Morphological analysis of nouns 6.

Initially, to designate the community of poets who were part of Pushkin’s circle (Baratynsky, Vyazemsky, Delvig, Yazykov), they used the poetic and romantic concept of “Pushkin’s galaxy.” However, the first thing that a researcher faced when starting to study the works of Baratynsky, Vyazemsky, Delvig and Yazykov was the question of whether the “pleiad” really existed or whether it was a mythical concept, some kind of terminological fiction.

The term “Pushkin’s Pleiad”, as we studied the poetry of Pushkin, the romantic era and specific poets, began to be considered vulnerable, because, firstly, it arose by analogy with the name of the French poetic group “Pleiades” (Ronsard, Jodel, Dubelle, etc.), giving rise to unlawful associations and inappropriate rapprochements (Pushkin with Ronsard). However, the French are not embarrassed that their name “Pleiades” also appeared by analogy with a group of Alexandrian tragic poets of the 3rd century. BC e. Other doubts, secondly, are of a more fundamental nature: the term “Pushkin’s galaxy” presupposes common artistic and aesthetic positions that closely bring together the participants, as well as relations of dependence and subordination in relation to the brightest “main star”.

However, Baratynsky, Vyazemsky, Delvig and Yazykov each possessed an original, sharply individual, inimitable voice and did not occupy a subordinate position in relation to the supreme luminary of Russian poetry. It is known that some of them not only did not imitate Pushkin, but in one way or another pushed away from him, argued with him, disagreed, and even opposed him with their understanding of the nature of poetry and other problems. This primarily concerns Baratynsky and Yazykov. In addition, while poetically approaching Pushkin, each of the poets jealously guarded their poetic independence from him. Consequently, if we accept the concept of “Pushkin’s Pleiad,” we must clearly realize that in this constellation, named after Pushkin, the latter is the largest star, while the other luminaries included in the “Pleiad,” although not so large-scale, are quite are independent, and each forms its own poetic world, autonomous in relation to Pushkin’s. Their work retains enduring artistic significance regardless of Pushkin or, as Yu. N. Tynyanov put it, “outside Pushkin.” This opinion was supported by other writers (Vl. Orlov, Vs. Rozhdestvensky).

An additional argument for abandoning the term “pleiad” is that in Pushkin’s works this word is not used in any of its meanings. It is not recorded in the works of N. M. Yazykov either. This word was introduced by Baratynsky as a designation of a community of poets close to Pushkin in the opening of the collection “Twilight”, but written in 1834 in a message “to Prince Pyotr Andreevich Vyazemsky”:

Star of a scattered galaxy!

So from my soul I strive

I look at you with caring glances,

I pray to you for the highest goodness,

To distract harsh fate from you

I want terrible blows,

Although I'll tell you the postal prose

I lazily pay my tribute.

“The Star of a Scattered Pleiad” is an allusion to the fate of Vyazemsky, Baratynsky himself and other poets, first of the Arzamas and then of the Pushkin-romantic orientation, who occupied a leading place in the literary life of the 1810-1820s.

Finally, as noted by V.D. Skvoznikov 4, some inconvenience is associated with the number of poets included in the “pleiad”: since the galaxy is a seven-star, then there should be exactly seven poets. They usually name five: Pushkin, Baratynsky, Vyazemsky, Delvig and Yazykov.

For all these reasons, in this textbook the authors prefer the concept of “poets of Pushkin’s circle” or “Pushkin’s circle of poets” as less romantic and conventional, but more modest and accurate. It does not establish the strict dependence of each of the poets on Pushkin, but it does not deny the common aesthetic positions inherent in all poets.

The five “poets of Pushkin’s circle” share a literary understanding on many aesthetic issues, problems of strategy and tactics of the literary movement. They are united by some essential features of worldview and poetics, as well as a sense of a single path in poetry, a single direction, which they steadily follow, accompanied by temporary companions. From a general position, they enter into polemics with their opponents and sharply criticize their ill-wishers.

The “poets of Pushkin’s circle” rejoice in everyone’s successes as if they were their own, and provide mutual support to each other. In the eyes of society, they appear like-minded people, they are often united and their names are called together. They willingly exchange poetic messages, in which sometimes a casual hint is enough to bring complete clarity to any situation familiar to them. Their assessments of artistic works by gifted authors or opinions about notable literary phenomena are often similar, and this allows the literary public of that time to perceive these poets as a fully formed and established community.

The “poets of Pushkin’s circle” value their environment extremely highly and see in each other exceptional poetic talent, which puts them in a special position as the chosen ones, favorites and minions of the Muse, careless sons of harmony. For Pushkin, Delvig is a real genius (“A genius that has flown away from us forever”). Nothing less. The eyes of all the “poets of Pushkin’s circle” are fixed on Yazykov: he is the recipient of many messages in which admiration for his original, sparkling talent is felt. Pushkin, Delvig, Baratynsky, Vyazemsky greet him enthusiastically. Their deservedly complimentary messages receive an equally grateful response from Yazykov, full of praise for their invaluable talents. As an example, it is appropriate to cite Delvig’s sonnet dedicated to Yazykov. It seems that all the poets of the circle are present in it, except Vyazemsky: Delvig - as the author and hero of the poem, Yazykov - as the addressee, to whom a friend-poet directly addresses, Pushkin and Baratynsky - as “sublime singers”, among whom Delvig includes and Yazykov, and mentally, of course, himself.

The commonality of the “poets of Pushkin’s circle” extends to the fundamentals of worldview, attitude, content and poetics. All the “poets of Pushkin’s circle” proceeded from the ideal of harmony, which is the principle of the structure of the world. Poetic art is the art of harmony. It brings harmony into the world and into the human soul. Poetry is a person’s refuge in moments of sadness, sorrow, and misfortune, which either heals a “sick” soul or becomes a sign of its healing. Therefore, harmony is considered a kind of ideal and principle of poetic creativity, and poetry is its guardian. This conviction is characteristic of all “poets of Pushkin’s circle.” As for Pushkin, Russian poetry did not know a more sunny genius. Readers and Pushkin experts have been repeatedly amazed at the “all-resolving harmony” on which Pushkin’s poetic world is based. IN to the fullest Delvig also defended the idea of ​​harmony. To a large extent, similar considerations apply to Yazykov’s poetry. It is no coincidence that his contemporaries admired the health and naturalness of his inspiration, the breadth and prowess of his creative personality, and the joyful sound of his verse. Baratynsky also proceeded from the presumption of the ideal, from harmony as the fundamental principle of the world, from the harmoniously healing power of poetry. Vyazemsky also strove for the harmony of verse, which was not always given to him.

The cult of harmony, falling in love with it does not at all mean that its priests are prosperous, successful people, insured against all kinds of disorder, mental anguish and melancholy. They are aware of all sad states of mind to the extent that the ideal of harmony turns out to be achievable for reasons of a social or personal nature. None of the “poets of Pushkin’s circle” is inclined, succumbing to such a mood, to forever remain “the singer of his sadness.” They had a different, opposite goal: to regain peace of mind, to again feel the joy of being, to again feel the temporarily lost harmony of the beautiful and perfect.

Poetry in the Romantic Age

The 1810s–1830s are the “golden age” of Russian poetry, which achieved its most significant artistic successes in the romantic era. This is explained by the fact that during the period of romanticism and emerging realism, Russian literature found not only national content, but also a national literary form, recognizing itself as the art of words. This period is the beginning of the creative maturity of Russian literature. Poetry was the first to acquire a national form, and therefore it was poetry that came to the fore in the first third of the 19th century. in first place among other genres and genres. The first major aesthetic successes of national literature, not only in lyrics and poems, which is quite natural, but also in comedy (“Woe from Wit”) and in epic (Krylov’s fables) are associated with verse and the improvement of poetic language. Therefore, we can rightfully say that the first third of the literature of the 19th century. marked by the overwhelming dominance of poetry, in which the most profound artistic ideas of that time were expressed.

Several reasons contributed to the powerful and exuberant flowering of poetry. Firstly, the nation was on the rise, at the crest of its historical development and experienced a powerful patriotic impulse associated both with the victories of Russian weapons and with the expectations of fundamental social changes, which the government itself spoke about at the beginning of the century. Secondly, in Russia a layer of free, European-minded people who received an excellent education at home or abroad was created among the military and civilian nobility. Thirdly, the language, thanks to the efforts of Russian writers of the 18th century, had already been processed, and the system of versification was mastered and introduced into culture, the ground was created for innovative discoveries, decisive reforms and bold experiments.

The central figure of the literary process in the first thirty years was Pushkin. It is believed that the “Pushkin era” is the era that formed Pushkin, and the era that passed under the sign of Pushkin. A number of poets grouped around him, maintaining their lyrical style and intonation, or imitated him, forming the so-called “Pushkin galaxy”, the circle of “poets of Pushkin’s era”, etc. Of the most significant poets of that time, it included E. Baratynsky, P. Vyazemsky, A. Delvig, N. Yazykov. There was no formal association of these poets. Baratynsky, Vyazemsky, Delvig and Yazykov each had an original, sharply individual, unique voice and did not occupy a subordinate position in relation to Pushkin. It is known that some of them not only did not imitate Pushkin, but in one way or another pushed away from him, argued with him, disagreed, and even opposed him with their understanding of the nature of poetry and other problems. This primarily concerns Baratynsky and Yazykov. In addition, while poetically approaching Pushkin, each of the poets jealously guarded their poetic independence from him.

The commonality of the “poets of Pushkin’s circle” extends to the fundamentals of worldview, attitude, content and poetics. All the “poets of Pushkin’s circle” proceeded from the ideal of harmony, which is the principle of the structure of the world. Poetic art is the art of harmony. It brings harmony into the world and into the human soul. Poetry is a person’s refuge in moments of sadness, sorrow, and misfortune, which either heals a “sick” soul or becomes a sign of its healing. Therefore, harmony is considered a kind of ideal and principle of poetic creativity, and poetry is its guardian.

Some poets opposed the artistic principles of the Pushkinites (lyubomudry). But they all worked at the same time as Pushkin, but their poetic destinies developed differently. Some of them, having subsequently joined Pushkin’s circle of writers, developed creatively independently of Pushkin and entered the literary path before him (Denis Davydov).

Denis Vasilievich Davydov (1784–1839)

Of the most talented poets of the pre-Pushkin generation, widely known in the 1810-1830s, the first place belongs to the hero-partisan of the Patriotic War of 1812, poet-hussar Denis Davydov. He undoubtedly had an original poetic face, having come up with a mask of recklessly bold, fearless, brave warrior and at the same time a dashing, cheerful, witty poet-slasher, poet-reveler.

Davydov is a Russian poet and memoirist. Having begun his service in the Cavalry Regiment, he becomes close to a circle of independently thinking and informally behaving officers: S.N. Marin, F.I. Tolstoy (American), A.A. Shakhovsky, each of whom strived for literary activity. Davydov’s fables date back to this time, representing the pre-Decembrist stage of Russian freethinking (“Head and Legs”, “Fact or Fable, whatever you want to call it”, “Eagle, Turukhtan and Black Grouse”). Davydov promoted independence of behavior in poems in which he glorified the reckless life of the hussar nomads, the daring and prowess of the brave riders: “To Burtsov. Summoning for Punch", "Burtsov", "Hussar Feast". Davydov’s hussar poems quickly became very popular, and he began to promote the mask of a hussar poet as his own everyday image (“To Count P.A. Stroganov,” “To the Album”), preparing the formation of a lyrical hero in poetry.

During the Patriotic War of 1812, Davydov organized a partisan detachment and successfully acted against the French behind enemy lines. The glory of Davydov as a partisan was recognized by society, but in official circles it was either not noticed or persecuted. In 1823 he retired. The inability to find a place to use his forces put Davydov in the ranks of the opposition, although he never shared the tactics of the revolutionary action of the Decembrists, despite close family and friendly relations with most of them.

After World War II, Davydov’s circle of literary friends changed. He is a member of the Arzamas literary society, since his own work corresponded to the literary attitude of the Arzamas people to depict the inner world of a private person. In Davydov's lyrics, the romantic unity of the human personality, the image of the poet-hussar, is finally formed. Davydov managed to create an expressive and picturesque image of the “old hussar”, who is surrounded by the usual signs of military life - he has a war horse, he masterfully wields a saber, and on a short rest he likes to light a pipe, play cards and drink “cruel punch”. Despite these habits, he is not only a “hot bully”, but also a direct, sincere, brave person, true patriot. Above all else for him is military duty, officer's honor and contempt for all secular conventions, flattery, and veneration of rank. Davydov created a lively and unusual lyrical image, to which he even “adjusted” his real biography.

Between battles, at the bivouac, he indulged in free revelry among equally valiant friends, ready for any feat. Davydov did not tolerate “servants”, careerists, drills, or any kind of officialdom. This is how he addressed his friend Hussar Burtsov, inviting him to try the famous arak (strong drink): “ Give me a golden tub, where joy lives! Pour from the vast cup In the noise of joyful speeches, As our ancestors drank Among spears and swords.”

Davydov was proud that his poetry was unlike any other, that it was born in campaigns, in battles, in leisure between battles: “Let the Perun wars thunder, I am a virtuoso in this song!”

True, contrary to Davydov’s words that his poems were written “at camp fires”, during short rests, in fact they were created in a quiet, secluded environment, during periods of peaceful life, during hours of intellectual communication.

With his poems, Davydov said a new word in Russian battle lyrics, which were distinguished by a certain pomp. There is no war itself in Davydov’s poems, but there is the fighting spirit of the officer, the breadth of his soul, open to his comrades. To express the riot of feelings of the poet's willful nature, an energetic, dashingly twisted and biting verse was required, often ending with a sharp aphorism. Contemporaries noticed that in life Davydov was unusually witty, talkative, and talkative.

Davydov's hero is energetic, passionate, sensual, jealous, and he is familiar with the feeling of revenge. Davydov’s innovation is especially noticeable not only in “hussar” lyrics, but also in love ones.

But you came in - and the trembling of love,

And death, and life, and the madness of desire

They run through the flashing blood,

And it takes my breath away!

IN love lyrics 1834–1836 there is a change in the image of the lyrical hero. The indispensable attributes of a hussar’s appearance recede, the hero’s inner world is depicted without external accessories: “Don’t wake up, don’t wake up...”, “It’s easy for you - you’re cheerful...”, “I love you the way I should love you... “,” “In the old days, she loved me...”, “The irretrievable ones flew away...”, “Cruel friend, why the torment?..”

Davydov’s poetic work ended with “Modern Song” (1836), a harsh and not entirely fair satire on the heroless society of the 1830s, in whose representatives the poet did not see the features of hussarism that were dear to his heart. Memoirs occupy a central place in his later literary and social activities. Davydov writes “memoir” poems for the fifteenth anniversary of the end of the Napoleonic wars - “Borodinsky Field”. The largest works are “Essay on the Life of Denis Vasilievich Davydov” - an experience in the artistic modeling of personality in autobiographical prose - and memoirs, rich in factual material and containing vivid sketches of participants in the war and its individual episodes.

Pushkin, by his own admission, studied with Davydov, “adapted to his style” and imitated him in “twisting the verse.” According to Pushkin, Davydov gave him “to feel the opportunity to be original while still at the Lyceum.” But unlike Davydov, Pushkin did not wear a literary mask in everyday life. He remained himself, and Davydov, having created his literary mask of a dashing grunt, hussar-poet, began to try it on in life and became one with it. In everyday behavior, he began to imitate his lyrical hero and identified himself with him.

Batyushkov Konstantin Nikolaevich (1787-1855), Russian poet. At the age of seven, he lost his mother, who suffered from mental illness, which was inherited by Batyushkov and his older sister Alexandra. He became close friends with his uncle M. N. Muravyov and became an admirer of Tibullus and Horace, whom he imitated in his first works. Batyushkov took part in the anti-Napoleonic wars of 1807, 1808, 1812-1815. In 1809, he became close to V.L. Pushkin, V.A. Zhukovsky, P.A. Vyazemsky and N.M. Karamzin. In 1812 he entered the service of the Public Library. Not forgetting his Moscow friends, B. made new acquaintances in St. Petersburg and became close to I. I. Dmitriev, A. I. Turgenev, D. N. Bludov and D. V. Dashkov. In 1818, Batyushkov was assigned to serve in the Neapolitan Russian mission. A trip to Italy was his favorite dream, but there he felt boredom, melancholy and melancholy. By 1821, hypochondria had reached such proportions that he left the service. In 1822, the disorder of mental abilities was expressed quite clearly, and since then Batyushkov suffered for 34 years, almost never regaining consciousness.

Konstantin Nikolaevich Batyushkov entered the history of Russian literature of the 19th century. as one of the founders of romanticism. His lyrics were based on “light poetry,” which in his mind was associated with the development of small genre forms brought to the forefront of Russian poetry by romanticism, and the improvement of the literary language. In “A Speech on the Influence of Light Poetry on the Language” (1816), he summed up his thoughts as follows: “In the light kind of poetry, the reader demands possible perfection, purity of expression, harmony in syllable, flexibility; it requires truth in feelings and the strictest decorum in all respects. Beauty in style is necessary here and cannot be replaced by anything. It is a secret known to one talent and especially to the constant tension of attention to one subject: for poetry, even in small forms, is a difficult art and requires all one’s life and all mental efforts; one must be born for poetry; this is not enough: having been born, you must become a poet.”

Batyushkov's literary legacy is divided into three parts: poems, prose articles and letters. From a young age he entered the literary circles of St. Petersburg. In the poetic satire “Vision on the Shores of Lethe” (1809, widely distributed in copies, published in 1841), he acted as a witty opponent of the epigones of classicism, literary “Old Believers” (he was the first to coin the word “Slavophile”) and a supporter of new aesthetic and linguistic trends, preached by N.M. Karamzin and the Arzamas literary circle. He expressed patriotic inspiration in the message “To Dashkov” (1813). Batyushkov entered the history of Russian literature primarily as a leading representative of the so-called “light poetry” (I. F. Bogdanovich, D. V. Davydov, young A. S. Pushkin) - a direction that goes back to the traditions of Anacreontic poetry, glorifying the joys of earthly life , friendship, love and inner freedom (the message “My Penates”, 1811-12, published in 1814, which, according to A.S. Pushkin, “breathes with some kind of rapture of luxury, youth and pleasure - the syllable trembles, it flows like that - the harmony is charming”; the poem “The Bacchante”, published in 1817; Evidence of the poet's spiritual crisis - elegies, imbued with motifs of unrequited love, the sadness of early disappointment ("Separation", 1812-13; "To a Friend", "My Genius", both - 1815), sometimes reaching the point of high tragedy ("Dying Tass", 1817, dedicated to the sad fate of the 16th century Italian poet T. Tasso; “The Saying of Melchizedek”, 1821). He translated ancient and Italian poets, a prominent representative of French “light poetry” E. Parni. Wrote essays and articles.

Pyotr Andreevich Vyazemsky (1792–1878)

Vyazemsky Pyotr Andreevich, prince, Russian poet, literary critic, memoirist. His older half-sister was married to N.M. Karamzin, so the young poet grew up in the literary environment of K.N. Batyushkova, D.V. Davydova. Vyazemsky spoke out against literary “archaists” in critical articles, epigrams and satires, creating the mask of an “intricate wit” (A.S. Pushkin). He participates in the literary controversy surrounding the ballads of V.A. Zhukovsky (“The Poetic Wreath of Shutovsky”, “Response to the Message to Vasily Lvovich Pushkin”, etc.), poems by A.S. Pushkin (critical articles). Critical articles became for Vyazemsky a field for promoting new aesthetic ideas (in particular, he actively developed the concepts of romanticism and nationality in literature).

In 1819–1825 Vyazemsky advocated the constitution (“Petersburg”, “The Sea”) and against serfdom (“Sibiryakov”), but was alien to revolutionary methods struggle. He considered the human soul inexplicable; man is “a moral mystery in the world” (“Tolstoy”), but he built the image of man’s inner world analytically. In his satirical review couplets, Vyazemsky protested against the inert life of Russia: “When? When?”, “Russian God”, etc. Literary polemics were often a form of political struggle: “Message to M.T. Kachenovsky”, “The persistent Figlyarin clings to the dead like a worm...”, etc.

Vyazemsky understood himself as a poet of our time, a poet today. But if in early work Vyazemsky was in agreement with his time, but after 1837 he interpreted modernity negatively and accepted the past as the norm. Therefore, Vyazemsky evaluates his own fate as the tragedy of a person who is unable and unwilling to live in accordance with the norms of the century. This is why the motives of memory and vain expectation of death are so important (“ Parents' house", "Death mows down the harvest of life...", "Isn't it up to me?"). Vyazemsky creates a special genre of “wake” (“In memory of the painter Orlovsky”, “Wake”, “In memory”). Vyazemsky was close to A.S. Pushkin, dedicated poems to him during his lifetime (“1828”, “Station”) and after death (“You are a bright star”, “Natalia Nikolaevna Pushkina”, “Autumn”). His memoir work is related to this issue.

The most important quality of Vyazemsky the poet is a keen and precise sense of modernity. Vyazemsky sensitively captured the genre, stylistic, and content changes that were planned or had already occurred in literature. Another of his properties is encyclopedicism. Vyazemsky was an unusually educated man. The third feature of Vyazemsky is rationality, a tendency to theorize. He was a major theoretician of Russian romanticism. But prudence in poetry gave Vyazemsky’s works a certain dryness and muffled emotional romantic impulses.

The poetic culture that raised Vyazemsky was homogeneous with the poetic culture of Pushkin. Vyazemsky felt like an heir to the 18th century, an admirer of Voltaire and other French philosophers. From childhood, he absorbed a love of education, of reason, liberal views, a gravitation towards useful state and civic activities, and traditional poetic forms - a freedom-loving ode, a melancholic elegy, a friendly message, parables, fables, epigrammatic style, satire and didactics.

Like other young poets, Vyazemsky quickly assimilated the poetic discoveries of Zhukovsky and Batyushkov and became imbued with the “idea” of domestic happiness. In many poems, he developed the idea of ​​natural equality, the superiority of spiritual intimacy over prim birth, and asserted the ideal of personal independence, the union of intelligence and fun. The preference of personal feelings over official ones became the theme of many poems. In this there was no indifference to the civilian field, there was no desire for isolation or withdrawal from life. Vyazemsky wanted to make his life rich and meaningful. His private world was much more moral than empty trampling in social drawing rooms. At home he felt internally free: “In the living room I am a slave, In my corner I am my master...” Vyazemsky understands that solitude is a forced, but by no means the most convenient and worthy position for an educated and freedom-loving poet. By nature, Vyazemsky is a fighter, but his love of freedom is alien to society.

Having become a supporter of the Karamzin reform of the Russian literary language, and then of romanticism, Vyazemsky soon became a romantic poet. In romanticism, Vyazemsky saw support for his search for national identity and aspirations to comprehend the spirit of the people. He understood romanticism as the idea of ​​liberating the individual from “chains,” as the overthrow of “rules” in art, and as the creativity of unfettered forms. Imbued with these sentiments, he writes a civil poem "Indignation", in which he denounces the social conditions that alienated the poet from social activities; elegy "Despondency", in which he glorifies “despondency” because it heals his soul, brings him closer to useful reflection, and allows him to enjoy the fruits of poetry. Thus, the genre of psychological and meditative elegy under the pen of Vyazemsky is filled with either civil or national-patriotic content.

In his romantic worldview, Vyazemsky discovered a source of new creative impulses, especially in the search for national content. Vyazemsky is attracted by the secret connection between the earthly and ideal worlds, he is immersed in natural philosophical problems (Verse "You are a bright star": two rows of images are parallel - the “mysterious world” and “earthly crampedness”, dreams and materiality, life and death, between which an invisible internal connection is established).

At the end of the 1820s - at the beginning of the 1830s, Vyazemsky was still a recognized writer in the forefront. He actively participates in literary life, engaging in polemics with Bulgarin and Grech. He collaborates with Delvig and Pushkin’s Literary Gazette, and then with Pushkin’s Sovremennik, which acquired in Vyazemsky an exceptionally valuable author with a sharp and skillful pen. The journalistic acumen was also reflected in Vyazemsky’s poetry, generously saturated with topical political and literary disputes. Vyazemsky’s sense of modernity was unusually developed. He once admitted: “I am a thermometer: every harshness of the air affects me directly and suddenly.” Therefore journal activity was to his taste, as he guessed himself and as his friends told him more than once. “Pushkin and Mitskevich,” wrote Vyazemsky, “assured that I was born a pamphleteer... I stood on the battlefield, shooting from all guns, partisan, horseback rider...”.

During Vyazemsky’s lifetime, not counting small brochures, only one collection of his poems was published (“On the Road and at Home.” M., 1862).

Anton Antonovich Delvig (1798–1831)

Delvig Anton Antonovich, poet, journalist. While studying at the Lyceum, Delvig became friends with A.S. Pushkin, whose friendship determined his literary position and aesthetic position. D promoted in his work the image of a poet - a “young sloth” (“Today I feast with you, friends ...”, “Krylov”). In the 1820s. he actively participates in the literary struggle, publishing the almanac “Northern Flowers” ​​since 1825, and the “Literary Newspaper” since 1830. Far from political radicalism, Delvig was not afraid to express his opinions and was one of the few who was present at the execution of the Decembrists. Died during a cholera epidemic. In memory of Delvig, Pushkin published the last issue of the almanac “Northern Flowers” ​​(1832).

Unlike Vyazemsky, Pushkin’s lyceum and post-lyceum comrade Anton Antonovich Delvig clothed his romanticism in classic genres. He stylized ancient, ancient Greek and ancient Roman poetic forms and meters and recreated in his lyrics the conventional world of antiquity, where harmony and beauty reigned. For his ancient sketches, Delvig chose the genre of idylls and anthological poems. In these genres, Delvig discovered a historically and culturally specific type of feeling, thinking and behavior of a person of antiquity, which is an example of harmony of body and spirit, physical and spiritual (“Swimsuits”, “Friends”). Delvig correlated the “ancient” type of person with the patriarchy and naivety of the ancient “natural” person, as Rousseau saw and understood him. At the same time, these features - naivety, patriarchy - are noticeably aestheticized in Delvig's idylls and anthological poems. Delvig's heroes cannot imagine their lives without art, which acts as an organic side of their being, as a spontaneously manifested sphere of their activity (“The Invention of Sculpting”).

The action of Delvig's idylls usually unfolds under the canopy of trees, in cool silence, near a sparkling spring. The poet gives his paintings of nature bright colors, plasticity and picturesque forms. The state of nature is always peaceful, and this emphasizes the harmony outside and inside a person.

The heroes of Delvig's idylls and anthologies are integral beings who never betray their feelings. In one of best poems poet – “Idyll”(Once upon a time, Tityr and Zoe were under the shadow of two young plane trees...) - it admiringly tells about the love of a young man and a girl, preserved by them forever. In a naive and pure plastic sketch, the poet managed to convey the nobility and sublimity of a tender and deep feeling. Both nature and the gods sympathize with lovers, protecting the unquenchable flame of love even after their death. Delvig's heroes do not talk about their feelings - they surrender to their power, and this brings them joy.

Delvig's artistic techniques did not change throughout his entire career. His ideal is the “peaceful life” of the “natural man.” This natural way of life according to cyclical laws, close to nature, is depicted by him in two genres: “Russian song” and idyll, recreating the image of the “golden age” of Ancient Greece. Delvig created 12 poems with the title “Russian Song”, many of them became popular romances: “My nightingale, nightingale...” (A.A. Alyabyev), “Not frequent autumn rain...” (M.I. Glinka), etc. A similar role was played by “ancient” idylls: “Cephysis”, “Bathsuits”, “The End of the Golden Age”, “The Invention of Sculpture”. In the content-innovative “Russian idyll” “Retired Soldier,” Delvig depicted modern peasant life as a modern “golden age.”

The norm of life modern man becomes linear time: “Romance” (“Yesterday of Bacchic friends...”). Delvig describes the romantic hero using plots that go back to the ballad genre (“Moon”, “Dream”). The characteristic features of this hero are “disappointment” (“Elegy” (“When, my soul, you asked…”), “Disappointment”) and premature death as a sign of the special fate of the chosen person (“Romance” (“Today I feast with you, friends ..."), "To death ***").

The only collection of the poet’s poems during his lifetime is “Poems of Baron Delvig.” St. Petersburg, 1829.

Nikolai Mikhailovich Yazykov (1803–1847)

The poetry of Nikolai Mikhailovich Yazykov, who entered literature as a student poet, was completely different in content and tone. This role created a very unique reputation for him. The student is almost a recent child, still retaining some of the privileges of childhood. He can indulge in “pranks” and all sorts of risky antics, while at the same time evoking a sympathetic and condescending attitude from those around him. Pushkin exclaimed, turning to his younger friend: “How naughty you are and how sweet you are!” Yazykov’s poetry gave birth to a kind of effect of infantilism, sweet immaturity. The profound immaturity of the linguistic muse gives the right to extremely free handling of the written and unwritten laws of poetic creativity. The poet boldly violates them. Reading Yazykov’s poems, one often has to doubt the legitimacy of some of the genre designations he himself proposes, since they are so different from the names “elegy”, “song”, “hymn” given to him. They seem arbitrary, and what is impressive is the ease with which Yazykov names them, referring them to one genre or another.

Studied languages ​​in different educational institutions, until in 1822 he left for Dorpat, where he entered the philosophical faculty of the university and spent seven years there. He did not pass the university exam and left it “free without a diploma.” Two periods are clearly distinguished in Yazykov’s work: the 1820s – early 1830s (until about 1833) and the second half of the 1830s – 1846. The poet's best works were created in the first period. (During his lifetime, N. M. Yazykov published three collections of poems).

Like other poets of the Pushkin era, Yazykov was formed on the eve of the Decembrist uprising, during the period of the rise of the social movement. This left an imprint on his lyrics. The joyful feeling of freedom that gripped the poet’s contemporaries and himself directly influenced Yazykov’s structure of feelings. What brought Yazykov closer to the Decembrists was their undoubted opposition. However, unlike the Decembrists, Yazykov did not have any strong and well-thought-out political convictions. His love of freedom was of a purely emotional and spontaneous nature, expressed in protest against Arakcheevism and all forms of oppression that fettered spiritual freedom. In a word, Yazykov was not alien to civic sympathies, but most importantly - the spaciousness of his soul, the spaciousness of feelings and thoughts, the feeling of absolute uninhibitedness.

Yazykov’s main achievements are associated with student songs (cycles of 1823 and 1829), elegies and messages. In them, the image of a thinking student arises who prefers freedom of feelings and free behavior to the official norms of morality accepted in society, which smack of officialdom. Wild youth, ebullience of youthful energy, “student” enthusiasm, bold jokes, excess and riot of feelings - all this was, of course, an open challenge to society and the conventional rules that prevailed in it.

In the 1820s, Yazykov was already an established poet with a violent temperament. His verse is intoxicating, the tone of his poetry is feasting. He demonstrates in poetry an excess of strength, daring, an unprecedented revelry of bacchanalian and voluptuous songs. This whole complex of ideas is not entirely adequate to Yazykov’s real personality: under the mask of a dashing, reckless reveler there was a man with the features of a shy lump, a provincial “savage”, not very successful in matters of love and not as prone to carousing as one might think when reading the poet’s poems . However, the image of the lyrical hero created by Yazykov turned out to be colorful, convincing, and artistically authentic. Contemporaries noticed that an unusual, “student” muse had come to literature. Young Yazykov did not succeed in everything: sometimes he wrote colorlessly and sluggishly, and did not disdain cliches.

If we try to determine the main pathos of Yazykov’s poetry, then it is the pathos of romantic personal freedom. The “student” of Yazykov experiences genuine delight in the richness of life, in his own abilities and capabilities. This is why solemn words, exclamatory intonations, and loud appeals are so natural in his speech. Free hints gradually acquire more and more poignancy, explaining the true meaning of the Bursat revelry. It turns out that he is an opponent of “secular concerns” and is internally independent. He has knightly feelings - honor, nobility. He thirsts for glory, but excludes flattery (“We do not seek ranks by crawling!”), he is characterized by sincere love of freedom, civic valor (“Hearts are on the altar of freedom!”), equality, aversion to tyranny (“Our mind is not a slave to other people’s minds.” "), contempt for the attributes of royal power and for its very principle ("Our Augustus looks at September - what do we care about him? ").

The man in Yazykov’s lyrics appeared as himself, as he is by nature, without ranks and titles, distinctions and titles, in a holistic unity of thoughts and feelings. Experiences of love, nature, art and high civic feelings were also available to him.

Gradually, in Yazykov’s poetic worldview, an opposition emerged between eternal, enduring, imperishable values ​​and temporary, “passing”, momentary ones. The former Dorpat Bursh begins to glorify the white-stone capital, which is unusually dear to him for its antiquity. Seven-hundred-year-old Moscow with golden crosses on cathedrals, temples and churches, with strongholds of towers and walls, understood as the heart of Russia and as a majestic symbol of national immortality, becomes for Yazykov a true source of immortal life and inexhaustible inspiration. This perception of Moscow and Russia prepared the transition of Yazykov, a “Westerner” by student upbringing, who went through a non-Russian school of life and received a German education, to Slavophilism.

IN recent years creativity in Yazykov’s lyrics, genuine lyrical masterpieces are again found (“Storm”, “Sea Bathing” etc.). The increased strength of his style is especially clearly visible in them; they are distinguished by thoughtful laconicism of composition, harmonic harmony and purity of language. Yazykov retains the swiftness of lyrical speech, the generosity of painting and energetic dynamism.

Languages, according to Belinsky, “contributed greatly to the dissolution of the Puritan shackles that lay on language and phraseology.” He gave the poetic language strength, masculinity, strength, and mastered the poetic period. His lyrics vividly captured the free soul of the Russian man, yearning for space, whole, bold, daring and ready to unfold in all its breadth.

Poets are wise

“Poets of the Pushkin Circle” were an informal association of poets that formed in the 1820s. A closer formation (1823) was the Moscow circle of lovers of wisdom - the Lyubomudrov. It included the poet D. Venevitinov, prose writer V. Odoevsky, critic I. Kireevsky, writers N. Rozhalin, A. Koshelev; They were joined by the historian M.P. Pogodin, poet and philologist S. Shevyrev. And although the circle disbanded in 1825, the spiritual unity connecting its members continued to be preserved. Subsequently, former members of the Society of Philosophy founded the magazine “Moskovsky Vestnik”. For a short time, Pushkin became close to the wise men.

The poetry of the wise men became another link between the poetry of the 1820s and 1830s. The wise men set as their task the study of German romantic philosophy, in which they saw a program of life and a program of literature. It formed the basis of the poetry of the wise men, who declared that Russian poetry, not excluding Pushkin, suffers from a lack of thought and should be filled with philosophical content. From here came the idea of ​​contrasting the directly sensual and easily flowing poetry of Pushkin and the Russian poetry in general, which is under his undoubted influence, with poetry filled with philosophical meaning, albeit somewhat difficult in expression and perception. The Lyubomudry wanted to give Russian poetry a philosophical direction, largely Schellingian, which involved the presentation of romantic philosophy in poetic language. But the wise men did not simply intend to rhyme philosophical ideas close to them - they intended to transfer these ideas to a different, lyrical, element.

According to the ideas of wise men, there are no idyllic relationships in the world, and harmony between man and nature is achieved by overcoming contradictions. In the course of difficult and painful, but at the same time inspired knowledge, nature comprehends itself in its highest and most perfect spiritual creation - the poet, and thanks to the poet, any person discovers the enjoyment of prophetic truths.

Dimitry Vladimirovich Venevitinov (1805–1827)

Among the poets of wisdom, Venevitinov was endowed with undoubted poetic talent. His unique literary world took shape around 1825. Venevitinov firmly mastered the elegiac vocabulary and principles of the elegiac style of Zhukovsky - Pushkin. His poetry developed in the spirit of the ideas of Russian and German romanticism. Venevitinov used a fairly traditional elegiac vocabulary in his lyrics, which, however, was transformed by him: not sensual-elegiac, but philosophical content was introduced into it. Typically elegiac words acquired a new, philosophical meaning (poem “To the Music Lover”).

Venevitinov tries to combine immediate sensations with clarity of thought, breathe special meaning into these sensations and, through collision, create an expressive picture full of drama. On this foundation grows Venevitinov’s idea of ​​the artist-genius, his role in the world, his heavenly calling, divine chosenness and difficult, unenviable position in society (verse "Poet"(“Do you know the son of the gods...”), “Love the pet of inspiration...”, translation of a fragment from Goethe's Faust, elegy “I feel it’s burning inside me...”, “Poet and Friend”).

According to Venevitinov, poetry is the knowledge of the secrets of existence, and only it opposes prose and the lack of spirituality of the surrounding life. The tragedy of existence recedes before the power and beauty of the poetic word. The poet foresees future harmony, affirms agreement between man and nature. The romantic theme of the poet-prophet, while preserving the personal and social meaning in Venevitinov’s lyrics, is switched to a general philosophical plane and addresses the reader with new facets: “Do you know the son of the gods, the favorite of muses and inspiration? Would You recognize his speech and his movements among the sons of the earth? He is not quick-tempered, and his strict mind does not shine in a noisy conversation, But the clear ray of lofty thoughts Involuntarily shines in his clear gaze.”.

The poem is about an ideal face, since a poet for wise men is the highest expression of a spiritual person. Poetry, according to wise men, is the same philosophy, but in plastic images and harmonic sounds. In this context, the combination “high thoughts” is perceived not as a common poetic cliché, but as containing certain philosophical ideas. The words “strict mind” mean consistency, logic and accuracy of thought, a habit of philosophical studies. The reader is presented with the image of an ideal poet-philosopher, alien to secular vanity, immersed in deep and serious reflection. He is opposed to the “sons of the earth” not because he despises them - he has risen to such a spiritual height that still remains inaccessible to ordinary people.

S. P. Shevyrev (1806–1864)

The poetry of S. Shevyrev also developed in line with the artistic search for wise men. Among his most famous and attention-grabbing poems were "I am", “Thought”, “Gypsy Dance”, “Petrograd”, “Stanzas”(“When you are silent, nature…”), "Stanzas"(“The walls of the city are a wayward recluse...”), "To Italy" and others. Shevyrev varies in his lyrics the favorite themes of wisdom about the chosenness of the poet, his special mission, the unity of natural life and the human soul. According to Shevyrev, nature cannot express itself verbally, and an ordinary person cannot convey its secrets in ordinary language. Knowledge and the secret word about it are available only to the poet-priest. His speech is filled with the delight that accompanies knowledge and preaching. Unlike Venevitinov, who relied on the elegiac vocabulary of romantic poetry, Shevyrev turns to the poetic heritage of the 18th century, resurrecting the stylistic traditions of spiritual odes, making extensive use of Slavicisms and archaisms, imparting solemn grandeur and oratorical intonations to poetic speech. He bows to the power and incorruptibility of human thought.

A. S. Khomyakov (1804–1860)

Initially, he developed traditional themes for philosophers: poetic inspiration, the unity of man and nature, love and friendship. The poet in Khomyakov’s lyrics is the connecting link between the universe and nature. His “divine” lot is predetermined from above: to give a “harmonious voice” to the earth, “a tongue to a dead creation.” Khomyakov’s poet dreams of merging with nature (“Desire”), dissolving in it, but in such a way as to become a “star.” To a certain extent, here Khomyakov is close to Tyutchev (cf. Tyutchev’s motif: “The soul would like to be a star.”), although his small talent is incomparable with Tyutchev’s genius. Khomyakov's lyrics are full of sublime impulses and aspirations. These dreams and desires of his are accompanied by traditional reflections. When the “divine verb” does not come to the poet, the “hour of suffering” comes: “...there are no sounds in the poet’s mouth. The bound tongue is silent.<…>And a ray of divine light did not penetrate his vision. In vain he groans in ecstasy: The stingy Phoebus does not listen to him, And the newborn world perishes in a powerless and dumb chest.”.

Romantic poets of the second rank

Poets of the Stankevich circle (I. Klyushnikov (1811–1895), V. Krasov (1810–1854), K. Aksakov (1817–1860)). These poets gained fame briefly in the 1830s. Of these, only K. S. Aksakov left a noticeable mark in literature with passionate poetic journalism (for example, the poem "Free speech") and the ardent popularization of Slavophil teaching.

Among other poets of the 1810–1830s who retained creative independence and attracted the favorable attention of the public, A. F. Voeikov, I. I. Kozlov, A. F. Veltman, V. I. Tumansky, F. A. stood out. Tumansky, A. I. Podolinsky, V. G. Teplyakov, V. G. Benediktov, A. I. Polezhaev and A. V. Koltsov.

A. F. Voeikov(1779–1839) - The poet gravitated towards descriptive lyrics and satire. In 1814–1830, he created the famous satire “The Madhouse,” in which he caricatured portraits of many writers and public figures of the early 19th century. In 1816 he translated the poem “The Gardens” by the French poet Delisle.

I. I. Kozlov (1779–1840) The work of I. Kozlov, whose first poetic experiments were inspired by the genius of Byron, enjoyed significant success. His talent was, according to Zhukovsky, “awakened by suffering.” Like Byron, Kozlov is characterized by freedom-loving dreams, honor, and nobility. Kozlov knew how to poetically convey civic passion, moral rigor, and the most subtle emotional experiences. He was no stranger to doubts, anxieties, “sorrow of the soul”, “bright dreams”, “secrets of lofty thoughts”, living joy, the beauty of a woman, sweet melancholy - everything that a person lives with. Kozlov often lacked originality, his poetic vocabulary is too traditional, it repeats the usual “poetisms” of romantic poetry, but in the best works, such as "Romance"(“There is a quiet grove near the quick springs...”), "Venice night. Fantasy","For the funeral of the English general Ser John Moore", “Princess Z. A. Volkonskaya”, “Evening Bells”, he achieves true sincerity.

He owns one of the best poetic transcriptions from “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” - “Yaroslavna’s Lament.” Poem by Kozlov "Chernets" stands on a par with the romantic poems of Pushkin and Lermontov.

V. G. Benediktov (1807–1873) When romantic poetry was already experiencing a crisis and was approaching decline, and readers had not yet aesthetically matured to the noble simplicity of Pushkin’s “poetry of reality,” the voice of V. Benediktov sounded in poetry. The success of his poetry in the second half of the 1830s and early 1840s was resounding and almost universal. At the same time, praise was lavished not by some people inexperienced in the art of words, but by poets who knew a lot about it, whose subtle poetic taste cannot be doubted. Young Up. Grigoriev, A. Fet, Y. Polonsky, I. Turgenev, N. Nekrasov enthusiastically greeted the new talent. Subsequently, they recalled their gustatory mistake with shame. They could only be excused by youth and enthusiasm, which blinded them to the obvious failures of taste in Benediktov’s poetry. As for the ordinary public, their opinion was expressed by one of the booksellers: “This one will be cleaner than Pushkin.”

In fairness, it must be said that Benediktov was not devoid of talent, and this, according to Nekrasov, “an incomprehensible combination of talent ... with an incredible lack of taste,” obviously misled the young writers. The stunning impression made by Benediktov's poems did not affect either Pushkin or Belinsky. Pushkin, according to his memoirs, ironically approved of the new poet’s rhymes; Belinsky subjected his poems to severe critical analysis. Benediktov’s fame did not last long and, as A. N. Arkhangelsky wittily noted, he was “praised... at first for the same thing, for which they later began to scold...”.

The reason for such a noisy appearance of Benediktov on the poetry scene is quite clear: he met the expectations of an undemanding readership. Pushkin and the best poets around him gradually moved away from romanticism in poetry and outlined new artistic paths. They have gone far ahead in their searches. Readers were still waiting for romantic impulses into some foggy beyond, which would not remind of the sorrows of real life, of everyday worries and sorrows; they liked the image of a poet-priest, a chosen one, an idol, detached from reality and towering high above the crowd. If Zhukovsky defended the formula “Life and poetry are one,” if Batyushkov said about himself: “And he lived exactly as he wrote,” then readers did not recognize any connection between life and poetry. In life everything should be as it is, in poetry - not as it is. Life is one thing, poetry is something completely different.

It was precisely this mass reader that Benediktov came to court. What was Benediktov like? In life he is a good official. In poetry - an enthusiastic poet with super-romantic impulses, turning the most ordinary, small and everyday things into grandiose, majestic and for all mortals, including himself, into unattainable. Benediktov lives one life, writes about another. The lyrical hero of Benediktov has nothing in common and no points of contact with the official Benediktov. Benediktov created a poetic mask that was in no way similar to him, the official. The space where the official Benediktov lives is known: the department, office rooms, St. Petersburg apartment, avenues and streets of St. Petersburg; it is full of sounds, human and other noise. Benediktov’s lyrical hero lives in a different space. There, every thing is given a universal scale: “ Boundless distance, Unanswered silence Reflects, like in a mirror, eternity" Benediktov strives to ensure that the gap between life and poetry does not decrease, but increases. In poetry, in his opinion, everything should be different than in life (“the birth of pure art”).

Benediktov’s entire poetic style testifies to a sharp break with the principles of Pushkin’s stylistics, which were adopted by the best poets and shared by them - clarity, accuracy, transparency of thought and its verbal expression. While breaking with Pushkin's poetics, Benediktov did not break with the pre-Pushkin romantic system. Benediktov’s peculiarity was that he combined traditional general romantic stylistic cliches and images with bold and successful phrases, fresh imagery that breaks the worn-out verbal fabric. Here is an example of Benediktov’s poetic courage: “ The ebullient horse runs, the run is smooth and fast, the speed is unnoticeable to the rider! In vain does he want to rest his gaze there: The naked steppe all around is pointless.”

A. I. Polezhaev (1804–1838) Among the poets of the late 1820s–1830s, A. Polezhaev stood out for his unhappy and tragic fate, which did not spare the poet from his birthday. He was an illegitimate son, accused by denunciation of violating the norms of public morality, exiled as a non-commissioned officer of the Butyrsky Infantry Regiment, demoted to the ranks of soldiers, deprived of his noble title “without length of service,” suffered from consumption and died at the age of 33.

Polezhaev began writing at the end of the 1820s. His poems were clearly oriented towards Pushkin's principle of stylistic freedom and were distinguished by their sharp meaning, energetic rhythm and topicality. " I'll die! To the shame of the executioners I will give up my defenseless body! But, like an age-old oak, motionless from arrows, I, motionless and bold, will meet the fatal moment!" In some poems (“Sarafanchik”) Polezhaev tried to turn to folk imagery.

Polezhaev begins with traditional themes: life is a stream of fast-flowing days (“Nadenka”, “Waterfall”), human life is built according to the laws of nature (“Evening Dawn”, “Chains”): 15 years is the time of love and growing up (“Love”) . But Polezhaev’s hero violates these norms of life: “It did not bloom - and faded in the morning of cloudy days” (“Evening Dawn”). An image of the sea of ​​life appears, where man is a swimmer, a shuttle: “Song of the Perishing Swimmer,” “The Sea,” “To My Genius.” The king over all the laws of life is fate (“Rock”), and the loss of “freedom and peace” makes the hero “an outcast of people” (“The Living Dead”, “Fate killed me in infancy!..”, “Indignation”). Atheism leads to fight against God (“Fierce”) and demonism (“God’s Judgment”), which brings Polezhaev’s poetry closer to the work of M.Yu. Lermontov (“<Узник>", "Sadness", "Melancholy").

A. V. Koltsov(1809–1842) Many Russian poets, processing Russian folklore, composed wonderful songs and romances, and created entire poems and fairy tales in the folk spirit. But for none of them folklore was as much their own as for Koltsov, who lived among the people and thought in accordance with centuries-old folk ideas. With his talent, Koltsov attracted the attention first of provincial Voronezh writers and philanthropists, then of the capital - N.V. Stankevich, Zhukovsky, Vyazemsky and especially Belinsky. Koltsov also met Pushkin.

One of the central problems of Russian literature of the 19th century. - the disconnection of noble and popular cultures, the gap between the life of the people and the life of the educated class. In Koltsov’s work, to a certain extent, this gap was overcome, since the poet combined in his poetry the advantages of folklore and professional literature.

In Koltsov’s folk songs, the reader faces not a specific (individualized) peasant, but a peasant in general. And Koltsov sings not about any special concerns, troubles and joys of the peasant, like Nekrasov, in whose poetry different peasants have different destinies and different sorrows, but common, common peasant and national ones. Therefore, both the content of Koltsov’s poetry and the form were organically connected with folk art. Koltsov’s peasant, in full accordance with the folk way of life, is surrounded by nature, and his life is determined by the natural calendar, natural schedule and routine. Everything is subject to the natural cycle working life peasant ("The Ploughman's Song", "Harvest"). As soon as the peasant falls out of the natural cycle, loses the power of this peculiar “peasant pantheism,” he immediately feels anxiety, threat and fear, foreshadowing death (“Why are you sleeping, little man?”). If a peasant lives in unity with nature, with history and with his “tribe,” then he feels like a hero, feels immense strength within himself. According to the folk hero, Koltsov also understands the vicissitudes of fate: he knows how to be happy in happiness and patient in misfortune (two songs by Likhach Kudryavich).

Koltsov’s departure from the people’s worldview and attempts to enter the field of professional literature, that is, to write the same poetry as the educated literary nobles, did not lead to anything good. His efforts to create poems in the spirit of philosophical elegies and thoughts, to pour his philosophical reflections into poetry ended in failure. These poems were naive and poetically weak.

Gogol wrote about Pushkin’s influence on Russian poetry: “Karamzin did not do in prose what he did in poetry. Karamzin's imitators served as a pitiful caricature of himself and brought both his style and his thoughts to sugary cloying. As for Pushkin, for all the poets contemporary to him, he was like a poetic fire dropped from the sky, from which other semi-precious poets lit up like candles. A whole constellation of them suddenly formed around him..."

Young poets, feeling the beneficial influence of Pushkin on their work, even sought his patronage. In 1817, V. I. Tumansky wrote to Pushkin: “Your connections, the nationality of your fame, your head... everything gives you a flattering opportunity to influence minds with much more extensive success against other writers. From the height of your position, you must observe everything, supervise everything, knock off the heads of stolen reputations and bring out modest talents in people who will stick to you.”

At the same time, the poets of Pushkin's circle not only followed Pushkin, but also entered into competition with him. Their evolution did not in all respects coincide with the rapid development of the Russian genius, who was ahead of his time. Remaining romantics, Baratynsky or Yazykov could no longer appreciate his “novel in verse” “Eugene Onegin” and were distrustful of his realistic prose. Their closeness to Pushkin did not exclude dialogue with him.

Another pattern in the development of these poets was the special relationship between their creative achievements and the poetic world of Pushkin. The poets of Pushkin's time creatively embodied, and sometimes even developed and improved only certain aspects of his poetic system. But Pushkin, with his universalism, remained a unique model for them.

The emergence of the “Pushkin galaxy” is associated with the times of the Lyceum and the first post-Lyceum years, when a “union of poets” arose around Pushkin. It was a spiritual unity based on a commonality of aesthetic tastes and ideas about the nature and purpose of poetry. The cult of friendship here was painted in special colors: the “favorites of the eternal muses” were friends with each other, united in the “holy brotherhood” of poets, prophets, favorites of the gods, who treated the “mad crowd” with contempt. A new, romantic view of the poet as God's chosen one was already evident. At an early stage, Epicureanism dominated here, not without open opposition to the forms of sanctimonious morality and sectarian piety accepted in the official world. Young poets followed the tradition of the early Batyushkov, reflected in his famous message “My Penates” and in a cycle of anthological poems.

Gradually, this alliance began to take the form of mature opposition to the autocracy of the tsar and the reactionary regime of Arakcheev. At the same time, pressing problems arose for the further development and enrichment of the language of Russian poetry. The “school of harmonic precision”, approved through the efforts of Zhukovsky and Batyushkov, seemed archaic to the younger generation of poets: it held back further development poetry by strict forms of poetic thinking, stylistic smoothness of expression of thought, thematic narrowness and one-sidedness.

Let us remember that Zhukovsky and Batyushkov, as well as poets of the civil movement, developed a whole language of poetic symbols, which then migrated from one poem to another and created a feeling of harmony, poetic sublimity of the language: “flame of love”, “cup of joy”, “delight of the heart” , “heat of the heart”, “coolness of the heart”, “drinking the breath”, “languid gaze”, “fiery delight”, “secrets of beauty”, “maiden of love”, “bed of luxury”, “memory of the heart”. The poets of Pushkin’s galaxy strive in various ways to resist “the dematerialization of the poetic word - a natural phenomenon in the system of stable styles that replaced the genre style in the 1810-1820s,” notes K. K. Buchmeyer. – The poetics of such styles was based on the fundamental repetition of poetic formulas (signal words), designed for recognition and the emergence of certain associations (for example, in the national historical style: chains, swords, slaves, dagger, vengeance; in the elegiac style: tears, urns, joy, roses, golden days, etc.). However, the expressive possibilities of such a word in each given poetic context narrowed: being a sign of style, it became almost unambiguous, losing part of its objective meaning, and with it the power of direct impact.” At a new stage in the development of Russian poetry, a need arose, without completely abandoning the achievements of its predecessors, to return the poetic word to its simple, “objective” content.

One of the ways to update the language was to turn to ancient poetry, already enriched by the experience of the people in its romantic understanding. The poets of Pushkin's circle, relying on the experience of the late Batyushkov, decisively moved away from the idea of ​​ancient culture as a timeless standard for direct imitation. Antiquity appeared before them as a special world, historically determined and unique in its essential qualities in modern times. According to V. E. Vatsuro, “there was a discovery of that immutable fact for us that a person of a different cultural era thought and felt in other forms, different from modernity, and that these forms have their own aesthetic value.”

And this value is modern stage Pushkin was the first to sense the development of Russian poetry. Anthological and idyllic lyrics, by his definition, “do not allow anything tense in feelings; subtle, confused in thoughts; unnecessary, unnatural in descriptions.” Behind the assessment of the idylls of A. A. Delvig, to whom these words of Pushkin are addressed, one senses a hidden polemic with the Zhukovsky school, which achieved poetic success by muting the objective meaning of the word and introducing subjective, associative semantic shades into it.

Delvig Anton Antonovich (1798-1831)

In the circle of poets of the “Pushkin galaxy”, it is no coincidence that the first place is given to Pushkin’s favorite Anton Antonovich Delvig (1798-1831). One day Pushkin gave him a figurine of a bronze sphinx, famous in ancient mythology half-man, half-lion, testing travelers with his riddles, and accompanied the gift with the following madrigal:

Who grew Theocritus's tender roses in the snow?

In the Iron Age, tell me, who guessed the golden one?

Who is a young Slav, a Greek in spirit, and a German by birth?

Here is my riddle: cunning Oedipus, solve it!

Delvig entered Russian literature as a master of the idyllic genre in the anthological genre. “What power of imagination must one have,” Pushkin wrote about Delviga’s idylls, “in order to be so completely transported from the 19th century to the golden age, and what an extraordinary sense of grace in order to guess Greek poetry in such a way.” Pushkin felt in Delvig’s poetry the living breath of the past, historicism in the transmission of “the childhood of the human race.”

In his experiments, Delvig followed N.I. Gnedich, who, in the preface to his own translation of Theocritus’s idyll “Syracusan Woman” (1811), noted that “the kind of idyllic poetry, more than any other, requires folk, domestic content; not just shepherds, but all the states of people who are close to nature by nature can be the subject of this poetry.”

In his idylls, Delvig takes the reader to the “golden age” of antiquity, where man was not yet alienated from society and lived in a harmonious union with nature. Everything here is shrouded in the poet’s romantic dream of the simple and indivisible values ​​of life, lost by modern civilization. The poet portrays antiquity as a unique era that retains its charm for modern man and gives rise to longing for what our world has lost.

His idylls are close to genre scenes, pictures depicting certain episodes from the life of ordinary villagers. These are heroes endowed with modest and simple virtues: they do not know how to pretend and lie, the dramas in their everyday life resemble peaceful family quarrels, which only strengthen the strength of community life. In his own way, a simple person lives, loves, makes friends and has fun; in his own way, he also meets death, which is fatal for modern romantics. Living in unity with nature, he does not feel tragic in the short duration of his existence.

But as soon as the microbe of deception penetrates the world of these pure relationships, disaster ensues. In the idyll “The End of the Golden Age” (1828), the city youth Meletius seduces the shepherdess Amarilla, and then misfortune befalls the whole country. The Amarilla River is drowning, the beauty of Arcadia is fading, the cold of soul is chilling the hearts of the villagers, the harmony between man and nature is being destroyed forever. This motif will live long in our literature. He will respond in the poem of his friend Delvig Baratynsky “The Last Poet”. Will come to life in the story “Cossacks” by L. N. Tolstoy. And then the “golden age” will disturb the imagination of F. M. Dostoevsky’s heroes, and will echo in Versilov’s dream from his novel “The Teenager.”

Delvig's anthological theme, as one would expect, served as a kind of bridge to the depiction of Russian folk life. For the first time, N. I. Gnedich tried to combine Russian patriarchy with the ancient one in the idyll “Fishermen”. The anthological genre restored in Russian poetry not only the taste for the exact word, but also the feeling of a living, patriarchal folk life. In the anthological stories, an understanding of nationality as a historically determined community of people was formed. Following Gnedich, Delvig writes the “Russian idyll” “Retired Soldier” (1829). Its dramatic form in some ways anticipates the folk dialogues in the poems of N. A. Nekrasov. A crippled Russian soldier, wandering home from distant lands, comes out to see the shepherds:

Ah, brothers! What kind of heaven on earth is yours?

Near Kursk! This evening, like a miracle

I became younger, having inhaled to my heart's content

Warmth and healing smell! Lyubo,

It’s easy for me in my native air, like a fish

In the icy river!…

Having warmed up by the hospitable fire, having tasted some simple shepherd's food, the soldier talks about the fire of Moscow, the flight and death of the French:

They didn't go far. On the road

Frost grabbed them and made them wait

Doomsday at the crime scene:

U God's Church, defiled by them,

In a looted barn, near the village,

Burned by their violence!…

His “Russian songs” occupied a special place in Delvig’s creative heritage. The poet listened carefully to the very spirit of the folk song, to its compositional structure and style. Although many reproached him for being literary, for the lack of true nationality, these reproaches are incorrect, if we recall Pushkin’s well-known advice to judge the poet according to the laws that he himself recognized over himself. Delvig did not imitate folk songs, as his predecessors did, including A.F. Merzlyakov. He approached Russian folk culture with the same standards of historicism with which he reproduced the spirit of antiquity. Delvig tried to penetrate from the inside into the spiritual and artistic world of folk song. “Even during Delvig’s lifetime, they tried to contrast him with A.F. Merzlyakov, the author of the widely popular “Russian songs,” as a poet more closely connected with the elements of folk life,” notes V.E. Vatsuro. “Maybe this was so, but Merzlyakov’s songs are further from genuine folk poetry than Delvig’s songs. Delvig was able to capture those features of folk poetics that the written literature of his time had passed over: an atmosphere created not directly, but indirectly, restraint and strength of feeling, the characteristic symbolism of spare imagery. In folk songs he looked for a national character and understood it as a “naive” and patriarchal character. It was a kind of “anthology”, but based on Russian national material.” Here Delvig approached the method of mastering folklore that A.V. Koltsov later came to.

“Russian Songs” by Delvig - “Oh, is it night, little night...”, “Is it my little head, little head...”, “What, young beauty...”, “It’s boring, girls, living alone in the spring...”, “The little bird sang, sang ...,” “My nightingale, nightingale...”, “Like a little village stands behind the river...”, “And I will go out onto the porch...”, “Orphan girl...”, “Thunderclouds are walking across the sky...”, “How is it in our roof...", "I was walking in the garden in the evening, baby", "Not a fine autumn rain..." - entered not only the salon, city, but also the folk repertoire. “The Nightingale” with its first four verses gained immortality in the romance of A. A. Alyabyev. M. Glinka set to music the song “Not a fine autumn rain...” specially composed for him by Delvig. There is no doubt that Delvig’s “Russian songs” also influenced the development of A. V. Koltsov’s talent.

Delvig’s numerous elegiac poems are also worthy of attention, occupying an intermediate place between the classic sad elegy and love romance. “When, soul, you asked…”, “The past days of enchantment...” (the poem “Disappointment”) still sound in the melodies of M. L. Yakovlev and A. S. Dargomyzhsky. Delvig boldly introduces ancient motifs into the elegy, just as he fills the romance with elegiac motifs. As a result, the elegy acquires plot dynamism and linguistic diversity, losing its characteristic features of staticity and stylistic monotony.

In Russian poetry, Delvig also became famous as a master of the sonnet. He not only strove to give this form grace and formal perfection, but also imbued it with rich philosophical content. Such, for example, is his sonnet “Inspiration” (1822), where there is a romantic thought about the cleansing influence of inspiration, in the minutes of which God gives the poet’s soul a feeling of immortality:

It's not often that inspiration comes to us,

And for a brief moment it burns in the soul;

But the favorite of the muses appreciates this moment,

Like a martyr separated from the earth.

In friends there is deception, in love there is disbelief

And there is poison in everything that the heart holds dear,

Forgotten by him: the enthusiastic drinker

I've already read my purpose.

And despised, persecuted from people,

Wandering alone under the skies,

He speaks to the ages to come;

He puts honor above all honors,

He takes revenge on slander with his glory

And shares immortality with the gods.

Delvig also went down in history as an organizer of literary life. He published one of the best almanacs of the 1820s, “Northern Flowers,” and then, in collaboration with A. S. Pushkin, started publishing the “Literary Newspaper,” aimed against the trade trend in Russian journalism, against the “commercial aesthetics” approved in in the early 1830s by lively St. Petersburg journalists Bulgarin and Grech. Delvig’s “Literary Newspaper” then united the best, “aristocratic” literary forces in Russia. But in 1830, in November, it was closed for publishing a quatrain dedicated to the July Revolution in France. Delvig, having received the strictest warning from Benckendorff himself, suffered a severe nervous shock, which completely undermined his already weak health. An accidental January cold brought him to an early grave on January 14 (26), 1831.

Vyazemsky Pyotr Andreevich (1792-1878)

Pyotr Andreevich Vyazemsky was one of the elders in the circle of poets of the Pushkin galaxy. He was born in Moscow into a family of hereditary appanage princes, among the ancient feudal nobility. Although to early XIX century, it became considerably impoverished, but still retained the proud spirit of the noble front, which was treated with contempt by the low-born public surrounding the royal throne. In 1805, the father placed his son in a St. Petersburg Jesuit boarding school, then Vyazemsky studied a little at a boarding school at the Pedagogical Institute, and in 1806, at the insistence of his father, concerned about his son’s free behavior, he returned to Moscow, where he supplemented his education with private lessons from professors at Moscow University. In 1807, his father died, leaving the fifteen-year-old boy a large fortune. An absent-minded life began, young parties, cards, until N. M. Karamzin, who had married Vyazemsky’s half-sister Ekaterina Andreevna back in 1801, took him under his wing and replaced his early-departed father.

In the terrible days of 1812, Vyazemsky joined the Moscow militia and took part in the Battle of Borodino, where one horse was killed and another was wounded under him. For his bravery he was awarded the Order of Stanislav, 4th degree, but illness prevented him from participating in further hostilities. He leaves Moscow with the Karamzin family and gets to Yaroslavl, from where the Karamzins leave for Nizhny Novgorod, and Vyazemsky and his wife go to Vologda.

Vyazemsky's literary interests are distinguished by their extraordinary breadth and encyclopedicism. He is a politician, a thinker, a journalist, a critic and polemicist of the romantic trend, and the author of the most valuable “Notebooks”, a memoirist who described the life and everyday life of “pre-fire” Moscow, a poet and translator. Unlike his young friends, he felt throughout his life that he was a heir to the Age of Enlightenment, having become familiar with the works of French encyclopedists in his father’s rich library from childhood.

But he begins his literary activity as a supporter of Karamzin and Dmitriev. In his Ostafyevo estate near Moscow, Russian writers and poets periodically gather, calling themselves the “Friendly Artel” - Denis Davydov, Alexander Turgenev, Vasily Zhukovsky, Konstantin Batyushkov, Vasily Pushkin, Dmitry Bludov - all future members of Arzamas. Vyazemsky then focuses on “light poetry”, which is cultivated by young pre-romanticists. The leading genre is the literary message, in which Vyazemsky shows originality in describing the delights of a solitary home life (“Message to Zhukovsky in the village”, “To my friends Zhukovsky, Batyushkov and Severin”, “To friends”, “To a friend”, “Message to Turgenev with pie"). They are accompanied by “Farewell to the Robe”, “The Rules of the Dining Room”, etc. The idea of ​​natural equality, characteristic of the Enlightenment, and complicated by reasoning about the superiority of spiritual intimacy over prim nobility, is affirmed:

Hospitality - without ranks,

Diversity is in conversations,

In the stories there is thriftiness of words,

Cold-bloodedness - in heated debates,

Without cleverness - simplicity,

Cheerfulness is the sober spirit of freedom,

Without caustic bile - sharpness,

Without buffoonery - the essence of jokes is frisky.

These are poems free from any formality and pomp, cultivating independence, graceful “idleness,” and hostility to everything official. A feature of Vyazemsky’s friendly messages is the paradoxical combination of poetic conventions with the realities of a specific, everyday situation. Everyday words, jokes, and satirical sketches penetrate into the messages. A narrative style is being developed that is close to an unpretentious friendly conversation, which will be reflected in Pushkin’s novel “Eugene Onegin”. In “Message to Turgenev with Pie” Vyazemsky writes:

Or, putting aside the balusters of poetry,

(You are your own rhetorician and ambassador),

Go, pie, to Turgenev’s table,

A worthy gift of both friendship and gluttony!

Following the friendly messages, a series of epigrams, noels, fables, and satirical couplets are created, in which Vyazemsky’s mocking mind penetrates into the very essence of things, presenting them in a witty light. The subjects of denunciation are the “Old Believers” from Shishkov’s “Conversation...”, Karamzin’s epigones, conservatives in politics. About Shakhovsky he will say:

You’re cold in Shutovskaya’s “Fur Coats”,

In “Waters” you are Shutovskoy dry.

Vyazemsky creates a murderous parody of the popular genre of sentimental travel at the beginning of the century - “An episodic excerpt from a journey in verse. Vozdykhalov’s first rest”:

He was all impromptu.

Bye To meet him from the shack

A woman comes out; he came to life!

To the sweet ideal of a cowgirl

Lornet directs Celadon,

He straightens his scarlet scarf,

Sighs once, sighs twice,

And, cursing, he turns to her

He says the following:

“I greet you with a hundredfold prayer

Gebeya from this side!

The famous memoirist, Vyazemsky’s colleague in Arzamas, Filipp Filippovich Vigel, recalling the literary life of the early 1810s, wrote: “At the same time, a small miracle appeared in Moscow. The minor boy Vyazemsky suddenly stepped forward both as Karamzin’s defender from the enemies, and as a threat to the dirty guys, who, hiding behind his name and banner, dishonored them... Karamzin never liked satires, epigrams and literary quarrels in general, and could not curb the abusive spirit in his pupil, excited by love for him. But what's the problem? Young child, let him still amuse himself; and the child was much heavier on his hand! As Ivan Tsarevich used to do, Prince Peter Andreevich took someone by the hand, hand off, and someone by the head, head off.” Striking left and right, Vyazemsky defines his aesthetic position, which does not coincide with the position of the “school of harmonic precision.”

Firstly, as a heir to the enlightenment culture of the 18th century, he invariably contrasts the poetry of feeling with the poetry of thought. Secondly, he opposes the smoothness, weariness, and sophistication of the poetic style: “I really love and highly appreciate the melodiousness of other people’s poems, but in my poems I don’t at all pursue this melodiousness. I will never sacrifice my thoughts to sound. In my verse I want to say what I want to say; I don’t care or think about my neighbor’s ears... My stubbornness, my violence sometimes give my poems prosaic lethargy, sometimes pretentiousness.” Avoiding poeticization, Vyazemsky followed the development of Russian poetry, which in the Pushkin era began to decisively bring book language closer to oral language. Deviation from the style of “harmonic precision” led to some disharmony and stylistic diversity of his poetry:

My tongue is not always immaculate,

The taste is true, the style is pure, and the expression is precise.

Since the mid-1810s, noticeable changes have taken place in Vyazemsky’s work. In February 1818, he was assigned to the civil service in Warsaw as an official for foreign correspondence under the imperial commissar N.N. Novosiltsev. He knows that, on the instructions of the sovereign, his immediate superior is working on a draft of the Russian constitution. Vyazemsky accompanies his entry into a responsible position with a large poem “Petersburg” (1818), in which, reviving the tradition of the Russian ode, he tries to influence the good undertakings of the sovereign. Like Pushkin in the Stanzas, he reminds Alexander of the great deeds of Peter:

Behold Peter is still alive in the eloquent brass!

Below him is the Poltava horse, the proud forerunner

Bayonet sparkling and waving banners.

He still reigns over the city he created,

Having covered him with a sovereign hand,

The guardian of the people's honor and silent fear of anger.

Let the enemies dare, armed with hell,

Bring the bloody sword of war to your shores,

Hero! You will reflect them with a fixed gaze,

Ready to fall on them from a brave steepness.

The image of the “Bronze Horseman” created here by Vyazemsky will later be echoed in Pushkin’s poem of the same name. Following this, praising the age of Catherine, the poet believes that one should not envy the past:

Our age is an age of glory, our king is the love of the universe!

Hinting at the liberation mission of Alexander I in Europe, Vyazemsky gives his lesson to the Tsar in the finale:

Peter created subjects, you form citizens!

Let the statutes be the gift and their guardian be freedom.

The promised shore of a great people,

The seeds of all pure virtues will bloom.

Your country awaits with reverence, O king,

So that having given her happiness, he also gave her the right to happiness!

“The creator of the people’s troubles is blind autocracy,” -

The criminal darkness of passion has penetrated deeply,

The law's watchful eye watches over the kingdoms,

Like the watchful eye of providence.

It seemed to Vyazemsky that his dreams of a constitutional monarchy in Russia, which completely coincided with the dreams of the Northern Society of Decembrists, would soon become a reality. In his speech from the throne at the opening of the Polish Sejm in 1818, Alexander I said: “I intend to give beneficial constitutional rule to all the peoples entrusted to me by providence.” Vyazemsky knew at this time “more than the Decembrists themselves knew: he knew that the constitution of the Russian Empire had already been written and it depended on one stroke of Alexander to bring it to life” (S.N. Durylin). However, Adam Czartoryski, who studied Alexander’s character well, wrote in his “Memoirs”: “The Emperor liked external forms of freedom, just as he likes beautiful spectacles; he liked that his government looked like a free government, and he boasted about it. But he only needed the external appearance and form, but he did not allow them to be embodied in reality. In a word, he would willingly agree to give freedom to the whole world, but on the condition that everyone voluntarily submits exclusively to his will.”

At a cordial meeting with the sovereign after the throne speech, Vyazemsky handed him a note from high-ranking and liberal-minded noble officials, in which they most submissively asked for permission to begin considering and deciding on another important issue on the liberation of peasants from serfdom. And in 1821, during his summer vacation, Vyazemsky received a letter from Novosiltsev, in which the sovereign forbade him to return to Warsaw. This expulsion offended Vyazemsky so much that he demonstratively submitted a petition to be removed from the rank of chamber cadet of the court, which had been worn since 1811.

The result of these events was famous poem Vyazemsky “Indignation” (1820). An unnamed informer wrote to Benkendorf: “Vyazemsky’s way of thinking can be adequately assessed by one of his poetic plays, Indignation, which served as a catechism for the conspirators (Decembrists!).” Nikolai Kutanov (pseudonym of S. N. Durylin) in his long-standing work “Decembrist without December,” dedicated to Vyazemsky, wrote:

“It is rare among the Decembrists that one can find such a vivid attack on one of the foundations of the serf state - the forcible squeezing of economic juices from the serf masses through taxes and extortions. Neither in Pushkin’s “Village”, nor in “Woe from Wit” there is such an attack.

But Vyazemsky, driven by the Apollo of “indignation,” turned out in his poems not only to be a poet of Decembrism, as Pushkin was, but also a poet of December, as Ryleev was: the “catechism” ends with a call to Senate Square:

It will light up, a day, a day of celebration and execution,

A day of joyful hopes, a day of sorrowful fear!

The song of victories will ring out for you, priests of truth,

To you, friends, honor and freedom!

Your funeral lament! you, renegades of nature!

You, oppressors! you low flatterers!”

And yet Vyazemsky was not a member of the secret society of the Decembrists. In his “Confession,” written in 1829, he explained his non-involvement in Decembrist organizations, incomprehensible to the authorities: “Any affiliation with a secret society is already the enslavement of personal will to the secret will of the leaders. Good preparation for freedom, which begins with the enslavement of oneself!

As for his enemies, who caused a surge of indignation, Vyazemsky once said about them: “My only hope, my only consolation is the assurance that they too will see in the next world how stupid, stupid, harmful they were in this world, how they were fairly and strictly assessed by the general opinion, how they did not arouse any noble sympathy among the people, who with firmness and self-sacrifice endured them as a temporary evil sent by Providence in His inscrutable will. It is foolhardy to hope that they will someday come to their senses here too, and they shouldn’t. One thunderstorm could bring them to their senses. Thunder will not strike, the Russian man will not cross himself. And politically we must believe in the immortality of the soul and the Second Coming for the judgment of the living and the dead. Otherwise, political despair would have taken possession of the soul” (entry from 1844).

Artistically, “Indignation” represents a complex fusion of the traditions of high ode with elegiac motifs, which sound especially vivid in the introduction. All directed towards a civil theme, Vyazemsky is not satisfied with either Karamzin’s poetics or Zhukovsky’s poetic system. He seriously advises the latter to turn to the civil topic: “You’ve had enough of basking in the clouds, descend to the ground, and let at least the horrors raging on it awaken the energy of your soul. Devote your flame to truth and give up serving idols. Noble indignation is the modern inspiration.”

Vyazemsky perceives Byron’s romanticism in the same vein. The English poet is now becoming his idol. But he sees Byron not as a poet of “world sorrow”, but as a tyrant fighter, a Protestant, a fighter for the freedom of Greece. Therefore, Vyazemsky’s “colors of Byron’s romanticism” merge with “political colors.” In the ode “Despondency,” Vyazemsky depicts not so much the psychological state of despondency itself, but reflects on the reasons and facts of real life that give rise to it. The elegiac world of unfulfilled hopes and dreams is combined in the poem with the world of civic feelings, ideas and images, presented in a declamatory, oratorical, archaic style. The genre of sad elegy pushes its boundaries, personally coloring the “signal words” of their poetic civil vocabulary. As a result, the poet’s voice is sharply individualized, political reflections and emotions acquire only his, Vyazemsky’s, intonation. The work includes historicism in the understanding of modern man, the lyrical hero.

At the same time, Vyazemsky the critic poses for the first time in his articles the romantic problem of nationality. It also applies to his own works. The poet insists that every nation has its own system, its own way of thinking, that a Russian thinks differently than a Frenchman. An important step towards the creative embodiment of nationality was Vyazemsky’s elegy “The First Snow” (1819), from which Pushkin took the epigraph to the first chapter of “Eugene Onegin” - “And he is in a hurry to live, and he is in a hurry to feel.”

The romantics believed that the uniqueness of a national character depended on the climate, on national history, on customs, beliefs, and language. And so Vyazemsky in his elegy merges lyrical feeling with specific details of Russian life and Russian landscape. The harsh winter beauty corresponds to the character traits of the Russian person, morally pure, courageous, despising danger, patient with the blows of fate:

Having despised the frost's anger and futile threats,

Your rosy cheeks are freshly reddened with roses...

Vyazemsky gives a picture of the Russian sleigh route that fascinated Pushkin, who picked it up when describing the winter route of Eugene Onegin:

Like a light blizzard, their flocked run

Even reins cut through the snow

And, lifting it from the ground like a bright cloud,

Silvery dust covers them.

This theme grows and develops in Vyazemsky’s poetry and further in the poems “Winter Caricatures (Excerpts from the Journal of a Winter Trip in the Steppe Provinces)” (1828), “Road Duma” (1830), “Another Troika” (1834), which became a popular romance, “Another Road Thought” (1841), “Maslenitsa on the Other Side” (1853), etc. Vyazemsky discovers the beauty in the boundless peace of the Russian snowy plains, feeling the connection with them of the expanse of the Russian soul, outwardly discreet, but internally deep.

“Vyazemsky’s proclamation of the right to individual thought determined his place in the romantic movement,” notes I. M. Semenko. – Having left the circle of Karamzin’s concepts, Vyazemsky found his way to romanticism. Unlike the lyrical hero Davydov, the image of the author in Vyazemsky’s poetry is purely intellectual. At the same time, the sharpness of the intellect in Vyazemsky’s poems, just like Davydov’s courage, seems to be a property of nature. It is not the “universal” truth comprehended by reason, but the irrepressible intellectual temperament of the individual that is the key to the emergence of a new thought.”

Disputes in the 1820s about the paths of development of poetry and the nature of Russian romanticism outlined different directions of their development. The psychological romanticism of Zhukovsky and Batyushkov in its various modifications and the civil romanticism of the Decembrists clearly declared their originality already at the beginning of this era. And against their background, criticism, at first timidly, and then more and more clearly, spoke about a new school in poetry, about a new generation of poets. In magazine reviews, next to the gaining strength of Pushkin, without whom it was no longer possible to imagine the literary process, the names of his peers and like-minded people with whom he had friendly and creative relations began to appear.

The circle of poets that is now commonly called Pushkin has emerged. Even during Pushkin’s life, Baratynsky in his message “To Prince P.A. Vyazemsky" introduced the concept of "star of the disunited Pleiades." It is difficult to say who (besides himself and Vyazemsky) Baratynsky included in this community and what he meant when speaking about “dissociation,” but with his light hand the definition of “poets of Pushkin’s Pleiades” entered a critical turn and acquired almost terminological meaning. It has its own poetic appeal, but the analogy with Ronsard’s “Pleiades” itself is not correct enough: firstly, there was no conscious organization of poets close to Pushkin, anything similar to the meetings of the French “Pleiades”; secondly, the installation of Ronsard’s a circle based on certain models was alien to the younger generation of Russian poets, although, of course, the pathos of transformation, the struggle for a new style and national identity of poetry also corresponded to their aspirations.

It can be considered that by the mid-1820s, Pushkin’s circle of poets had more or less been defined. In correspondence, poetic messages, and critical articles, the name of Pushkin as the creator of a new direction, as a poetic authority, came to the fore. Delvig's poems, written around 1815, when the sixteen-year-old poet was just making himself known, became prophetic:

Pushkin! He won’t even hide in the forests:

The lyre will give him away with loud singing,

And from mortals he will delight the immortal

Apollo triumphant on Olympus.

To the greatest extent, Pushkin’s poetic principles, his general aesthetic and life position turned out to be close to five poets, who can be defined as Pushkin’s circle. These are Denis Vasilyevich Davydov (1784-1939), Nikolai Mikhailovich Yazykov (1803-1846), Pyotr Andreevich Vyazemsky (1792-1878), Anton Antonovich Delvig (1798-1831) and Dmitry Vladimirovich Venevitinov (1805-1827).

The degree of personal and creative relationships of these poets with Pushkin, and among themselves, varied. Delvig, a friend since his lyceum years, and Vyazemsky, who met Pushkin in the same years and sensed his poetic genius early, went with him throughout their entire creative life, were friends and comrades-in-arms in literary battles. Davydov, like Vyazemsky, was associated with Pushkin by “Arzamas”. With Yazykov friendly relations, which arose in Trigorskoye in the summer of 1826 during the Northern exile, resumed in the spring of 1830, survived until the death of Pushkin and acquired the character of creative mutual understanding. With Venevitinov, the poet’s fourth cousin, who left remarkable critical opinions about him, Pushkin was united by the Society of Philosophers and the Moskovsky Vestnik. The points of intersection were inevitable, since they all found themselves in the zone of Pushkin’s attraction, like the stars in the Pleiades. And documentary evidence: correspondence, exchange of friendly messages, participation in certain publications is proof of this.

All of them are poets of Pushkin’s time (but here they are among Pushkin’s other contemporaries). Probably, they can be called poets of the Pushkin movement, but this definition, rather, records their belonging to the Pushkin tradition, which continues after them. They are poets of the Pushkin circle, extremely closed in some ways, but in essence very open.

Contemporaries, companions, collaborators, rivals - all these definitions are important for characterizing their relationships. But, perhaps, the most accurate word will be from the Karamzin lexicon. They were “sympathizers” because they were united general feeling to many social and moral values, aesthetic principles, and poetic style. It is no coincidence that Pushkin introduced the concept of “school of harmonic precision”, relying on their discoveries in this area.

Features of the love of freedom of poets of Pushkin’s circle

Contemporaries of the Decembrists, friends of the Decembrist poets, poets of Pushkin’s circle were lovers of freedom. Vyazemsky was even called “the Decembrist without December,” and nothing civil was alien to other poets of Pushkin’s circle. But their love of freedom was fundamentally different: there was no political doctrinaire, moral asceticism, or opposition between poetry and civil ideals. Their love of freedom is, first of all, the emancipation of the soul, that love of freedom that I. Kireevsky, speaking about Yazykov’s poetry, accurately called “the desire for spiritual space.”

Unlike the Decembrists, their poetry will include all the joys of life as poetic reflection, which will coexist and intersect with public emotions and civic themes. They were liberals in the highest sense of the word, and their love of freedom did not narrow their poetic horizons, but expanded it. It was a state not so much of the mind as of the heart. Thus, even before the Decembrists’ criticism of the “sad elegy,” Vyazemsky published the elegy “Despondency” in 1819, where it would seem to provide material for critical reproaches. But the whole train of thought of the poet is an affirmation of the vital force of despondency for the birth of high feelings and civic emotions: “You brought me closer to useful reflection // And brought me under the canopy of peace-loving forces,” “Holy hatred of the dishonest kindled...” Oratorical structure of speech, expression poetic language brings the general elegiac structure of the elegy “Despondency” closer to civic poetry Decembrists, but at the same time contribute to the intimateization of freedom-loving lyrics.

Images of the steppe, troika, Volga, feast, fire, hops, freedom of thought, passionate love, divine nature are organically included in the range of their poetry. And all these images are not recorded only verbally, but live, breathe, given at the highest degree of passion. “What an excess of feelings and thoughts, // What a youthful riot!” - these Pushkin words recreate the atmosphere of the birth of a new generation of youth and a new generation of poets. And it is no coincidence that he took the epigraph to his novel “Eugene Onegin” from Vyazemsky’s elegy “The First Snow”: “And he is in a hurry to live, and he is in a hurry to feel,” conveying the process of becoming a hero of his time.

The poets of Pushkin's circle expand the emotional field of poetry, introducing into it the theme of the road as an existential problem of the path of life. Numerous “road thoughts” and “troikas” by Vyazemsky, including the word “more” in the nomination of texts: “Another road thought”, “Another troika” - emphasizing the moment of movement in space as a constant state of mind.

I can't sit still,

The stale air presses on your chest;

As the groom rushes to the bride,

I'm in a hurry to get somewhere" -

This stanza from “Another Road Thought” of 1832 conveys an almost intimate feeling of the road, the journey of the soul. In another poem of the same title, he gives a characteristic definition of himself and his like-minded people: “the free element is the citizen.” And this definition is symbolic: the poets of Pushkin’s circle are citizens of the free elements. “The God of the Road” (the image of Yazykov’s poetry) is, first of all, the path of Providence and tireless personal choice-search.

We can say that the poets of Pushkin’s circle domesticated and intimated the civic ideas of Decembrist poetry. They bring them from the buskins of high rhetoric to the sphere of everyday life. The toga of the tribune replaces the robe of a private person. Indicative in this regard is the demonstrative glorification of the robe as a symbol of inner freedom and its opposition to the official livery. In “Farewell to the Robe” (1817), Vyazemsky, calling him his “best comrade,” notes: “So, having pulled the living room livery from my shoulders // And with it the yoke of exacting vanity, // I came to life when dressed in a robe, // I made peace again with the abandoned Penate...” He is echoed in the message “To the Robe” (1823) by the young Yazykov: “Let the servants of Ares // Love their tight livery<...>// And my days, like me in a dressing gown, // Are a hundred times more captivating than the days // of the Tsar, who lives inappropriately.” And the lyrical hero of Delvig’s poem “My Hut” (1818), zealously affirming the world of his spiritual values, pathetically declares: “When I am in my hut // Warmed under a quilted robe, // Not only counts and princes - // I don’t recognize the Sultan as my brother ! The introduction of images of the king, sultan, and state officials into the world of the robe only more sharply reveals his free-thinking and love of freedom"carriers".

The problem of the lyrical hero

The combination of everyday life, the domestic world order, the sphere of personal reflection with the pathos of love of freedom, heroism, and high ideals brings to the center of the lyrical narrative not the generalized image of the poet-citizen, but the individuality of the singer as an expression of organic feeling and a reflection of his sphere of life empiricity. Characterizing the features of Denis Davydov’s poetry, the researcher rightly notes that it “... places emphasis on personal character, on what can be called nature. Not from the outside, but from within this active, life-loving, selfless nature, impulses of courage and daring come..."

Even Batyushkov, calling himself “Yanka,” emphasized the special role of “I” in the formation of his poetic individuality. The poets of Pushkin's circle turn the pronoun “I” into an image-symbol of their name. “I” and the possessive pronoun “my” are a concentrated expression of one’s view of the world around us, its life- and peacemaking. Here is a characteristic fragment from Delvig’s poem “Moon”:

In the evening I sat by the window with a pipe;

The moon looked sadly through the window;

I heard the streams rustling in the distance;

I saw: fogs lay on the hills.

My soul was clouded; I shuddered wildly:

I remembered the past vividly in my soul!..

The fivefold “I” in six verses recreates a special state of idyllic peace and at the same time the collision of the present and the past. The moon turns from a natural philosophical reality into a symbol of spiritual life and individual worldview. In the poems of other poets, especially Davydov and Yazykov, such concentration is a reflection of their life position, their place in military and student life. Vyazemsky and Venevitinov assert the right to an original thought and an original word to express it. The “I” in their poetry is not so much a statement of romantic egocentrism and individualism, but rather a consistent and purposeful disclosure of one’s individuality, one’s poetic “I” and one’s sphere of lyrical reflection.

It is in their poetry that the image of the lyrical hero is so significant as a kind of “personal pose”, his concept of the poetic world, personification in the image of the author of his ideas about the world and man. Pushkin’s “poetic fire,” from which “other semiprecious poets lit up like candles” (Gogol), could blind them, simply burn them. Finding your own path in poetry is a conscious moment of self-identification for the poets of Pushkin’s circle. Their lyrical hero may not at all coincide with the real image of his creator, but he carried and expressed his poetic philosophy.

Of course, the individuality of the poets of Pushkin’s circle, taking into account the peculiarities of their creative path and the nature of evolution are difficult to describe in one word, but considering their place in the literary process of the 1820s - the first half of the 1830s, this is possible. Poet-hussar Denis Davydov, poet-student Nikolai Yazykov, poet-journalist Pyotr Vyazemsky, idyllic poet Anton Delvig, poet-philosopher Dmitry Venevitinov - these dominant definitions have their own meaning and their own style, which, as we know, is a person, his individuality.

Genre-style searches for poets of Pushkin’s circle

The genre and style searches of the poets of Pushkin's circle are varied and multidirectional. But, perhaps, what was common to all was the song-romantic beginning of their lyricism as special shape spiritual space, emancipation of feelings. Davydov’s hussar songs, Yazykov’s student anthems, Delvig’s experiments in Russian songs, satirical couplets in the spirit of Beranger Vyazemsky, “Margarita’s Song” from Goethe’s “Faust” arranged by Venevitinov - all these are various modifications of the “riot of the young,” when the soul sings, and at the same time searching for your style. According to the most rough estimates, about 150 songs and romances were written based on their words.

When you read through the eyes of Delvig, famous for the popular romance by A. Alyabyev, “The Nightingale”, you understand where the charm of music came from. Delvig’s “Russian Song” is a wonderful stylization of a folklore girl’s song based on the plot of lost love. It was no coincidence that Delvig called this song “Russian Melody 6th” in his autograph. It was important for him to find the lyrical structure and melody of the song. And although the nightingale is given only the first four verses in this song:

My nightingale, nightingale,

Where are you going, where are you flying?

Where will you sing all night? —

is created full feeling that everything else is his song, the modulations of his voice, his trills. The absence of external rhyme is compensated by internal rhyme, when numerous anaphors are combined into a single melodic chain.

For each of the poets of Pushkin’s circle, songs and romances were the tuning fork to which they tuned the melodies of their soul. Another function was performed by their numerous friendly messages addressed to Pushkin, to each other, fellow writers, and close people. It was sparkling poetry of liberated feeling, where there was a place for civic feeling, aesthetic reflection, mischievous jokes, irony, everyday sketches, and philosophical questions. And behind all this one could discern a passionate desire to be oneself, to self-determine and establish oneself in one’s concept of being.

The ironic principle plays a significant role in the style of the poets of Pushkin’s circle. According to the precise remark of the researcher, among them irony “was freed from rationalistic coldness, transformed into a property of a personal disposition, and became a feature of character.” Unlike traditional romantic irony, it does not attempt to transform the world and reveal its underside. It is not so much ontological as anthropological, since it is an important means of self-disclosure, more complicated look per person. It still does not have Pushkin's lightness, grace in connecting different spheres of existence. But it helps to vary moods.

Thus, Davydov’s famous poem “The Decisive Evening of the Hussar” at first glance bears little resemblance to a love elegy, although it is about love, and already the first two verses: “Tonight I will see you - // Tonight my lot will be decided... .” - create anticipation of meeting your beloved, anticipate a love explanation and love pangs. But the expectation seems to be disappointed: bravado and shockingness lead to a decrease in the degree of love feeling and an increase in the degree of drunken revelry: “I’ll get drunk like crazy,” “I’ll get drunk again,” “and I’ll gallop drunkenly to St. Petersburg for drunkenness,” “I’ll get drunk like a pig,” “with joy.” I’ll drink the runs with my wallet.” All these statements, bordering on rudeness, destroy the atmosphere of love elegy (in one of the lists the poem was called “To the Bride”; one of the autographs was titled “Separation”). But this “decisive evening” is not just an ordinary elegiac hero-lover. This is the “decisive evening of the hussar,” and that says it all. He is a “slasher” and a “shirt guy” and is not afraid to hide his feelings. His intonations, lively and spontaneous, convey the violence of nature. He is on a love date, as in a battle. The hussar, as a certain concept of behavior, retains its “personal pose”, but cannot hide the human face. And the anaphoric, triple “today” (twice - “tonight”), and living feelings breaking through the shockingness: “But if happiness is destined by fate // To someone who has been unfamiliar with happiness for a whole century, // Then... oh, and then ...”, and the verbal expression: “I’ll fly”, “I’ll gallop”, and the image of a “brash troika” flying like an arrow - all these are carefully disguised genuine emotions, the fear of looking sentimental and funny. In “Response to the Challenge to Write Poems,” created almost simultaneously, the hussar poet, going through all the cliches in the description of love, comes to a simple conclusion: “Ah, where there is direct love, // There are no poems!” He values ​​his position as a hussar, tries to follow it and cannot allow himself to relax: “So that when the cart is in the dolman // He holds the staff in his hand // And when the menacing drum // So that minor chanted."

Italicized (and in the text the whole system such selections are reminiscences from the poetry of sentimentalists), the word contrasts with the appearance and atmosphere of the “major” life of the hussar. Irony in the poetry of Davydov and his colleagues in Pushkin’s circle is significant primarily in tone. It varies moods and more clearly reveals the reserves of the poetic word, its capabilities in bringing together the high and the low, the poetic and the prosaic. In addition, it contributes to the emancipation of poetic speech. There is a feeling of improvisation, impromptu, colloquialism. That is why the poets of Pushkin’s circle are masters of epigrams, incidental poems, puns, inscriptions for portraits and notes in albums. They created a unique form of “everyday literature” (L.Ya. Ginzburg).

Vyazemsky, as a wit, has no competition here. His poetic miniatures were well-known and actually entered into the everyday life of society. How was it possible not to remember these quatrains of his:

Who will steal your poems?

They were drowned in Lethe long ago;

Or - they, having forgotten, read them,

Or - having read it, they forgot.

He's two-faced! God forbid!

In vain he slandered the fool:

On this frank face

There is not even a single person.

And although the recipients of these impromptu epigrams have not been established (perhaps the second was addressed to Thaddeus Bulgarin), they were known in a certain circle. The main thing is that they came into use in poetry as examples of the “school of harmonic precision.”

In the depths of the poetry of Pushkin’s circle, the word, intonation, and rhythm of the verse acquired precisely the precision of meaning and individuality of expression. They were soldered into the image of their creator, into his poetic portrait. Each of the poets was looking for a “uncommon expression on the face.” Harmonic accuracy is the concretization of the intonation and attitude of the lyrical hero and the world modeling of the poet himself in the coordinates of the found style.

Analysis plan

1. Part of speech. General meaning.
2. Morphological characteristics.
   1. Initial form (nominative singular).
   2. Constant features: a) proper or common noun, b) animate or inanimate, c) gender, d) declension.
   3. Non-constant signs: a) case, b) number.
3. Syntactic role.

Sample parsing

Through the wavy mists
The moon creeps in
To the sad meadows 3
She sheds a sad light.

(A. Pushkin.)

234 . Determine the main idea and style of the text. Parse the first four highlighted words as part of speech orally, the rest - in writing. Write a free dictation based on this text. Name the types of spelling in place of gaps. What letters will you insert?

My Fatherland Russia

Don is a legendary Russian river. It flows from the north to south through the ancient Russian lands - Tula, Voronezh, Rostov regions- and goes into the Sea of ​​Azov. The Don served as an important trade route between the central regions Rus' And Azov region.

Small rivers flow into it, along the banks of which many cities and villages are located. The largest of them Voronezh, Rostov, Azov. On a tributary of the Don, the Nepryadva, in 1380, the Battle of Kulikovo took place, which began liberation Rus' from foreign yoke.

The Don is connected to another Russian river, the Volga, by a channel. Now to the capital of our homeland Moscow and from it to steamship you can get to the Sea of ​​Azov, and from the Sea of ​​Azov - to the Black Sea.

Don is beautiful in his flow. At first, its path runs along a narrow length with a high right and sloping left bank, then the length widens significantly.

Slaven Don. He served and continues to serve people.

235 . Select and write down nouns that denote a person’s state, mood, feelings (joy, delight, sadness, etc.). Write over them their gender and declination.

236 . Write about what you saw or heard for the first time and what made a great impression on you. Think about what exactly you will write about. Title your essay. For example, “First time at the museum”, “First time at the Opera and Ballet Theater”, “First acquaintance with...”, etc. This could be a letter to a friend, there could be entries for oneself in a diary, notes for the classroom (school ) wall newspaper, story, etc. Underline the nouns that denote state, mood, feeling.