrasov's poem, so cardinally reworking Pushkin's text, becomes understandable.
In the 1860s-70s, the unusual image of Nekrasov's muse, associated with the motive of suffering, with the image of ruined human destinies, had extraordinary success, but not at all. There were poets who adhered not only to another, but to a diametrically opposite idea, connected with the fact that art should not address momentary problems, to the little things of life, but should lead a person into the world of beauty, into the world of beauty. In the end, this idea took shape in a special school of "art for art", the most important exponent of which was A.A. Fet (fig. 8).
In Fet's work, the appearance of the muse bears quite classical antique features. Although he also has poems that are polemically directed against the Nekrasovian tradition. This is the poem "Muse" of 1887, in which Fet argues not so much with Nekrasov himself, since he had already died by that time, as with the very tradition of civil poetry. As an epigraph, he chooses a fragment from Pushkin's poem "The Poet and the Crowd": "We were born for inspiration, // For sweet sounds and prayers." And then there is a reason to remind that, speaking about Pushkin's poetry, we noticed that he has poems that were perceived as poems that unfold the idea of \u200b\u200bcivil service of poetry, for example, the poem "The Prophet", and poems that affirmed the idea of \u200b\u200bself-sufficiency and self-worth art. And in this case, it is a quote from the poem "The Poet and the Crowd". And here is Fet's poem "Muse":
We were born to inspire
For sweet sounds and prayers.
A.S. Pushkin
You want to curse, weeping and moaning,
Look for scourges to the law.
Poet, stop! don't call me
Call Tiziphone from the abyss.
Fascinating dreams cherishing in reality,
By your divine authority
I enjoy the high call
And to human happiness.
When, offended by the atrocities again,
You will hear the call to sob in your chest, -
For the sake of your torment I will not change
Freedom to an eternal calling.
To suffer! Everyone suffers, the dark beast suffers
Without hope, without consciousness;
But in front of him there is a door closed forever,
Where joy glimmers of suffering.
To a fierce and callous soul
Let this joy be unfamiliar.
Why are you hitting the lyre with a childish hand,
That it is not a trumpet pogrom?
Why resist nature and fate? -
These sounds are carried to the ground
Not a passionate storm, not challenges to struggle,
And healing from torment.
We will not decide which poet is right and which is not. We only note that in the 1850s-70s it was Nekrasov's poetry that retained the interest of the readership in poetry itself, and this is one of her significant historical merits.
List of references
- Sakharov V.I., Zinin S.A. Russian language and literature. Literature (basic and advanced levels) 10. - M .: Russian word.
- Arkhangelsky A.N. and other Russian language and literature. Literature (advanced level) 10. - M .: Bustard.
- Lanin B.A., Ustinova L.Yu., Shamchikova V.M. / ed. Lanina B.A. Russian language and literature. Literature (basic and advanced levels) 10. - M .: VENTANA-GRAF.
- Internet portal "Megashpora.ru" ()
- Internet portal "Textology" ()
- Internet portal "Festival of Pedagogical Ideas" ()
Homework
- Check out the poetry of Nekrasov from the 1850s to the 70s.
- Tell us about the image of the muse in Nekrasov's poetry.
- Prepare a comparative description of the image of the muse in the works of Nekrasov, Pushkin and Fet.
Nekrasov, a representative of civic poetry, had a difficult relationship with the muse. In many poems, she appears to him, she lives her separate destiny, exhausted, excised with a whip, a companion of all the poor and peasants, singing about injustice and a terrible fate.
Muse Nekrasova "taught to feel their sufferings, and to announce them to the light ..."
Nekrasov's childhood passed on the road with his tyrant father, who worked as a police officer - he beat out debts from the peasants. From childhood, Nikolai saw terrible pictures of hunger, poverty and death. Therefore, his poetry is so far from "pure art", because he dedicated the lyre "to his people." For this he was mercilessly scourged by his contemporaries, who, being wealthy and privileged people, did not understand and did not want to see the suffering of the workers and peasants.
In many poems he tells about his muse - not a singing and beautiful, but "a sad companion of the sad poor." The poem, written in 1852, clearly traces the life periods of the poet. A difficult childhood, a difficult youth, a beggarly existence (the father deprived his son of support for finding his field in literary work).
Genre, direction, size
Genre of the work: civil-philosophical lyrics. The author talks about his mission - to help ordinary people, to tell their story.
Direction: realism. The poet talks about what is really happening around: about hunger, poverty, injustice and lack of rights of the person, on whose work the country is supported.
Poem size: iambic.
Images and symbols
Nekrasov's muse is not an ephemeral young lady, but a young peasant woman. We can find such a definition of it even in the poem "Yesterday, at six o'clock ...". This poem dates back to 1848 and is considered to be the first mention of Nekrasov about his muse. "There they beat a woman with a whip, a young peasant woman" - we meet in this poem. The whip is a symbol of autocracy in Russia, it turns out that she, a Nekrasov muse, is tormented by the regime ruling in Russia.
That Muse crying, grieving and aching,
Thirsty all the hour, humiliatingly asking –
It is this image of the muse from the poem of the same name that runs through all of Nekrasov's work as a leitmotif. In her face we see the features of the whole of Mother Russia, which suffers from poverty and humiliation, from terrible working conditions and life itself. This is the peculiarity of the muse of the peasant poet.
Nekrasov's muse ceases to be the embodiment of high creativity, she is a completely visible character, she is all the pain of the Russian people, she is the muse of revenge and sorrow, she is the one who taught Nekrasov to feel the sufferings of peasants in early childhood.
Topics and problems
The problems and themes of the work are typical for Nekrasov's work: these are social and political issues that the liberal intelligentsia addressed to the authorities: why is it so difficult for the peasantry to live? How long will he endure oppression and injustice?
- The main theme is the poet's destiny. "Muse" is dedicated to the global theme of Russian writing - poet and poetry. Nekrasov shares with his readers the difficulties of communicating with a very special muse who torments the poet, instead of singing "sweet-voiced songs."
- The problem of slavery and tyranny. If we identify the non-racial muse with the Russian people, we see that she, like the people, is "silent under the scourge" (a line from "Yesterday, at six o'clock"). Blind obedience is a mystery of the Russian people. Why are the calls for revenge ("revenge! And in a violent language // The Lord called thunder on the heads of the enemies!") Are still replaced by a drooping head, accepting lawlessness and enslavement?
main idea
As we said earlier, Nekrasov is far from "pure art" and does not consider himself a real poet, in many poems dedicated to the muse, he seems to be "justifying" for his work, talking about the culprit of his suffering.
Nekrasov's muse is "unkind and unloved", she is fed up with everything that Nikolai saw in his childhood and youth - poor villages and Petersburg slums. These paintings took away the poet's carefree adolescence, plunging him into the entire Russian darkness. The muse taught him to hate and take revenge for the entire Russian people. This message is the meaning of the work.
One of the key points of the poem is the line: "Farewell to your enemies!" This is whispered by the muse, but in fact the whole nation is whispering. Why is that?! Why are the peasants servile to a handful of landowners and officials? This riddle will torment Nekrasov until his death. And after the long-awaited abolition of serfdom, the poet will write: "The people are liberated, but are the people happy?" The Russian people are very complex and multifaceted, sometimes they themselves do not understand what will be better for them. Such is the Nekrasov muse. The main idea of \u200b\u200bthe poet is to show not only pain, but also the bright moral character of people who suffer, but still forgive the offenders for their recently shed tears. This is the beauty and greatness of Russia.
Expression tools
The text is extremely rich in epithets with negative connotations - unkind, unloved, sad, crying, grieving, aching, thirsty all the time, humiliatingly begging, wretched, bent ...
To emphasize all the sadness of the current situation, the author uses the repetition of "the sad companion of the sad poor."
Frequent inversions "suddenly she cried" create dynamics, the feeling of an incessant suffering muse. For the same purpose, the author uses the subject skipping “I played madly with my cradle”, “taught me to feel my suffering”.
There are many gradations in the poem: “calculations of petty and dirty fuss<. .. > curses, complaints, powerless threats. " They create an overwhelming atmosphere of the poem.
Nekrasov's paths complement and color his thoughts with emotions, and although he himself modestly refused the title of poet, we see that his works are characterized by the charm of elegant literature.
