Each poet depicted the Motherland in his own way. Some in the form of a mother, others argued that the native land is a mother or a beloved. Others personified her, tried to show her as a separate person who also worries, suffers, loves and endures.
Alexander Alexandrovich managed to combine several options for images. At the same time, with each new poem a new image of the Motherland is revealed in Blok’s lyrics. But this does not mean that his perception of his native land dissipates, his attitude towards it changes. The poet understands and accepts the Motherland in all its diversity, greatness and poverty, grace and suffering.
The concept of the Motherland for Blok
The theme of the Motherland was not present initially. It became the summing up stage of his life. But it was he who became one of the most important in the poet’s fate.
Blok did not immediately come to this topic. It appeared after the poet’s long wanderings and many sufferings experienced. This contributed to A. Blok’s complete immersion in the topic. And that is why he did not limit himself to a stereotyped image of the Motherland as some kind of abstract value. Or, on the contrary, as a certain territory, the existence of which is limited in the space-temporal continuum.
That is, Russia does not exist for him only now, and only from one border pillar to another along the surface. It penetrates into things and destinies, dissipates in the air, and is absorbed into the earth.
It is natural that with such an understanding and experience of the topic, the image of the Motherland in Blok’s work cannot have the same face and the same reflection in the mirror of poetic mastery.
Options for depicting the Motherland by Blok
In order to accurately reflect his feelings about his native land, Blok used its poetic depiction in several versions. Literary scholars highlight the following options in which the Motherland is depicted in Blok’s lyrics:
- fabulousness - not a personified image of a magical land, with fabulous creatures, riddles, mysterious forests;
- romance - the Motherland is depicted as the beloved of a young man, tender, reverent, unique;
- Historicism is a land that has a past, its own history, and they cannot be ignored;
- Poverty and suffering are not so much an image of the Motherland as a generalization of its inhabitants, who are going through hard times. But at the same time they do not betray their land, but accept it as it is, but with the hope of positive changes;
- a generalized image of a living being - the Motherland is a living being similar to a person, but the characteristics are given only through abstract concepts, and not by specifying certain features of appearance;
- optimism - in this vein, Blok expresses his hopes for a bright future for the country and believes in future favorable changes.
Fairytale motifs in the image
We find an image of Russia as a fabulous, mythical land in the poem “Rus”. Not only does the described landscape resemble folklore characteristics of an imaginary area, but also the mention of unreal creatures such as witches, sorcerers, sorcerers, devils and others. Environmental elements - wilds, swamps - are also often used in mythological stories.
The colors that come to mind with this description are predominantly black, gray, dirty green, and brown.
But the sharp transition to a calm, peaceful contemplation of nature not only makes it clear that the first impression was wrong. Such a sharp contrast emphasizes the mystery of Rus' - sometimes darkness and fears, sometimes silence and laziness (the sea lazily washes the shores, the yellow cliff, the fields).
Romanticization of the image of the Motherland
But the mythologization of the image of the Motherland is not Blok’s innovation. Many of his predecessors resorted to this technique. Another thing is that he presented the fairy tale and reality in sharp contrast.
As you know, mythical images are inherent in the era of romanticism. But Blok was not a romantic, which is why the sublime images in his poetry take on a different character than those of his predecessors. Thus, the poet did not approach the fate of the Motherland from a philosophical, abstract perspective. He loved Russia as one loves a woman - selflessly, passionately.
But, as Alexander Alexandrovich himself said, this happens because in the world of poetry, in which he strives to be everywhere, there is no division between what is personal and what is common. Everything common that touches the very heart of the poet automatically becomes personal. The intimate in poetry is brought to public view, with the goal of being heard and understood.
Motherland is a woman. Beloved, young beauty, wife, but not mother, as Blok’s predecessors presented her in their work. She is an unbridled, strong, alluring diva, but at the same time gentle, meek, and beautiful. The poet intimates the image, endowing it with those features that are inherent in the Beautiful Lady he sang.
As a decadent, he claims that only the beautiful is worth loving. Suffering is also sublime feelings that everyone must accept and pass through, but at the same time not lose themselves. Therefore, in order to love Russia, you first need to feel compassion for it, to comprehend the depth of its sorrows.
Russia in diachronic section
The theme of the Motherland in Blok’s work is not limited only to the author’s modernity. In order to better understand the nature of this phenomenon, he resorted to historical excursions.
Blok identifies the concepts of Russia and Motherland, and therefore the history of the country is inseparable from the life of every person inhabiting it. This is if we consider the concepts in a romantic context too. So, we are interested in the past of our beloved, her fate, as a patriot - history beckons.
The cycle of poems “On the Kulikovo Field” is dedicated to the history of Russia. He presents a panoramic image of the life of the country from the Mongol-Tatar yoke to the present. In addition, the poet expresses hopes for a bright future for Russia, because it strives forward, has overcome a lot, suffered a lot, and after this prosperity invariably comes.
Russia is poor and long-suffering
As in the contrast of landscapes, Russia is also a heterogeneous country in terms of overall well-being. We are talking about the poverty of individual citizens, which coexists with the incredible wealth of others, and about the fate of the country as a whole. While deeply worried about the share of his native land in difficult political and economic conditions, the poet nevertheless expresses deep confidence that everything will change.
Even in the “golden years” in Russia, “three worn-out harnesses” frayed, and painted knitting needles got stuck in loose ruts. That is, everyone tries to acquire personal material well-being, forgetting about social well-being. This is one of the key, in the author’s opinion, problems of Russian society.
With all the external beggary, Blok focuses attention on the fertile soil, the wealth of the earth. The poet describes the feeling of love for the Motherland as pure, naive, virgin. It is the theme of the Motherland in Blok’s poetry that echoes the motives of feelings about first love and its tears. He endures the same suffering, crystalline, untainted, when he thinks about the fate of the country.
Personalized image without reference to specifics
An analysis of the poem “Motherland” gives us a new vision of the image of our native land. Blok in his cycle gives us an understanding of the image of Russia also as a personified being. But there is no connection to a specific person or collective image.
The homeland appears as something, or rather, as something generalized. Alive, but at the same time ephemeral. She stands behind the author's soul as his main wealth and greatest suffering.
The country breaks away from the earthly, material and appears as a higher matter. Rather, it is not the image of the Motherland itself, but namely love for it. This suggests Blok’s partial retreat from decadence. He lives in a world that is not material, but sublime, detached from earthly concerns. But he immediately admits his attachment to a real being - the Motherland.
Optimism in the portrayal of Russia
Despite the pessimistic, at first glance, depiction of Russia, the theme of the Motherland in Blok’s poetry is still highlighted in an optimistic way. The author hopes for a quick change in the situation. He explains this by the simple law of justice, which will certainly triumph. Russia, which has undergone many revolutions, wars, devastation, and poverty, simply cannot help but become a super-powerful rich power.
He compares it to a troika harnessed by dashing horses that know no rest. Such people are not afraid of either a “loose track” or a blizzard.
Thus was born a series of poems that only Blok could write at that time - “Motherland”. Analysis of poems from the cycle gives confidence in a bright future and hope in better times.
Means for creating an image of the Motherland
One of the most common devices a poet uses is personification. The theme of the Motherland in Blok’s work acquires a similar sound; Russia itself turns either into a young girl, then into a wild and unbridled woman, or becomes a fairy-tale place.
The theme of the Motherland in Blok’s poetry is also revealed through the development of the image. Almost all options for presenting the image are built on this, to a greater or lesser extent, which is confirmed by the analysis of the poem. “Motherland”, it was not for nothing that Blok chose such a simple name for the cycle. This is the result of the poet’s work, the expression on paper of all his thoughts and anxieties that accumulated throughout his life.
Blok's innovation in depicting the Motherland
The poet's predecessors also used personification when depicting the Motherland. And many of them revived the image, instilling it in a female form. But the theme of the Motherland in Blok’s work acquired a new meaning - this is not a mother, as others described her, but a friend, bride, wife. That is, she walks shoulder to shoulder with the lyrical hero in both sorrow and joy. And she does not patronize, but she herself needs protection.
Also unusual is the presentation of the image in the form of something alive, but at the same time abstract. Russia is not a picture, an image, but an object that everyone associates with their own things.
How are the past and present of Russia reflected in the lyrics of A.A. Blok?
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One of the main themes of A.A. Blok’s lyrics, which expressed his sense of time, was the theme of Russia. In a letter to K.S. Stanislavsky, the poet argued that this topic is “the first question, the most vital, the most real.” In the context of poems dedicated to the Motherland, A.A. Blok reflected the fate of his country and drew a parallel between its past and present.
The poem "Rus" was written in 1906. It is imbued with the spirit of antiquity, old Russia. The author takes the reader to those distant times when “diverse peoples” led “night round dances.” Rus' appears as a mysterious, fairy-tale, magical country, which is inhabited by “witches and sorcerers” and where “witches amuse themselves with devils.” But Russia is depicted not only as mysterious and enchanting, but also poor, sad, and in rags. And yet the lyrical hero is bewitched by her and in love with her. The secret of Rus' lies not in its fabulousness, but in the fact that it “has not tarnished the original purity,” that is, the country has remained as bright, kind and extraordinary as it was many centuries ago. The poet loves ancient Rus' and is glad that his contemporary country has not lost its ancient habits and features.
Also, the result of A.A. Blok’s thoughts about the fate of Russia was the cycle of poems “Motherland,” which was created from 1907 to 1916. One of the brightest
Criteria
- 2 of 3 K1 Depth of understanding of the topic and persuasiveness of the arguments
- 2 of 2 K2 Level of theoretical and literary knowledge
- 3 of 3 K3 Validity of using the text of the work
- 3 of 3 K4 Compositional integrity and consistency of presentation
- 3 of 3 K5 Following speech norms
- TOTAL: 13 out of 14
“Block Alexander biography” - Symbol of secrecy and silence. Features of the cycle. Candle. Heroic and courageous force, creative and directing, the beginning of earthly life. A symbol of the constant variability of the world. Alexander Alexandrovich Blok was born on November 28, 1880 in St. Petersburg. In the cycle you can find references to red, white, yellow and dark colors.
“The Life and Work of Blok” - Following the poem “The Twelve”, the poem “Scythians” was written. Spring! So I landed on the ground. You need a whip, not an axe! But Blok perceived the course of his own life on a “universal” scale. A. Blok. Into the darkness! Erase random features And you will see: the world is beautiful... Alexander Blok (1880-1921) The poetic world of the poet.
“Literature Blok” - Shakhmatovo 1894. The last years of the life and work of Alexander Blok. Probably, A. Blok foresaw great sacrifices and was right. The poem “The Twelve” is the pinnacle of A. Blok’s creativity. Blok died in Petrograd on August 7, 1921. Ivanov and others. House in Shakhmatovo 1880s. Creation. Street. Those born in the deaf years do not remember their own paths.
“Alexander Blok” - V. Mayakovsky. But the contradictions of the “terrible world” were stronger than love and dreams. Called for the battle of the plains - To fight with the breath of heaven. And a quiet house, and a fragrant garden, and a forest road, and alarming distances... “Poems about Russia” 1915. Oh, my Rus'! Our path - the arrow of the ancient Tatar will pierced our chest. He showed me the deserted road, leading into the dark forest.
“Blok’s Lyrics” - The October Revolution awakened Blok’s creative powers. And I will listen to orders and wait timidly. Blok A.A. Letters to my wife. – In the book: Literary heritage, vol. 89. VIRTUAL EXHIBITION OF NTB Volgograd State Technical University. Enisherlov V. Alexander Blok. Alexander Blok. Tartu, 1964–1998. And wish again. BREATH OF PASSION for the 130th anniversary of A. A. Blok.
“Biography of Blok” - Not external peace, but creative peace. The world revolution is turning into a world angina pectoris! However, according to the testimony of V.F. Khodasevich, the poet died in full consciousness. Blok wrote his first poems at the age of five. The poet was buried at the Smolensk cemetery. Biography. Not childish will, not the freedom to be liberal, but creative will - secret freedom.
The lesson was prepared and conducted by a teacher of Russian language and literature at the State Budgetary Educational Institution KK (“Krasnodar Architecture and Construction College”), a teacher of the highest category, Valentina Stepanovna Popova. During an open lesson, teacher Popova managed to summarize the main stages of A. Blok’s work, the students had the opportunity to understand the ideological and artistic originality of the poem “The Twelve”. Various forms and methods were used to update and systematize students' knowledge. During preparation for the lesson, students were involved in cognitive activity, performing advanced tasks. The goals and objectives of the lesson were determined at the very beginning of the lesson. The lesson allowed students to develop the skills of determining the main thing in a literary text. Students were involved in various types and forms of educational activities: reading poetic texts by heart, analyzing poetic works, writing argumentative essays.
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The lesson was prepared and conducted by a teacher of Russian language and literature at the State Budgetary Educational Institution KK (“Krasnodar Architecture and Construction College”), a teacher of the highest category, Valentina Stepanovna Popova
The theme of the Motherland and the historical past in the lyrics of A. Blok.
Poem "Twelve".
Epigraph for the lesson
“The work of Alexander Blok is a whole poetic era...”
(V. Mayakovsky)
During the classes:
Stage 1. Organizational moment.
Greeting, motivation of educational activities, definition of the topic and purpose of the lesson:
Dear guys, today we will systematize and summarize the main stages of the work of Alexander Alexandrovich Blok and understand the ideological and artistic originality of the poem “The Twelve”.
Stage 2. Survey of students.
Checking homework, frontal questioning using photo presentation materials:
Biography questions:
- In what city was A. Blok born?
In Petersburg.
- What kind of family did you grow up in? What traditions did his family have? What kind of upbringing did Blok receive?
In an intelligent noble cultural family.
A. Blok received a sentimental upbringing.
His family supported literary traditions and a passion for poetry.
- What was the estate of his grandfather Shakhmatovo for A. Blok?
His favorite place, where he spent many days of rest, communicated with nature, and found inspiration.
- What can you say about the poet’s education and the beginning of creativity?
In 1898, after graduating from high school, he entered the Faculty of Law of St. Petersburg University, in 1901 he transferred to the Slavic-Russian department of the Faculty of History and Philology, which he successfully completed in 1906. Blok's poems appeared in March 1903 in the magazines “New Way” and “Northern Flowers”.
Stage 3. Studying new educational material.
I collection of poems
Teacher's words:
The first collection of poems by A. Blok, “Poems about a Beautiful Lady,” was written in 1898-1904. 687 poems are devoted to this topic. This was not the case either in Russian or in other literature. This first collection is a kind of lyrical diary.
A woman came into the poet’s life who became a source of inspiration for him, his love, his destiny.
The poems sound symbolic and mysterious; the whole world for him is divided into light and shadow. In the shadows are all human sorrows, everyday life, ordinariness, and the light is where it is. Who is she? Lyubov Dmitrievna Mendeleeva!
A. Blok's poems first appeared in print in 1903, and in August of the same year they got married.
“Poems about a Beautiful Lady” is a hymn to ideal, sublime love.
At the same time, this is a mystical admiration for the Lady of the Universe, the Eternal Femininity. In “Poems about a Beautiful Lady,” the beloved is devoid of any earthly features. This is the Heavenly Virgin, the Eternal Feminine, the Radiant Queen.
The lyrical hero is ready to serve his Lady all his life. His beloved appears to him as if in a wonderful dream or fairy tale. She often appears in the twilight, fog, surrounded by unsteady shadows.
1 student:
"Poems about a beautiful lady"
I have a feeling about you. The years pass by -
All in one form I foresee You.
The whole horizon is on fire - and unbearably clear,
And I wait silently, yearning and loving.
But I’m scared: you’ll change your appearance,
And you will arouse impudent suspicion,
Changing the usual features at the end.
Oh, how I will fall - both sadly and low,
Without overcoming deadly dreams!
How clear is the horizon! And radiance is close.
But I’m scared: You will change your appearance.
Analysis of the poem.
The poem “I Anticipate You...” was written in 1901 and is one of the best masterpieces of Blok’s love lyrics in general and the “Poems about a Beautiful Lady” cycle in particular. The poet peers deeply into his soul, intensely searches for his ideal, and tragically perceives the slightest change in his relationship with his beloved.
Alexander Blok creates the ideal of a woman in a break with reality. And no matter how timeless the Beautiful Lady is, reality still invades the world of Blok’s dream, disturbing the harmony. Somewhere lurks a vague, barely perceptible feeling of discord, dissatisfaction, trouble in the world and soul of the poet:
The entire horizon is on fire—and unbearably clear.
And I wait silently, yearning and loving.
The whole horizon is on fire, and the appearance is near,
But I’m scared: you’ll change your appearance...
The feelings of the lyrical hero are also timeless. It cannot affect love: “The years pass by.” His fear that his beloved will change is due to the fact that the lyrical hero is afraid of the destruction of the ideal, the destruction of the dream.
His internal state and emotional experiences can be easily traced in the speech of the lyrical hero. Addresses to the beloved are carried out with the pronoun “You”, which the author capitalizes, thus conveying the deification of the heroine and the attitude towards her.
The poem is a confessional monologue, since the lyrical hero confesses to “her” his dreams, feelings, and love. The poet does not shout about his feelings, no! He is simply “waiting silently,” but inside him “the elements are raging.” This is evidenced by exclamatory constructions: “Without overcoming mortal dreams!..”, “How clear is the horizon!”
Alexander Blok creates the image of his beloved, to whom the monologue is addressed. I think that when reading this work, we feel the heroine, like the lyrical hero, through verbs in the first person (I have a presentiment, I’m waiting, I’ll go).
For a poet, love is a feeling that brings the highest tension and pleasure. Without it, the author cannot imagine human existence. At the same time, one of the lovers always suffers more than the other. This is a disaster, but one that allows you to experience unprecedented happiness.
Student 2:
“I enter dark temples...”
I enter dark temples,
I perform a poor ritual.
There I am waiting for the Beautiful Lady
In the flickering red lamps.
In the shadow of a tall column
I'm shaking from the creaking of the doors.
And he looks into my face, illuminated,
Only an image, only a dream about Her.
Oh, I'm used to these robes
Majestic Eternal Wife!
They run high along the cornices
Smiles, fairy tales and dreams.
How pleasing are Your features!
But I believe: Darling - You.
Analysis of the poem.
From the first verse of the poem we are immersed in the atmosphere of the solemnity of church life:
I enter dark temples,
I perform a poor ritual.
There I am waiting for the Beautiful Lady
In the flickering red lamps.
The red color of the lamps illuminates not only her image, but also everything around her.
Oh, I'm used to these robes
Hail, Eternal Wife!
They run high along the cornices
Smiles, fairy tales and dreams.
In the last 2 lines of this verse, the joy of the lyrical hero about the presence of Her light in the soul is visible.
At the center of the poem, She is a Beautiful Lady, Eternal Wife, Sweet, Holy, Majestic. She has many names. Even candles next to her “Illuminated Image” and “Pleasant Features” become “affectionate”.
Oh, Holy One, how tender the candles are,
How pleasing are Your features!
In this verse, the Beautiful Lady appears as dear to the lyrical hero, not in this world, but in eternity:
I can't hear neither sighs nor speeches,
But I believe: Darling-You.
The 3rd student recites by heart “The girl sang in the church choir...”:
The girl sang in the church choir
About all those who are tired in a foreign land,
About all the ships that went to sea,
About all those who have forgotten their joy.
And a ray shone on a white shoulder,
And everyone looked and listened from the darkness,
How the white dress sang in the beam.
And it seemed to everyone that there would be joy,
That all the ships are in the quiet backwater,
And that in a foreign land there are tired people
You have found a bright life for yourself.
And only high, at the Royal Doors,
Involved in secrets, the child cried
That no one will come back.
The 4th student reads the poem “We met...”:
We met you at sunset.
You cut through the bay with an oar.
I loved your white dress
Having fallen out of love with the sophistication of dreams.
The silent meetings were strange.
Ahead - on a sand spit
The evening candles were lit.
Someone thought about pale beauty.
Approaches, rapprochements, combustions -
The azure silence does not accept...
We met in the evening fog
Where there are ripples and reeds near the shore.
No melancholy, no love, no resentment,
Everything has faded, passed, moved away...
White camp, voices of the funeral service
And your golden oar.
Teacher's words:
– “The City” (1904-1908) seems to have been written by another person. His entire second book is a feeling of hopelessness, of falling into a swamp. There is no Pushkin’s wise, crystal-clear thought here, which will appear later, in the third book, now he is head-first in the quagmire, clarity will come later.
The city depicted by the poet has always been Petersburg. St. Petersburg nights, women, taverns, blizzards. No, Blok, he did not glorify St. Petersburg, but every line of his poems seemed to be woven from St. Petersburg air, and the revolution that he reflected in this book was also St. Petersburg. A miracle happened to the poet - he saw people and now here in the city he realized for the first time that this event was huge for him.
II cycle of poems.
5th student:
Factory
In the neighboring house the windows are zsolt.
In the evenings - in the evenings
Thoughtful bolts creak,
People approach the gate.
And the gates are silently locked,
And on the wall - and on the wall
motionless someone, black someone
Counts people in silence.
I hear everything from my top:
He calls with a copper voice
Bend your weary backs
There are people gathered below.
They will come in and disperse,
They will pile the coolies on their backs.
And they will laugh in the yellow windows,
What did these beggars do?
Analysis of the poem
Blok's path to people was difficult - the path from a closed environment of intellectuals into a world of screaming contradictions and struggle.
The revolution of 1905 had a great influence on Blok. It’s not just a matter of poetic responses to it; the revolution restructured both the content and artistic system of all of Blok’s poetry. The poet is intensely looking for ways to overcome “lyrical isolation”; he is afraid that the lyrics will lock him into his own “I”.
“I put my ear to the ground,” says the poet. The “terrible world” in the years preceding the first Russian revolution is reflected in his poems with all its truly terrible features: the poverty of the poor, hungry children, tragic deaths, the ugliness of human relations, the philistinism of the bourgeoisie, the emptiness of the intelligentsia.
Blok hated everything that contradicted his “living awareness of the presence of the infinite, the miraculous in the world.” Blok especially hated the world of bourgeois satiety and bourgeois vulgarity. On the reaction of the bourgeoisie to the revolution of 1905. He wrote in the poem “Fed”:
During the years of the first Russian revolution, the poet’s hostility towards decadence also grew. He is drawn to realists and highly appreciates Gorky's creative work. The lyrical hero of Blok’s poetry also changes: he becomes a poor man, acutely aware of the hardships of life, its uncertainty, and unhappiness. Life is hostile and merciless to him.
From Blok:
They will come in and disperse,
They will pile the coolies on their backs
And they will laugh in the yellow windows,
What did these beggars do?
Here are the factory windows illuminated from within; a beep calling to “bend your backs” No. gloomy black spots of color.
However, it is precisely this central image in the poem (“black someone”) that speaks of the originality of Blok’s symbolist poetics:
Impressions are encrypted:
And the gates are silently locked,
And on the wall - and on the wall
motionless someone, black someone
Counts people in silence.
In this poem, the terrible music of a “terrible world” sounds. By portraying the workers, Blok cannot say anything about their historical mission. But the symbolist Blok has a deeply humane humanity, sympathy for the tormented and deceived people, pain for them.
The 6th student reads the poem “Fed”:
They have been tormenting me for a long time:
In the midst of a virgin dream
They were bored and did not live,
And crushed the white flowers.
And so - in the dining rooms and living rooms,
Over a pile of glasses, ladies, old women,
Over the boredom of their decorous dinners -
The electric light went out.
They bring something in, light candles,
There are yellow circles on their faces,
Parchment speeches hiss,
It's hard to move my brain.
So - everything that is full is indignant,
The satiety of important bellies yearns:
After all, the trough is overturned,
Their rotten stable is alarmed!
Now they have a meager lot:
Their house is unlit
And pleas for bread burn their ears
And the red laughter of other people's banners!
Let them live out their lives as usual -
We are sorry to destroy their satiety.
Only pure children - indecent
Their old boredom is to imitate.
7th student:
We were about to attack...
They were going to attack. Straight to the chest
The sharpened bayonet is pointed.
Someone shouted, “Be glorified!”
Someone whispers: “Don’t forget!”
He fell nearby, clasping his hands,
And the army closed over him.
Someone is beating underfoot
Who - this is not the time to remember...
Only in a cheerful memory
Somewhere a candle lit up.
And they walked with heavy feet
Warm body trampling...
After all, no one will meet old age -
Death flies from mouth to mouth...
Fury burns high
The bloody distance is empty...
What! the grinding will be louder,
Sweeter pain and brighter death!
And then - the earth will soften
The frightened firmament.
The 8th student recites the poem “Rally” by heart.
The 9th student reads the poem “Rus” by heart, then analyzes:
Rus
You are extraordinary even in your dreams.
I won't touch your clothes.
I doze - and behind the doze there is a secret,
And in secret - you will rest, Rus'.
Rus' is surrounded by rivers
And surrounded by wilds,
With swamps and cranes,
And with the dull gaze of a sorcerer,
Where are the diverse peoples
From edge to edge, from valley to valley
They lead night dances
Under the glow of burning villages.
Where are the sorcerers and sorcerers?
The grains in the fields are enchanting,
And the witches are having fun with the devils
In road snow pillars.
Where the blizzard sweeps violently
Up to the roof - fragile housing,
And the girl on the evil friend
Under the snow it sharpens the blade.
"Rus", analysis of the poem by A. Blok.
The poem "Rus" was written on September 24, 1906 and was included in the second volume of Blok's lyrics.
With the advent of the revolution of 1905-1907. The theme of the Motherland becomes one of the key ones in Blok’s work.
Rus' is compared to a woman: I will not touch your clothes, you will rest, you have rocked a living soul.
If you listen to the rhythm of the poem, then it all sounds like a spell from that very sorcerer who stands over the fire and monotonously says, “girdled by rivers and surrounded by wilds.” Magic sounds in every stanza: “night round dances”, “sorcerers with sorcerers”, “witches with devils”. But gradually the overall picture becomes more real: “blizzard”, “fragile housing”, “girl”, “evil friend”. Such an author sees “poverty in the country.” The tragic atmosphere is fueled by images of the “sad path,” the graveyard, the cemetery. And yet the bright “living soul” and unsullied original purity triumph.
The lyrical hero of the poem. He is in love with his homeland and treats it with awe and reverence. For him, Rus' is mysterious and unusual. Even in a dream, the lyrical hero does not dare to lift the veil of this secret “I will not touch your clothes.” It is different - his Rus'. It contains not only the charm of antiquity, a fairy tale, mystery, but also poverty, sadness, and suffering. However, the living soul of the lyrical hero did not lose its spiritual purity. And this is the main mystery of Rus', which our hero is trying to comprehend. At the beginning of the poem, he addresses Rus' “you are extraordinary even in dreams,” and at the end he sums up his thoughts “she is extraordinary even in dreams.”
In his poems dedicated to the Motherland, there is a depth of emotions and experiences. Blok's understanding of Russia is tragic, lyrical and very personal. The author idealizes the past, in which fairy-tale and real events are intertwined.
The 10th student reads the poem “Stranger.”
Teacher's words:
Time from 1908-1915 was a dark period in the poet's life. The Beautiful Lady is gone... And without her there is emptiness “You and I are gone into the desert” - this has been his constant feeling since then. “Life is empty,” the block repeated. And he was left with one thing in emptiness - laughter at love and faith in love.
For eight years, Blok has been tirelessly repeating that he is dead, even love cannot resurrect him. There seemed to be no way out. But the poet finds a shrine. Which will be worshiped for the rest of my life - “The Shrine is Russia.”
For him, Russia used to be a distance, space, a path. Having started talking about Russia, he feels like a traveler, lost in disastrous but beloved spaces, he says that even at the last minute on his deathbed he will remember Russia as the most dear and dear thing in life.
III cycle of poems
The 11th student reads the poem by heart and analyzes it.
“About valor, about exploits, about glory...”
About valor, about exploits, about glory
I forgot on the sorrowful land,
When your face is in a simple frame
It was shining on the table in front of me.
But the hour came, and you left home.
I threw the treasured ring into the night.
You gave your destiny to someone else
And I forgot the beautiful face.
The days flew by, spinning like a damned swarm...
Wine and passion tormented my life...
Don't dream about tenderness, about fame,
Everything is over, youth is gone!
Your face in its simple frame
I removed it from the table with my own hand.
Analysis of the poem “About valor, about exploits, about glory...”
This work was written in 1908. It has the structure of a ring composition: the first line repeats the last, but is opposed to it; at the conclusion of the poem, the author seems to want to repeat the first line, but he no longer thinks about valor or exploits, he is looking for at least tenderness, but does not find it either.
The genre of the poem is a love letter. The hero turns to the woman he loves who has left him. He feels a passionate desire to return the love lost many years ago:
And I remembered you in front of the lectern,
And he called you like his youth...
I called you, but you didn't look back,
I shed tears, but you did not condescend.
Those days when the beloved’s face shone were replaced by terrible days, spinning like a “cursed swarm.” The image of a “terrible world” is symbolic; it is one of the key ones in the poem. Merging with the image of a damp night, it contrasts with the “blue cloak” of the past, the cloak in which the heroine wrapped herself when leaving home (the blue color is treason):
You sadly wrapped yourself in a blue cloak,
On a damp night you left the house.
I don’t know where my pride has a refuge
You, my dear, you, my gentle one, have found...
I sleep soundly, I dream of your blue cloak,
In which you left on a damp night...
Days are like nights, life seems like a dream (“I’m fast asleep”). The poem contains a large number of epithets: “on a sorrowful land”, “cherished ring”, “cursed swarm”, “on a damp night”. The tenderness with which the hero remembers his beloved, comparing her with his youth: “And he called you like his youth...” is emphasized in the work with such epithets as: “beautiful face”, “you, dear”, “you , tender.” There are personifications and metaphors in the poem: “when your face in a simple frame shone on the table in front of me”, “I threw the treasured ring into the night”, “you gave your destiny to another”, “the days flew by”, “wine and passion tormented my life "
A. Blok always believed in the saving power of love, love as a cleansing bright feeling and strived to give all of himself to love, great love for a woman, for his homeland. He dedicated his feelings, thoughts, and soul to love, which is clearly expressed in his work.
A 12-student reads the poem “Russia” by heart and analyzes it.
Russia
Again, like in the golden years,
Three worn out flapping harnesses,
And the painted knitting needles knit
Into loose ruts...
Russia, poor Russia,
I want your gray huts,
Your songs are windy to me, -
Like the first tears of love!
I don't know how to feel sorry for you
And I carefully carry my cross...
Which sorcerer do you want?
Give me your robber beauty!
Let him lure and deceive, -
You won't be lost, you won't perish,
And only care will cloud
Your beautiful features...
Well? One more concern -
The river is noisier with one tear
And you are still the same - forest and field,
Yes, the patterned board goes up to the eyebrows...
And the impossible is possible
The long road is easy
When the road flashes in the distance
An instant glance from under a scarf,
When it rings with guarded melancholy
The dull song of the coachman.
Analysis of the poem.
The mood that is created when reading Alexander Blok's poem slowly moves from sad to solemn. The author calls Russia poor, its huts gray, its roads sloppy, which cannot but depress, but in the last quatrain there appears light at the end of the road:
And the impossible is possible
The long road is easy...
There is some chance, hope for the best!...
Blok begins the poem with the lines:
Again, like in the golden years,
Three worn out flapping harnesses...
The word “Again” creates the feeling that the author is repeating something; something that is repeated time after time, year after year. Which suggests that Russia is unchanged, it remains exactly as it has been since the beginning of time, since the golden years. . The golden period is usually called the period of time when humanity lived its best years. Does this mean that Russia is still living in that past tense? I think yes.
The second quatrain begins with the address:
Russia, poor Russia...
He addresses the Country as if he were addressing a living person, it is obvious that he considers it alive, no less alive than me or you. Everything he sees and hears, he compares with the first tears of love. The first tears are something tender, but at the same time causing some kind of melancholy and sadness.
The author uses a special technique - alliteration - he uses the repeated sound “I”, which creates a special feeling: a constriction appears in the throat, usually preceding tears, tears that appear from pity for something.
The author continues the monologue, saying that he does not know how to feel sorry. Obviously, he considers pity to be the fate of weak, weak-willed people. Yes, perhaps this is cruel, but knowing this we can say with confidence that the lyrical hero is strong in spirit, and that he will bear the weight of his fate without any problems. It seems to me that here the author draws parallels between himself and Russia. He praises the strength of the spirit of Russia, the strength of the spirit of its people, and says:
Which sorcerer do you want?
Give me back your robber beauty!...
He means that it would not have happened, Russia will endure all the trials and go through all the obstacles and this will not confuse its beauty in the least.
The 13th student reads by heart A. Blok’s poem “On the Railway”
On the railway
Maria Pavlovna Ivanova
Under the embankment, in the unmown ditch,
Lies and looks as if alive,
In a colored scarf thrown on her braids,
Beautiful and young.
Sometimes I walked with a sedate gait
To the noise and whistle behind the nearby forest.
Walking all the way around the long platform,
She waited, worried, under the canopy...
The carriages walked in the usual line,
They shook and creaked;
The yellow and blue ones were silent;
The green ones cried and sang.
We got up sleepy behind the glass
And looked around with an even gaze
Platform, garden with faded bushes,
Her, the gendarme next to her...
Just once a hussar, with a careless hand
Leaning on the scarlet velvet,
He slid a gentle smile over her...
He slipped and the train sped off into the distance.
Thus the useless youth rushed,
Exhausted in empty dreams...
Road melancholy, iron
She whistled, breaking my heart...
Don't approach her with questions
You don’t care, but she’s satisfied:
With love, mud or wheels
She is crushed - everything hurts.
The 14th student recites by heart the poem “Born in the Years Are Deaf...”
Those born in the year are deaf...
Those born in the year are deaf
They don’t remember their own paths.
We are children of the terrible years of Russia -
I can't forget anything.
Sizzling years!
Is there madness in you, is there hope?
From the days of war, from the days of freedom -
There is a bloody glow in the faces.
There is muteness - then the sound of the alarm
He forced me to stop my mouth.
In hearts that were once delighted,
There is a fatal emptiness.
And let over our deathbed
The crow will fly up with a cry, -
Those who are more worthy, God, God,
Let them see your kingdom!
The 15th student reads the poem “Oh, spring! without end and without edge"
Oh, spring! without end and without edge -
An endless and endless dream!
I recognize you, life! I accept!
And I greet you with the ringing of the shield!
I accept you, failure,
And good luck, my greetings to you!
In the enchanted area of crying,
There is no shame in the secret of laughter!
I accept sleepless arguments,
Morning in the curtains of dark windows,
So that my inflamed eyes
Spring was annoying and intoxicating!
I accept desert weights!
And the wells of earthly cities!
The illuminated expanse of the skies
And the languor of slave labor!
And I meet you at the doorstep -
With a wild wind in snake curls,
With an unsolved name of god
On cold and compressed lips...
Before this hostile meeting
I will never give up my shield...
You will never open your shoulders...
But above us is a drunken dream!
And I look and measure the enmity,
Hating, cursing and loving:
For torment, for death - I know -
All the same: I accept you!
The teacher's word about the poem "The Twelve". Working with the text of the poem on the following questions:
The complexity of Blok's perception of the social nature of the revolution. The plot of the poem and its characters. The struggle of the worlds. The image of a “world fire”, the ambiguity of the ending, the image of Christ in the poem. Composition, vocabulary, rhythm, intonation variety of the poem.
Decent people did not bow to him, they did not shake hands with him, they boycotted him, they despised him, insulted him in letters and poems...
For what? Because he wrote "The Twelve". A great poem. The pride of Russian poetry of the 20th century. The first poem that glorified the October Revolution.
A poem that was destined to be included in all anthologies and textbooks on literature.
The poem that placed the name of Alexander Blok in the first rank of Russian poets. We say so now, but then, in the winter of 1918, not everyone thought so!
Some reproached Blok for selling out to the Bolsheviks, others argued that “The Twelve” was an evil satire on the revolution. Still others were outraged by the ridicule of ordinary people. But with what gratitude the hungry, chilled soldiers and sailors read this poem. This poem was the poetic embodiment of living, revolutionary modernity.
"With my whole body, with my whole
With my heart and with all my mind
Listen to the revolution!. - called the poet!
He began writing the poem from the middle: with the words:
"I'm using a knife
I'll strip, I'll strip..."
These two letters LJ seemed very expressive to him. Then I moved on to the beginning and wrote almost everything in one day!
Questions for the poem “The Twelve”
- When was the poem written?
In January 1918
- What is the poem about?
October Revolution 1917
- What thought permeates this work?
The struggle between the old world and the new.
- Write out slogans and appeals from the poem.
- “All power to the Constituent Assembly!”, “Forward, forward, forward working people”, “Keep the revolutionary step!”
- What two main colors are present in the poem?
The poem contains colors: black, white, meets red.
- What symbolic images did you notice in the poem?
Wind, blizzard, snow are constant Blok motifs. The number "twelve", "rootless dog".
- What words does the author use to describe the “world of the well-fed”?
- “And there’s the long-haired one - on the side - behind the snowdrift...”, “the lady in karakul”, “the bourgeois at the crossroads”.
- What is the general image of the “old world”?
- “The old world is like a mangy dog,” “And the old world, like a rootless dog, stands behind it with its tail between its legs.”
- Who does the author oppose to the “old world”?
Red Army soldiers.
- How would you characterize these characters?
- “There’s a cigarette in your teeth, you’ve taken a cap, / You should have an ace of diamonds on your back!” - short and clear - “the prison is crying for them.”
- Explain the number “12”, which is present in the poem.
Twelve chapters, twelve Red Army soldiers, twelve months, twelve apostles.
- What does the image of Christ at the end of the poem express?
The image of Christ is a new life in the future, cleansing, forgiveness of sins, remission of them.
The image of Christ is the hope that darkness in the souls of people will be overcome by light and goodness; without Him such hope cannot exist.
The image of Christ is probably a belief in the sanctity of the revolution.
A poem that begins with black: “Black Evening” still ends in white: “In white there are corollas of roses...”
Only a poet, connected by blood ties with the people and the Motherland, could so accurately hear and express what the Russian people lived, dreamed about, and fought for.
“But still, “Twelve” is Blok’s greatest achievement.
Do you agree with this assessment?
You can have different attitudes towards what Blok showed in the poem, towards its characters, and their world. You can agree or disagree with the author, but you cannot help but admit that the poem “The Twelve” is a great work about one of the most terrible eras in the history of Russia, for the revolution is a merciless battle between God and the Devil for the human soul. The poem "The Twelve" is an honest attempt to understand one's country and one's people. Not to condemn or justify, but to understand. And this is precisely the enduring significance of Blok and his work.
Stage 4 Consolidation of educational material.
View the presentation, comments from the teacher.
Stage 5 Homework assignment.Write an argumentative essay - “The image of the revolutionary era in A. Blok’s poem “The Twelve”
Stage 6. Summing up the lesson.
Bibliography:
- Alexander Blok in portraits, illustrations and documents. Teacher's manual. – L., Education, 1973
- Alexander Blok Petersburg. Shakhmatovo. Moscow. Photo album Authors – compilers V.P. Enisherov, S.S. Lesnevsky, A.A. Ryumin. – M., Soviet Russia, 1986
- Russian literature of the 20th century. Textbook for 11th grade / edited by Kozhinov V.V. – M., Russian Word, 1999.
- Blok A.A. Poems and poems: Favorites. Text analysis. Literary criticism. Works / A.A. Block., Auto. – comp. G.G. Avdonina. – M.: Astrel Publishing House LLC: AST Publishing House LLC, 2004 https://accounts.google.com
The theme of Russia in Blok's lyrics
Introduction
Alexander Blok as a poet-patriot
The image of Russia in Blok’s lyric poems. Moving away from the mystical interpretation of the topic (collection "Motherland")
Unity of the themes of the Motherland and revolution
Conclusion
List of used literature
Introduction
Alexander Alexandrovich Blok worked and lived at the turn of two centuries. He was rightfully the last great poet of old Russia, and at the same time, the opening of the first page in the history of Soviet and Russian poetry is associated with his name.
Time from 1908 to 1915 - a dark period in Blok’s life. The Beautiful Lady is gone, and without her there is emptiness. “You have gone away, and I am in the desert,” has been his constant feeling since then. "Life is empty..."
And one thing was left in emptiness for him - this is laughter, that blasphemous laughter at love and faith, with which he laughed back in the “Balaganchik”. This laughter is death. Blok tirelessly insists that he is dead. Even love was powerless to resurrect, because if love does not lead to heaven, it is death and melancholy.
Now he doesn’t need any lovers, any three-ruble maiden will take him to the starry homeland for a small fee, because there is no other way to the enchanted shore. Let it not be radiant, but nightly and earthly, as long as it takes you away from the earth. So, without God and without people, without heaven and earth, he was left alone in the void - only with fear and laughter.
But back in 1906, at the time of “The Showcase” and “The Stranger,” he vaguely felt that there was such a shrine that was holy only because there was no splendor in it, but all of it was pain and melancholy. This shrine is Russia. In a letter to K. S. Stanislavsky (1908), A Blok wrote: “I consciously and irrevocably devote my life to this topic. I realize more and more clearly that this is the primary question, the most vital, the most real. I’ve been approaching him for a long time, from the beginning of my adult life.”
He not only loves his country, its nature, its people, he is trying to unravel the soul of Russia, understand its present and determine its future.
Blok's attention is focused on the fate of the common people, on the relationship between the intelligentsia and the people. For Blok, Russia remained a mystery, but an alluring and unforgettable mystery. All his poems of that time are an attraction to the Motherland, its pains and joys, to its bright and poor beauty:
block poet poem lyric
Russia, poor Russia,
I want your black huts,
Your songs are windy to me -
Like the first tears of love.
Purpose of the work: to show the history and significance of the image of Russia in Blok’s work. To achieve the goal, it is necessary to solve the following tasks: to trace how the image of the Motherland is created by Blok, to identify the main motives, symbols and other images, the peculiarity of the poetic structure of Blok’s lyrics.
1. Alexander Blok as a patriotic poet
Alexander Alexandrovich Blok entered the history of Russian literature as an outstanding lyric poet. His work took place in an era of great social upheaval, which ended before the poet’s eyes with the collapse of the old world.
Over more than twenty years of creative activity, Blok has undergone a complex evolution. He walked a difficult, winding path. The poet's connection with the best liberation traditions of Russian classical poetry - the traditions of Pushkin, Lermontov, Nekrasov - helped him overcome the antisocial principles of symbolism and become a poet-citizen. Having begun his poetic journey with a book of mystical poems about the Beautiful Lady, Blok ended it with a formidable curse on the old world, which sounded with great force in the wonderful poem “The Twelve.”
The main themes of Blok’s work in the period after the 1905 revolution are deeply significant, and he was able to give full and sincere expression to all of them. This is the theme of the homeland, the people, Russia. This is the theme of revolution in the broad sense of the word. This is a theme that we will call the theme of criticism of the social system, and, finally, the broad humanistic theme of man.
The poem “Rus” is one of the first dedicated to Russia. “I consciously and irrevocably devote my life to this topic,” wrote Blok. Trying to comprehend the spirit of Russia, the poet in his imagination embraces with one glance old Rus' with its ancient beliefs, fairy tales, sorcerers, with its blizzards and evil spirits in the “pillars of snow”, with pilgrims and wanderers who walked with a staff - a stick. When these pictures and heroes passed before the poet’s mind’s eye, when this poetry of the ancient worldview, still alive in Russia of the twentieth century, was revealed to him and experienced by him, the poet has the right to exclaim:
So - I learned in my slumber
Country of birth poverty,
And in the scraps of her rags
I hide my nakedness from my soul.
The following stanzas are like a confession and an attempt to rethink your entire previous life path and the entire system of personal and all spiritual relationships. It was Rus' that saved the poet from the loss of spiritual purity.
Addressing the topic of Russia's historical past
The cycle “On the Kulikovo Field” is Blok’s highest poetic achievement of 1907 - 1908. A piercing sense of homeland coexists here with a special kind of “lyrical historicism”, the ability to see one’s own – intimately close – today’s and eternal in Russia’s past. For Blok's artistic method of these and subsequent years, the attempts to overcome symbolism and the deep connection with the foundations of the symbolist vision of the world are also noteworthy.
The plot of the cycle “On the Kulikovo Field” has a historical basis - the centuries-old opposition of Rus' to the Tatar-Mongol invasion. The lyrical-epic plot combines a specifically historical event outline: battles, military campaigns, a picture of his native land covered in fire - and a chain of experiences of the lyrical hero, capable of comprehending the entire centuries-old historical path of Rus'. The cycle was created in 1908. This is the time of reaction after the defeat of the 1905 revolution.
The poet's appeal to a historical theme is not accidental. Even before Blok, such great writers as A.S. repeatedly addressed this topic. Pushkin and M.Yu. Lermontov, F.I. Tyutchev and N.A. Nekrasov. The poet continues these traditions. Turning to the history of the Russian land, he seeks analogies with contemporary reality. In the past, he tries to find the origins of the Russian national character, the reasons for choosing the historical path of Russia. The past gives him the opportunity to think about the present and future of his native land.
Blok’s poetic cycle “On the Kulikovo Field” is like a reminder of the feat that was once embodied in the struggle between light and darkness. The main goal of this struggle was to overcome the dark house for the sake of the liberation and happiness of our homeland. In the cycle “On the Kulikovo Field” itself, the poet managed to combine intense feelings, concern for the fate of Russia and the breadth of deep, soft thoughts that seem to dissolve in the voice of the country’s history itself. In 1912, in the first collection of his poems, Blok wrote: “The Battle of Kulikovo” belongs, according to the author’s conviction, to the symbolic events of Russian history. Such an event is destined to return. The solution is yet to come."
In the cycle “On the Kulikovo Field,” Blok tries to comprehend Russian history, but not as an outside observer or an impartial chronicler, but as an accomplice. The poet organically merges with his lyrical hero. It is difficult to understand where the author speaks on his own behalf and where on behalf of the lyrical hero. History begins to speak in the voice of poetry. Russia has such a great past and such a huge future that it takes your breath away:
Our path is steppe, our path is boundless melancholy,
In your melancholy, oh, Rus'!
And even the darkness - night and foreign -
I'm not afraid.
The cycle “On the Kulikovo Field” is divided into five chapters. In the first poem of this cycle, the theme of the path arises, revealing itself in two planes: temporal and spatial. The image of the historical path of Russia presents us with a time plan:
And the Khan's saber is steel.
It is in the past that the poet is looking for a life-giving force that allows Rus' not to be afraid of the “darkness - nightly and foreign” that hides its long journey. This force is in perpetual motion and is characterized by the absence of rest. This is how the image of the Motherland appears - a “steppe mare” rushing at a gallop. The steppe mare embodies both Scythian origins and eternal movement. A. Blok's search for the future is tragic. Suffering is the price to pay for moving forward, so the path of the Motherland lies through pain:
Our path is an arrow of the ancient Tatar will
Pierced us through the chest.
The combination of a temporal plan with a spatial one gives the poem a special dynamism. Russia will never freeze in deathly immobility; it will always be accompanied by changes:
And there is no end!
Miles and steep slopes flash by...
The wide, flat steppe seems limitless. Meanwhile, this is not forest and meadow Rus', the strict northern princess of Blok’s other poems (“Russia”). This is a battlefield. But for now, before the battle, the poet’s thoughts flow in a wide stream, where grief, and pride, and a premonition of change merged together:
Oh, my Rus'! My wife! To the point of pain
We have a long way to go!
Our path is an arrow of the ancient Tatar will
Pierced us through the chest.
Here the poet has a beautiful image of Russia - his wife, a young and beloved woman. However, there is no poetic license in this; there is the highest degree of unity of the lyrical hero with Russia, especially if we take into account the semantic aura given to the word “wife” by symbolist poetry. In it he goes back to the gospel tradition, to the image of a majestic wife. He wants to understand the source of Russia’s strength and resilience; this does not weaken, but only strengthens, his filial attachment to the Motherland. This shows the influence of V. Solovyov, thanks to whom the image of eternal femininity, recognizable and mystical at the same time, penetrates into the work of A. Blok. It is no coincidence that for the fifth poem of the cycle the author chose an epigraph from a poem by V. Solovyov. At the end of the first poem, a romantic image of a steppe mare appears, racing against the backdrop of a bloody sunset. It also ties into the theme of Russia looking to the future. The words “steppe”, “steppe” emphasize the expanses of the native land.
A battle begins with no end in sight:
And eternal battle! Rest only in our dreams
Through blood and dust.
The steppe mare flies, flies
And the feather grass crumples.
This is a fight not only against the invasion, it is a fight against the dark, slavish trace in the souls that it left. And the steppe mare flying into the distance is a will and a free spirit, which is not easy to bridle, tame, or direct into a peaceful direction. Here, pride, sorrow, and anticipation of important and great changes, events that all of Russia joyfully awaits, simultaneously merge into one:
Let it be night. Let's get home. Let's light up the fires
The steppe distance.
The holy banner will flash in the steppe smoke
And the Khan's saber is steel.
In the poem “The River Spreads Out,” the object of poetic speech changes several times. It begins as a description of a typically Russian landscape; meager and sad. Then a direct appeal to Russia is heard, and, finally, at the end of the poem a new object of address appears: “Cry, heart, cry.” In the poem, A. Blok uses the author’s “we”, reflecting on the fate of the people of his generation. They seem tragic to him, rapid movement is a movement towards death, the eternal battle here is not joyful, but dramatic. The theme of the poem corresponds to its intonation structure, the very tempo of poetic speech. It begins calmly, even slowly, then the pace rapidly increases, the sentences are made short, half or even a third of a poetic line (for example: “Let it be night. Let us go home. Let us illuminate with fires”).
In the second poem of the cycle, one can feel the readiness of a warrior of ancient times to defend his land at any cost. In the guise of the army warrior Dmitry Donskoy, the poet sees the embodiment of the immortal spirit and unyielding courage of the Russian people, formidable in their anger. Blok describes anxiety, doubt, and a premonition that this battle is the first of those yet to come.
The lyrical hero of this cycle is the nameless ancient Russian warrior of Dmitry Donskoy. The image of the lyrical hero merges with the image of the defender of the Motherland. He is a patriot of his native country, a fighter for its freedom. The hero, realizing that the battle is difficult, that he is “not the first warrior, not the last,” is ready to “lie down dead for a holy cause.” There also sounds undisguised bitterness: “The homeland will be sick for a long time.” Old Russian tononymy plays a special role in the development of the patriotic theme in this cycle: Nepryadva, Don, Kulikovo field. The creation of images of the natural world goes back to the traditions of ancient Russian literature (to “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign”, “Zadonshchina”) (feather grass bent to the ground, haystacks are sad, swans are screaming, the squeal of eagles is heard in the Tatar camp).
In the third poem, the image of the Motherland is the image of a wife, mother, the bright Mother of God, who protects all living things.
Here the dim Russian nature with its fogs and silence, the poet’s religious and fairy-tale perception of Russian culture, and the tragic insight into the historical fate of Russia merged.
The poet is sure that Russia is protected by a certain force, it is invisible, but tangible. Thanks to this intercession, the country rises from the ashes like a phoenix.
And when, the next morning, a black cloud
The horde moved
Your face, not made by hands, was in the shield
Gone forever.
The fourth poem (“Again with age-old melancholy”) takes us into modern times, prompting thoughts about the people and the intelligentsia:
And I, with age-old melancholy,
Like a wolf under a bad moon,
I don't know what to do with myself
Where should I fly for you?
Blok’s thoughts and crossroads are connected with the fact that the poet must choose which side he is on: the people or the government, which despises and oppresses these people. This is precisely the interpretation of the position of the intelligentsia that Blok himself gives in his article “The People and the Intelligentsia,” written in the same 1908.
The fifth and final poem in the structure of the cycle is of paramount importance: here is a look into the future, fraught with “the darkness of irresistible misfortunes” (as stated in the epigraph taken from V. Solovyov), and decisive battles for Russia, suppressed for the time being by reaction.
Again over the Kulikov field
The darkness rose and spread,
And like a harsh cloud
The coming day is clouded.
Behind the endless silence,
Behind the spreading haze
The thunder of the wonderful battle cannot be heard,
Combat lightning is not visible.
But I recognize you, the beginning
High and rebellious days!
Over the enemy camp, as it used to be,
And the splashing and trumpets of swans.
The heart cannot live in peace,
No wonder the clouds have gathered.
The armor is heavy, as before a battle.
Now your time has come. - Pray!
What real content Blok put into the concept of the future can be seen from his letter to V. Rozanov (February 20, 1909). Great Russian literature and social thought bequeathed “a huge concept of a living, mighty and young Russia.” It embraces both the peasant with his thought “all about one thing”, and the “young revolutionary with a face blazing with truth”, in general everything thunderous, saturated with electricity. “If there is something to live for, then only this. And if anywhere such Russia is “coming to life,” then, of course, only in the heart of the Russian revolution... No lightning rod can cope with this thunderstorm.”
Blok mentally faces the coming revolution, understands its inevitability and the inevitability of the choice: which side to stand on. As you know, the poet at the decisive moment chose the side of the people, despite the blood and cruelty. And he followed this path to the end.
The cycle of poems “On the Kulikovo Field” is not only a reminder of the long-standing feat of Russian soldiers, of the battle of light with darkness, good with evil, but also a statement of the eternity of this battle.
In the cycle, contrast plays an important role (rest and movement, dark and light principles, good and evil). However, the Tatar-Mongol yoke will be overthrown, for on the side of Rus' is holiness (“holy banner”, “face not made by hands”). In the last poem of the cycle, the author talks about the coming day. A motif of cyclicality appears in the development of historical events (“Again, over the Kulikovo field, the darkness rose and spread”). And Blok’s poetic phrase “But I recognize you, the beginning of the High and Rebellious Days” is no longer addressed to distant history, but to the present.
The cycle “On the Kulikovo Field” is maintained in a logical sequence, the poems of this cycle are characterized by the same motives (which are interpreted differently in each poem), the lyrical hero in this cycle goes through a certain path to the final understanding of the unity of his fate with the fate of Russia (it is no coincidence: “ the heart cannot live in peace" - the lyrical hero understood this not only with his mind, but also with his heart, i.e. with his whole being). It is important that in this cycle Blok says “Rus” (and not “Russia”), because this is not only following historical realities.
Thus, the cycle “On the Kulikovo Field” can be perceived not only as a work about the glorious and rebellious pages of Russian history, but also as a unique experience of historical foresight. It becomes clear that the Battle of Kulikovo interests the writer, first of all, as a landmark, turning point event in Russian history. The author draws parallels between past and contemporary events; his hero finds himself in the battle to save the Fatherland.
For the writer, the significance of the Battle of Kulikovo was not military or political, but spiritual. Blok believes in the future of Russia and the future of the Russian people, and this is the main theme in the cycle “On the Kulikovo Field.”
The image of Russia in Blok’s lyric poems. (Collection "Motherland")
In 1915, Blok’s book entitled “Poems about Russia” was published. In the lyrical three-volume work, which the author called a “novel in verse,” there is a cycle “Motherland,” which united what was written from 1907 to 1916. No one before Blok said such piercing and painful words about the homeland, which are stored in the soul of every Russian person: “The homeland is a huge, dear, breathing creature, similar to a person, but infinitely more comfortable, affectionate, helpless than an individual person.”
The cycle "Motherland" is the pinnacle of the third volume of Blok's lyrics. The semantic core of the cycle consists of poems dedicated directly to Russia. The poet speaks about his inextricable connection with the Motherland, with its largely dark and difficult fate in the poem “My Rus', my life, shall we suffer together?”
My Rus', my life, shall we suffer together?
Tsar, yes Siberia, yes Ermak, yes prison!
Eh, isn’t it time to separate and repent.
What is your darkness to a free heart?
The symbolic image that appears in the last stanza is
Quiet, long, red glow
Every night above yours.
Why are you silent, sleepy haze?
Are you playing freely with my spirit?
a harbinger of future changes.
Beyond the Black Sea, beyond the White Sea
On black nights and white days
The numb face looks wild,
The Tatar eyes are darting with fire.
The poet painted a “numb face” shaped by the insane pressure of time, which “looks wild” - “in black nights and white days.” Here is captured a repeating page of national history, the presence in modernity of the deep sources of the past. Two colors dominate - black and white. Wildness and barbaric underdevelopment interfere with the rhythm of the historical path, but there is life here, so the poet strives to become a participant in this difficult rhythm: “...shall we suffer together?” The swing of a pendulum and toil are the same root words here, although the meaning of suffering remains in this “toil,” but the movement of time also means the rhythm of the path.
“Motherland” for Blok is such a broad concept that he considered it possible to include in the cycle both purely intimate poems (“Visit”, “Smoke from the fire flows like a gray stream.”, “The sound is approaching. And submissive to the aching sound.”), and poems directly related to the problems of the “terrible world” (“Sin shamelessly, uncontrollably.”, “On the railway”).
The terrible world created by A. Blok is also Russia, and the poet’s highest courage is not not to see this, but to see and accept, to love his country even in such an unsightly guise. A. Blok himself extremely openly expressed this love-hate of his in the poem “Sin shamelessly, unstoppably” (1914). In him there appears an extremely disgusting, immensely repulsive image of a soulless man, a shopkeeper, whose whole life is an endless sleep of the spirit, even his repentance is only momentary. Having given a penny in church, he immediately returns and deceives his neighbor with this penny. At moments the poem almost sounds like satire. His hero takes on symbolic features. And the more unexpected and powerful the ending of the poem sounds:
Yes, and so, my Russia,
You are dearer to me from all over the world.
In Blok’s poems about the Motherland, Nekrasov’s sentiments are increasingly felt. One of the most striking is “On the Railroad” (1910). There are parallels here with Nekrasov's Troika. At the center of both works is the motive of expectation of happiness associated with the road. And yet “On the Iron Road” is a truly “Blok” verse. Nekrasov writes about the fate of women, about the doom of female beauty, about the hard lot of the peasant woman. For Blok, the fate of a young beautiful girl ends with her death. The impossibility of a different outcome is clearly indicated: “The heart has been taken out a long time ago.” She is “crushed” by life (“by love, dirt or wheels”), and death is preferable to humility for her. The poem takes on a high tragic sound. The reason for the tragedy is in the social contrasts of life: the “well-fed” have contentment and luxury; for the poor - darkness, dirt, death. Hungry, poor Russia, traveling in “green” carriages, sings and cries. The pain and suffering of the homeland is dear and close to the poet. In the portrait of the heroine ("in a colored scarf, thrown over her braids, beautiful and young..."), one of the faces of Blok's Russia is visible, which depicts a capacious image of the country.
In the constancy, duration and passion of the search for a generalized image of Russia, perhaps there is no one to put next to Nekrasov and Blok, but Blok goes further than Nekrasov. He approaches the topic of Russia from the heights of a new era, he sees it through the prism of time - his time. Nekrasov “helped” Blok, but could no longer fully satisfy him. In Blok’s work, the nineteenth century generally experienced its rebirth, and it was precisely a birth, i.e. a new emergence, reproduction, but on the basis of personal rethinking. At the same time, he sees his homeland - Russia "in one person" - "mother, sister and wife", i.e. Madonna, the Blessed Virgin, and expects the most terrible destructive actions from her.
In the last works of the collection “Motherland,” a new note appears, connected with the fact that a turn has come in the fate of the country, the war of 1914 has begun, and the motives for the future tragic fate of Russia sound more and more clearly in the poet’s poems. This can be felt in the poems “The Petrograd sky was clouded with rain.”, “I did not betray the white banner.”, “Kite.”
The cycle ends with the poem “Kite” (1916), where all the leading motives heard in the cycle are concentrated. Here are signs of discreet Russian nature, and a reminder of the forced fate of the Russian people, and milestones of Russian history, and a generalized image of the homeland. And the kite is a symbol of those sinister forces that weigh on Russia. At the end of the poem, the author poses questions that he addresses to himself, to readers, and, perhaps, to History itself as an active call to action:
Centuries pass, war roars,
There is a rebellion, villages are burning.
And you are still the same, my country,
In tear-stained and ancient beauty. -
How long should the mother push?
How long will the kite circle?
Blok was one of those poets who sensitively sensed the approach of social storms that could disrupt the “sleepy” life of Russia. They did not frighten him, on the contrary, in them he saw a new “star of Bethlehem” (I did not betray the white banner ...). Following N.A. Nekrasov, A. Blok believed that they were called upon to “spill” the “cup of the people’s grief” ( “It’s stuffy! Without happiness and will...”, 1868), to drive away the “kite” circling over the “tear-stained” country.
Thus, during the years of political and social reaction, after the defeat of the first Russian revolution, when bourgeois literature experienced a time of stagnation and decline, when the overwhelming majority of bourgeois writers, yesterday’s allies of the revolution, recoiled from the struggle for freedom and betrayed the noble traditions of advanced social thought and literature, During this difficult time, A. Blok occupied a special and, to the highest degree, worthy position. Disappointed in his previous quests, he persistently seeks new paths.
Turning to the “theme of Russia” was of great importance for Blok’s creative evolution as a search for a way out of the period of “antithesis” (the period of “deviations, falls, doubts, repentances”), as a return to the ethical traditions of Russian literature. From the world of the ethereal dream of fantasy, he finally moves into the world of reality, which both attracts and frightens him.
Blok experienced the defeat of the 1905 revolution, but did not lose his sense of the future: he correctly assessed the temporary triumph of reaction as an “accidental victory” of the executioners of the people and prevented the onset of even more formidable and majestic events. Russia becomes Blok’s main theme, both in his artistic creativity and in his journalism.
In the darkest time of reaction, A. Blok formed the idea of a “living, mighty and young Russia” that was “coming to life” in the “heart of the Russian revolution.” The poet's appeal to the theme of the Motherland, its historical path, its future fate was connected for him precisely with the experience of the rise and defeat of the first Russian revolution. In the poem “Autumn Will” (1905), the main tone of Blok’s future patriotic lyrics already sounded: “Shelter you in the vast distances, Just like living and crying without you!” - he exclaimed, turning to Russia. He spoke about the Motherland with endless love, with heartfelt tenderness, with aching pain and bright hope. Through the everyday, impoverished appearance of the Motherland, the poet sees its ideal and unchanging (“you are still the same”) essence.
The image of Russia, as it appears in Blok’s various poems, reflects the entire dynamics of Blok’s development. In the poem "Rus" (1906), Russia seems to him to be a fabulous and mysterious country. But gradually the pictures of fairy-tale folklore give way to other pictures of Russia at that time: poor, suffering, pious and at the same time robber, powerful and free. This bloc loves this Russia because in it “even the impossible is possible.”
A broad, multi-colored, full of life and movement picture of his native land “in tear-stained and ancient beauty” is composed in Blok’s poems. Vast Russian distances, endless roads, deep rivers, scanty clay of washed-out cliffs and flaming rowan trees, violent blizzards and snowstorms, bloody sunsets; burning villages, mad troikas, gray huts, loose ruts of roads, alarming cries of swans and cries of a flock of cranes, trains and station platforms, factory chimneys and whistles, the fire of war, soldier trains, songs and mass graves. This was how Russia was for the pre-October Bloc.
The historical mission of Russia in assessing the poet (poem "Scythians")
A red thread running through all of Blok’s work is his reflections on the historical destinies of Russia, on the future of his “fatal, native country!” Blok accepted the revolution as deliverance from the “old world,” the “terrible world,” as “a great revival under the sign of masculinity and will.” In the poem “Scythians,” written after “The Twelve,” Blok again turned to the question that worried him about the historical destinies and tasks of Russia. Now he has resolved this issue in relation to the new, Soviet Russia, understanding it as a stronghold of peace and brotherhood of peoples, as the focus of all the best and valuable that has been created by humanity throughout its history. Written in the decisive days for the revolution, when the imperialists. began a crusade against young Soviet Russia, Blok’s revolutionary patriotic ode sounded both as a stern warning to the old world and as a passionate appeal to all people of good will to end the “horrors of war” and come together for a bright “fraternal feast of labor and peace together.” Moreover, the ode “Scythians” continues the long tradition of Russian classics, who repeatedly addressed the theme of the paths and destinies of Russia, its role in the civilized world. This is the tradition of Pushkin, Lermontov, Nekrasov, Tyutchev, Bryusov. Thus, in Bryusov’s poem “The Old Question,” the hero reflects on “who are we in this old Europe?” In many ways, “Scythians” is consonant with this work. However, Blok posed this question in a new historical setting, in a new way. Ivanov-Razumnik interpreted the main idea of this poem quite accurately: “Russia - with the banner of social revolution, Europe - under the sign of liberal culture: this meeting could be fatal.”
Blok, together with several like-minded people, put forward the idea of “Scythianism” during the civil war. Later it found followers, primarily in emigration, and received the name “Eurasianism.” Following V. Solovyov, the “Scythians” showed that the Russian people have their own special path in world history, different from the paths of both European and Asian peoples, since Russia is located in both Europe and Asia. The destiny of the Russian people is to unite the whole world in a single brotherhood. As we see, Blok carried theurgic dreams in a new form throughout his entire life.
The grain of the philosophical and historical idea of the “Scythians” is contained in Blok’s diary entry dated January 11, 1918, which represents a direct response to what was happening in Brest-Litovsk. But here’s what’s especially noteworthy: Blok means not so much the Germans as the allies of the former Russia, who are actively opposing the peace initiative of the new Russia. Here is the main thing from this important entry: the “result” of the Brest negotiations (i.e., no result, according to “New Life”, which is indignant at the Bolsheviks). None - good, sir. But the shame of 3 1/2 years (“war”, “patriotism”) must be washed away.
Poke, poke at the map, German trash, vile bourgeois. Artachya, England and France. We will fulfill our historical mission. If you don’t at least use the “democratic world” to wash away the shame of your military patriotism, if you destroy our revolution, then you are no longer Aryans. And we will open the gates to the East wide. We looked at you through the eyes of the Aryans while you had a face.
And we will look at your face with our sideways, sly, quick glance; we will throw ourselves together as Asians, and the East will pour on you. Your skins will be used for Chinese tambourines. One who has disgraced himself and lied like that is no longer an Aryan. Are we barbarians? Okay. We will show you what barbarians are. And our cruel answer, a terrible answer, will be the only one worthy of man." At the end it is written: "Europe (its theme) is art and death. Russia is life." Blok gave his theme the broadest scope and put a completely concrete socio-historical meaning into the abstract utopian idea of the world conflict.
The epigraph contains Solovyov's words about panmoholism. With them, Blok affirms Russia’s special place in the world, considers it a transitional link between the West and the East, a link that softens contradictions. Two worlds came face to face here: the greedy, decrepit, doomed, but still forging weapons, bourgeois West, deaf to the voice of the elements (“And the failure of Lisbon and Messina was a wild tale for you!”), having forgotten what love is, which “and it burns and destroys” - and young, full of seething vital, creative forces, revolutionary Russia, which has risen to the defense of humanity and humanity and is laying down legal inheritance rights to all living, imperishable things that have been created by world culture. Following Dostoevsky, Blok affirms the all-human genius of Russia. The poem “Scythians” begins almost neatly, with a sharp contrast between “you” and “us”:
Millions of you. We are darkness, and darkness, and darkness.
Try it and fight us!
Yes, we are Scythians! Yes, we are Asians
With slanted and greedy eyes!
“Darkness” is contrasted with “millions.” We are talking about the common fate of different peoples on the vast Eurasian continent. Here's how their relationship is succinctly characterized:
For you - centuries, for us - a single hour.
We are like obedient slaves,
Holding a shield between two hostile races
Mongols and Europe!
The antinomy of the outgoing and new culture is revealed here in the form of a contrast between the bourgeois West and revolutionary Russia. “The West is the world of civilization,” rationalism, reason, incapable of destructive and creative passions. They are inherent in Russia, the kingdom of a culture that is pristinely wild, but bright and heroic:
None of you have been in love for a long time!
Which both burns and destroys!
In “Scythians,” Blok sees Russia in the past as a shield “between two hostile races,” a country whose wealth was plundered for many centuries (“hoarding and melting our pearls”). This is a country that is capable of loving and hating, capable of defending itself through the centuries, capable of becoming a stronghold of all the best that has been created by humanity. This country is a sphinx, mysterious and incomprehensible to the old world, contradictory and multifaceted.
The essence and mission of “Russia - the Sphinx” is its readiness to synthesize, inherit all the great conquests of “wise” Europe, to combine them with the fiery heroism of Scythia. This same mission had another side - to protect Europe from the blind elements of destruction.
According to Blok, Russia must be treated with respect, otherwise a global catastrophe will happen. But Russia is not afraid of this either, it is powerful and strong, it has an “Asian face”:
And if not, we have nothing to lose,
And treachery is available to us!
For centuries, centuries you will be cursed
Sick late offspring!
For Blok, post-revolutionary Russia became the center of gravity of world forces. Hence the anticipation of retribution that will take place if Europe encroaches on Russia.
Russia - Sphinx. Rejoicing and mourning,
And drenched in black blood,
She looks, looks, looks at you,
Both with hatred and with love!
This stanza is followed by the central part of the poem:
Yes, to love as our blood loves,
None of you have been in love for a long time!
Have you forgotten that there is love in the world,
Which both burns and destroys!
The idea of uniting the new, young Russia with the peoples of ancient Europe sounds in the civil pathos of the “Scythians”. The idea of the universal responsiveness of the Russian people, of their ability to understand, to feel an alien, foreign culture as their own, as universal - this idea, found in many Russian writers of the 19th century, permeates Blok’s revolutionary ode:
We love everything - and the heat of cold numbers,
And the gift of divine visions.
We understand everything - and the sharp Gallic meaning,
And the gloomy German genius.
We remember everything - the Parisian streets are hell.
And the Venetian coolness,
The distant aroma of lemon groves,
And Cologne is a smoky mass.
On behalf of this Russia, with faith in its invincibility and global destiny, the poet simultaneously addressed a formidable warning to the enemies of the Russian revolution:
Now the time has come. Trouble beats with wings,
And every day the grievances multiply,
And the day will come - there will be no trace
From your Paestums, perhaps! -
and with a passionate call for unity - to all people of good will:
For the last time - come to your senses, old world!
To the fraternal feast of labor and peace,
For the last time at the bright fraternal feast
The barbaric lyre is calling!
The poem ends with a patriotic and humanistic appeal: “For the last time - come to your senses, old world!”
“Scythians” were the last word spoken by Russian poetry of the pre-October era. And this was the word of the new historical truth born of October - the word of militant revolutionary humanism and internationalism.
Thus, in “Scythians” Blok sums up the whole theme of “Motherland”. Here love for the Motherland reaches its highest meaning. Here he puts on paper all his feelings about Russia. He talks about the power of the Russian language, the power of national thinking, and the uniqueness of Russian folklore. But this is not only the result of lyrics about Russia, it is the result of his work, his life. Here Blok seems to be saying: life is not meaningless if there is Russia. The poem "Scythians" is prophetic. It was in it that world events of the early 19th century were predicted. In "Scythians" the third position of Russia is shown: it is not sleepy-beautiful, not combative, it is neutral. And, probably, you can believe that Russia will be beautiful without dirt, war, but peaceful, one in which you can live without wondering how you can live like that, which you can respect.
Unity of the themes of homeland and revolution
After considerable poetic silence, this poem was written as if in an epiphany, in a few days. January 1918 - the date of creation of the poem, published in the Social Revolutionary newspaper “Banner of Labor”. The poem takes its name from the number (12) of Christ's apostles. 12 heroes, Red Guards were predetermined by the title of the poem - 12 chapters. Blok wanted to depict collective consciousness, collective will, which replaced the individual principle. The poem is still ambiguously interpreted by researchers, although its artistic merits are not justified by anyone. Here are two different views on the content of the poem.
The poem “The Twelve” is the crown of the “trilogy of humanization.” Blok openly declared his unconditional acceptance of the revolution in Art. "Intellectuals and Revolution". The artistic expression of this recognition was the poem “The Twelve” and the poem “Scythians”. The poem was written at that exceptional “time when a passing revolutionary cyclone produces a storm in all seas - nature, life and art.” It is this “storm in all seas” that finds its expression in the poem. Its action unfolds against the backdrop of wild natural elements (“Wind, wind - All over the world!”, it “walks,” “whistles,” “both angry and happy.” Romantic images of wind and blizzards also have a symbolic meaning. Based on the content of the poem is a “storm” in the sea of life. When constructing the plot, Blok uses the technique of contrast, which is stated already in the first lines: “Black evening. White snow.” is revealed in the first two chapters of the poem. In one - satirical sketches of the wreckage of the old world (the bourgeoisie, the “comrade - bye”, the “lady in karakul”, street prostitutes ...) in the other - the collective image of twelve Red Guards, representatives and defenders of the “new life” Blok does not idealize his heroes. They are exponents of the national element, they carry all its extremes. On the one hand, these are people who are aware of their high revolutionary duty (“Keep your revolutionary step! The restless enemy does not sleep!”) and are ready to fulfill it: “Comrade, hold your rifle, don’t be afraid!..” On the other hand, in their psychology the sentiments of the spontaneous, anarchic “freedom” are still alive and clearly expressed: Lock the floors,
Today there will be robberies.
Unlock the cellars -
The bastard is on the loose these days!
And the “event” line of the poem - the absurd murder of his mistress Katka by the Red Guard Petrukha - also emphasizes the uncontrollability of the actions of the Red Guards and adds a tragic coloring to its flavor. Blok saw in the revolution not only its greatness, but also its “grimaces”. The greatness and rightness of the “revolution - storm”, bringing retribution to the old world, Blok affirms in the final, final chapter of the poem, where the image of Jesus Christ appears ahead of 12 Red Guards - the “apostles” of the new life. There are different interpretations by researchers of Blok's poem Christ: a symbol of a revolutionary, a symbol of the future, a superman, Christ as the embodiment of the Eternal Feminine, Christ the artist and even Christ the Antichrist... All these interpretations lead away from the main thing - the image of Christ allows the poet to justify the revolution from the point of view of the highest justice.
Artistic innovation of the poem. The poet managed to reflect in the poem the “music” of those days, which sounded in himself. This is reflected in the rhythmic, lexical and genre polyphony of the poem. The melodies of marches, urban romances, ditties, revolutionary and folk songs, and slogans are heard. Blok widely uses colloquial, and often reduced, “street” vocabulary. And all this represents an organic whole. Following this poem, the poem “Scythians” was written - 1918. Contrasting the “civilized” West and “Asian” Rus', the poet, on behalf of the revolutionary “Scythian” Russia, calls on the peoples of Europe to put an end to the “horrors of war”, to sheathe the old sword " The poem ends with a call for unity: For the last time - come to your senses, old world!
A second look at the content of the poem: a depiction of Russia’s disastrous path. It can be argued that the poem does not reflect a romantic upsurge, but a spiritual emptiness deeply experienced by the poet, an awareness of the impossibility of harmony. Blok, with brilliant insight, showed that the 12 Red Guards did not have any high universal goals. All their high impulses are only externally beautiful. They turn out to be ordinary hooligans, who, for unknown reasons, commit only one action - they kill Katya. It turns out that all abstract goals in the name of something new (incomprehensible to no one, unknown to anyone) are akin to the disastrous wind twisting Russia. The poet does not know what will happen behind the blizzard, behind the disastrous wind, but he has a presentiment that his hopes for harmony will again not come true. The Red Guards also don’t know why or where they are going. Even Jesus Christ in the poem seems to be split into two: he is wearing a “white crown of roses,” but “with a bloody flag.” Therefore, we cannot agree with the opinions of a number of researchers that the image of Christ helps the poet justify the revolution from the point of view of supreme justice. Moreover, the author himself was not satisfied with his decision. Over time, he realized that his subjective desire to find harmony in the revolution was unrealistic. And when in the spring of 1920, at an evening at the Polytechnic, he was asked to read “The Twelve,” the poet replied: “I don’t read this thing anymore.” Thus, in the revolution, Blok saw the elements, agreed with its natural character, but at the same time saw its female face, and largely foresaw its disastrous consequences. Welcoming the revolution as a radical way to change life for the better, the poet romantically imagined its forces as more reasonable and humane than they actually turned out to be.
Conclusion
A.A. Blok is a wonderful Russian poet. He began his literary career as a young symbolist poet, detached from life, with his dreams and illusions. But over time, having gone through all life’s obstacles and experiences, Blok became a great national poet, worried about the fate of not only the Russian people, but all of Russia as a whole. Since the poet came to literature at a very difficult and contradictory time, at a turning point in history, in his work he was able to reflect all the vicissitudes of that difficult time.
Alexander Blok is a shining example of a patriot of his country, his homeland. For him, the theme of his homeland, Russia, is eternal. He introduces the reader to the beauty of Rus', always looking for something strong in it that can preserve a person’s soul. He speaks about the Motherland with endless love, with heartfelt tenderness, with aching pain and bright hope.
The poet's appeal to the theme of the Motherland, its historical path, its future fate was connected for Blok with the experience of the rise and defeat of the first Russian revolution. The poet’s attitude towards Russia and the poet’s ideas about the historical destinies of his homeland are expressed very clearly, in Blok’s original way, in the cycle “On the Kulikovo Field”. Turning to the past here largely pursues the goal of understanding modernity through the past.
A broad, multi-colored, full of life and movement picture of his native land “in tear-stained and ancient beauty” is composed in Blok’s poems. She is a fairy-tale beauty, immersed in a mysterious “sleep”, accumulating strength in a dream for the witchcraft revelry of the elements, she is also a gypsy, free and free, and a flying troika, and a real “beggar”, with “gray huts” and “wind songs”, and an industrial power (“New America”). Vast Russian distances, endless roads, deep rivers, scanty clay of washed-out cliffs and flaming mountain ash, violent blizzards and blizzards, bloody sunsets, burning villages, alarming cries of swans and cries of a flock of cranes, trains and station platforms, factory chimneys and whistles, the fire of war, soldiers' trains, songs and mass graves. This was how Russia was for the pre-October Bloc.
Blok believed in the revolution, attached great importance and symbolic meaning to it, he believed in the cleansing power of the changes that had taken place. After October, Blok immediately, without a doubt, defined his public position - he sided with the Soviet government and the people. Blok's article "Intellectuals and Revolution" is the quintessence of Blok's state during the revolutionary and post-revolutionary events in Russia. It summarizes everything that Blok said in previous years, only more vividly and in contrast. This article reflects the state of mind of Blok himself, his view of the world: a state of horror, accepting this horror as something right and not resisting it. The poem "The Twelve" was the result of Blok's knowledge of Russia, its rebellious elements, creative potential, evidence of the collapse of humanism as a worldview that affirms the value of individuality.
In the poem "Scythians" Blok sums up the whole theme of "Motherland". Here love for the Motherland reaches its highest significance. Here he puts on paper all his feelings about Russia. He talks about the power of the Russian language, the power of national thinking, and the uniqueness of Russian folklore. But this is not only the result of lyrics about Russia, it is the result of his work, his life. Here Blok seems to be saying: life is not meaningless if there is Russia.
Thus, in his poems about Russia, Blok achieved a piercing understanding of its diversity, pagan, fabulous and historical. The vast expanses of the Motherland, windy songs, distant roads, daring troikas, foggy distances - such is the beautiful, unique Blok Russia. He loved her, waited for changes, hoped that with the advent of 1917 the light would “overcome” the darkness. But the reality that he saw after the 1917 revolution, so different from his dream, made him suffocate. For Blok, the rethinking of revolutionary events and the fate of Russia was accompanied by a deep creative crisis, depression and progressive illness. After the surge of January 1918, when the “Scythians” were created<#"justify">Bibliography
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