Questions for the analysis of the poem "On the railroad":
- Why is this poem included in the third volume of the poet's lyrics?
- What is the tragedy of the heroine?
- How is the picture of the "terrible world" created?
- Find key words in the poem.
- Why did the author include this poem in the Motherland cycle?
The very title of the poem "On the Railroad" is associated with the motif of the path, and the first stanza specifies that this is the path to death, the death of a young woman. The picture that the author paints is connected with the theme of the Russian land. This is evidenced by the objective world, the details of the portrait: an uncut moat, a colored scarf, braids. The author tells about the life of the heroine, revealing the causes of her death.
The verbal sequence that accompanies the heroine speaks of her as if she were alive: “she walked with a dignified gait”, “waiting, worrying, for love, she has a gentle blush, a cool curl. But the world that is opposed to it is indifferent to a person, a living feeling. He is dead. Therefore, the author uses such words-images as "sleepy", "smooth look", "careless hand", "desert eyes of carriages". Life indifferently rushes past the heroine, the world does not care about the expectations of youth. Therefore, a feeling of the meaninglessness of life, empty dreams, iron anguish is born. The epithet "iron" is not accidental. It concentrates deaf despair associated with the "terrible world" that mortifies the soul. That's why
there is an image of a taken out heart (“the heart has been taken out for a long time”). Even death causes nothing in the crowd of people, except for idle curiosity. And only the heart of the lyrical hero responds with pain.
This poem is placed in the Motherland cycle not by chance. The “Terrible World” is also a symbol of contemporary Blok Russia. There is a social hint in the poem: “The yellow and blue ones were silent, in green they cried and sang.” Yellow and blue cars are for wealthy people, green ones are for the common people. Therefore, the theme of suffering, the fate of the people is reflected in the symbolic words “weeping” and “singing”.
Under the embankment, in the unmowed ditch,
Lies and looks, as if alive,
In a colored scarf, thrown on braids,
Beautiful and young.
It happened that she walked with a dignified gait
To the noise and whistle behind the nearby forest.
Bypassing the whole long platform,
Waited, worried, under a canopy.
Three bright eyes oncoming -
Delicate blush, cooler curl:
The carriages were moving along the usual line,
They trembled and creaked;
Silent yellow and blue;
In green wept and sang.
Get up sleepy behind the glass
And cast an even glance
Her, the gendarme next to her ...
Only once, a hussar with a careless hand
Leaning on scarlet velvet,
Slipped - and the train rushed off into the distance.
In empty dreams, exhausted ...
Longing road, iron
Whistle, breaking the heart ...
So many bows have been given
So many greedy glances thrown
Into the deserted eyes of the wagons...
Don't ask her questions.
You don't care, but it's enough for her:
Love, dirt or wheels
She is crushed - everything hurts.
The work of A. Blok, with all the diversity of its problems and artistic solutions, is a single whole, one work unfolded in time, a reflection of the path traveled by the poet.
Blok himself pointed out this feature of his work: “... this is my path ... now that it has been passed, I am firmly convinced that this is due and that all the poems together are a “trilogy of incarnation”.
Cross-cutting motifs, details, images permeate the entire lyrics of the poet. The poem "On the Railroad" is included in the figurative system of Blok's work as a realization of the theme of the path, the through image of the road. It was written under the impression of reading the novel by L.N. Tolstoy "Resurrection". Blok says this about his poem: “An unconscious imitation of an episode from Tolstoy’s Resurrection: Katyusha Maslova at a small station sees Nekhlyudov in a velvet armchair in the window of a brightly lit first-class compartment.”
One involuntarily recalls the tragic death of another heroine of Tolstoy - Anna Karenina ...
The poem "On the Railroad", with visible external content, undoubtedly has another, deep, plan, and its central position in the cycle "Motherland" is not accidental.
The circumstantial series “under the embankment, in the unmown moat”, which opens the poem, begins it with a tragic denouement, we have before us the implementation of the reverse narration technique.
The tragic ending determines the emotional tone of the retrospective descriptions that make up the main part, which is central in terms of position in the text. The first and last (ninth) stanzas form a ring, both of them are given in the momentary present, we have a clear ring composition of the text. The central, retrospective part opens with the word “has happened”, placed at the beginning of the stanza and verse line, in the most “shocking” position. This “used” refers all subsequent actions to the general plan of the long-past repeating: “It happened, she walked, waited, worried ... walked, trembled, creaked, was silent, cried and sang, got up, circled, rushed ... exhausted, whistled ... tearing ... ". All events, all actions related directly to the one that is now “lying and looking as if alive” are given, as it were, in isolation from the subject. Incompleteness becomes a structurally important factor in the text.
"She" only appears in the last line of the fifth stanza:
Get up sleepy behind the glass
And cast an even glance
Platform, garden with faded bushes,
Her, the gendarme next to her ...
The approaching train is presented distantly, like an unknown creature. Then there is a gradual "recognition": at first, perception seems to move from auditory signals to visual ones: "noise and whistle behind the nearby forest, three bright eyes of the oncoming ones." Then: "the carriages went in the usual line." Each appearance of "three bright eyes" is perceived as hope and promise, therefore:
... Delicate blush, cooler curl ...
The rough drafts state this more clearly:
Always promised the unknown
Three red eyes oncoming ...
The repeated transformation of the heroine (“a gentler blush, a steeper curl ...”) is due to hope:
Perhaps one of the travelers
Take a closer look out the windows...
These two lines are not actually direct speech of the heroine. It is for her, meeting and seeing off the train, that all the people in it are “passing”. The replacement of the indefinite pronoun "someone" by the interrogative-relative "who" is typical for colloquial vernacular. The voice of the one who now "lies and looks as if alive" bursts into the voice of the narrator. “She” enlivens this piece: under the sign of hope and expectation, the story is transferred to another time plane - the present-future in the past: “gentle blush, cooler curl” (now), “look” (future). The ellipsis as a default sign ends this stanza, breaking it off.
The carriages were moving along the usual line,
They trembled and creaked;
Silent yellow and blue;
In green wept and sang.
When it was about human destiny, about hopes and expectations, trouble was conveyed, among other means of expression, by violating the direct order of words. At the beginning of the verse, the circumstance (“under the embankment, in the unmown moat”), then the introductory words (“it used to”, “maybe”), then the definition became in postposition (“three bright eyes of the oncoming ones”), then the binding part of the nominal predicate was brought forward (“gentle blush, cooler curl”); and only the beginning of the fourth stanza differs in the direct word order:
The carriages were moving along the usual line… —
subject, predicate, secondary members. In the world of machines and mechanisms, everything is correct and clear, everything is subject to a certain routine.
The second part of the same stanza is already with a broken word order:
Silent yellow and blue;
In green wept and sang.
Here the movement of the train is given, as it were, in the perception of the heroine.
The movement formula combines “her” and “cars” that were not revealed in the text: “walked with a dignified gait” - “walked in a familiar line”. Moreover, in the verb to go (went, walked), in each specific case, different meanings of this verb are activated. She walked - “moved, stepping over” - “walked with a dignified gait ...”. “The cars were moving” - “moving, overcoming space.” Here, these meanings are deliberately brought together, something mechanical, as if directed from the outside, appears in this movement towards each other. All actions (“walked”, “trembled”, “creaked”, “silent”, “wept and sang”) are equally habitual and lengthy (“walked in a familiar line”).
In pre-revolutionary Russia, the carriages of the first and second classes, respectively, are “yellow and blue”; "green" - third-class carriages. Here, the prosperous "yellows and blues" are opposed to the "greens". This contrast is complicated by the contrast of grammatical structures - the two-part “Yellow and blue were silent” (subtle metonymy) is opposed to the one-part one with an indefinitely personal meaning of the predicate: “In the green they cried and sang” - it is not known, and it doesn’t matter who cries and sings there.
Yellow, blue, green cars are not just real signs of a running train, but symbols of different human destinies.
Get up sleepy behind the glass
And looked around with a sleepy look
Platform, garden with faded bushes,
Her, the gendarme next to her ...
Again, inversion and contrast. The “sleepy” with their “smooth look” and “she”, which finally appeared in the text, are contrasted. "She" for the "sleepy" is the same boring and familiar object as the platform, the garden with faded bushes, the gendarmes. And again, the ellipsis as a means of highlighting a word, image, thought, as a sign of anxiety and expectation.
In this stream of gray everyday life, one single bright spot suddenly flashed:
Only once a hussar with a careless hand
Leaning on scarlet velvet,
He glided over her with a gentle smile ...
Tenderness, melodiousness of the sound is enhanced in this stanza by a rhyme on “-oy” (careless - gentle), where the commonly used form on “-oy” is also possible.
It is significant that the circumstance of time “only once” is placed at the beginning of the stanza, emphasizing the uniqueness of this happy moment. The whole picture is a contrast with dull everyday life: the festive joy of life shines through even in the very pose of a hussar. Velvet is not just red - scarlet. Here scarlet is a sign of hope, the possibility of love. Especially significant is the rhyming pair "scarlet" - "rushed off", which not only rhyme, but also inevitably correlate with each other. Hope as hope, given in the third stanza:
Perhaps one of the travelers
Take a closer look from the windows...
destroyed by inexorable fate, fate, that terrible force that controls human destinies in the Terrible World, rushing past its appointed, iron path.
It is indicative that the train did not sped away, but it was “swept away”. The action is presented as taking place by itself, fatally. An unknown force took away the dream (“maybe”), blew away the possibility of happiness - and the story returns to normal again: further verb forms are used, conveying in general terms the long-past, repeating (“happened”) everything that happened after:
So rushed useless youth,
In empty dreams, exhausted ...
Longing road, iron
Whistle, breaking the heart ...
Lexical repetitions: “the train rushed off into the distance” - “so youth raced” combine the sixth and seventh stanzas. In the seventh stanza, the image of the path, the image of a rushing train comes through: “rushed”, “longing for the road, iron”, “whistled”.
At the beginning of the next, eighth stanza, the particle "yes," separated by a pause from the next text, was placed. It is this exclamation of “Yes, what” determines the emotional tone of the entire stanza, the last in the retrospective part. Anaphora: "So many ... So many ..." combines the second and third verse lines. The whole stanza is sharply emphasized by the first verse:
Yes, the heart has been taken out for a long time!
(the only exclamatory sentence in the poetic text), and is united by repeating grammatically homogeneous forms: “taken out”, “given away”, “thrown away”.
“Three bright eyes of the oncoming ones” turn into “desert eyes of wagons”; The "empty dreams" of the previous stanza are correlated with the "desert eyes of the wagons". “Only once” of the sixth stanza - the only, and even then a illusory possibility of happiness - is opposed to the repeated “So many bows are given, so many greedy looks are thrown ...”
The ninth, last, stanza returns us to the "present", to the one that "lies and looks like it's alive." The figurative system of this stanza is based on contrast. “She”, who appeared for the second time in the role of a subject, is contrasted with the inhabitants of the “cars”: “It’s enough for her” - “You don’t care.”
A number of homogeneous members: "by love, mud or wheels ..." - combines general auditory antonyms. The first two members of the series reveal in a brief passive participle "crushed" its metaphorical meaning - "destroyed, morally crushed"; the third term - "wheels" - reveals the direct closest meaning in the word "crushed" - "killed, mortified", "deliberately deprived of life." “Crushed by the wheels” also evokes, by association, the idea of a metaphorical wheel of fortune, a story that breaks human destinies. This image was used by Blok: “... he is ready to grab with his human hand the wheel by which the history of mankind moves ...” (from the Preface to “Retribution”).
The first members of the series - "love, dirt" are opposed to the third member - "wheels", but not only: the entire series is united by the verb "crushed" and the common meaning for each member is the instrumentality, the instrument of action.
“She is crushed” is the final form, closing a series of short participles: “the heart is taken out”, “many bows are given”, “many glances are thrown”. Brief passive participles are especially correlated in the lines: “Yes, what - the heart has been taken out for a long time!” and "She's crushed - everything hurts." These lines frame the last two stanzas of the poem.
The passive form “crushed”, “taken out” becomes a figuratively significant dominant of the entire poem.
Understanding the compositional and stylistic forms of the word in Blok's work helps to understand the meaning of the poem in a different way, to enter the author's lyrical world.
In Blok's poetics, the path as a symbol, theme and idea plays a special role. The poem "On the Railroad" illuminates one of the facets of the through image of the path.
The railway is a symbol of the way, movement, development. A train, a steam locomotive, the image of a “road-path”, a station as a stage of the journey or a moment of the journey, the lights of a steam locomotive and the lights of a semaphore - these images permeate all of Blok’s texts, from poems to private letters. And his own, personal and creative, fate appears in the image-symbol of the train. In a letter to A. Bely, the same image of the path-fate arises: “It is very likely that my train will only make the last turns - and then arrive at the station, where it will stay for a long time. Even if the station is average, but from it it will be possible to look back at the path passed and the future. These days, with the gradual slowing down of the train, many disturbing fragments are still whistling in the ears ... ". The image of the train - a symbol of fate, the poet's own life, uncontrollably rushing along an unknown path, also appears in the poem "You were all brighter, truer and more charming ...". The image of the railway develops into a symbol of the railway - an inexorable and boundless fate:
My train flies like a gypsy song
Like those days of no return...
What was loved - all past, past,
Ahead - the unknown path ...
Blessed, indelible
Irrevocably...sorry!
In Blok's letter to E.P. Ivanov has a significant message relating to the very day that marks the initial draft of the poem “On the Railroad”: “I was in St. Petersburg ... I wanted to come to your service; but he suddenly waved his hand and despondently climbed into the carriage. What a dull pain from boredom happens! And so constantly - life "follows" past, like a train, sleepy, drunk, and cheerful, and boring people stick out in the windows - and I, yawning, look after me from the "wet platform". Or - they are still waiting for happiness, like trains at night on an open platform covered with snow. All the correspondences between this entry and the poem are indicative and significant: both in the letter and in the poem there is a common emotional tone that brings realities closer: yellow and blue, in green wept and sang. And finally, the main bringing together motive: the train as a sign of hope for happiness: "... three bright eyes of the oncoming ones", "... they are still waiting for happiness, like trains at night on an open platform covered with snow."
The path, the road is not only a symbol of movement, development, but it is also a symbol of the outcome, as a promise and a pledge. The image of a track and a train appears repeatedly in Blok's work as an object of comparison, suggesting the clarity of the solution:
... Let this thought appear strict,
Simple and white as the road
What a long journey, Carmen!
(“Oh yes, love is free like a bird…”)
And the same image of the path, the train as a sign of exit, of hope appears in the article “Neither Dreams, Nor Reality”: “All our lives we have been waiting for happiness, like people at dusk for long hours waiting for a train on an open, snow-covered platform. Blinded by the snow, and everyone is waiting for three lights to appear at the turn. Here at last is a tall, narrow locomotive; but no longer for joy: everyone is so tired, so cold that it is impossible to warm up even in a warm carriage.
The poem "On the Railroad" reveals the essence of life in the Terrible World, this steady, irresistible and ruthless path. The railway in symbolic understanding, undoubtedly, belongs to the number of symbols-signs of the Terrible World.
In the creative practice of A. Blok, "iron", "iron" is on the verge of a symbol and reality, in constant interaction and interpenetration. Already in the “Poems about the Beautiful Lady” “iron” appears in a symbolic meaning:
We were tormented, erased for centuries,
Hardened hearts with iron ...
(“About legends, about fairy tales, about secrets…”)
"Iron", "iron" - "cruel, merciless, inevitable":
Such is the law of fate of the iron ...
("Retribution", ch. I)
And the wizard has power
She seemed full of energy
Which with an iron hand
Clamped in a useless knot ...
("Retribution", ch. II)
The apocalyptic image - the "iron rod" in the figurative system of Blok arises as a symbol of inevitable and formidable danger or as an instrument of punishment and retribution:
He is brought - this iron rod -
Over our heads...
The symbolic designation of inevitability, severe inflexibility through the image of "iron", "iron" stands out among the symbols of Blok with a sharp negative assessment, even if the word "iron" comes to the fore with the meaning "strong, invincible":
It seems more ironic, more unawakening
My dead dream...
("Through the Gray Smoke")
More often "iron" appears in the meaning of "inevitable"
With the need of iron
Fall asleep on white sheets? ..
(“It was, it was, it was…”)
The Iron Age, Iron Destiny, Iron Way acquire some stability as phrases denoting a circle of ideas that are inextricably linked with the symbolic meaning of the word "iron":
Nineteenth century, iron,
Truly a cruel age!
("Retribution", ch. I)
The metaphor "iron" appears in Blok's poetics as a symbol of cold and evil cruelty.
In the poem "On the Railway" the image of the railway appears as an image of a steady path, an inevitable rushing merciless fate.
In Blok's lyrics, the theme of the path is inextricably linked with the theme of Russia, the theme of the Motherland:
Oh, my Russia! My wife! To pain
We have a long way to go!
("On the Kulikovo field")
No, I'm going on a path not called by anyone,
And let the earth be easy for me!
Rest under the roof of a tavern.
("Autumn Will")
Blok presents Russia as an “incarnated” generalized image: “The more you feel the connection with the motherland, the more real and willingly you imagine it as a living organism ... The motherland is a huge, dear, breathing creature ... Nothing has died, everything is fixable, because not she died and we did not die. In the figurative system of Blok, Russia often appears in the form of a Russian woman in a colorful or patterned scarf:
And the impossible is possible
The road is long and easy
When it shines in the distance of the road
Instant glance from under the scarf ...
("Russia")
No, not an old face and not lean
Under the Moscow colored scarf!
("New America")
In the poem “On the Railroad”, the one that “lies and looks, as if alive, in a colored scarf, thrown at the scythes” - isn’t this “crushed” Russia itself? (Recall that this poem is included by the poet in the cycle "Motherland").
The railroad, death on the railroad, the past of the heroine - all this real immediate plan is given at such a level of everyday concreteness and psychological authenticity that it is this plan that is considered the only content of the poem "On the Railroad". The life realities of the poem and the author's notes about the unconscious imitation of an episode from Tolstoy's "Resurrection" give reason to evaluate the poem as realistic. But at the same time, the poem is not devoid of deep symbolic meaning. Its deep structure is revealed only when this poem is compared with other works of Blok.
Analysis of Blok's poem "On the Railroad"
5 (100%) 1 voteA poem by A.A. Block "On the Railway" is full of artistic details that make the reader shudder. The cinematic plausibility with which each stanza is written visibly paints a tragic picture before us.
At this time, Blok was rereading Leo Tolstoy's Resurrection. The plot of the poem has an intertextual connection with the story of Nekhlyudov and Katyusha Maslova. Here you can see a reference to another, no less famous novel "Anna Karenina". However, it cannot be said that On the Railroad is a poetic imitation. The author uses new symbols, saturating them with the sound of the block.
The idea is based on a real case, witnessed by Blok. Passing by the railway station, he saw through the train window a poisoned teenage girl and local inhabitants standing at a distance and looking with petty curiosity. Blok saw everything from the inside. He couldn't help but respond with his heart.
As you know, the poet was very attentive and alien to indifference. Such a conclusion can be drawn from the memoirs of his contemporaries, from what was created by Blok, for example, such an article as "Irony", from his diaries and letters. The author always reacted sharply to any slightest change in the world order. His sensitive heart, having heard the music of the revolution, was incapable of pretending to be a mechanical engine.
For Blok, human life is the life of the whole country. In the poem "On the Railroad" one can clearly feel the identification of the existence of an individual and the fate of the entire Motherland.
Genre, direction, size
The genre of the poem "On the Railroad" is a lyrical work. It reflects the features of the symbolist direction.
First of all, it should be noted the ambiguity of each image that appears in the work, the musicality of the syllable and the philosophical sound of the central theme. At the end of this poem, a symbolist view of life's realities from the point of view of eternity is clearly seen. Musicality, expressed not only by poetic devices, but also concentrated in the internal energy of "On the Railroad", also makes this work related to symbolism.
The block uses an ambiguous poetic meter: the alternation of iambic five- and four-foot. "On the Railroad" consists of nine quatrains. The type of rhyme is also special, the first and third lines of the quatrains are dactyly rhymed. The second and fourth have a female clause. Thus, an internal rhythm is created, giving the poem a wave-like intonation sound.
Composition
The composition "On the railway" is circular. The poem begins with an image of a dead girl lying “under a mound, in an unmowed ditch,” and ends with a return to the same image. Blok uses a cinematic technique, gradually moving the lens away from the main character to show her fate, and then returning again to the figure of the unfortunate girl. It creates a sense of involvement in the reader in what is happening. Being a separate heroine becomes an impulse to think about the fate of the Motherland.
Ring composition allows Blok to create an image of infinity: the end is the beginning, and the beginning is the end. However, the last lines leave hope for getting rid of this fate. The dead heroine is described as if alive: “Do not approach her with questions / You don’t care, but she is enough: / Love, mud or wheels / She is crushed - everything hurts.” One gets the feeling that she can still hear the talk and bustle around, still sees the figures approaching her, still distinguishes the faces of curious onlookers. The dead man is written out, as if existing between the world of the earth and the heavens. This duality, that the flesh belongs to the earth, and the soul rushes to the sky, is shown by a dead, but still presence.
Images and symbols
Symbols are hidden in the poem, absorbing the essence of the era.
- For example, in this quatrain: “The carriages walked in a familiar line, / They trembled and creaked; / The yellow and blue ones were silent; / In green they cried and sang ...” - the poet allegorically means social inequality and in general the polarity of the perception of Russian reality of that time by different classes. And at the same time, he notices a deaf indifference to the fate of a person, both higher and lower strata. Someone is hidden behind the mask of an aristocrat, someone behind the illusion of the breadth of one's own soul. In any case, everyone is the same in one thing: no one notices the human expectation, no one stretches out their hands. However, Blok does not reproach people, he only asks them to be more sensitive at least to her death, since they could not live. Blok wrote: “Heart, shed tears of pity for everything and remember that no one can be judged ...”
- The unfortunate fate of the heroine can be viewed from a symbolist point of view. The image of a girl "in a colored scarf, thrown on braids" - personification of Russia. “Grand walk”, exciting expectations in the hopes that a miracle will happen right now - and life will become easier, and everything will change. It seems to me that Blok wanted to put a global meaning into this symbol - the eternal expectations of the Russian people for a better life.
- In the fate of the girl, one can easily guess another symbol - the difficult fate of a Russian woman. Endless expectations of happiness, the keys to which are thrown deep into the water and eaten by fish long ago, according to the heroine of Nekrasov's poem.
- Railroad image is the symbol of the path. People are rushing by train, no one knows where, not noticing how the entire space of the country is plunging into mortal anguish. “Greedy looks” that the girl throws at the windows of the cars, hoping for a hearty response - an attempt to stop the train of that era and be saved by love.
- Lyrical hero treats the girl with deep sympathy and compassion. First of all, he sees Russia in the face of the girl. One gets the feeling that he passes through himself all the pain of this unfortunate fate, realizing his helplessness before the tragedy.
Themes
The main theme of the poem is the theme of loneliness in the crowd, the tragic fate of a person who yearned for love and was met only by the cold of external space. The theme of human indifference, as a result of general blindness, is also woven into the outline of the plot. The inability to forget oneself and see one's neighbor, the inability to get out of the rushing wagon of life and just stop for a moment, look around, notice, listen, become sensitive. The closeness and individuality of each gives rise to an all-consuming icy void into which the whole country is immersed. Blok draws a parallel between the fate of a particular heroine and Russia, showing how lonely and dilapidated the Motherland seems to him, enduring so much pain and not finding a sensitive soul in its own expanses.
Block also brings up the theme of an unfulfilled dream. The sound of "On the Railroad" is tragic precisely in this victory of life's realities over dreams.
Problems
The problems of "On the Railway" are multifaceted: here is the path of Russia, and the fate of a Russian woman, and the irresistibility of fate.
There is not a single rhetorical question in the poem, however, the interrogative intonation is palpable in the subtext of the work. The poet reflects on the fate of his own country, trying to understand where and why everything is moving around. The feeling of external bustle and internal loneliness is created due to the station surroundings. The smallness of a person against the backdrop of a vast space, trains rushing somewhere, busy crowds of people. The problem of hopelessness and hopelessness is considered on the example of a single human destiny.
Idea
The main idea that Blok puts into his creation is also ambiguous. Each symbol carries more than one meaning.
The main idea is understanding the path of the Motherland. The lyrical hero is not indifferent to what is happening. He is trying to urge people to be sensitive and careful. If we consider the fate of the heroine as a symbol of the fate of Russia, then we can say that the central idea of this poem is to listen to an already dying country. This is a kind of premonition of the upcoming events of that era. What will be said in the article "Intelligentsia and Revolution" eight years later is already reflected in this work.
It is important that the lyrical hero is also among those who swept past, and only the contemplation of death excites his whole being. In fact, all these artistic details (“decorative gait”, “gentle blush, cooler curl”, etc.) are recreated only in his imagination. Seeing the outcome of this sad story, he seems to scroll back to realize the mistake, to feel all the pain experienced by the main character.
Means of artistic expression
The means of artistic expression found in this poem are also multifaceted. Here are the epithets “smooth gaze”, “greedy eyes”, etc., and the comparison “as if alive”, and the antithesis “Yellow and blue were silent; / Wept and sang in green”.
Blok also uses the sound-writing "The carriages walked in the usual line, trembled and creaked" in order to more accurately convey the station atmosphere.
The anaphora in the sixth quatrain “I glided over her with a gentle smile, / Slipped - and the train rushed off into the distance ...” is necessary here for expressiveness and emphasizing the transience of what is happening. In the penultimate quatrain there is a rhetorical exclamation: “Yes, my heart has been taken out for a long time!”, which conveys the emotional intensity of the poem. In the same quatrain, Blok again uses the anaphora: “So many bows are given, / So many greedy looks are thrown”, which, first of all, creates an forcing intonation.
Also, Blok often uses a dash in the middle of a line, thus creating a long caesura that focuses attention on what was said and becomes an impulse of internal tension: “I slipped and the train rushed off into the distance”, “You don’t care, but it’s enough for her”, “... Or wheels / It is crushed - everything hurts.
Interesting? Save it on your wall!The poem "On the Railroad" was included in the cycle "Motherland". The work reveals the tragedy of fate and the suicide of a young woman. The action takes place on a small deaf station, the author does not indicate the name of the county or province.
To understand the fate of the heroine, it is enough to know that this is the wilderness. This fact allows you to feel more deeply the loneliness and joylessness of a young woman who dreamed of happiness. Trains, probably, stop very rarely, "pass by the usual line." The reader understands that the platform is deserted, by the fact that only one of them and the gendarme standing next to him are visible from the windows. From the poem it becomes clear that she went out onto the platform more than once, caught a lot of glances of people looking out of the windows, but only once noticed the smile of a hussar leaning on red velvet
Many people passing by saw the woman, but few paid attention to the lonely standing figure on the platform. These imaginary meetings occupied a huge place in the life of a single woman. The words about passing youth with its empty dreams make you think about the speed and irrevocableness of time, about unfulfilled hopes. Dreams of finding their happiness stumbled upon the indifference and coldness of those around them. Millions of empty eyes from the carriages looked at her, many bows were given, but all to no avail.
The author asks not to ask her about anything. But questions arise by themselves. The reader will find the answers after a careful reading of the poem, when there is a clear idea of the reason for the suicide. We are talking about a woman meeting not a specific person from the train, but about the expectation of wonderful changes for the better. Constant arrivals at the station and unjustified hopes give the reader the opportunity to feel the hopelessness of the position of the young heroine.
Constantly passing trains symbolize life passing by. Longing road torn her heart. The inability to change anything, and prompted a beautiful woman to commit suicide.
"On the railroad" Alexander Blok
Maria Pavlovna Ivanova
Under the embankment, in the unmowed ditch,
Lies and looks, as if alive,
In a colored scarf, thrown on braids,
Beautiful and young.It happened that she walked with a dignified gait
To the noise and whistle behind the nearby forest.
Bypassing the whole long platform,
Waited, worried, under a canopy.Three bright eyes oncoming -
Delicate blush, cooler curl:
Perhaps one of the travelers
Take a closer look out the windows...The carriages were moving along the usual line,
They trembled and creaked;
Silent yellow and blue;
In green wept and sang.Get up sleepy behind the glass
And cast an even glance
Platform, garden with faded bushes,
Her, the gendarme next to her ...Only once a hussar, with a careless hand
Leaning on scarlet velvet,
Slipped over her with a gentle smile,
Slipped - and the train rushed off into the distance.So rushed useless youth,
In empty dreams, exhausted ...
Longing road, iron
Whistle, breaking the heart ...Yes, the heart has been taken out for a long time!
So many bows have been given
So many greedy glances thrown
Into the deserted eyes of the wagons...Don't approach her with questions
You don't care, but it's enough for her:
Love, dirt or wheels
She's crushed - everything hurts.
Analysis of Blok's poem "On the Railroad"
Alexander Blok's poem "On the Railway", written in 1910, is part of the Odina cycle and is one of the illustrations of pre-revolutionary Russia. The plot, according to the author himself, is inspired by the works of Leo Tolstoy. In particular, "Anna Karenina" and "Sunday", the main characters of which die, unable to survive their own shame and having lost faith in love.
The picture, which Alexander Blok masterfully recreated in his work, is majestic and sad. On the railway embankment lies a young beautiful woman, “as if alive”, but from the first lines it is clear that she died. And, not by chance, but threw herself under the wheels of a passing train. What made her commit this terrible and senseless act? Alexander Blok does not give an answer to this question, believing that if no one needed his heroine during her lifetime, then after her death, it makes no sense to look for motivation for suicide. The author only states a fait accompli and talks about the fate of the one who died in the prime of life.
Who she was is difficult to understand. Whether a noble noblewoman, or a commoner. Perhaps she belonged to a fairly large caste of ladies of easy virtue. However, the fact that a beautiful and young woman regularly came to the railway and followed the train with her eyes, looking for a familiar face in respectable cars, says a lot. It is likely that, like Tolstoy's Katenka Maslova, she was seduced by a man who subsequently left her and left. But the heroine of the poem “on the railroad” until the last moment believed in a miracle and hoped that her lover would return and take her away with him.
But the miracle did not happen, and soon the figure of a young woman, constantly meeting trains on a railway platform, became an integral part of the dull provincial landscape. Travelers in soft carriages, carrying them to a much more attractive life, coldly and indifferently glided over the mysterious stranger with their eyes, and she aroused absolutely no interest in them, just like the gardens, forests and meadows flying past the window, as well as the imposing figure of a policeman. who was on duty at the station.
One can only guess how many hours, secretly full of hope and excitement, the heroine of the poem spent on the railway. However, no one cared about her at all. Thousands of people carried multi-colored wagons into the distance, and only once did the gallant hussar give the beauty a “tender smile”, meaning nothing and as ephemeral as a woman’s dreams. It should be borne in mind that the collective image of the heroine of Alexander Blok's poem "On the Railroad" is quite typical for the beginning of the 20th century. Cardinal changes in society gave women freedom, but not all of them were able to properly dispose of this priceless gift. Among the representatives of the weaker sex who could not overcome public contempt and were forced to be doomed to a life full of dirt, pain and suffering, the heroine of this poem certainly belongs. Realizing the hopelessness of the situation, the woman decides to commit suicide, hoping in such a simple way to immediately get rid of all the problems. However, according to the poet, it is not so important who or what killed a young woman in her prime - a train, unhappy love, or prejudice. The only important thing is that she is dead, and this death is one of thousands of victims for the sake of public opinion, which puts a woman on a much lower level than a man, and does not forgive her even the most insignificant mistakes, forcing her to atone for them with her own life.
It is not easy to read the verse “On the Railroad” by Alexander Alexandrovich Blok and teach it. This is due to the fact that the symbolist poet leads the reader away from the main storyline, giving the poem a special semantic load. The text of Blok's poem "On the Railroad" is full of drama, melancholy, and special internal tension. The work was written in 1910 and is dedicated to the death of a young woman under the wheels of a train. It seems to continue the “railway-tram” line begun by other Russian writers and poets: L. Tolstoy in “Anna Karenina” and “Sunday”, A. Akhmatova in the poem “Rails”, N. Gumilyov in the poem “The Lost Tram”.
Blok draws his lyrical heroine as a “young”, “beautiful”, strong woman, capable of subtly feeling and experiencing. Her life flows smoothly, she is invisible to others, but she wants something different, she wants to be noticed, so that they don’t “glide with even looks” on her, don’t equal her with the gendarme standing next to her or growing bushes. At literature lessons in the 11th grade, teachers explain that the railway in this poem is a symbol of contemporary life for the poet, where a meaningless cycle of events takes place, where everyone is indifferent to each other, where everyone is impersonal, where there is nothing but “longing for the road, iron.” Life in such a world, where entire classes are fenced off from each other by the iron walls of wagons, is unbearable. In such a world, a person can only be a victim, and if happiness is impossible, if life flows meaninglessly, if no one notices you, all that remains is to die. After reading the poem completely, you begin to understand what the poet is talking about. He calls to pay attention to a person during his lifetime, and not to show idle curiosity towards him after his death. That is why the poet does not reveal the reasons for the death of the heroine and does not explain what prompted her to take this step, because everyone does not care, but "it is enough for her."
Block's poem "On the Railroad" is presented on our website. You can get acquainted with it online, or you can download it for a literature lesson.
Maria Pavlovna Ivanova
Under the embankment, in the unmowed ditch,
Lies and looks, as if alive,
In a colored scarf, thrown on braids,
Beautiful and young.
It happened that she walked with a dignified gait
To the noise and whistle behind the nearby forest.
Bypassing the whole long platform,
Waited, worried, under a canopy.
Three bright eyes oncoming -
Delicate blush, cooler curl:
Perhaps one of the travelers
Take a closer look out the windows...
The carriages were moving along the usual line,
They trembled and creaked;
Silent yellow and blue;
In green wept and sang.
Get up sleepy behind the glass
And cast an even glance
Platform, garden with faded bushes,
Her, the gendarme next to her ...
Only once a hussar, with a careless hand
Leaning on scarlet velvet,
Slipped over her with a gentle smile,
Slipped - and the train rushed off into the distance.
So rushed useless youth,
In empty dreams, exhausted ...
Longing road, iron
Whistle, breaking the heart ...
Yes, the heart has been taken out for a long time!
So many bows have been given
So many greedy glances thrown
Into the deserted eyes of the wagons...
Don't approach her with questions
You don't care, but it's enough for her:
Love, dirt or wheels
She is crushed - everything hurts.
