The poem “Motherland” by M. Yu. Lermontov is an example of creativity for subsequent generations - the revolutionary democrats of the 60s of the 19th century. The poet became, to some extent, the pioneer of a new style of writing poetic works. Mikhail Yuryevich’s poem has many similarities with Pushkin’s poetry, but with the only difference that in “Motherland” the entire vastness of Russia is outlined, while Alexander Sergeevich preferred to reduce the overview to the size of a small village. Many of the poet's contemporaries appreciated this work.
“Motherland” by Lermontov is a patriotic poem, with which the author wanted to show his attitude towards the Fatherland and compare his feelings with the feelings of officials. Mikhail Yuryevich calls his love strange, because he despises the country of the rich, but has warm feelings towards the poor peasants, he likes culture. The poet rejoices while driving along a country road, admires the birches, and treats drunken peasants condescendingly.
In many works, M. Yu. Lermontov expresses his attitude towards the country, people and government. “Motherland” (verse) is a kind of result of reflection; the poet tells what Russia means to him. Initially, the poem was titled “Fatherland,” but shortly before publication, Lermontov changed it to “Motherland.” This is quite atypical for that time, because in the 19th century poets usually described the “small homeland”, that is, their estate, place of birth, and not the whole country.
Mikhail Yuryevich set himself the goal of showing the vastness of Russia in the image of a small village. The poet became a pioneer in the relationship between a large and small homeland. This style of writing clearly emerged only in the middle of the twentieth century. In literary criticism, Lermontov’s “Motherland” is considered as a poetic work written by a romantic, but close to realism. The author poetizes an ordinary landscape, sees only everything beautiful in peasant life, and treats some shortcomings condescendingly.
The embodiment of traditional and non-traditional vocabulary was the poem “Motherland”. M. Yu. Lermontov relied on tradition, but at the same time updated it. For example, many poets mentioned trees in their works, but Mikhail Yuryevich was the first to draw attention to the birch tree - a symbol of Russia. The poet has always had a feeling of melancholy and despondency associated with his homeland; sad emotions are also present in this work.
Many people do not understand the poet’s statement that he loves his country with a “strange love.” Its meaning lies not in how Lermontov loves, but in what he loves: simple peasants, nature, native open spaces, culture, ordinary folk life. The poet has feelings for the Fatherland as for a woman or a loved one. The poem “Motherland” by Lermontov reveals his hidden feelings, the author does not consider the advantages and disadvantages of Russia, he loves it as it is. The poetry of Mikhail Yuryevich became the beginning of a new movement; it largely influenced the work of revolutionary democrats. Just like Lermontov, Nekrasov wrote about love for the Fatherland in the second half of the 19th century, and Blok at the beginning of the 20th century.
Analysis of the poem
1. The history of the creation of the work.
2. Characteristics of a work of the lyrical genre (type of lyrics, artistic method, genre).
3. Analysis of the content of the work (analysis of the plot, characteristics of the lyrical hero, motives and tonality).
4. Features of the composition of the work.
5. Analysis of means of artistic expression and versification (presence of tropes and stylistic figures, rhythm, meter, rhyme, stanza).
6. The meaning of the poem for the poet’s entire work.
The poem "Motherland" was written in 1841. In mid-January 1841, the poet traveled from the Caucasus to St. Petersburg. He saw Russia again, from the Caucasus to the Baltic Sea. Lermontov reflected his impressions in this work. In one of the early editions it was called “Fatherland”. Researchers associate this original name with the fact that Lermontov’s poem was polemically directed against the Slavophile poet A.S. Khomyakov, who glorified the “humility” and religiosity of the Russian people in his “Fatherland” (1839).
We can classify the poem as landscape and philosophical lyrics. As critics noted, in this work we encounter “a rare... coincidence of the feeling of nature with the feeling of the homeland.” Its main theme is the theme of the Fatherland, Russia. The work combines the genre features of an ode, a thought, and a lyric poem. The style is realistic.
At first, the poet talks about his love for the Motherland and notices the “strange” nature of this feeling, its conflict with reason, with reason:
I love my fatherland, but with a strange love!
My reason will not defeat her.
Nor glory bought with blood,
Nor the peace full of proud trust,
Nor the dark old treasured legends
No joyful dreams stir within me.
But I love - for what, I don’t know myself -...
The cultural origins of Russia, its virtues and conquests, military glory, the majestic peace of the state - nothing evokes “pleasant dreams” in the poet. As Dobrolyubov notes, Lermontov here contrasts the prejudices of patriotism with true, holy, reasonable love for the fatherland.
And the next part of the poem reveals the poet’s feelings. At first, a wide panorama of Russia appears before our eyes, its “general characteristics”: “cold silence of the steppes,” “boundless swaying forests,” “river floods like seas.” Then the artistic space seems to narrow, the picture becomes more specific. The hero confesses his love for Russian nature, creating pictures of different seasons (summer and autumn), approaching the life of the Russian village:
On a country road I like to ride in a cart
And, with a slow gaze piercing the shadow of the night,
Meet on the sides, sighing for an overnight stay,
Trembling lights of sad villages.
I love the smoke of burnt stubble,
A convoy spending the night in the steppe
And on a hill in the middle of a yellow field
A couple of white birches.
As the researchers note, the “country road” here reminds us of the path of life. Lermontov's color scheme: blue (rivers and seas), green (forests), black (night), yellow (lights, fields, straw), white (birch trees). The lyrical hero perceives the Motherland and nature with all his senses - sight (“with a slow gaze piercing the shadow of the night”), smell (“I love the smoke of burnt stubble”), hearing (“dancing with stomping and whistling to the talk of drunken peasants”).
So, gradually, the poet opens up the simple world of peasant life:
With joy unknown to many,
I see a complete threshing floor
A hut covered with straw
A window with carved shutters...
And on a holiday, on a dewy evening,
Ready to watch until midnight
To dance with stomping and whistling
Under the talk of drunken men.
Textually, this picture echoes Pushkin’s passage from “Eugene Onegin”:
Now the balalaika is dear to me,
Yes, the drunken tramp of a trepak
In front of the threshold of the tavern;
My ideal now is a housewife;
My desires are peace,
Yes, a pot of cabbage soup, and a big one.
As Dobrolyubov wrote, “the fullest expression of pure love for the people, the most humane view of their life cannot be demanded from a Russian poet.” In this poem one can hear not only open admiration and hidden warmth of feelings, moreover, one can hear here the motive of pride in Russia, its majestic and proud nature, original culture, and national flavor. A motive that opposes the poet’s original mood. “We must live our own independent lives and bring our originality into the universal. Why should we all reach for Europe and the French,” Lermontov wrote in a letter to A.A. Kraevsky.
The construction of the poem is based on the principle of antithesis. It consists of two parts. The first part is Lermontov’s defense of his individual and personal understanding of the concept of the Motherland. The poet here rejects official patriotism and official nationality. The antithetical nature is emphasized by the repetition of negative particles in each line of the first part. The second part is the poet’s declaration of love for small, “unofficial”, people’s Russia, for its nature, for its people. This motive is expressed in repetitions of the verb: “but I love...”, “I love to jump,” “I love smoke.”
The poem is written in free iambic. Lermontov uses different types of rhyme: cross, pair, ring. The poet uses a variety of means of artistic expression: metaphors (“glory bought with blood”, “peace full of proud trust”, “no joyful dreams stir within me”, “a slow gaze piercing the shadow of the night”), personification of “the cold silence of the steppes”), epithets (“boundless forests”, “trembling lights”, “sad villages”), anaphora (“Her steppes are cold silence, Her boundless forests are swaying”), alliteration (“The floods of her rivers are like seas”), assonance (“Not full of proud peace of trust").
Thus, nature in this work is inextricably linked with the feelings of the lyrical hero, with his thoughts about the Fatherland, about the life of the people, with his simple life, with his sorrows and joys. We should consider the poem “Motherland” in the context of the poet’s entire work. And here we should note that the topic of Russia, the people and the historical fate of the Russian people worried M.Yu. Lermontov throughout his entire creative career. Poems such as “Borodino”, “Two Giants”, “Cossack Lullaby”, “Testament”, “Farewell, Unwashed Russia” are devoted to this topic. The same theme is heard in Lermontov’s poem “Sashka” and in “Song about the Merchant Kalashnikov.”
I love my fatherland, but with a strange love! My reason will not defeat her. Neither glory bought with blood, nor peace full of proud trust, nor cherished legends of dark antiquity stir in me a joyful dream. But I love - for what, I don’t know myself - Her steppes’ cold silence, Her boundless swaying forests, The floods of her rivers are like seas. On a country road I love to ride in a cart and, with my slow gaze piercing the shadows of the night, meet on the sides, sighing for an overnight stay, the trembling lights of sad villages. I love the smoke of burnt stubble, A convoy train spends the night in the steppe And on a hill in the middle of a yellow cornfield A pair of whitening birches. With joy, unfamiliar to many, I see a complete threshing floor, A hut covered with straw, A window with carved shutters. And on a holiday, in a dewy evening, I’m ready to watch until midnight To dance with stomping and whistling To the talking of drunken peasants.
The creative heritage of the Russian poet and writer Mikhail Lermontov includes many works that express the author’s civic position. However, the poem “Motherland,” written by Lermontov in 1941, shortly before his death, can be classified as one of the most striking examples of patriotic lyrics of the 19th century.
Writers who were contemporaries of Lermontov can be divided into two categories. Some of them sang the beauty of Russian nature, deliberately turning a blind eye to the problems of the village and serfdom. Others, on the contrary, tried to reveal the vices of society in their works and were known as rebels. Mikhail Lermontov, in turn, tried to find a golden mean in his work, and the poem “Motherland” is rightfully considered the crowning achievement of his desire to express his feelings towards Russia as fully and objectively as possible.
One consists of two parts, different not only in size, but also in concept. The solemn introduction, in which the author declares his love for the Fatherland, is replaced by stanzas that describe the beauty of Russian nature. The author admits that he loves Russia not for its military feats, but for the beauty of nature, originality and bright national color. He clearly distinguishes concepts such as homeland and state, noting that his love is strange and somewhat painful. On the one hand, he admires Russia, its steppes, meadows, rivers and forests. But at the same time, he is aware that the Russian people are still oppressed, and the stratification of society into rich and poor becomes more pronounced with each generation. And the beauty of the native land is not able to veil the “trembling lights of sad villages.”
Researchers of this poet's work are convinced that by nature Mikhail Lermontov was not a sentimental person. In his circle, the poet was known as a bully and a brawler, he loved to mock his fellow soldiers and resolved disputes with the help of a duel. Therefore, it is all the more strange that from his pen were born not bravura patriotic or accusatory lines, but subtle lyrics with a touch of slight sadness. However, there is a logical explanation for this, which some literary critics adhere to. It is believed that people of a creative nature have amazing intuition or, as it is commonly called in literary circles, the gift of foresight. Mikhail Lermontov was no exception and, according to Prince Peter Vyazemsky, he had a presentiment of his death in a duel. That is why he hastened to say goodbye to everything that was dear to him, taking off for a moment the mask of a jester and actor, without which he did not consider it necessary to appear in high society.
However, there is an alternative interpretation of this work, which, undoubtedly, is key in the poet’s work. According to the literary critic Vissarion Belinsky, Mikhail Lermontov not only advocated the need for government reforms, but also foresaw that very soon Russian society with its patriarchal way of life would change completely, completely and irrevocably. Therefore, in the poem “Motherland,” sad and even nostalgic notes slip through, and the main leitmotif of the work, if you read it between the lines, is an appeal to descendants to love Russia as it is. Do not exalt her achievements and merits, do not focus on social vices and imperfections of the political system. After all, homeland and state are two completely different concepts that should not be tried to be brought to a single denominator even with good intentions. Otherwise, love for the Motherland will be seasoned with the bitterness of disappointment, which is what the poet who experienced this feeling was so afraid of.
(14 )
POEM “MOTHERLAND” (1841)
Genre: elegy.
COMPOSITION AND STORY
Part 1
Official Russia is depicted with glory “bought with blood.”
Part 2
Russia no longer appears embellished, but still beloved:
But I love - for what, I don’t know,
Its steppes are coldly silent,
Her boundless forests sway,
The floods of its rivers are like seas...
The lyrical hero perceives his homeland with all his senses:
⦁ vision: “With a slow gaze, piercing the shadow of the night”;
⦁ sense of smell: “I love the smoke of burnt stubble
⦁ by ear: “To dance with stomping and whistling // To the talk of drunken peasants.”
IDEAL AND THEMATIC CONTENT
⦁ Topic: love for the motherland.
⦁ Idea: the essence of love for the motherland is in a true feeling, and not in official, official patriotism.
ART MEDIA
About the poem, V. G. Belinsky wrote that the phrases are distinguished by “diamond strength.”
⦁ Epithets: sad villages, boundless forests, trembling lights, yellow cornfield.
⦁ Metaphors: glory bought with blood, peace full of proud trust, a slow gaze piercing the shadow of the night.
The poem “Motherland” is one of Lermontov’s last works. In the winter of 1841, the poet traveled from the Caucasus to St. Petersburg. Under the influence of the Russian expanses he saw - from the Caucasus to the Baltic Sea - as well as his impressions and thoughts, the poet wrote this poem. It can be classified as both landscape and philosophical lyrics.
The work combines the genre features of ode, thought and lyric poem. The construction of the poem “Motherland” is based on the principle of antithesis. It consists of two parts. In the first part, the poet rejects official patriotism.
In the second, he confesses his love for Russia, for its nature, for its people. The poet reflects on his attitude towards his homeland - about his love for it. And in the very first lines he speaks about the “oddities” of his love:
I love my fatherland, but with a strange love!
My reason will not defeat her.
Why does he consider his love for Russia strange? His love is addressed not to the Russian state, but to people's Russia. The poet is attached to simple pictures of Russian nature, the Russian village, and this high feeling is not allowed to overcome reason.
Lermontov calls his love for his homeland strange, probably because it may seem so to those who do not understand how and why one can love “the cold silence of the steppes...”.
The theme of the homeland develops from a broad plan to a narrower one. First, the poet gives the official perception of the homeland (“glory bought with blood”; “peace full of proud trust”; “old cherished legends”), then follows a general image of Russian nature (“cold silence of the steppes”; “boundless swaying forests”; “river floods”) her").
This is followed by details associated with folk life (“quivering lights of villages”; “smoke of burnt stubble”; “full threshing floor”; “a hut covered with straw”; “a window with carved shutters”).
In the finale, the picture narrows even more to the image of a rural holiday, which the poet-traveler is “ready to watch until midnight.” In each picture depicted, the poet uses different vocabulary.
The first six lines contain abstract, general words: fatherland, reason, glory. Then he uses words that denote objects of a wide scale (geographical and topographical nature): rivers, forests, steppes, country roads.
And in the second half of the poem “Motherland” the vocabulary is more specific: particulars are depicted (this is even shown grammatically - the words are used in the singular): convoy, field, hut, threshing floor. In his poems about nature, Lermontov prefers color epithets.
In “Motherland” there are few direct color epithets (yellow fields; whitening birches), and yet the impression of a colored image of Russian nature is present: blue color - rivers and seas; green - forests; black - night; yellow - lights, fields, straw; white - birch.
But how metaphorical are the epithets “sad villages” and “boundless forests”! And even a slight shade of sadness goes well with the life-affirming, bright mood of the poem.
The poet also uses other means of artistic expression: metaphors (glory bought with blood; peace full of proud trust; do not stir in me a joyful dream; with a slow gaze piercing the shadow of the night), personification (the cold silence of the steppes), anaphora (Her steppes... Her forests) ; alliteration (the floods of its rivers are like seas); assonance (peace full of proud trust.
The poem “Motherland” was created by Lermontov at the beginning of 1841, and in the same year in July the poet was killed in a duel. The poem is dedicated to the theme of the Fatherland, which was near and dear to him. The reason for writing the poem was views on life that did not correspond to the views of society of that time. In the poem “The Death of a Poet,” Lermontov declared secular society to be the culprits in Pushkin’s death; it expressed the pain of loss and indignation on behalf of the Russian people. The last lines were perceived at the royal court as a call for revolution, for which Lermontov was arrested and exiled to the Caucasus. After a short break, he was exiled a second time to the same places. All this time, the poet was in disgrace with the emperor. The exiled poet yearns for his homeland, during this period Lermontov changes greatly morally. Society for him had lost its meaning and attractiveness, and “black melancholy appeared on his face,” but nature attracted his attention.
In the poem “Motherland,” Lermontov talks about his love for the Russian people and declares his blood connection with them, as well as his love for nature. He, together with the people, experiences their sorrows and joys, therefore his love "strange". It contradicts the norms of that life: dislike for masters, autocracy, serfdom and love for the common people and nature. Lermontov was able to comprehend the shortcomings of the society of that time and was able to understand that only the people could save the country from the wrong path along which it was going. Lermontov is indifferent to military glory, to the cherished legends of dark antiquity. Both longing and love for one’s native land can be read in the following lines: “But I love - for what, I don’t know myself - its cold silence of the steppes...” Love and patriotism are heard in the poem “Motherland”.
Analyzing the poem “Motherland,” we can say that its poetic language is expressive. The poet experienced the suffering of the Russian people as his own, and therefore expressed his thoughts through personal perception. Epithets are used that reflect emotional experience, metaphors are used less. The poem is easier to read due to the relaxed form of colloquial speech.
the main idea poems: “I love my fatherland, but with a strange love!” Theme of love for homeland is emphasized by the repetition of verbs indicating the poet’s attitude: "but I love", “I love to ride in a cart”, "I love the smoke" etc. The poem consists of two parts, they differ in size and concept. The introduction begins solemnly, the poet confesses his love for the Fatherland. The stanzas change, the description of the beauties of Russian nature begins. The poem clearly shows the concept: homeland and state. There are no accusatory lines here, but there are lyrical notes with a tone of sadness. One feels bitterness, pain and resentment for the country and people who will not wake up from slavery. The poem expresses the feelings of the exiled poet. It can be called a bold challenge that exposes autocratic Russia. Between the lines you can read an appeal to the next generations to love Russia as it is. The poem was not published during the poet's lifetime.
The theme of the homeland moves from a broad plan to a narrower one, supported by the vocabulary of the poem itself. The vocabulary of the first six lines contains generalizing words (rivers, forests, steppes). The vocabulary of the second half is specific, the words are expressed in the singular (hut, convoy, couple of birches). Naturally, the structure also changes. At the beginning of the poem it is used iambic hexameter(14 lines), then the rhyme changes freely.
About the poem “Motherland,” Belinsky noted that the poet’s phrases are distinguished by their diamond strength, thunderous force, and gigantic energy. The poet reveals to us a living poetic image of Russia. The main content of the poem is Russian nature and the difficult life of the people in Russia.
- “Sail”, analysis of Lermontov’s poem
- “Prophet”, analysis of Lermontov’s poem
- “Clouds”, analysis of Lermontov’s poem
