What Turgenev personifies in Gerasim. An essay on the topic “The image of Gerasim is a symbol of the Russian people.” Characteristics of Gerasim: a difficult decision

In which works of Russian poetry does the theme of life and death sound and in what ways do they echo Yesenin’s poem?

Read the below lyrical work and complete the tasks.

We're leaving little by little now To that country where there is peace and grace. Maybe I'll be on my way soon Collect mortal belongings.  Lovely birch thickets! You, earth! And you, plain sands! Before this departing host I am unable to hide my melancholy. I loved too much in this world Everything that puts the soul into flesh. Peace to the aspens, who, spreading their branches, Looked into the pink water. I thought a lot of thoughts in silence, I composed many songs to myself, And on this gloomy earth Happy that I breathed and lived. I'm happy that I kissed women, Crushed flowers, lay on the grass, And animals, like our smaller brothers, Never hit me on the head. I know that the thickets do not bloom there The rye does not ring with the swan's neck. Therefore, before the departing host I always get the shivers. I know that in that country there will be no These fields, golden in the darkness. That's why people are dear to me, That they live with me on earth.

S. A. Yesenin, 1924

Indicate the classical genre of lyric poetry, the features of which are present in Yesenin’s poem (sad philosophical reflection on the meaning of existence).

Explanation.

This genre is called elegy. Elegy is a lyrical poem that conveys deeply personal, intimate experiences of a person, imbued with a mood of sadness.

I thought a lot of thoughts in silence,

I composed many songs to myself,

And on this gloomy earth

Happy that I breathed and lived.

Lyrical hero reflects on the past as if his life had already come to an end. He is sad and melancholy, but the very fact that he “breathed and lived” fills his soul with happiness.

Answer: elegy.

Answer: Elegy

In the poem by S. A. Yesenin, the aspen trees gazing into the “pink water” are endowed with human properties. Indicate the name of this technique.

Explanation.

Personification is the depiction of inanimate objects as animate, in which they are endowed with the properties of living beings: the gift of speech, the ability to think and feel.

Aspens cannot look into pink water.

Answer: personification.

Answer: Personification

In the fourth stanza of the poem, adjacent lines have the same beginning:

Many I thought in silence, Many

composed songs to myself,

What is this stylistic figure called?

Explanation.

This stylistic figure is called anaphora or unity of command. Unity, or anaphora, is one of the stylistic figures: a turn of poetic speech consisting of the repetition of consonances of individual words or identical syntactic structures at the beginning of poetic lines and stanzas or individual phrases in a prosaic work of art.

Many I thought in silence,

Many composed songs to myself,

Word repeated many.

Answer: anaphora.

Answer: Anaphora|unity

What is the name of a figurative definition that serves as a means of artistic expression (“on earth gloomy»)?

Explanation.

An epithet is an artistic and figurative definition that emphasizes the most significant feature of an object or phenomenon in a given context; used to evoke in the reader a visible image of a person, thing, nature, etc.

Answer: epithet.

Answer: Epithet

Indicate the meter in which S. A. Yesenin’s poem “Now we are leaving little by little...” is written (give the answer in the nominative case without indicating the number of feet).

Explanation.

This poem is written in trochee meter.

A trochee is a two-syllable poetic meter with stress on the first syllable.

I HAVE COMPOSED A LOT OF SONGS ABOUT MYSELF.

Answer: trochee.

Answer: Horea

How does the inner world of the lyrical hero appear in S. A. Yesenin’s poem?

Explanation.

The poem “Now we are leaving little by little” is a monologue of a poet who shares his most intimate thoughts and feelings. The main intonation of the poem is confessional, confidential, sad, farewell and at the same time grateful for the happiness of living on this earth. Life is fleeting, youth is gone forever - the poet regrets this. But the poem also contains life-affirming notes: he had the opportunity to experience life with its joys and sorrows - and this is wonderful.

And on this gloomy earth

Happy that I breathed and lived. -

the poet says, and these words evoke a bright feeling.

Explanation.

In his work, A. S. Pushkin more than once turned to the theme of life and death. In the poem “Do I wander along the noisy streets,” the author reflects on the inevitability of death, constant thoughts about it follow the poet. He, thinking about immortality, finds it in the future generation:

Am I caressing a sweet baby?

I’m already thinking: sorry!

I give up my place to you:

It’s time for me to smolder, for you to bloom.

Reflecting on this topic, the poet comes to the following conclusion: life ends, and death is perhaps just a stage of life. Pushkin is not limited to the earthly life of one person - the immortality of everyone is in his grandchildren and great-grandchildren - in his offspring.

The theme of life and death - eternal in literature - is also leading in Lermontov's lyrics and is refracted in a unique way. Thinking about life and death, thinking about the end human life many of the poet's poems are imbued. In the poem “Both boring and sad...” the poet reflects that life is fleeting and will soon move into some other dimension. Although the lyrical hero speaks about this with sadness, but without fear: death is a natural phenomenon, there is no need to regret a wasted life:

And life, as you look around with cold attention -

Such an empty and stupid joke...

The lyrical hero of Yesenin’s poem “Now we are leaving little by little” seems to look back before leaving and looks at what he is leaving in this world. He regrets only two values ​​of this world: the unique beauties of nature, which, alas, do not exist in that fertile country, and about the people who live on the earth, cultivate it, making it even more beautiful (sow bread, “golden in the darkness”). In nature, the death of one person is compensated by the continuation of the family, the emergence of new living souls: children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren. In Yesenin, the finitude of human existence sounds doubly pessimistic: the process of leaving is inevitable, and life is fragile and short. A person's forward movement through life only brings him closer to his fatal end.

Having analyzed the poems of Pushkin, Lermontov and Yesenin, one cannot help but notice their very similar attitude to the problem of life and death.

Composition

“The captivating sweetness of his poems / The envious distance of centuries will pass” - this is what Pushkin said about Zhukovsky. He considered himself a student of Zhukovsky and highly valued his poetic skill.

Konstantin Batyushkov in one of his letters remarked about this poet: “He has his heart in the palm of his hand.” Zhukovsky brought the intonation of a true lyricist to Russian poetry. But is his work painted only in melancholy tones? No, it's varied. But this is a variety of soft, muted colors, subtle transitions that require vigilance and sensitive attention from readers.

Zhukovsky continued the traditions of Western European romanticism. The presence of dual worlds was typical for this direction: reality was intertwined with mysticism and fantasy. At the center was a man with his difficult attitude towards the world. The hero comes into conflict with others who do not satisfy him. Therefore, he is overcome by pessimism, from which he finds two ways: going into mysticism, fantasy, or turning to the past and memories. At the same time, Zhukovsky’s hero always has a rich spiritual world.

Zhukovsky wrote many poems on philosophical topics. His elegies are especially worth highlighting. Using the example of one of them, one can understand Zhukovsky’s ideas about life.

The works of romantics often have more than one meaning. In them, behind real phenomena and objects, something unspoken is almost always hidden. I would like to consider Zhukovsky’s elegy “The Sea”.

The poet paints the sea in a calm state, during a storm and after it. The water element seems to him to be a living, sensitive and thinking creature that conceals a “deep secret.” The sea “breathes”, it is filled with “confused love, anxious thoughts”:

What moves your vast bosom?

What is your tense chest breathing?

Unraveling the “mystery” of the sea reveals the views on the life of Zhukovsky the romantic. The sea is in captivity, like everything on earth. Everything on earth is constant, life is full of sadness, loss and disappointment. There, in heaven, everything is beautiful and eternal. Therefore, the sea stretches “from earthly captivity” to the “distant, bright” sky.

The theme of death in Zhukovsky's lyrics is deeper and more complex. Even after death, a person strives to leave at least a small part of himself on the earth where he lived:

Oh! gentle soul, leaving nature,

He hopes to leave his flame to his friends.

But even death cannot destroy the highest feelings: love, faith, hope, friendship. Nobody knows what's beyond the line. But Zhukovsky does not perceive death as something terrible, terrible and destructive, although he says in the poem “Rural Cemetery” that no one wants to die:

And who has parted with this life without grief?

Who consigned his own ashes to oblivion?

Who, in his last hour, was not captivated by this world?

And didn’t you look back languidly?

The veil of death is something mysterious, unsolved. But it does not prevent people from remaining in spirit with their dead friends and loved ones. Zhukovsky believes that all friends and lovers, all those who were connected by some especially strong bonds, are destined to meet after death.

Zhukovsky's philosophical view on the topic of life and death is very ambiguous. On the one hand, death is both fear and horror of the unknown. On the other hand, there is a chance to meet those whom you once lost, a chance to find long-awaited peace. Life is also beautiful and scary in its own way. How many pleasant moments she gives, connecting people’s destinies, sending good luck and inspiration. But how much grief and misfortune she can bring, at once taking away what she herself once brought as a gift.

Many Russian writers, besides Zhukovsky, tried to find the answer to the eternal question: what is life and what is death? Each of them managed to approach the solution to this mystery from different angles. I think that Zhukovsky managed to come especially close to his goal. He managed to reveal this complex philosophical question in his own way.

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

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

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

I thought a lot of thoughts in silence,

I composed many songs to myself,

And on this gloomy earth

Happy that I breathed and lived.

Pushkin’s hero is afraid of death, wants to postpone death as far as possible: “But closer to the sweet limit / I would still like to rest.” In the poem, the poet uses the epithets “forgetful”, “cold”, “insensitive”, which indicates the gloomy atmosphere of the work and the author’s reluctance to accept death.

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

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

Updated: 2019-01-01

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The theme of life and death - eternal in all literature - is also leading in Lermontov's lyrics and is refracted in a unique way. Many of the poet’s poems are permeated with reflections on life and death. Some of them, for example, “Both boring and sad”, “Love of a dead man”, “Epitaph” (“Simple-hearted son of freedom...”), “1830. May. 16th” (“I’m not afraid of death. Oh no! .."), "The Soldier's Grave", "Death", "Valerik", "Testament", "Dream".
Many pages of “A Hero of Our Time” are permeated with thoughts about the end of human life, be it the death of Bela, or Pechorin’s thoughts before the duel, or the challenge that Vulich poses to death.

In poems about life and death belonging to Lermontov’s mature lyricism, this theme is no longer a tribute to the romantic tradition, but is filled with deep philosophical content. The lyrical “I’s” search for harmony with the world turns out to be futile: one cannot escape from oneself, there is no peace of mind either surrounded by nature, or “in a noisy city,” or in battle. The tragedy of the lyrical hero, whose dreams and hopes are doomed, increases, and the dramatic attitude intensifies.

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

Philosophical theme in lyrics

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

Already in the early lyrics the motif of loneliness is reflected. The lyrical hero experiences disunity with reality, with earth and sky “Earth and heaven”, “I am not for angels and paradise”; he is closed, gloomy, his love is often unrequited. All this led to a growing feeling of hopeless loneliness. Lermontov creates bitter lines imbued with pessimism: “I look back - the past is terrible; I look forward - there is no dear soul.” And the sail, which became a symbol of Lermontov’s lyrics, is by no means “lonely” by chance. Even in the author’s programmatic poem “Duma” this theme is already heard. Condemning his generation, consciously revealing its “future,” which is “either empty or dark,” Lermontov does not yet separate himself from his peers, but already looks at them somewhat from the outside.

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

N. P. SABLINA*

St. Petersburg State Conservatory

"LIFE LIVES": THE THEME OF DEATH AND IMMORTALITY IN RUSSIAN POETS1

Attitude towards death is an indicator of the state of mind of the people and everyone individual, an indicator of moral health, vitality and optimism, the mood to live and create. Therefore, the artistic and mystical understanding of the phenomenon of “death” is one of the most important topics in Russian literature. This theme, like no other, clearly highlights the Easter, resurrection joyful mood of the Russian people as their main mental state from the time of baptism, as a deep meaningful faith in the immortality of the soul, hope and hope in the mercy of God for repentant sinners and a blessed life beyond the grave; at the same time, active love for earthly life, on the one hand, and aspiration for eternal love, heavenly light, on the other; the courage of the people and their outstanding representatives to live and choose life path according to the gospel teaching; fearlessness before the loss of Ydo1 ("life of the body", translated from Greek) and attachment to "n"Id ("life of the soul", translated from Greek).

The poetic face (Greek %oro$) of the poets who dedicated their poems to death is polyphonic and harmonious: not a single thought, not a single image inherent in Russian literature of the 18th century was rejected or lost, but was picked up and then developed, including number and in

* Sablina N.P., 2005

1 The problematic title for discussion is the words from the final part of “Who is among the saints of our father John, Archbishop of Constantinople, Chrysostom, the Word announced on the holy and luminous day of the glorious and saving Christ our God of the Resurrection,” read at Easter Matins: “Christ is risen, and life lives. Christ is risen, and the dead are not one in the tomb: for Christ, having risen from the dead, is the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever, amen.”

And we will be in the shining ether

Swim and fly.

After all, only one thing is important in this world -

Love and Death2.

It is noteworthy that the theme of death does not divide the poets. Any poet can leave unique lines that reflect the deep movement of the spirit, which many will then recognize and accept:

Everyone speaks in poetry before they die,

Poems of the highest simplicity...

(Hieromonk Roman Matyushin,

Each cultural and historical era and the personality of the author left their bright mark in the poetic symphony of poems about death.

The 18th century is distinguished by direct transcriptions of hymns for the dead, rhetorical and edifying in the style of classicism. For example, an arrangement of self-vocal stichera, sung at burial, “I cry and sob”, “Seeing me silent”

A. P. Sumarokov:

Inevitably defeated by fate, silent in vain, lying before you. Weep for me, acquaintances, friends... I cry and sob, tear and suffer,

I just remember the hour of death.

Also from G.S. Skovoroda:

Seeing the life of this grief, Boiling like the Red Sea, A whirlwind of sorrows, misfortunes, troubles.

The epigraph for the transcription is taken from the first line of the irmos of the sixth song of the Canon, sixth voice, “The Sea of ​​Life3, erected in vain, etc.” Wed. also a later arrangement of the requiem chants in A. K. Tolstoy’s poem “John of Damascus”:

2 Egorova T. Our fallen world. // The Lord's summer is burning out. St. Petersburg, 1998. P. 10.

3 Outside the scope of the article we leave consideration of the imagery of the “Sea of ​​Life”

I'm walking on an unknown path, I'm walking between fear and hope.4

XIX century of the heyday of Russian classical literature presented masterpieces of poetry on the theme of death and immortality.

The century of painful spiritual rift - the twentieth - as a whole did not shake the Easter spirit of Russian poetry. And in the poems of the poets of the Soviet period, the theme of death was not resolved gloomily and hopelessly, although the replacement of the archetypal image occurred, dimming the former light and joy5.

Eternity, the immortality of the soul, and, consequently, the afterlife are concepts of the human spirit, therefore, universal concepts and are in close connection with the creed of all peoples, all times and places, no matter what the degree of moral and mental development the person was not there6.

But only Christians have a clear and firm confession of immortality, since before the illumination of humanity with the light of Christ’s faith, immortality seemed vague and unclear.”

4 Wed. The third troparion of the fifth tone of the Panikhida: “The narrow and sorrowful ones who walked the path...”

5 Despite the declared immortality of a specific nature (“Lenin is alive!”), about which see in more detail in the article by I. A. Esaulov “Easter archetype of Russian literature and the structure of the novel “Doctor Zhivago”” (Gospel text in Russian literature XVIII-XX centuries. Petrozavodsk, 2001. P. 488), the formula “heroes are alive,” in our opinion, is not just a declaration, but a holy experience. After all, the Soviet period is not only a time of eradication of faith, the forced imposition of atheism, devastation of the soul, but also a heroic time of resistance and mortal struggle for Russianness, native land, spiritual values. Therefore, in the poems of Soviet poets, glorifying the exploits of heroes who evangelically laid down their lives “for their friends,” their immortality is sincerely affirmed. See, for example: “And the Leningraders again walk through the smoke in rows - / The living with the dead: for glory there are no dead” (“And you, my friends of the last call!” from the cycle “Wind of War” by A. Akhmatova); also: “...as if the hero’s undead heart shines like a star from an obelisk. / He. / Never passes away, / even if he dies in battle! (“Heart of a Hero” by N. Rubtsov); “And he fell. / So that we can forever stand in the ranks / The immortality of fighters for justice" ("In Memory of N.S. Gumilyov" by M. Dudin) and many others.

6 Monk Mitrofan How our dead live and how we will live after death. M., 2000. S. 207-208.

7 Insight into the fate of man beyond the grave is given by the revelation of the Holy Spirit in prophecies Old Testament(Book of Job, Psalms). The Prophet David calls death only a shadow: “Even if I walk through the shadow of death, I will fear no evil” (Ps. 23:5); prophesies about

the differences in the posthumous state of the soul of the righteous and the sinner: “The death of His saints is honorable before the Lord” (Ps. 116:6); “The death of sinners is cruel,” (Ps. 33:22); warns of the need for repentance during life: “Who in hell will confess to You?” (Ps. 6:6). See also psalms: 1, 7, 9, 11, 33, 36, 40, 48, 54, 62, 67, 68, 128, 138, 140.

Faith in afterlife there is a dogma of Orthodoxy:

I hope for the Resurrection of the dead and the life of the next century. Amen

(12th, final verse"Creed").

Visible death, the death of the physical body, is perceived by the Christian consciousness as punishment for sin, as God’s righteous Judgment:

Your truth needed it, so that My immortal existence would pass through the mortal abyss; So that my spirit may clothe itself in mortality And so that through death I may return, Father! - into Your immortality.

(G. R. Derzhavin. Ode "God")

The poet argues especially philosophically, extensively and figuratively in “The Immortality of the Soul,” concluding the work as follows:

Oh no! - direct immortality - To live forever in one God. Honor peace and happiness directly in His blissful light. O joy! Oh dear delight! Shine, hope, ray of rays! Yes, at the edge of the abyss I will exclaim, God is alive! - my soul is alive. This general stanza contains almost all those

the main word roots that, in the diversity of metaphors, determine the Easter tone of poems about death in all Russian poetry: immortality - eternal life in

God - peace - bliss - light - joy8.

8 V. A. Zhukovsky reflects on the reward of immortality for humbly bearing the heavy cross of earthly life: “Kept by Providence invisible hand: / He reconciles us with life with immortality reward!" (Poems carved on the coffin of A.F. S-oi, 1808). N.F. Shcherbina consoles, looking at external death: "But do not be sad that the worm will devour you / In insignificance and dust, man!.. / What was once cannot not be, / What was created was created forever” (“And here, and there, and beyond the tomb...”, May 23, 1846). . I. Koltsov sees in faith in immortality a relief from earthly suffering: “And it is sweet for me in the hours of suffering / Sometimes in silence / to remember the afterlife / of the undying soul” (“Cemetery”, 1852). to think / That my immortal spirit / Is the eternal heir / of the Ethereal Kingdom" ("Eternity", 1854). V. Ya. Bryusov writes about immortality as one of the four sweet joys, along with the consciousness of living, creating stanzas of poetry, and being loved: “The last joy is the joy of presentiments, / To know that beyond death there is a world of existence” (“Otrady”, April 28, 1900); future life. “This thirst is the call of immortality! These torments are not accidental” (“Beyond the Borders of Youth”, 1917).

The main word that can be used to define the attitude towards the death of the Russian people is co-resurrection in all the richness of the movement from Holy Week to Easter. The Lord Jesus Christ, “the Firstborn of the dead,” appeared first to rise again. In the Easter troparion larger number words indicates death (4) than life (2):

Christ rose from the dead, trampling down death by death, and giving life to those in the tombs.

The dead, death, grave and resurrection - that's all his

concepts. But this is one concept taken from different sides. These are all synonyms of one word, and the entire troparion is actually one word9.

In services Orthodox Church for the deceased, addressed to the main Person - Christ the Savior, the priest repeatedly repeats:

For Thou art the resurrection, and the life, and the rest of Thy servants who have fallen asleep.

Here peace (rest through death), belly (eternal life) and resurrection (transition from death to life), as in the Easter troparion, are fused into one semantic whole, into a hyperword that affirms endless life, the life of the future century.

The myrrh-bearing women were the first to feel the overcoming of death, the dissolution of death by life, and the co-resurrection:

And the myrrh-bearers fled to tell the miracle of miracles:

9 Skaballanovich M. Explanation of the most important Easter chants with an indication of the connection between them // Pastoral reading. 1915. March. P. 15.

That He is not there to be looked for! He said “I will rise again” and rose again!

They are running. are silent. They don’t dare admit that there is no death, that there will be an hour, Their coffins will also be empty, Illuminated by the fire of the sky!

(K. Sluchevsky. “Resurrected”)10 Let us remind ourselves of the resurrection as the central event of world history: “We celebrate the killing of death, hellish destruction, the beginning of a different life.” (From the Easter canon). Experience of the luminous

Resurrections, trampling of death by death and co-resurrection are one of the most profound in Russian lyric poetry:

But death was death. And the night over the hill glowed with some kind of unearthly fire, and the scattered disciples could not breathe from shame and melancholy.

And after... Odin saw the transparent shadow. As if Another had heard his name... And for almost two thousand years an unfading light has stood over the earth.

(G.V. Adamovich. “But death was death”)

In the verses of Russian poets one can hear the Gospel, church hymns, sometimes intimately, sometimes directly. Thus, M. Lokhvitskaya concludes her poem “In My Sorrow” with the words of St. John Chrysostom from the “Catechetical Word”: “Where is your sting, O death?”

I will silently walk through the cold and darkness, I will accept joy and pain indifferently. Having seen a different existence in death, I will say to Death: “Where is your sting?”

The poems of Russian poets about death present a rich metaphorical and symbolic field of light. Let us remember that the Lord, the Light of Lights, was resurrected on a day equated to the first day of creation, when light was created. Etymon himself (the primary meaning of the root of the word “resurrection”,

10 Wed. his poem “The coffin is lined with rags” about the funeral of an old woman, who in the coffin, like in an oak cocoon, “is carried into a hollow for the winter,” with confidence in her luminous resurrection: “Everyone who follows the coffin / Silently cherishes a dream - It is said: the old woman will rise / All in lights and light."

key mental Slavic word, means “spring solstice”, “return of the sun, light”.

The Easter service is luminous: “Resurrection day, let us be enlightened people” (Irmos of the 1st song of the Canon)11. The light also shines in the Memorial Service, where “the righteous women shine like lights” (Troparia for the Immaculate).

The Easter lexical and symbolic field of light in the poems of Russian poets is picturesque. Thus, we see the Easter sparkles of light in G. R. Derzhavin’s poem “Immortality of the Soul”: “... the spirit is eternal... flowing faster than lightning”; “the soul is alive, just as the light is alive”; "sunray paint"; “fire will be born from the dust”; “like sulfur dust instantly ignites with a touch of fire” “at the shining dawn”, etc.

The images of light are especially tender and clear in epitaphs for babies or poems about the early death of young maidens and youths12.

Powerful, bright, cosmic images of light pulsate in the poems of M. Voloshin. In the book “In the Ways of Cain,” the poet views the tragedy of material culture as a movement from life to death, while he sees a different order in the experience of the Christian spirit: from death to resurrection. Fire is life And in every point of the world Breathing, beating and burning. Not life and death, but death and resurrection - The creative rhythm of rebellious fire.

("To prevent matter from escaping")13

11 See also in other songs of the Canon: shining in the unapproachable light of the Resurrection of Christ; “from the grave the red sun of truth rose for us”; “this is a saving and radiant night”; “flightless Light from the grave carnally to rise” and many others.

12 See, for example, the poem by K. Batyushkov “Inscription for

tombs of Malysheva’s daughter”, his: “Inscription on the shepherdess’s coffin”; epitaphs by N. M. Karamzin; “Vision” by A. I. Gotovtseva;

“For the Death of a Maiden” by N. S. Teplova; "Pity for Babies" by Archbishop John of San Francisco and many others.

13 See from him: “And my flesh is a sprout of fire,” “And man recognized himself as fire, / Riveted in the prison of cramped flesh” (January 2, 1923, Koktebel); “So scary, free and simple / The meaning of existence has been revealed to me / And the “I” hidden in the seed / ...everywhere... / I hear the singing flame” (Aug. 1912, Koktebel).

Moods of joy, bliss, fun, jubilation, hope and faith in meeting your loved ones there, in heaven, are expressed in unique poetic experiences: “Everything has come true; I’m on the way to a date” (V. A. Zhukovsky. “Voice from the Other World.” 1815); “The faces there are shining with bliss” (A.K. Tolstoy. “In the land of rays invisible to our eyes,” Aug. or Sept. 1856); “Your son, now a resident of heaven / And contemplates the glory of God, / And sings heavenly hymns.” (I. S. Nikitin. S. V. Chistyakova, April 25, 1854).

A wonderful poem by A. Blok about flying joy beyond the grave:

I buried you and, grieving, I grew flowers on the grave, But in the azure, ringing and rejoicing, you trembled, blessed one.

Funeral tears are in vain - You are trembling, laughing, alive! And they grow on the beautiful grave. Not flowers - words of fire.

(“I buried you.”, June. 1902)

Echoes with it the bright poem by I. A. Bunin “The Unsettling Light,” written on November 24, 1917, permeated with the joy of space:

There, in the fields, in the churchyard, in the grove of old birches,

Not graves, not bones - the Kingdom of joyful dreams.

The poem “Bright Matins in Old Age” by A. Solodovnikov14 bears the stamp of a new atheistic era: a gloomy landscape:

Clouds rush across the dark sky like fibers.

loneliness, the state of the prodigal son outside the temple:

Prodigal Son, At the temple I stand under the windows In a large crowd, like a finger, alone.

14 A. A. Solodovnikov (1893-1978). Handwritten collection of poems "Glory to God for everything" (M., 1969).

The space of the temple, showing the conciliar unity of the earthly and heavenly churches, is defined by the symbolic word there (cf. in church texts TAMO, conceived as a metaphysical sphere):

There is light, Easter matins; There is a feast, there is the Father's home For all who have a long journey, And who have finished their earthly journey15.

From death to life, and from earth to heaven, Christ

God has led us, singing in victory (Irmos of the 1st song

Canon of Easter).

The transition there, to the Heavenly Fatherland and being there give rise to unique images in Russian lyrics: “The eagle soul

15 The departure from the Easter archetype, which led Russians to the space “outside the temple” in the twentieth century, is already emerging in

prosperous century of the 19th century. Thus, we see doubts about immortality in K. Fofanov, who defines death only as the oblivion of life, that behind the coffin there is only a pit (“What is our eternity?”). Earthly images of decay and dying in nature obscure the vision of immortality and evoke a feeling of melancholy:

Then the grove sent out lamentations, And in everything there was hopelessness of desire: “If only I could live, live longer, live forever.”

(I. Annensky. “The desire to live”) In the poems of Soviet poets one can see painful reflections on the lost faith in immortality, longing for it: About the visions of childhood years, Where it seemed that there was no death!.. Today the pines rustle in the forest - All about that that I too will die.

(A. Zhigulin. “Poem to Irina”, 1976) The apocalypse of M. Dudin is dramatic: And now the mortal soul yearns, Where - without knowing it - it is in a hurry."

(From the collection “Dear Blood on the Road to God” St. Petersburg, 1995) The meaning of existence is lost, because disbelief in the afterlife, loss of fear of death leads to the emergence of a generation for which “everything is possible”:

And we became low and disgusting Before the eye of our own soul.

(From the archives of Optina Pustyn, “It’s not scary to die!..”) But the newly church-going people-wanderers return to the Church, remembering the Judgment and Fear of God (See the arrangement of the 72nd Psalm about the memory of death and the punishment of sinners killed by Hieromonk Vasily “Shuddered yesterday was my heart").

will see her homeland again" (V. Benediktov. "Life and Death", 1836); "They took her to her homeland from strangers" (V. Zhukovsky. "Cry for yourself", 1838); "I know that my paradise is there. in God's height" (A. Golenishchev-Kutuzov. "In the silence of thought"); "And the new world is calm, reconciled, / I will be an eternal citizen" (A. Fet. "The Quails Cry."); "We can't go anywhere now we can, / As soon as in this slightly cold Garden" (Archbishop John of San Francisco).

The transition “there” is more often expressed through a flight, a swim (from the sea of ​​life). All Russian poetry is literally filled with beautiful images of birds or, metonymically, wings: “Insatiable I fly” (G. R. Derzhavin. Ode “God”), “The soul quietly flew through the heavens (V. Zhukovsky) and many others16.

The soul assimilates the image of a bird: a swallow, a dove, a bullfinch, a sparrow, an owl, a nightingale, a swan:

Oh, how you are eager to set off on your winged journey, my crazy soul, from the sunniest chamber in the bright hospital of existence!

Believe the nightingales and owls, Be patient, loving self-deception, - Death will thunder with a tight bolt and release you into eternity.

The archetypal image of the “cave” and the “pearl” is refracted in a rich spectrum of images: just as the tomb—the “dungeon”—does not hold the “pearl” of Christ, so the human body—the “dungeon”—does not hold his immortal soul.

The most mysterious image of the “cave”17, which has a “pearl” as its fruit, is the image of a worm18. The “worm” became an image-symbol of the co-resurrection and transformation of man after death:

16 See also: “Angel” and “My Destiny” by F. Glinka, “Glimmer” by F. Tyutchev, “Wings” by M. Lokhvitskaya, “At the Monastery Cemetery” by I. Bunin, etc.

17 Averintsev S.S. [Introduction. Art.] // A pearl of great price. M., 1994. S. 48-55

18 “Worm” in the mystical sense is also Christ, who gnawed

the evil of the world; having ravaged hell, becoming a bait for it (See the interpretation of the 21st Psalm, the verse “I am a worm, and not a man”).

Like a worm, leaving a web and taking a butterfly new look, Into the azure air of the plain On shining wings it flies, In beautiful, joyful attire, It lands from flowers on flowers: So the soul in the heavenly space Won't you be immortal?

(G. R. Derzhavin. “Immortality of the Soul”)19

A completely different “flight” in the poems of the Soviet era:

We fly into the depths of cosmic mysteries, like a witch on a broom, To make a mess on the stars, as well as on earth.

(A. Solodovnikov. "Atomic Age")

Death is a great mystery; there is death and there is no death:

There is a curse, pain, despondency, oblivion, Separation is terrible, but there is no death.

(P.S. Solovyova. “The Mystery of Death”)

Some poets rhetorically ask: “What are you?” -

Death is a mystery, life is a riddle: Where is the solution? target? end? (A. N. Maikov. “Death is a mystery.”, 1889)

Others answer: “This is something, this is something.”

I was on the edge of something

What is true has no name.

And I’m already on the verge of something.

(Anna Akhmatova. “Death”, 1942. Dyurmen)

Death, as a great and hidden mystery, is verbally and figuratively expressed in antinomies, which have given rise to the richest lyricism of philosophical reflection.

The antinomies associated with death are diverse. Let's name the main ones. Death is the Easter joy of co-resurrection, death is sorrow and grief. Death is ugly - death is beautiful and majestic:

19 See also: “To the Unfortunate” by V. Kapnist; “Eternal” by N. Gumilyov (“I will bless the golden road to the sun from the worm”); “The Death of a Poet” by A. Akhmatova (“He told me that before him / winds a golden and winged path”).

Have you seen the transformed face of the Dweller of the earth at the sacred moment of death?

(V. G. Benediktov. “Transition”, 1853)

Death is eternal life and death is eternal death, beginning during life. Death - sleep, dormition, peace; death is awakening, wakefulness in a new life. Death is a coffin (“cave”), death is an endless breadth. Death is eternal separation,

death is a union, a union in eternity.

Death in Christian poetry is not just an event, a sacrament, an action, but also an active being, a person. Here we see not personification or ancient pagan anthropomorphism, but that line of incomprehensibility of a thing or phenomenon, beyond which what and who are no longer distinguished. Then the pair Death and death are similar to the pairs Path and path, Truth and truth, Light and light.

The colors of the image of Death in Russian poetry, in contrast to the gloomy Western European baroque, are light, radiant, majestic, although the tension of the antinomy “Death is the angel of God, liberating from the bonds of earthly flesh” and “Death is the executing executioner” is preserved in

a huge corpus of poems by Russian poets20.

We find an interesting solution to the image of death in Sergei Klychkov’s poem “Tired of the day’s troubles” (1923-1926). It is structured as an ascending period with the anaphoric “How good,” listing the milestones of a person’s “daytime” (i.e., earthly) life activity: commanded labor on earth until one sweats (“How good it is to wear a hollow shirt / To wipe away the hardworking sweat.”), raising children (“It’s so good when in a family, / Where the son is the groom, and the daughter is the bride.”). The composition is reminiscent of the first chapter of the book of Genesis with the assessment of each day of creation “as good” (in the Synodal translation “that it is good”). And then, in repose from labor, just as the Lord rested on Saturday after six days of creation, the meeting with death, reaping the spiritually mature fruit, becomes natural:

20 We meet a vivid anthropomorphic image of Death with a scythe and other instruments of execution, dating back to ancient times, in “The Ordeal of the Venerable Theodora”: “And then Death came, roaring like a lion, with a very terrible appearance, human likeness, but without a body, composed of only naked human bones. She brought tools for torment: swords, arrows, spears, sickles, saws, axes, fishing rods and other unknown ones" (See: Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov. A Word about Death. M., 1991. P. 104-105) .

Then, having escaped fate like everyone else, It’s not surprising to meet death in the evening, Like a reaper in young oats With a sickle thrown over your shoulders.

In conclusion, let's talk about one more new allegorical image of Death - living Death.

Oh my God! Will I really live to meet the living Death in reality? In madness I grab the grass! Oh, herbs, herbs - we can’t resist!

Carries me - my soul screams without words! What about the Temple? He rushed as hard as he could. My Temple stands. It stands without domes. Living Death, let me die, have mercy!

But you are running, raging behind your back. Oh, Right God! Take away the vision! Do whatever you want with me, But save Your House from destruction.

However, it is also known from the Apocalypse that death, having done its work, will be abolished:

And God will take away every tear from their eyes, and there will be no death for anyone: neither will there be crying, nor crying, nor pain (21:4).

Let us conclude our discussion with the fact that, despite the upheavals of the twentieth century, the exhausted people stoically remain faithful to Christ's Easter in their behavior and poetic culture. The poem by Alexander Aleksandrovich Solodovnikov (a handwritten collection, until 1978) “At Easter” confirms that in the era of godlessness the people did not forget Christ, who “is the Resurrection, Life and Peace of His departed servants,” our relatives, and went to the cemeteries of destroyed churches .

Although he is no longer a worshiper, Our lost people, And the ringing of silent bell towers does not call Him to prayer, But the voice of the heart is the original

It still sounds in his soul

And on the bright day of Easter, “Christ is Risen” says. Then, obedient to the ancient forces, in the opening of the cemetery gates the people go to their native graves, go, go, go, go. You cannot drown out that voice of the heart!

The reviving spiritual poetry of modern times recreates and multiplies the spiritual potential of Russian classical poetry.