The plot of O.E. Mandelstam's poem "For the explosive prowess of the coming centuries ...", written in the thirties of the twentieth century, has an autobiographical basis. Like many other figures of culture and art, the author of these lines fell into the millstones of Stalin's repressions.
Hardly experiencing the suffocating social atmosphere of that time, O.E. Mandelstam showed an example of civic courage, continuing to write what he could not remain silent about.
The personality of the lyrical hero in this work is unique. The main thing for her is to maintain self-respect, not to become like, contrary to the laws of the cruel era, the animal essence of wolves.
In the first stanza, O.E. Mandelstam emphasizes the high price that was paid in Stalin's time for the right to remain true to one's life position:
I lost the cup at the feast of the fathers,
And fun, and his honor.
The last loss, placed at the end of the enumeration series, turns out to be for O.E. Mandelstam, undoubtedly, the most important, irreplaceable. Only the man himself, falling into the category of the so-called "enemies of the people", understood that he was not to blame for anything, hoped that the authorities would figure it out and let him go. Many of his acquaintances sincerely believed in the validity of false, sometimes absurd accusations, turned away. This for the prisoners of the Stalinist camps was, perhaps, one of the most difficult spiritual tests.
Thoughts about personal fate in the soul of a lyrical hero are inextricably linked with reflections on the historical content of the era as a whole. The poet N. Glazkov wrote:
The twentieth century is an extraordinary century:
Than a century is better for a historian,
So much sadder for a contemporary.
The same thought is also heard by O. Mandelstam, but it is expressed in a more figurative form:
The age-wolfhound throws itself on my shoulders.
The lyrical hero complains that he "lost even the cup at the feast of the fathers." This image of the chalice of the fathers in the poem is extremely interesting. The bowl, as you know, at a feast in ancient times was passed in a circle. She served as a symbol of life and fertility.
In the modern era of O. Mandelstam, the continuity of generations was broken. The best that had been accumulated for centuries and passed on by inheritance were destroyed. It was a harsh time of the collapse of ideals, a reassessment of values. Based on this, it becomes clear why the lyrical hero dreams of "a hot fur coat of the Siberian steppes. He is not afraid of the harsh climate of Siberia. He is a simple, peaceful person who needs, above all, peace of mind:
So as not to see a coward or a flimsy filth,
No bloody blood in the wheel
So that blue foxes shine all night
Me in my primeval beauty.
The region "where the Yenisei flows" is idealized, drawn in the brightest and purest colors. O.E. Mandelstam emphasizes that this beauty is primitive, that is, given to man as a kind of immaculate value. It is concrete and visible, in contrast to the very abstract image of the "explosive prowess of the coming centuries", which may not come, and if it does, then in the life of other generations.
The image of the "age-wolfhound" looks voluminous and memorable in the poem. The bloody beginning of the twentieth century all over the world, and especially in Russia, outraged the minds of humanist writers. The best years of a whole generation were poisoned by the ruthless slaughter of the civil war. Social strife hardened people. Many have experienced a reassessment of values. Established landmarks have shifted for centuries. In the thirties, civil confrontation took on other, more sophisticated forms, but its essence continued to be preserved: repressions, denunciations, persecution of the intelligentsia of noble origin.
O.E. Mandelstam's poem "For the explosive prowess of the coming centuries ..." is an indictment for many of the poet's contemporaries. He accuses some of the cruelty of tyranny, others of cowardice. Moreover, both of these roles seem unsightly to O.E. Mandelstam, unworthy of a real person, therefore the Siberian exile is perceived as the only possible and even to some extent happy way out for a person who wants to maintain spiritual purity, his own dignity, and finally, the integrity of his personality and permanence of ideals.
In his work, Mandelstam relies on the rich traditions of world culture, including in his works the ideas and images of artists from different eras and different peoples, events of centuries-old history and imperishable art. This was a common feature of Silver Age poetry. But Mandelstam in his approach to the cultural and historical heritage differs from many of his contemporaries. In Mandelstam's cultural and historical realities are very close to the present, they are included in today's life.
One of his favorite topics is political. Since the time of the revolution, when Mandelstam was already an established poet, he was worried about what was happening around him. The poet is ready to voluntarily join the efforts of those who are trying to move humanity in a new, unknown direction: "Well, let's try a huge, clumsy, creaky turn of the steering wheel ..." But he knows that the "twilight of freedom" has come and "we will remember and in the cold of Lethe, that the earth cost us ten heavens!” In this ode - a clear readiness to accept the revolution, with full consciousness of the size of the payment.
Mandelstam did not want and could not be a passive, impersonal victim, the "unknown soldier" of the wheel of history - and entered into an unprecedented duel with his time. Mandelstam's poetry in the early 1930s becomes the poetry of challenge. This is how the work "For the thundering valor of the coming centuries ..." (1931-35) appeared.
The poem was written in a multi-footed anapaest, this was supposed to make the tone and rhythm of the poem soft and smooth. But the cross-male rhyme, as well as the absence of pyrrhias, gives the whole work a hard, steady rhythm that corresponds to the ideological content.
The poet writes about the fate of a noble person, about the fact that he is surrounded only by "cowards", "flimsy dirty". It is enough to remember at what time the poem was written, and everything will become clear. This is a time of radical purges among the Russian people, a time of collectivization, a time when a person had to meekly obey the party, otherwise - a "black funnel". Everything happened under the slogan “Everything for communism!”, but under this slogan not only bright ideas were hidden, but also dirt, meanness, cruelty and stupidity. The poet writes in the first quatrain:
For the explosive valor of the coming centuries,
For the high tribe of people
I lost the cup at the feast of the fathers,
And fun, and his honor.
Yes, that time deprived of honor, because in order to survive, it was necessary to “sincerely” support politics, otherwise, again, it was a “black funnel”. The choice was between life and honor. The poet expresses the cruelty of this choice in the epithet "age-wolfhound":
A wolfhound age throws itself on my shoulders,
But I am not a wolf by blood.
The poet does not want to make a choice, because he understands how stupid and ridiculous it is. Vileness cannot be sustained with one's life. Therefore, the lyrical hero decides to leave this society. He agrees to the link:
Stuff me better, like a hat, in a sleeve
Hot fur coat of the Siberian steppes.
The nature of the Russian land, far from civilization, and most importantly - far from the directives of the party, seems to the poet a paradise.
To describe the happiness of freedom and the real horror that surrounds the lyrical hero, the author uses the technique of antithesis. In the third quatrain, the first two lines describe the surrounding reality, the second - an unattainable paradise, the nature of Siberia:
So as not to see a coward or a flimsy filth,
No bloody blood in the wheel
So that blue foxes shine all night
To me in my primeval beauty...
The antithesis is also reinforced by the color opposition: red (“bloody blood”) and blue (“blue foxes”). Siberia is generally described by the poet in an associative blue scale: "Yenisei", "to the star" (sky):
Take me to the night where the Yenisei flows
And the pine reaches the star...
The last two lines of the poem are, as it were, the quintessence of the entire work. In them, the lyrical hero not only once again emphasizes his non-belonging to the “wolves” (in prison jargon, this means “traitors”), but also indicates that his “killers” cannot reach him. That is, do not break the spirit of the hero, do not force him to become a "wolf", do not force him to betray:
Because I am not a wolf by my blood,
And only an equal will kill me.
At the time of the October Revolution, Osip Mandelstam was already a fully accomplished poet, a highly regarded master. His relations with the Soviet authorities were contradictory. He liked the idea of creating a new state. He expected the rebirth of society, human nature. If you carefully read the memoirs of Mandelstam's wife, you can understand that the poet was personally acquainted with many statesmen - Bukharin, Yezhov, Dzerzhinsky. Stalin's resolution on the criminal case of Osip Emilievich is also noteworthy: "Isolate, but preserve." Nevertheless, some poems are imbued with rejection of the methods of the Bolsheviks, hatred for them. Recall at least "We live, not feeling the country under us ..." (1933). Because of this open ridicule of the "father of the people" and his close associates, the poet was first arrested and then sent into exile.
(1931-35) - a poem, to some extent close in meaning to the above. The key motive is the tragic fate of the poet living in a terrible era. Mandelstam calls it the "age-wolfhound." A similar naming is found earlier in the poem "Century" (1922): "My century, my beast ...". The lyrical hero of the poem "For the explosive valor of the coming centuries ..." opposes himself to the surrounding reality. He does not want to see her terrible manifestations: "cowards", "flimsy dirt", "bloody bones in the wheel." A possible way out is an escape from reality. For the lyrical hero, salvation lies in Siberian nature, so a request arises: "Take me into the night where the Yenisei flows."
Twice in the poem an important thought is repeated: "... I am not a wolf by my blood." This distancing is fundamental for Mandelstam. The years when the poem was written are an extremely difficult time for Soviet residents. The party demanded complete submission. Some people were given a choice: either life or honor. Someone became a wolf, a traitor, someone refused to cooperate with the system. The lyrical hero clearly refers to the second category of people.
There is another important motive - the connection of times. The metaphor comes from Hamlet. In Shakespeare's tragedy there are lines about a torn chain of times (in alternative translations - a dislocated or loosened eyelid, a torn connecting thread of days). Mandelstam believes that the events of 1917 destroyed Russia's connection with the past. In the already mentioned poem "The Century", the lyrical hero is ready to sacrifice himself in order to restore broken bonds. In the work "For the thundering valor of the coming centuries ...", one can see the intention to accept suffering for the sake of the "high tribe of people" who are destined to live in the future.
The confrontation between the poet and the authorities, as often happens, ended in the victory of the latter. In 1938, Mandelstam was again arrested. Osip Emilievich was sent by stage to the Far East, while the sentence was not too cruel for those times - five years in a concentration camp for counter-revolutionary activities. On December 27, he died of typhus while in the transit camp of Vladperpunkt (the territory of modern Vladivostok). The poet was not buried until spring, like other deceased prisoners. Then he was buried in a mass grave, the location of which remains unknown to this day.
Osip Mandelstam
For the explosive valor of the coming centuries,
For the high tribe of people, -
I lost the cup at the feast of the fathers,
And fun, and his honor.
A wolfhound age throws itself on my shoulders,
But I am not a wolf by my blood:
Stuff me better, like a hat, in a sleeve
Hot fur coat of the Siberian steppes...
So as not to see a coward or a flimsy filth,
No bloody bones in the wheel;
So that blue foxes shine all night
Me in my primeval beauty.
Take me to the night where the Yenisei flows
And the pine reaches the star,
Because I'm not a wolf by my blood
And only an equal will kill me.
The poem “For the explosive valor of the coming centuries. was written in 1931. The theme is the tragic fate of a poet living in the era of the “wolfhound age”. Consider the central images of the work. "Fathers" Mandelstam called the predecessor poets, and he felt himself an invited guest at their feast. But from Russian poetry, the poet was isolated ("I lost my cup at the feast of the fathers"). There was an opportunity to join another brotherhood: all of humanity. To do this, it was necessary to believe in the future of this brotherhood and not notice the present: “not to see either a coward or a sticky
Dirt, no bloody bones in the wheel. But for this you need to become a "beast", and the lyrical hero "is not a beast by his blood." He does not accept friendship with the century wolfhound:
Stuff me better, like a hat, in a sleeve
Hot fur coat of the Siberian steppes.
He prefers Siberia to such friendship:
Take me to the night where the Yenisei flows And the pine reaches the star,
Because I am not a wolf by my blood And only an equal will kill me.
Thus, the lyrical hero openly proclaimed his readiness to accept the martyr's crown "for the explosive valor of the coming centuries, for the high tribe of people."
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O. E. Mandelstam’s poem “For the explosive valor of the coming centuries” is an autobiographical work of the poet, in which his experiences were expressed. It was written in the 30s of the XX century. You are offered a brief analysis of "For the explosive valor of the coming centuries" according to the plan. This analysis can be used when studying a poem in a literature lesson in grade 11.
Brief analysis
History of creation- the poem was written in the 30s of the twentieth century, the period of Stalin's rule, a severe economic crisis and the beginning of repression.
Subject- a poem about the plight of the poet, who is ready to exchange everything for the expanses of a distant land, just not to observe the events taking place around him.
Composition- ring, the poem consists of an introduction and three quatrains, which, as it were, close, beginning and ending with the same lines.
Genre- lyrical.
Poetic size- the poem consists of four stanzas (quatrains), written in anapaest, the rhyme is exact, masculine, the rhyme is cross.
Metaphors- "For the explosive valor of the coming centuries", "... the age-wolfhound throws itself on the shoulders", "blue foxes shone all night".
Metonymy-"Hot fur coat of the Siberian steppes".
Hyperbola – "And the pine reaches the star".
History of creation
The years of Osip Mandelstam's life fell on difficult, critical times for Russia. He witnessed the death of the Russian Empire and the birth of a new Soviet state. With these changes, like many other poets and writers, he could not come to terms. Stalinist repressions, strict censorship - all this fettered, did not allow to express themselves. During this period, in the 30s of the twentieth century, Mandelstam wrote a poem "For the thundering valor of the coming centuries", in which his desire to free himself is manifested. The new time for him is the “wolfhound age”, and the poet sees salvation from him in distant Siberia, “where the Yenisei flows and the pine reaches the star”.
Subject
The theme of the poem is closely related to the history of its writing. The poet is intolerable to the policy of the state, to which he is objectionable. The government seeks to stifle manifestations of liberties, freedom of speech. The atmosphere of denunciations that reigned then in society, the harsh reprisals against those who are not afraid to speak the truth - all this Mandelstam is going through hard. Maybe someday a bright future really awaits people, for which he “lost both the cup at the feast of the fathers, and fun, and his honor”, but now he dreams of finding himself far away, “So as not to see either a coward, or a flimsy dirty woman, or bloody blood in the wheel".
Composition
The poem can be roughly divided into two parts. The first indicates the reason explaining the experiences of the lyrical hero. He lost what is valuable to him: "I lost both the cup at the feast of the fathers, and the fun, and my honor." The second part is three quatrains closed in a ring. The poet begins and ends these lines, calling the coming age “wolfhound”, and saying: “... I am not a wolf by my blood”, as if once again emphasizing that he does not belong to the time in which he lives, does not want to come to terms with new values.
Genre
The poem belongs to the lyric genre. It consists of four quatrains using three-syllable stops with the stress on the third syllable (anapaest). The author uses rhyme: exact (dirty - arctic foxes, wheel - beauty), masculine - in all the last words of the lines, the stress falls on the last syllable (of centuries, people, fathers, own). The cross rhyming ABAB is used.
means of expression
Mandelstam uses a lot metaphors: “For the explosive prowess of the coming centuries”, “... the age-wolfhound throws itself on the shoulders”, “blue foxes shone all night”.
In addition, expressive means such as: metonymy("Hot fur coat of the Siberian steppes"), hyperbola("And the pine reaches the star").
Poem Test
Analysis Rating
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