An equally rich and diverse world was discovered by Zhukovsky in medieval ("knightly") ballads, which resurrected fantastic stories about forbidden or "eternal", although unrequited love, secret crimes, relations with evil forces, lust for power, treachery, cruelty, envy. , betrayals, about touching fidelity, about tender feelings and mournful passions.

In all the ballads, Zhukovsky somehow affirmed the ideals of goodness, truth, and humanity. The noble heroes of the poet are always sublimely pure, inspired by the best human feelings and never betray them. The hermit, having retired from people, did not stop yearning for his beloved Malvina, although happiness, it seemed, was already far away. The singer Alonzo is still in love with Isolina, as before the trip to Palestine. He gives her life at the cost of his own death.

Virtue and humanity triumph even when the characters of the ballads decide to commit crimes. The envious servant killed the paladin, but the dead take revenge on the living: a heavy knight's shell drowned the insidious killer. The king imperiously sent the page into the abyss for the goblet, but the very death of the young man became a heavy reproach to the cruel feudal lord. Bishop Gatton hid in an impregnable tower on the island, but even there he was overtaken by retribution.

Resurrecting medieval subjects with their religious and sometimes mystical overtones, Zhukovsky illuminates them with the light of humanity. At the same time, the bottomless depth of the experiences of the ballad heroes is subject to some unknown and unknowable laws.

This is especially noticeable in ballads about sinful love. On the one hand, according to Zhukovsky, love is often impossible on earth, but always possible in heaven. Such is the will of Providence. On the other hand, even the most sinful love does not lose its power and is capable of elevating a person. Heroes engulfed in passion cannot free themselves from it. Knight Togenburg has been waiting for many years, "so that the sweet window will knock." And so - until the end of days:

Once - it was a foggy morning -

He was sitting there dead

Pale in face, and sadly

He looked at the window.

Love in Zhukovsky is stronger than moral norms, it contains its own justification. No matter how sinful the heroine of the ballad "The Baron of Smalholm, or Ivan's Evening", but when she meets a dead lover, she does not feel fear, but anxiety for him, for his soul. A man in love in Zhukovsky's ballads is able to rise above himself.

Sometimes the poet himself came up with plots, although he subjected them to literary processing under some kind of model. For example, he wrote the original ballad "Aeolian harp", but gave it, significantly softening, the Ossian flavor with its harsh, foggy and mysterious atmosphere. Zhukovsky's ballad is airy, captivating and sad.

Its action unfolds in the vicinity of the castle, where the mighty Ordal ruled. The daughter of Ordal, the young and beautiful Minvana, fell in love with the poor singer Arminius. Their love was impossible. On top of the story of lovers, a lyrical image of unceasing and suffering love grows, eternal and unchanging, on which life rests and which illuminates. Aeolian harp, the strings of which emit sad, but not dying sounds, remains a monument to unquenchable love and the forthcoming union of lovers in an unearthly world. They inform Minvana what has become of her lover, the exile Arminius. Zhukovsky filled the ballad with sweet sounds, a sad intonation created by skillfully chosen words of the same semantic and stylistic range. The alternation of different - relatively long and relatively short paired and single amphibrachic - lines in the stanza reproduced the playing of a harp, which informed Minwan that "The earth is empty, and there is no sweetheart." Failed love Here will take place there, where there is "life without parting", "Where everything is not for an hour." And when Minwana's earthly life was interrupted, her eternal life in love and happiness with her beloved began: "Two shadows are seen: Having merged, they fly To the canopy familiar to them ...".

In the medieval ballads "Aeolian harp", "Alina and Alsim" Zhukovsky avoided a detailed plot. In these ballads, the epic beginning is compressed to the limit, and pure lyrics come to the fore, exposing the psychology of feelings and giving the content a generalized symbolic meaning.

The form of the ballad, introduced by Zhukovsky, opened the character of a person to literature as a given.

The ballad characters lived a rich inner life, but were not explained or, as literary critics say, determined by socio-historical conditions and circumstances. Their behavior was motivated only by common human properties and belonging to the national culture. For the most part, they were "taken out" from a specific historical time and space.

Zhukovsky's ballad was a closed genre structure with a moving plot and gravitated toward a philosophical understanding of plots. The man in the ballad felt the power of higher mysterious forces over him - saints and devilish, demonic ones, which waged an uncompromising struggle for him. The first carried his soul to good, the second were always ready to lead him astray and lead to death. However, the choice of which way to go always remained with the characters of the ballads. Russian poetry learned the precepts of Zhukovsky, who gave her psychologism and philosophy. He also discovered the national type of the Russian girl - "In her soul is like a clear day", - which will then be reproduced by our writers from Pushkin to Chekhov.

Creativity of recent years

After Zhukovsky left lyrics and ballads, he turned to translations and original works of an epic nature. He completed the translation of the oriental epic poems "Nal and Damayanti", "Rustem and Zurab", excerpts from the "Mahabharata". But his main work was the translation of Homer's Odyssey, to which the poet gave seven years (1842-1849). He also carried out a prose translation of the story "Ondine".

A significant genre in his later work became transferable and original fairy tales- “The War of Mice and Frogs”, “The Tale of Berendey”, “The Tale of the Sleeping Princess”, “About Ivan Tsarevich and the Gray Wolf”, “The Tulip Tree”.

Among other creative achievements of Zhukovsky, it is necessary to note the complete translation from Slavonic into Russian of the “New Testament”, the epic poem “Agasver. Eternal Jew." The last lyrical poem is “The Tsarskoye Selo Swan”, the autobiographical nature of which is intentional, and the allegory is transparent.

Zhukovsky survived Pushkin, and Lermontov, and Gogol, almost everyone who connected him with Pushkin's circle of writers. On April 8, 1852, for him, a deeply believing Christian, death opened the gates through which his earthly life flowed into eternal life.

Basic concepts

Romanticism, psychological course of Russian romanticism, romantic elegy, “dull” elegy, “graveyard” elegy, meditative elegy, ballad, ballad on an antique plot, ballad on a medieval plot (knightly), Russian ballad, dual world, “inspiring” (suggestive) style , melodious verse, ballad chronotope, atmosphere of sleep, symbolism of mystery, aesthetics of the miraculous and terrible, "school of harmonic accuracy", lyrical "I".

Questions and tasks

1. What is the periodization of Zhukovsky's work?

2. What are the main components of Zhukovsky's literary and aesthetic position?

3. What is the moral ideal of the poet and in what works is it most clearly expressed?

4. Tell us about the features of Zhukovsky's lyrics, about its main themes and genres. Features of Zhukovsky's elegiac style (relation to the poetic word, composition of poems, melodic verse).

5. Why did elegy, romance, song become the most common genres in Zhukovsky's lyrics? Compare the elegies of Zhukovsky with the elegies of the poets of classicism.

6. The specificity of the lyrical "I" in the works of Zhukovsky.

7. Varieties of Zhukovsky's ballads.

8. Tell us about the features of the ballad genre in the work of Zhukovsky. What is the connection between the aesthetics of the miraculous and the ballad genre?

9. folk element in the ballad and its embodiment.

10. Russian and medieval (knightly) ballads.

11. Antique ballads and their features.

12. Ballad and philosophy of being in the coverage of Zhukovsky.

13. Zhukovsky-translator.

14. Epic work of Zhukovsky.

15. The value of Zhukovsky in the history of Russian poetry.

Literature

Averintsev S.S. Poets. M., 1996.+

V.A. Zhukovsky and Russian culture. L., 1987.

Veselovsky A.N. V.A. Zhukovsky. Poetry of feeling and "cordial imagination". Pg., 1918.*

Ginzburg L.Ya. About lyrics. M., 1997.*+

Gukovsky GA. Pushkin and Russian Romantics. M., 1995.*+

Semenko I.M. Zhukovsky's life and poetry. M., 1975.

Eikhenbaum B.M. Melody of Russian lyrical verse. - In the book: B. Eikhenbaum. About poetry. L., 1969.*+

Yanushkevich A.S. Stages and problems creative evolution V.A. Zhukovsky. Tomsk, 1985.

Chapter 3

K.N. Batyushkov 1787–1855

Konstantin Nikolayevich 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 view, was associated with the development of small genre forms put forward by romanticism to the forefront of Russian poetry, and the improvement literary language. In “Speech on the Influence of Light Poetry on Language” (1816), he summed up his reflections as follows: “In a light kind of poetry, the reader demands possible perfection, purity of expression, harmony in style, flexibility; he demands truth in feelings and the preservation of the strictest propriety in all respects<…>Beautifulness in the style is necessary here and cannot be replaced by anything. It is a secret, known to one talent and especially to the constant strain of attention to one subject: for poetry, even in small births, is a difficult art and requires all life and all the efforts of the soul; one must be born for poetry; this is not enough: being born, one must make a poet<…>»

Batyushkov was born for poetry and became a poet of the first magnitude. In his youth, he thoroughly studied ancient poetry (Virgil, Horace), the philosophy of the French Enlightenment (Voltaire, Diderot, d'Alamaber), and the literature of the Italian Renaissance.

A huge influence on the formation of Batyushkov's cultural interests was exerted by his great-uncle, the writer M.N. Muravyov, who served as Deputy Minister of Public Education. Years later, after the death of his mentor, Batyushkov, in a letter of 1814 to V.A. Zhukovsky writes: "I owe him everything."

In his uncle's house, he meets the largest writers and cultural figures of Russia: G.R. Derzhavin, V.V. Kapnist, I.A. Krylov, A.E. Izmailov, V.A. Ozerov, N.A. Lvov, A.N. Olenin. Under their direct influence, Batyushkov's humanistic ideas are formed, interest in creativity is awakened, literary taste is formed, and spiritual self-improvement becomes the program of a lifetime. He has a need to find his own independent path in literature, to have his own position, independent of the opinion of the majority. It was at this time that Batyushkov began to form as a person capable of irreconcilable opposition to society. To his close friend He confesses to Gnedich: “As for me, dear friend, I don’t like to bow my head under the yoke of public opinion. All that is beautiful is mine. I can be wrong, I am wrong, but I do not lie to myself or to people. I do not follow anyone: I go my own way. I know it won't get me far, but how can I change inner man?»

Since 1805, Batyushkov has been participating in meetings of the "Free Society of Lovers of Literature, Sciences and Arts", attending the circle of A.N. Venison. At this time, his interest in ancient and Western European philosophy further strengthened. It is read by Epicurus, Lucretius, Montaigne. This is how it starts creative way Batyushkov in literature. All Batyushkov's work can be divided into four periods: 1802–1808. - student period; 1809–1812 - the beginning of original creativity; 1812–1816 - spiritual and poetic crisis; 1816–1823 (the poet almost stops writing poetry in 1821) - attempts to overcome the crisis and reach new frontiers of creativity; tragic end of creative development.

Student period

In 1806, the first known poem by Batyushkov, The Dream, written probably in 1802 or 1803, was published in The Lover of Literature in The Lover of Literature. On the one hand, it reflected the educational and sentimental traditions, on the other, the romantic worldview and opened up the prospect of romanticism. Modern researchers pointed to the influence of the poems of Muravyov, Karamzin and Goethe, which was found in this work.

Batyushkov interprets the dream as a key to poetic inspiration and imperfection real world. A dream is the path to spiritual freedom, it allows you to "exchange the fetters for a chain of cheerful roses." The vanity of life is the lot of fools who are hungry for wealth, "Kissing the golden ashes at the marble porches!" "Sad Stoics" and "solid wise men" are not capable of revealing "the whole life of mortal sweetness" with their "bare truths". Love, youth, the beauty of nature, feasts and fun - these are the true values, and the true sages are Anacreon - the singer of pleasure, the ancient Greek poetess Sappho, who glorified sensual love, and the Roman poet Horace, who, both in a child of fun and on the verge of death, had a happy gift immerse yourself in a dream and renounce reality.

The traditional motif of "dream" brightens up the fleeting and sad life of the poet. Thanks to the poetic imagination, which returns the living charm to fleeting earthly joys, the singer affirms his happiness. The dream becomes an attribute of the poet, a property inherent in him from time immemorial, which he values ​​​​above all the benefits that are transient in the world. The sadness that accompanies dreaming cannot overcome joy. These two moods will become dominant in Batyushkov.

In the early poems of Batyushkov, the influence of classicism and sentimentalism is strong, but poetic and aesthetic preferences have already been determined. This is, firstly, French educational philosophy and literature, and secondly, ancient authors with a clear preponderance of lyricists who enjoy life over epic poets. At the same time, ancient authors (Anacreon, Horace, Tibull, etc.) are perceived through the prism of "light poetry", which is included in the sphere of Batyushkov's poetic interests (poems by French poets Parny, Gresse, Duci, Ronsard, Milvois, Lafontaine, Ecuchar Lebrun, Italian poets Casti, Petrarch, Ariosto, T. Tasso and others).

In accordance with poetic traditions the poet praises the silence and peaceful pleasures in the countryside, refusing the bustle of the city and the people. In Batyushkov's poems ("Advice to Friends", etc.), the motive of Epicurean joys and sensual pleasures in the bosom of rural nature is realized. Batyushkov is attracted by love, friendship, art, the beauty of nature, which for him is higher and more undoubted than practical benefits - ranks, fame, secular noise and fuss. Careless idleness and disinterested freedom of spiritual pleasures are dearer to him. These moods, largely conditional, literary, bookish, speak of his aesthetic sympathies. Here, disappointment is outlined in the secular environment, in everyday and everyday reality, where he did not find any great thoughts, or sincere and deep feelings, or worship of beauty. Only separate soul mates are close to him, with whom he spoke in a language understandable to the heart. For him, a “dream”, a “fantasy” about a sweet world where fun, health, vigor reign, where youth blooms, delighting himself with songs, love, friendship, more real and vital than the deeds of “boring wise men”, chasing fame, luxury, honors.

The general life and aesthetic ideas of the young Batyushkov are combined with pronounced literary tastes. The poet is on the side of those who appreciate " light poetry", small genres. He is disgusted by all the "high" genres in their modern guise - an ode with its on-duty delights, a huge epic, or heroic, poem, a cold tragedy. He rejects these genres due to the exhaustion, banality and lifelessness of modern odes, epic poems, tragedies, etc. But the former epic poems of Homer, magical chivalrous poems, like Torquato Tasso's Jerusalem Liberated, do not lose their aesthetic value for Batyushkov. Among his contemporaries, he also maintains an interest in these genres: he sympathizes with Gnedich, who conceived the translation of the Iliad, welcomes Ozerov (The Shepherd and the Nightingale).

Separating truly high poetry from fakes for it, Batyushkov, however, separates for himself the area of ​​\u200b\u200bpersonal poetry, the lyrics of an intimate mood, which is most closely connected with inner experiences, with the spiritual being of a person. To this end, he processes "light poetry", first in the spirit of sentimentalism, and then romanticism. If Zhukovsky was guided by the “medium” genres, then Batyushkov turned into “medium” small genres, which, in the hierarchy of classicism and poetic rules prescribed by the “legislators” of school piitiks, the French theorist Batteux and the Swiss La Harpe, were almost equated with “low” ones (album little things, lyrical miniatures, etc.). He contributed most to crossing the lyrics of sentimentalism with hostile aristocratic, parlor "light poetry". Such was the student's period of creativity, which lasted until 1809.

Creative takeoff. "Little Philosophy"

In 1809, Batyushkov, who by that time had gone through a harsh military school and participated in battles, settled in St. Petersburg, visited Moscow and met with the largest writers and cultural figures of Russia. The capital's cultural environment contributed to his rapid poetic growth.

A meaningful prerequisite for the rise of Batyushkov's work in 1809–1810. there was an awareness of a deep gap between dream and reality, disappointment in the existing world order. Life - the poets assured Batyushkov - is given for the spiritual and sensual enjoyment of its gifts, in which the personality itself becomes more beautiful and perfect. But reality kills the best impulses of the soul. Like many noble intellectuals of that time, Batyushkov found satisfaction in himself and tried to isolate his personal inner world from reality, making it a kind of center of the universe. Batyushkov's poems and letters conveyed to us his deep disappointment in reality, discord with the environment. He wrote to Gnedich: “Walking like a snake and a toad, you would now be a man, but you did not want to lose your freedom and preferred poverty and Homer to money.”

Although Russian autocracy in his existing forms not satisfied with Batyushkov, he, who, like many of his contemporaries, condemned the Jacobin terror, remained a supporter of an enlightened monarchy. Being an opponent of the revolution, Batyushkov lays all the troubles French Revolution on the "arrogant sages", that is, on the philosophers of the Enlightenment, who promised the kingdom of reason, but turned out to be untenable in their forecasts. Hence Batyushkov's skeptical attitude towards philosophical, theoretical rationalism. Especially strongly he attacks Rousseau. This, however, does not in the least prevent the poet from admiring Voltaire, recalling Diderot, d "Alembert and Condillac. A fan of Voltaire, he perceives him as a judicious Epicurean sage and uniquely combines skepticism with sensuality and the philosophy of enjoying life. Humane epicureanism, emphasis on personal happiness is bizarre in Batyushkov's worldview are combined with freethinking, but freethinking is not political, but rather aesthetic.The poet does not turn into a persecutor of the French Enlightenment and does not reject their idea of ​​enlightened absolutism.On the contrary, he strongly stands for the enlightenment necessary for Russia, for the European path of development, for further civilization countries From Batyushkov's point of view, cultural successes are directly related to enlightenment. The higher the level of education, the greater the achievements of art.

On this ground of attitude to modernity, Batyushkov's "little philosophy" has developed. “Whatever you say, dear friend,” he wrote to Gnedich, “I have little philosophy, little experience, little mind, little heart and a very small purse. I submit to circumstances, I swim against the water, but so far, with the help of my good genius, I have not left either the oar or the rudder. I often lose heart, but not completely, and this justifies my little ... mon infiniment petit (remember Descartes), which is worthy of the respect of honest people.

Batyushkov's "Little Philosophy" contained the conviction that sensual and spiritual earthly pleasures it is possible for a person with a virtuous soul that personal happiness is available to a lonely person in dreams, in solitude from the environment, in immersion in the world of high spiritual and cultural interests.

Enjoying the gifts of life (what was called epicureanism- the achievement of personal benefit through sensual pleasures, and hedonism- the desire for good, understood as pleasure) and becomes Batyushkov's dream. However, this dream is always humane and chaste. It is covered with veils of beauty and spirituality. Sensuality never appears in Batyushkov undisguised and naked.

The poet was well aware of the conditional and literary nature of his dream. It is valid only to the extent that it is an object of imagination, a product of the soul, its creation. It is real and concrete as an impulse, as a thought, as an aspiration emanating from the heart, as a psychological experience of a person who yearns for an ideal. In this sense, the deep inner truth of Batyushkov's personality was expressed in the lyrics. But the poet's dream did not come true, did not come true and did not turn into reality in the world where he lived. The poet himself felt that in life his imagination could not come true. Hence comes the deep skepticism that accompanies Batiushkov's dream of personal happiness. The combination of aesthetically sublime enjoyment and the skeptical consciousness of his fictional nature gives Batyushkov's lyrics an exceptional originality.

"Little Philosophy" can also be understood as the philosophy of a small person (letter to Gnedich). And since it is “small”, then the genres in which this philosophy can be artistically described are also small forms of “light poetry” and “medium” genres (friendly messages, elegies, romances, drinking songs). They are meant to express mental life individuals. Ode as a "high", "important" and "great" genre of lyric poetry is replaced by his elegy and message. In order to convey beauty and humanity, which are inseparable from sensual pleasures, it is necessary to find its ideal prototype. Batyushkov found it in antiquity.

In mythology and ancient poetry, he, following the German scientists (Winckelmann) and poets (Goethe, Hölderlin), discerned a peculiar worldview ancient man. Antiquity, filled with beauty, cheerfulness, movement, mental health, turned with Batyushkov into romantic dream. It is still literary conditional, and even the task of recreating the antique color is not yet in the first place. But under the disguise of classicism or neoclassicism lies the real romanticism. Batyushkov is not looking for role models in antiquity, not civilized nature, but its “soul”, the nature of its relationship to the world.

From this it is clear why he refers to Horace and Tibullus, and outside of antiquity - to love lyrics Petrarch, why he is attracted to French erotic poets, in particular Evariste Parny, why in the works of Russian poets he especially appreciates anacreontics (lyrics of sensual pleasures and pleasures), Horatian, Epicurean and hedonistic motifs.

“Little philosophy” and “light poetry” in Batyushkov’s view is not only a worldview, not only a system of “small” lyrical genres, but also a language. He believed that the poetic style should be given "more European sociability, humanness." The poet proposes to abandon the use of obsolete Church Slavonicisms and incomprehensible expressions in favor of clear meaning and harmonic balance. At the same time Batyushkov dissociates himself from the extremes of sentimentalism.

Batyushkov's linguistic position can be described as moderate: he did not avoid Church Slavonicisms, but did not exaggerate their place in poetic style; he did not shy away from sensitivity, touching, but did not bring them to extreme cloying and parodied pastoral-sighing poetry. He adhered to harmonic balance, stylistic appropriateness of the use of certain verbal colors. Batyushkov's lyrics are based precisely on these aesthetic principles.

If Zhukovsky sang about a soul tormented by impulses for happiness, which is not achievable in earthly life, then Batyushkov connected his dream of happiness with the values ​​of the “earthly world”. This love of life, optimism, despite skepticism, was the peculiarity of his "little philosophy" and his lyrics.

Belinsky drew attention to this side of Batyushkov's work: “The direction of Batyushkov's poetry is completely opposite to the direction of Zhukovsky's poetry. If uncertainty And nebula constitute the distinctive character of romanticism in the spirit of the Middle Ages, Batyushkov classic, how much Zhukovsky romantic; for certainty And clarity the first and main properties of his poetry. And further: “In love, he is not a romantic at all. Graceful voluptuousness is the pathos of his poetry. True, in his love, in addition to passion and grace, there is a lot of tenderness, and sometimes a lot of sadness and suffering; but its predominant element is always passionate desire, increased by all the negativity, all the charm of pleasure full of poetry and grace. The differences between the poetry of Zhukovsky and Batyushkov, noticed by Belinsky, are indeed striking. On the one hand, uncertainty and vagueness, and on the other hand, objectivity and clarity. Zhukovsky has a vague yearning for something sublime, a longing for the sacred and beyond. Batyushkov has quite earthly feelings, expressed dynamically, vividly, visibly.

And yet Belinsky exaggerated too much the difference between the poets. They have more in common than differences. Both Zhukovsky and Batyushkov are distracted from concrete, everyday reality, from the boring prose of everyday reality that does not satisfy them. They plunge into the world of fiction. Therefore, it is in vain to look for accurate, objective pictures of life in Batyushkov's works.

Like Zhukovsky, Batyushkov is not focused on depicting the external, objective world, but on expressing the inner world, but transmitted through visible signs - movement, posture, facial expressions, gestures, plastic and pictorial paintings. Thus, Batyushkov's lyrics in their subject matter represent a different variety of early Russian romanticism. Not finding harmony in the society of his day - neither within a person, nor in his relationship with reality - Batyushkov creates it with the power of poetic fantasy.

The main thing is that the poetic systems of Zhukovsky and Batyushkov are not antagonistic. Common and related to both poets is the understanding poetic word, a metaphorical language adapted to convey personal experiences. Zhukovsky and Batyushkov create similar versions of the style of early Russian romanticism, using the same verbal formulas. The certainty and clarity of Batyushkov is achieved by the same poetic means as the uncertainty and vagueness of Zhukovsky. This is evident in Batyushkov's lyrics of 1809–1811.

Lyrics 1809–1811

TO lyrical works This time includes such significant poems as "Tibull's Elegy III", "Message to Mr. Velegursky", "Paphos God, Eros is beautiful ...", "False fear. Imitation Guys”, “Madagascar song”, “Love in the canoe”, “Elysius”, “Inscription on the coffin of the shepherdess”, “Lucky”, “Joy”, “Cry, cupids and gentle graces ...”, “On the death of Laura”, "Evening", "Merry Hour", "Tibull's Elegy X", "Ghost", "Source", "To Petin", "Friendship". This period ends famous poem“My penates. Message to Zhukovsky and Vyazemsky. Most of the works are elegies and epistles.

In all the lyrics of this time (“False fear”, “Madagascar song”, “Elysium”, etc.) there is an image of sensual youth, violently showing passion, which takes possession of loving people. But this passion is not a thoughtless and blind triumph of nature. She is elegant, graceful, smart. Batyushkov elevates and ennobles her, giving her exceptional spiritual content.

Here he describes a nightly date (“False Fear”) and the victory of mutual attraction over modesty. A small scene passes before the reader, full of movement, experiences quickly change, but concreteness and psychological truth are felt in them and in their very change. At the same time, the feelings of the characters are not at all ideal and dreamy, but alive and earthly. The naturalness of spiritual movements is conveyed in visible and understood by the heart images - "a trembling hand", "to the chest ... pressed, Breathing a little ...". Ancient gods are drawn into the love game and mythological characters- Hymen, cupids, Morpheus. The joy of love is conveyed by visible signs (“priceless tears”, “smile on the lips”, “Perseus excitement”).

On sensuality Batyushkov lowers the veil of chastity. He includes the words of the colloquial literary language in such combinations that give passion an adorning and spiritual character. To this end, he uses the solemn bookishness of Slavism. Instead of "chest" he uses the book equivalent - "Persi", introduces the high word "excitement".

The enjoyment of love in many poems is transformed into the enjoyment of life and natural joys. Batyushkov glorifies youth, health, wealth human soul. Love makes a person not only happy, but also a whole being, living in harmony with nature and other people. In the poem “Joy”, a young man who hears the cherished word “I love!” from his beloved wants to tell everyone about it so that joy can be instilled in other hearts. Even nature responds favorably to a divided feeling and rejoices.

In The Source, one of best poems, the love feeling gradually comes to life, becomes more powerful, exciting, and finally triumphs. Batyushkov refuses to convey passion nakedly: the nature and features of Zafna, the hero's beloved, speak of it. In the famous "Bacchante", written later and which is an arrangement of an episode from the poem Guys "The Dressing of Venus", Batyushkov immerses the characters in an atmosphere of pagan passion, avoiding the ornamentality and allegoricalness of the original.

"Bacchante"

In Guys, a secular and playful element prevails in the spirit of the gallant frivolous poetry of the 18th century. (in interlinear translation: "Laurel crowns her head, Her hair flutters. A fabric that barely covers her, Shaken by the breath of the wind, Carelessly thrown over her body ... Hop encircles her and serves as an adornment of her hands ... In her hand is a light thyrsus"). The whole situation with Guys is static. Venus, the goddess of love, is depicted as a coquettish girl: “The youngest, however, stopped, called Mirtis (the hero of the poem, the gallant shepherd - VC.) and suddenly rushed under the shadow of the neighboring forest. But this coquettishness is too dry: "Her carelessness, her nakedness, her languid eyes, her smile promised love pleasures and a frenzy of voluptuousness." In the description of lovers French poet also cold. "Her lips, laughing and fresh, offer the lips of the shepherd the colorful fruit of the grape." Guys ends the episode with a characteristic paraphrase: "the girls tired the echo of the mountains with cymbals."

In Batyushkov's poem, love pursuit "on the Erigone holiday" is recreated. The poet gave the episode the character of a ritual pagan action. Batyushkov countered the statics with the dynamics of the chase, ecstasy love feeling. They, from the point of view of Batyushkov, characterize the ancient pagan worldview. The heroes have “flaming cheeks of Rose with a bright crimson”, the heroine is “violent”, her passion “Fire and poison pours in the heart!”. Batyushkov's love episode is not a statuary sketch, but a dynamic and picturesque picture"Bacchic" run, crowned with the victory of a young man:

Evra tossed her hair,

entwined with ivy;

Brazenly raised their robes

And twisted them into a ball.

The poet considered it necessary to introduce into the poem the signs of movement that Guys lacked (“The Priestesses of Bacchus flowed”, “The Priestesses of Bacchus rushed”). In this dynamic spirit, Batyushkov also changed the ending: the poem ends with the dance of the girls who run past the lovers with a ritual “shout”:

The priestesses of Bacchus rushed

With a loud cry past us;

And they were distributed through the grove

Evoe! and soft voice!

And in this poem, Batyushkov weakens sensuality by introducing Slavicisms (“flowed”, “robes”, “cheeks”) and words in the old meaning (“brazenly” - suddenly; cf.: “impudent death”). The poet conveyed the inexorable triumph of indomitable passion that completely engulfed a person. Thanks to the energy of movement, picturesque brilliance and plastic relief (“Slender camp, surrounded by a circle of yellow Hops ...”) Batyushkov’s poem overshadowed the French text. This was noted by Pushkin, writing about him in the margins of "Experiments ..." - "better than the original, more alive."

Batyushkov often draws fictional theatrical scenes, colorful and lively. At the same time, the words he uses, like those of Zhukovsky, play with their subject and metaphorical meanings. The word "hops" and "Bacchae" is not only an attribute of the goddess of love, but also an intoxicating joy; the word "rose" is not only the designation of the color "cheeks", but also the luxury of pleasures, flourishing vitality, the omnipotence of passion. The whole poem speaks of rapture with life and earthly feelings. This is how Batyushkov embellishes sensuality, elevating it spiritually. This also includes ancient realities, designed to give festivity to experiences and create an atmosphere of harmony, immediacy, epicurean carelessness and wisdom.

It would be a mistake to think that Batyushkov focuses solely on love. This passion seems to him, of course, one of the most harmonious and beautiful manifestations of the soul, but Batyushkov's love is always spiritual and he does not think of it outside the simple and natural properties and experiences of the individual. It is associated with kindness, responsiveness, sensitivity, selflessness. She is free and does not know the calculations.

Asserting humane and beautiful ideals, Batyushkov could not help thinking about their transience and death. Sadness about the disappearing youth, about the fading and fading flowers of spring, symbolizing the flowering of nature and life, is also conveyed in his poems. Sometimes these motives overshadow, as in the poem "Merry Hour", sometimes they result in a bitter epitaph-elegy, as in the beautiful anthological poem "The Inscription on the Coffin of a Shepherdess", where the heroine was not spared by a formidable and cruel blow of fate, and she died "on morning of days”, barely having time to enjoy life. The death of a beloved (“On the death of Laura”) can mean for the hero the death of the sweet seductions of life (“And I lost everything with Laura in a minute!”), Or it can give rise to courageous sadness (“Evening”), which erupts the sounds of a lyre and evokes a dear shadow with the power of chants .

And yet, mournful moods cannot cancel the experienced earthly joys. In the poem "Ghost" the hero, anticipating his imminent death, imagines himself dead. What does he promise his beloved? Yes, the same fidelity as on earth, the same tenderness, the same affection, the same charm of her perfection and the same bliss that he experienced. And only the impassability of the line between death and life (“But, ah! The dead do not rise again”) causes deep regret in him. However, in the poem "Elysium" Batyushkov overcame this difficulty: the "god of lovely love" himself escorts lovers to Elysium. This calm, smooth transition from the world of the living to the realm of the blessed righteous takes place without tragic breaks, cataclysms, as naturally as life and death. Love that began "here", on earth, with even greater strength, with new energy blossoms "there", and it is again accompanied by beauty, spirituality, poetry.

"My Penates"

The result of the poetic period of 1809-1811. was the poem "My Penates". In it, Batyushkov used the motives of the poems by Gresse (“The Abode”) and Duci (“To the Gods of Penates”), but created a completely original and innovative work.

The poet immersed the reader in a homely atmosphere and had a sincere conversation with him about what is close and dear to him. To this end, he also chose the genre - a friendly message, in which intimate feelings were trustfully expressed. Batyushkov persistently and in markedly reduced colors draws a dwelling, which he calls either a “cloister,” or a “hut,” or a “corner,” or a “hut,” or a “hut,” or a “house.” All these words are used as synonyms, their choice is clear: the modesty of the dwelling does not mean either loneliness or unhappiness; it hints at independence and personal dignity. The poet sorts through household things in detail, greatly exaggerating the poverty of the situation.

The deliberate emphasis on “poverty” is necessary for Batyushkov in order to oppose his “house” to the palaces and chambers of the nobles and the rich, and the “rubbish skudel” to their luxurious decoration (“velvet bed”, “vases”). He reveals the contrast between those for whom values ​​are concentrated in materially tangible things, and the poet, who lives in the world of spiritual interests. The poet loves high solitude, personal independence, good feelings, ideal aspirations that become beautiful dream. The abode of dreams is the world of poetry. The "hut" of the poet becomes a house of dreams and a house of poetry. Before Batyushkov, the dream was usually far from worldly prose and everyday life sphere. Batyushkov combined the dream of beauty and poetry with everyday life. The dream descended to earth and found shelter in the "hut". Thus, both gross materiality and bright spirituality are expressed through the description of things.

In the poem, a special world is revealed in which the poet lives - a reserved country of poetry, not fenced off from a miserable life, morally pure and inhabited by a beloved, fellow interlocutors and inspired poets. At the same time, everyday life is divided into two: the life of the poet, who is involved in his dream, is exalted, and the life of the nobles, removed from his dream, is reduced. Batyushkov finds poetic charm in everyday life. In order to elevate the everyday and give intimacy to the high, he balances the words of different stylistic layers, using them metaphorically, in a figurative sense, and making them synonyms, "Penates", a bookish word taken from mythology, is combined with the word "petuny" - everyday, borrowed from household items:

Fatherly Penates,

O my pestuns!

In ordinary speech, both stylistically clearly marked words lose their distinctive features in a poetic context. They are stylistically consistent with each other and mean the same thing - the home patrons of the poet and his poetry. They live in the same place:

You are not rich in gold

But love your

Burrows and dark cells ...

Batyushkov again brings together words of different stylistic affiliation (“burrows” - a household word, “cells” - from the language of monks, ritual). The poet translates them into a portable plane and combines them as synonyms. These words become the symbolic names of the poetic abode. Like the poet himself, "Penates" and "Parents" love loneliness and a modest home shelter.

In his "house" the poet brought the pleasures of the mind and heart, the wealth of various impressions that make up the content of his spiritual world. This thought was not expressed declaratively and rhetorically. In My Penates, Batyushkov domesticated his poetic dream and rose above the world of selfish calculations and secular fuss. He felt independent and free. Imagination took him to the area of ​​high inspirations, which gave his soul the joy of experiencing beauty, love, friendship. He is no longer burdened by material worries or poor conditions. This is how a "little philosophy" was lyrically embodied in poetry. However, only by retreating into the realm of fantasy and hiding in a poetic "hut" was Batyushkov able to indulge in life and spiritual pleasures.

Like the poet himself and his friends - "enemies of natural bonds", free and careless philosophers-sloths.

Poetry and beauty free both from the "gifts of brilliant vanities" and from death itself. This confidence stems from the fact that by “death” Batyushkov understands not only physical, but also spiritual death. Immersion in material interests gives rise to "boredom" and death of the soul. To avoid it, one must feel life and revel in it. So there is an appeal addressed to Vyazemsky:

ABOUT! Give me your hand

My comrade in laziness,

And we ... drown boredom

In this cup of gold!

Spiritual death can be “deceived” and “outstripped” by surrendering to poetry, beauty and pleasures:

My friend! soon for happiness

We will fly on the path of life;

Let's get drunk with voluptuousness

And death is ahead;

Pick flowers furtively

Under the blade of a scythe

And the laziness of a short life

Let's extend the hours!

The only thing that threatens happiness and enjoyment of the fullness of life is the transience of the earthly path. But there is no need to fear physical death either. She is drawn to the poet not in tragic tones and colors, but as a natural transition to another abode - "the abode of the night."

Lyrical hero

Batyushkov's life program was announced in My Penates. He wanted not only in lyrics, but also in reality to gain independence from the world, from official morality, from the entire world order based on "gold and honors." He created an ideal image of a beautiful, healthy, humane life, decorated with the flowers of poetry. bearer of these ideal representations the poet himself became in the conditional form that he embodied in his lyrics. The portrait of the poet, which is drawn in "My penates" and other poems, is not identical to the exact biography of Konstantin Nikolayevich Batyushkov. He looks and doesn't look like him. Batiushkov digresses from the biographically authentic characterization, but instead goes deeper into the individual sphere of the soul. This creates a distance between the author and the image of the poet, that is, the lyrical hero. In life, Batyushkov is modest, shy, silent, frail, unsuccessful in love, not ardent, although he is brave and noble. His lyrical hero- an unusually passionate conqueror of hearts, an eternally careless and lazy sage-philosopher who only does what he drinks wine, enjoys a conversation with friends, waits for his beloved, reads or writes poetry and indulges in reflection. The difference between the author and his lyrical hero was so significant that it caught the eye of his contemporaries. P.A. Vyazemsky wrote: “One cannot judge the character of a singer by the words that he sings ... Is Batyushkov really the same as in poetry? Sweetness is not in him at all.

The poems of the early Batyushkov reflected not a reliably everyday human portrait of him, but an artistically generalized spiritual image of the lyrical "I". Batiushkov glorified and aestheticized his thoughts, his desires, his ideals. They were part of himself. And in this sense, his lyrical portrait is psychologically true, there is truth in it.

The lyrical hero of Batyushkov reproduces the innermost soul of the author-poet, which embodied his dream of man and the world. Everything that would prevent the reader from falling in love with the poet's lyrical hero is left outside the brackets of this lyrical dream. Many biographical facts did not fit into the lyrical image that Batyushkov would like to leave as a memory of himself. Unlike the total lyrical hero of Zhukovsky, Batyushkov's lyrical hero is psychologically more concrete. This is not a person in general with his personal experiences, but a quite definite and recognizable personality, possessing individual traits. Not having received the right to a poetic biography, the hero received the right to a poetic fate, as he saw it and what he chose for himself. Part biographical facts does not fall into the lyrics, created as the authentic truth about the most significant and deepest experiences of Batyushkov. Everything that does not coincide with such truth is withdrawn from the biography. When Batyushkov said that he lived the way he wrote, and wrote the way he lived, his words referred primarily to his spiritual life. It was with this literary image of the “careless poet-dreamer, epicurean philosopher, priest of love, bliss and pleasure” that Batyushkov entered literature. Its features were summarized by Pushkin in the message "To Batyushkov":

The philosopher is frisky and piit,

Parnassian happy sloth,

Harit pampered favorite,

Confidant of cute aonids…

The poetic portrait created by Batyushkov is infinitely charming and captivatingly cheerful. The poet had a truly artistic soul. Every feeling, every spiritual impulse is not only beautifully expressed, but graceful, beautiful until their poetic transformation. In the lyrics of Batyushkov, the artistry of the soul was expressed in the harmony of sounds, in their “Italian sound painting” (“If the lily with sheets ...”), in catchy picturesqueness and dynamic plasticity, and often in playful theatricality.

spiritual crisis. The collapse of "Little Philosophy"

Soon, however, everything changed. The secluded "house" of poetry turned out to be a house of cards - it was not spared by the events, the witness and direct participant of which was the poet. The severe trials of 1812 began. After the victorious end of the war, Batyushkov saw Moscow devastated. Then he wrote the message "To Dashkov", which conveyed a break with the former poetic themes and moods. The "sea of ​​evil" opened before the poet. The war is comprehended by him as a world cataclysm - "the sky of vengeful punishment". She spared no one. In its fire, Moscow burned down - a symbol of Russia, "its past glory // And the new glory of our days." In the face of a historical catastrophe, Batyushkov refuses to sing

…love and joy.

Carelessness, happiness and peace

And noisy for a cup of youth!

Now he was seized by a different - civil - passion: he is full of desire to give "as a sacrifice of revenge Both life and love for the motherland ...".

Batyushkov's "little philosophy" burned down in the fire of the Patriotic War. This does not mean that the epicurean motifs have disappeared from his lyrics, but the ideal of happiness, understood as the enjoyment of the gifts of earthly life, has been replaced by anxiety for the fate of a lonely person in the maelstrom of history. The mood of deep disappointment in the course of history and in humanity penetrated into the poet's lyrics. Historical reality refuted the bright hopes: it is impossible to escape from a hostile environment anywhere. From now on, Batyushkov is stricken with a common European disease - bleak skepticism.

After the collapse of the "little philosophy" Batiushkov realized clearly that the solitary poetic world, in which he lived, which he cherished and protected from the invasion of brute material force, is conditional. He is a creation of art, literature. The poet was especially oppressed by the fact that, brought up on the ideas of French enlightenment and literature, he was deceived in his dreams: barbarism and vandalism were demonstrated on Russian soil by educated France. Historical circumstances temporarily cut the ground from under the "little philosophy". There was nothing to believe in, nothing to base the dream on. Positive values ​​are gone. The world seemed to the poet chaotic, collapsing. It did not have a unifying moral idea which would give support and confidence. And since Batyushkov needed a moral program that would define him further fate, then the content of the first post-war years began the search for the positive foundations of the worldview.

Similar information.

IN past life you met me
In this life you don't remember me.
He fought beautifully in tournaments,
So gracefully jumping on a horse.

I rewarded you with just a look,
Slightly waving a lace sleeve,
After all, the king was with me then,
And the courtiers were all around.

How beautiful was our secret:
An abandoned house behind a rock...
With the utmost care
They took horseback rides.

How we wish we could meet more often!
How drawn to each other soul ...
With strangers only slightly ...

BALLAD OF FATE
When the storm covers space
And fire arrows will drop down,
Thunder rumbles furiously and imperiously -
Freeze for a moment, stop for a moment.
Stop so that you can gather all your strength,
Gain courage and fight with fate -
Otherwise, you will lose everything that was
And stop being
yourself.
Everything tightens your veins in a knot,
When fate laughs at you
Tries to pitchfork you
He bares his teeth mockingly in front of you.
Fate rushes, biting into the throat,
Disfiguring the face...

Endure sadness and longing
he never could
and in taverns and in messes
walked, not zhelya legs.
Like each of us
I was glad to pee
but carried out any order,
because he was a soldier.
Liked to devour when given,
At least ten times a day.
And weakly believed in God's Judgment,
And other bullshit.
Ready to get up before dawn
Walk through rain and darkness
But he didn't want to kill.
Who knows why?
And on the day when the starley ordered *:
"Shoot at the enemy!",
in sight seeing only children
he said, "I can't!"
And then...

He was a good hunter: merging with a horse
I could follow in the footsteps for a week.
And he was ready to fight night and day
For the sake of honor, and glory, and ladies.

He burned, scorching everything around with fire,
Like the sun in the midday heat.
And a hundred thousand ballads were composed about him,
And not a single one about his brother.

Let him tear off the skin from the people more than one,
Let ruin and pain be around
Let him go to war, beheading the country,
But glorified as a good king.

And his brother, a prince named John,
The rest of the kings are not an example,
Honored...

I will believe in love
How can I not believe in her?
I even these our doors
I won't close anymore.
I would give you everything
He answered for all his words,
But only the wind remained.
He did not suffer in this world.
Him to suffer to his own detriment,
He will not suffer.
And even if asked
Suffer, but that's just nonsense.
And I, I continue to believe
I can't help but believe in it.
Let there be night, there will be no light.
I'm with the wind, I don't offend him.
I cherish every moment.
I love, I love...

Evening has fallen
Sleepy castle sleeps
young man with laura
Standing under the window
Sounds are blue
Flowing in silence
Slow and gentle
Indulge in darkness

The hymns have died down
Frozen shields
Spears, arrows, swords
Former fuss
The ancient cup is full
Happiness to the brim
Lush Tournaments
fiery fights

fiery fights
Lush Tournaments
fiery fights
……………………

Winner timidly
Waiting for a goodbye time
Burning from love
He faded away for a moment
Remembered all the hardships
Fear of loss, pain
Sadness, love and tenderness
He carried with...

With the death of Khan
Galdan-Tserena
Dzungaria orphaned
And there is no heir.

internecine hostility,
Until now, the khanate is formidable
Weakened and captured
Empty throne

Nephew of Dabachy,
But not without help
Prince Amyrsan.
Out of envy, selfishness

Or for another reason
Allies quarreled
And the precariousness
I had to prepare

To war. And a fight to the death
In the upper reaches of the Irtysh,
And Amyrsan was defeated there
He fled to China in disgrace.

And the emperor really wanted
Clean up Dzungaria for crayfish,