In the poem “There is a melodiousness in the waves of the sea...” (1865), the inquisitive thought and “murmur”, the protest of a person who is unable to come to terms with his fate as a mortal and an infinitely small part of the universe, are opposed to music spilled in nature and reflecting its harmony. The sound of this poem helps the poet communicate the amazing dynamics and expression of poetic fantasy, transform poetic sketches from nature into such “landscapes in verse”, where visual-concrete images are imbued with thought, feeling, mood, meditation: “There is melodiousness in the sea waves, / Harmony in spontaneous disputes, / And a slender Musikian rustle / Flows in unsteady reeds ”(“ Musician ”(obsolete) - musical).
The focus of the poem, its emotionally “shocking” part is the saying of the French philosopher B. Pascal. B. Pascal, like F. I. Tyutchev, reflected on the question of man's connection with nature and his separation, isolation from it. “Man is nothing but a reed, very weak by nature, but this reed thinks,” wrote B. Pascal, who emphasized that man is the most perfect natural phenomenon and considered the ability to think as a source of strength. F.I. Tyutchev, in this poem, conveyed the feeling of loneliness of a person, torn away by his knowing mind from nature, unable to penetrate into the harmony of its spontaneous processes, but also unable to come to terms with it. The theme of discord between man and nature sounded with particular force in this late poem: “An imperturbable order in everything, / Full consonance in nature, - / Only in our illusory freedom / We are aware of discord with it. / Where, how did the discord arise? / And why is it that in the common choir / The soul does not sing like the sea, / And the thinking reed murmurs?
According to F. I. Tyutchev, the personal “I” prevents a person from fully feeling himself a part of nature and joining his voice to her “common choir”. At the same time, it is no coincidence that it is precisely “spontaneous disputes” that always so excite the poetic imagination of F. I. Tyutchev, and it is no coincidence that in the memory of everyone who has ever opened a book of his poems, those poems in which the poet turned to the image of storms and thunderstorms. And the best epigraph to these verses could be the words from the analyzed poem: "Harmony in spontaneous disputes." Thunderstorms and storms pass, and nature shines even brighter with all its colors, it sounds even more distinctly with all its voices.
There is melodiousness in the waves of the sea,
Harmony in natural disputes,
And a slender Musiki rustle
It flows in unsteady reeds.
An imperturbable system in everything,
Consonance is complete in nature, -
Only in our ghostly freedom
We are aware of our discord.
Where, how did the discord arise?
And why in the general choir
The soul does not sing like the sea,
And the thinking reed grumbles?
The poem is compositionally divided into two parts, having the opposite mood and two main themes. The reflections of the lyrical hero are aimed at understanding the harmony that unites the elements. At the same time, special attention is paid to the description of the landscape and its subtleties. The hero enjoys what he sees. The measured rumble of the waves, the rustle of the reeds evoke a sense of peace in the hero. Even the author perceives the element only as an opportunity to restore the disturbed balance in the forces of nature.
Further reflections of the lyrical hero lead to human relations. And so the author develops the idea that people live apart, exist separately from nature. And this independence, which a person perceives as freedom, opposes him to the world around him. The author asks a philosophical question, why can't people exist in the same harmonious way as the natural elements? His soul, which should sound in tune with the universe, but torn apart by internal contradictions, is aware of the need to exist in harmony with nature.
In the fourth stanza, which is not published in popular publications, the lyrical hero turns to biblical wisdom, calls the cry of the soul "the voice of one crying in the wilderness." Neither the earth nor the sky give an answer to the question, since it lies in the depths of the very human essence. Nature cannot give a sense of harmony, it only sets an example for people. Therefore, Tyutchev depicts a man in the form of a reed that grows on the very edge of the sea, tries to grumble, but dies without unity with nature, having lost its nourishing power.
Artistic techniques used by the author
Based on the fact that the poem “There is melodiousness in the waves of the sea ...” contains philosophical reflections, it is classified as a lyrical work filled with deep sadness, characteristic of Tyutchev's work. The variety of artistic techniques used by the author in the first part of the work, separated from the second by means of syntax, helps to colorfully describe the harmonious state of nature. The use of metaphors, a technique used by Tyutchev constantly, enlivens the sea waves, reeds and gives the reader a finished picture with the living beauty of nature.
An important role in creating an elevated atmosphere that encourages the reader to philosophy is played by the use of borrowed elements belonging to the Holy Scriptures, quotes from the great French philosopher Blaise Pascal and the ancient Roman poet. At the same time, the phrase of Ausonius acts as an epigraph that complements the main theme of the poem. Quotations, organically inscribed in the text without an explicit indication of the source, with the help of associations and appeal to the deep human memory of an educated person, provide the reader with expanding the boundaries of understanding the main idea. A small four-foot poem cannot contain answers to the questions of the universe, therefore Tyutchev, using artistic techniques, allows the reader to seek an answer in philosophical reflections.
History of writing
Due to circumstances, Fedor Ivanovich was forced to live in St. Petersburg for a long time of his life. The noisy, dirty city and its special climate oppressed the writer. In addition, this had a negative effect on Tyutchev's health. So he took long walks in the suburbs. The splendor of nature, its severity and inexplicable beauty prompted the author to philosophical reflections. In total, the writer spent thirty years in St. Petersburg. Of these, the first ten - only visits. However, these short trips to the northern capital made it possible to find solace in the nearby sea, forests and fields.
Where the inhabitants saw only a formidable element, Fedor Ivanovich found harmony and unity. Most of the inhabitants of the coast of the Baltic Sea perceived the boundless raging expanses solely as a means of subsistence, a source of food and profit. For Tyutchev, the sea was a source of inspiration.
The poem "There is melodiousness in the waves of the sea ..." was written during one of the walks along the coast. His sadness and drama are based on the personal experiences of the author. It was on May 11, 1865, that nine days passed from the date of the death of his children. Due to a serious illness, a one-year-old son and daughter from a beloved woman died, which the writer was very worried about.
Originally, the poem written on the road had no title. His first publication in the journal "Russian Messenger", in the same year, 1865, was entitled "Imitation" by the editor V. Bryusov. An interesting feature of this publication is that the poem had all four stanzas. In subsequent editions, the author reduced it to three quatrains. The last stanza, as a rule, was printed in the notes or in the "options" section. Numerous autographs belonging to Tyutchev's pen offer a different number of stanzas. The last collection of essays, released during the life of Fyodor Ivanovich, also contained an abridged version of the poem.
Contemporaries attribute such changes to the feedback received from Ivan Sergeevich Aksakov, who, in letters to the author's daughter, Anna Fedorovna, spoke of the poem as beautiful and full of meaning, but the publicist was embarrassed by the last stanza in which he found foreign words.
Philosophy in the work of Tyutchev
The first is dated back to the 20s of the XIX century, the works written during this period are superficial, but they have hidden philosophical overtones, they combine such concepts as love and nature;
The second period lasted throughout the 30-40s, disturbing notes sound in the works of the great poet, philosophical thoughts are becoming deeper, the most popular topic is the travel and travel of a literary hero;
The third, last, period is colored with notes of deep despair and hopelessness.
Although the philosophical direction is the main theme of almost all of Tyutchev's works, this cannot be considered his characteristic distinguishing feature. Rather, this direction is a fashionable trend, reflected in the literature of that time.
Life in Germany, where Fedor Ivanovich held a diplomatic post, allowed him to conduct a comparative analysis of backward Russia and the reformist progressive ideas that were actively cultivated in Europe. The return home showed that the principles of the new civilization are reflected in the minds of compatriots. This frightened and saddened the poet. In his works, he foresees political, social and personal crises that may arise on the basis of future changes.
Tyutchev devotes a special role in his work to reflections on the role of the Slavs in the fate of the whole world. It is here that you can see the first ideas that the unification of the Slavic peoples, with their primordial faith and customs, will help form a strong and influential state. However, Tyutchev saw Byzantium as the center of this new Orthodox state, and Sophia as its shrine.
Another theme of the writer's philosophical reflections is the fragility of human life, the illusiveness of being and the opposition of natural harmony to the inner contention of man. At the same time, the poet presents life as something fleeting, leaving, after which only a faint trace, sadness and memories remain. Loneliness is the basic state inherent in every person. The desire to touch the universe, to find the values of the surrounding world for oneself are the main goal of life. But the main problem is that its activity is useless. Man in Tyutchev's work is only a contemplator of nature. At the same time, the infinite beauty and power of nature and the transience of human life are the basis for reflections on the meaning and inner harmony.
***
Blaise Pascal: "Man is but a reed, the weakest in nature, but he is a thinking reed..."
Fedor Ivanovich Tyutchev
There is melodiousness in the waves of the sea
Est in arundineis modulatio musica ripis.
There is melodiousness in the waves of the sea,
Harmony in natural disputes,
And a slender Musiki rustle
It flows in unsteady reeds.
An imperturbable system in everything,
Consonance is complete in nature, -
We are aware of our discord.
Where, how did the discord arise?
And why in the general choir
The soul does not sing like the sea,
And the thinking reed grumbles?
And from the earth to the extreme stars
Everything is still unanswered
Voice in the wilderness,
Souls of desperate protest?
* There is a musical harmony in the coastal reeds (lat.). A line from a poem by a Roman poet of the 4th c. BC e. Ausonia.
V. Ya. Bryusov (1911) about Tyutchev's poetic activity:
“Tyutchev's poetry belongs to the most significant, most remarkable creations of the Russian spirit.
The starting point of Tyutchev's worldview, it seems to us, can be found in his significant poems written "On the Road to Vshchizh":
Nature does not know about the past,
Our ghostly years are alien to her.
And in front of her we are vaguely aware
Ourselves - only a dream of nature.
All your children in turn
Performing their feat useless,
She welcomes her
An all-consuming and peaceful abyss.
Only nature as a whole has true being. Man is only a "dream of nature". His life, his activity is only a "useless feat." Here is the philosophy of Tyutchev, his innermost worldview. Almost all of his poetry is explained by this broad pantheism.
It is quite understandable that such a worldview leads first of all to a reverent admiration for the life of nature.
It has a soul, it has freedom,
It has love, it has a language! -
Tyutchev says about nature. Tyutchev seeks to capture, understand and explain this soul of nature, this language and this freedom in all its manifestations.
Everything in nature is alive for Tyutchev, everything speaks to him “in a language understandable to the heart”, and he pities those in whose presence the forests are silent, before whom the night is mute, with whom the storm does not confer in friendly conversation ...
Tyutchev's poems about nature are almost always a passionate declaration of love. Tyutchev seems to be the highest bliss available to man - to admire the diverse manifestations of the life of nature.
On the contrary, in human life everything seems to Tyutchev as insignificance, impotence, slavery. For him, a person in front of nature is "a homeless orphan", "weak" and "naked". Only with a bitter mockery does Tyutchev call a man "the king of the earth" ("The kite has risen from the clearing"). Rather, he is inclined to see in man an accidental product of nature, no different from beings who are not gifted with consciousness. “Thinking reed” - this is how Tyutchev defines a person in one poem. In another, as if developing this thought, he asks: “Why is a person indignant, this earthly cereal?” About nature, in its whole, Tyutchev says definitely: “there is freedom in it”, in human life he sees only “illusory freedom”. In the spring, in the mountain peaks, in the rays of the stars, Tyutchev saw deities, on the contrary, he says about a man:
... not given insignificant dust
Breathe divine fire.
But man is not only an insignificant drop in the ocean of the life of nature, he is also a disharmonious beginning in it. A person strives to affirm his isolation, his separation from the general world life, and this brings discord into it. Having spoken about the melodiousness that "is in the waves of the sea", about the "slender rustle of music" flowing in the reeds, about the "full consonance" in all nature, Tyutchev continues:
Only in our ghostly freedom
We are aware of the discord with her ...
In another, no less characteristic poem, Tyutchev depicts the old "Italian Villa", abandoned many centuries ago and completely merged with the life of nature. It seems to him “a blissful shadow, an Elysian shadow” ... But as soon as a person entered it again, when “everything was confused”, a “convulsive trembling” ran through the cypress trees, the fountain fell silent, a certain indistinct babble was heard ... Tyutchev explains it is that -
evil life, with its rebellious fervor,
Crossed the cherished threshold.
In order to conquer the “evil life” in oneself, in order not to introduce “discord” into the world of nature, one must merge with it, dissolve in it. Tyutchev definitely speaks of this in his doxology to spring:
The game and the sacrifice of private life,
Come - reject the deceit of feelings,
And rush, cheerful, autocratic,
Into this life-giving ocean!...
And the life of the divine world
Although for a moment be involved.
In another poem (“When we called something ours”), he speaks of the last consolation - to disappear into the great “everything” of the world, just as individual rivers disappear into the sea. And Tyutchev himself either exclaims, turning to the twilight: “Let me taste destruction, mix with the dormant world!” not to be!..."
Tyutchev asked himself:
Where, how did the discord arise?
And why in the general choir
The soul does not sing like the sea,
And the thinking reed grumbles!
He could have given an answer to his own question: because a person does not seek to merge with nature, does not want to “reject the deception of the senses”, that is, the belief in the isolation of his personality. Anticipating the teaching of Indian wisdom, which was still not widely spread in Europe in those years, Tyutchev recognized true being only in the world soul and denied it in individual "I". He believed that individual being is a ghost, a delusion from which death frees us, returning us to the great "everything". One poem quite definitely speaks of this ("Look, as in the open space of the river"),
in which the life of people is compared with river ice floes carried away by the stream "into the all-encompassing sea." They are all there, big and small, "having lost their former image", merge "with the fatal abyss". Tyutchev himself explains his allegory:
Oh, seduction of our thoughts,
You, the human "I":
Isn't that your meaning?
Isn't that your destiny!
True immortality belongs only to nature, in its whole, to that nature, to which "our ghostly years are alien." When “the composition of the parts of the earth is destroyed”, everything visible will be covered with waters,
And God's face will be depicted in them.
It is remarkable that in the pantheistic deification of nature, Tyutchev the poet, as it were, loses that faith in his personal Deity, which he passionately defended as a thinker. So, on a clear day during the burial rite, the sermon of a learned, high-ranking pastor about the blood of Christ already seems to Tyutchev only “smart, decent speech”, and he contrasts it with “an incorruptible clear sky” and “vociferous birds in the abyss of air” birds. At another moment, in the “lazy-breathing noon”, Tyutchev is also affected by the very name of the deity that his poetry really serves - the name of the “great Pan”, dozing in the cave of nymphs ... And who knows if it belongs to the circle of these thoughts a strange exclamation that escaped Tyutchev at some difficult moment:
Take heart, heart, to the end:
And there is no Creator in the creation,
And there is no point in praying!
Love for Tyutchev is not a bright, saving feeling, not “the union of the soul with the soul of the native”, as “the legend says”, but “the fatal duel”, in which -
We are the most likely to destroy
What is dear to our heart.
Love for Tyutchev is always a passion, since it is passion that brings us closer to chaos. Tyutchev prefers the “gloomy, dull fire of desire” to the “fiery-wonderful game”; in him he finds "a stronger charm." He puts the temptation of secret, forbidden love above “innocent”, and justifies his choice by the fact that grape berries full, as if with blood, with their juice, are more beautiful than pure, fragrant roses ... Tyutchev calls passion itself “violent blindness” and how would identify it with the night. Just as a person goes blind in the darkness of night, so does he go blind in the darkness of passion, because here and there he enters the realm of chaos.
But at the same time, death for Tyutchev, although he was inclined to see in it a complete and hopeless disappearance, was full of secret temptation. In the wonderful poem "Gemini", he puts death and love on the same level, saying that both of them "bewitch the hearts with their insoluble mystery."
And in the world there is no more beautiful couple,
And there is no worse charm
Her betraying heart.
Perhaps this temptation to death forced Tyutchev to find beauty in every dying. He saw "mysterious beauty" in the lordship of autumn evenings, he liked the damage: "damage", "exhaustion", "the meek smile of withering." "How fading cute!" he once exclaimed. But he spoke directly about the beauty of death. In the poem "Mal'aria", lovingly depicting "high cloudless firmament", "warm wind swaying the tops of the trees", "smell of roses", he adds:
...and it's all death!
And then he exclaims enthusiastically:
I love this God's wrath, I love this invisibly
In everything spilled, mysterious evil ....
Together with death, Tyutchev was attracted by everything fatal, everything that promised death. With tenderness he speaks of "a heart that yearns for storms." With the same tenderness, he portrays the soul, which, "with a fatal consciousness of its rights," itself goes towards death ("There are two forces, two fatal forces"). In history, he is attracted by "fateful minutes" ("Cicero"). In the depths of the most tender feeling, he sees a destructive fatal force. The love of the poet must destroy the "maiden" who trusted him ("Do not believe, do not believe the poet, virgin"); the bird must die at the hands of the girl who nursed it “from the first feathers” (“Not without reason by the merciful God”), and the poet adds:
The day will come, the day is immutable,
Your pet is careless
Dies under your feet.
And almost in the tone of a hymn, so unusual for him, Tyutchev glorifies the hopeless struggle with Rock of a man condemned in advance to defeat:
Take courage, oh friends, fight diligently,
Although the battle is not equal, the struggle is hopeless!
Let the Olympians with an envious eye
They look at the struggle of adamant hearts!
In this constant attraction to chaos, fatal to man, Tyutchev felt his soul "a dwelling in two worlds." She always sought to cross the threshold of the "second" being. And Tyutchev could not help but ask himself the question whether it is possible to cross this threshold, whether it is possible for a person to "merge with the boundless."
Tyutchev had two lyres, however, wonderfully coordinated with each other. The first one was devoted to poetry, glorifying the “brilliance of manifestations” of the daytime world, pacifying, explicit poetry. This is what Tyutchev said about her:
She flies from heaven to us,
Heavenly - to earthly sons,
With azure clarity in your eyes,
And on the stormy sea
Pours conciliatory oil.
The other was devoted to chaos and sought to repeat "terrible songs" that explode "sometimes violent sounds" in the heart. This poetry wanted to talk about the fateful, about the secret, and in order to wake up, it needed “that hour of visions and miracles”, when the soul loses memory of its daytime existence. Tyutchev says about the hour of such inspirations:
Then the night thickens like chaos on the waters,
Unconsciousness, like Atlas, crushes the land,
Only the Muses a virgin soul,
In prophetic dreams, the gods disturb ... "
"There is melodiousness in the waves of the sea..." Fedor Tyutchev
Est in arundineis modulatio musica ripis*
There is melodiousness in the waves of the sea,
Harmony in natural disputes,
And a slender Musiki rustle
It flows in unsteady reeds.An imperturbable system in everything,
Consonance is complete in nature, -
Only in our ghostly freedom
We are aware of our discord.Where, how did the discord arise?
And why in the general choir
The soul does not sing like the sea,
And the thinking reed grumbles?* There is a musical harmony
in coastal reeds (lat.) -
Analysis of Tyutchev's poem "There is melodiousness in the waves of the sea ..."
Fate decreed that the poet and politician Fyodor Tyutchev spent a significant part of his life in St. Petersburg. It was here that the last years of his life passed, when, after receiving the title of Privy Councilor, Tyutchev was forced to constantly be at the imperial court. The harsh climate of the northern Russian capital weighed heavily on the poet, who by that time was already experiencing serious health problems. Nevertheless, Tyutchev could not help but admire the strict beauty of nature, its grandeur and severity, trying to understand why people cannot live according to its laws. The poet was especially attracted by the harsh Baltic Sea, to which in 1865 he dedicated his poem "There is melodiousness in the sea waves ...".
The indigenous inhabitants of St. Petersburg have always considered the deep sea a source of numerous troubles and, at the same time, treated it with respect, since it was the sea that gave them food and livelihood. To consider it from a romantic point of view, few came to mind. However Tyutchev managed to discover features in the water element that turned out to be consonant with his own worldview. So, in the waves, the poet saw a special melodiousness and harmony, which are characteristic of nature, but remain outside the field of rhenium of most people. Asking why only a few are able not only to understand the beauty of the world around us, but also to follow its simple laws, Tyutchev comes to the conclusion that we ourselves are to blame for this. “Only in our illusory freedom do we recognize discord with her,” the poet notes, believing that only strong spiritual confusion makes a person turn to his sources, seeking protection from nature. Only then does a person realize that “the soul does not sing like the sea” and, therefore, becomes insensitive, hardened and indifferent to that priceless gift that is called the Universe.
Loss of connection with the outside world, which one day suddenly becomes alien and frightening, is, according to Tyutchev, the most terrible test for any of us. After all, at this moment a person loses a particle of his soul and ceases to live according to the laws of nature. As a result, the "desperate protest soul" turns into a "voice crying in the wilderness", to which it is impossible to get a response. Simple questions remain unanswered and life turns into a series of random circumstances in which it is impossible to trace a pattern just because the very laws of nature become alien to man and are rejected as something empty and without value.
