V. Ya. Bryusov wrote the poem "Creativity" in 1885. The writer himself was delighted with this work. You can read a brief analysis of "Creativity" according to the plan. It can be used when studying a work in a literature lesson in grades 9–11.
Full text of the poem "Creativity" by Bryusov
Shadow of Uncreated Creatures
Swaying in a dream
Like blades of patching
On the enamel wall.
purple hands
On the enamel wall
Sleepily draw sounds
In resounding silence.
And transparent stalls
In the resounding silence
Grow like glitter
Under the azure moon.
The naked moon rises
Under the azure moon...
The sound hovers half asleep,
Sounds caress me.
Secrets of the created creatures
caress me with affection,
And the shadow of patching trembles
On the enamel wall.
Analysis of the poem "Creativity" by Bryusov
Option 1
The poems of Valery Yakovlevich Bryusov are largely filled with symbolism and imagery. They are not always clear to the reader from the first time, they need to delve into, re-read several times in order to fully understand and absorb their multifaceted meanings. He addressed the topic of creativity when he wrote the poem “”. For an unprepared reader, his work "Creativity" may seem like the delirium of an insane person.
"Creativity" was written in March 1985. It was included in the first collection of poems "Masterpieces". In this poem, the poet reflects the very process of creating something new, a creative process that is not entirely clear to the layman. It is this incomprehensibility, figurativeness that evokes a feeling of madness on the reader.
There is neither a clear lyrical hero nor logically connected phenomena in the poem. Everything represented - images, symbols, process. To some extent, creativity is opposed to logic, it is ephemeral, illogical, broken. The creative path is shrouded in mystery, darkness, blurry non-existent creatures and shadows. This secret is revealed only when the process is completed, when the creator achieves what he wants and reveals his work to the world.
Emphasizes the unusual and even some mysticism and composition of the poem: each last line in the quatrain is repeated in the second line of the next. This creates a certain cyclical, closed nature of creation. The images in the work are created with the help of a peculiar vocabulary - “purple hands on the enamel wall”, “patching blades”, “vociferous silence”.
Bryusov uses such techniques, uncharacteristic for literature, as color painting and sound painting. Violet and azure shades permeate the entire text, and the enamel wall creates a sense of white, although it is not its color that is meant at all, but its texture. Alliteration creates the musicality of the work, despite the absence of any dynamics. Together, the poet represents a strange, fantastic world of the creative process, filled with color, sound and, oddly enough, sonorous silence.
The work is written in four-foot trochee, the foot is two-syllable with stress on the 1st syllable, the rhyme is crossed, with alternation of male and female. As literary devices, epithets (“purple hands”, “on the enamel wall”), metaphors (“ringing silence”, “naked moon”), personifications (“kiosks grow”, “sounds are flattering”, “a shadow trembles” are used as literary devices. ).
Creativity is illusory and infinite, it cannot be fully comprehended. The illusory image will melt, crumble in a bright light under the gaze of a critic, not allowing itself to be seen by an outside eye, for such is its fragile nature.
Option 2
Valery Bryusov was an outstanding person. He was a representative of symbolism and developed this trend according to the postulates of Rimbaud, Verlaine, Malarmet. Bryusov could devote a whole poem to pale legs. But usually strong and also outstanding people became the heroes of the poet's works. Bryusov was influenced by philosophy, and this is noticeable.
In the poem "Creativity", however, there is no specific hero. The narration is conducted on behalf of a certain observer, detached from what is happening. He looks and describes. And he does it with bizarre language, strange images, which, however, form a clear and distinct picture.
"Creativity" is hard to describe, just as hard to describe the creative process. The poem affects the sight more than the ear. “The shadow of uncreated creatures sways in a dream” - how can this be translated into familiar language? And yet, the image is quite understandable. It can be called a quirk of the imagination of someone who is passionate about the creative process.
This man draws sounds with purple hands on the enamel wall. Here you cannot identify the image with the creation of a picture with your fingers, because few people create pictures on the walls. Rather, the hero simply runs his hands along the wall. Why are they purple? Because the action takes place at night. Look at your hands at night. What color are they?
And the silence is resounding. Action takes place in it. Why does silence sound? Because the imagination, memory works. The absence of sounds from outside is compensated by the presence of sounds inside. Consciousness reproduces its sound pictures, and they can also be called the shadow of uncreated creatures. This is what silence sounds like.
Transparent stalls miraculously grow from under the hands, the azure moon. How is this possible? Here, apparently, the process of pure creativity, divine creativity, is described by a misunderstanding of the nature of man. He just runs his hands along the wall, and a whole world is created. Maybe he's just dreaming. A dream where a person creates a new reality. The language of the poem does not refute this interpretation.
And what was the shadow of uncreated creatures became the secrets of created creatures. Creativity has been accomplished, and it is sweet to the creator. The incomprehensible process of creativity can still be expressed in words, which Bryusov proved in his work.
Option 3
A brief analysis of the verse "Creativity" by V. Ya. Bryusov
Option 1
V. Ya. Bryusov wrote his poem on March 1, 1895. This poem was included in his first collection of lyrics.
Reading the poem “Creativity”, you involuntarily think: “Who could write these lines? A madman who belongs only in a psychiatric hospital.” So did many contemporaries of the author of these lines. Indeed, everything in the poem is unusual, does not fit into the framework of consciousness. “Purple hands” that “draw sounds”, “naked moon”, “sounds are cuddling”… Nonsense, absurd!
But if you look at the paintings of Marc Chagall, the cubic faces of Picasso, we will see that the art of that time itself was absurd, but not without meaning. All this is explained by the fact that the era of the turn of the century required new forms in art.
It must also be remembered that one hundred Bryusov is the “father of Russian symbolism”. It is he who owns the words that "symbolism is the poetry of allusions."
In the poem "Creativity" Bryusov describes the state in which the creator is in the moment of inspiration. The author speaks of two worlds: the real and the other world, where there is already everything that he will create. And if at the beginning of the poem it is said about the shadow of “uncreated creatures”, then at the end it is about already embodied creations (“secrets of created creatures”), but nevertheless full of secrets. Creativity continues, it is impossible to comprehend it, it is fragile, airy.
Bryusov combines visual and sound images in the poem: “transparent kiosks”, “sonorous silence”, “under the azure moon”. The composition of the poem is very interesting, it is saturated with sound repetitions. The last line of the first stanza is repeated as the second line of the next stanza, and the last stanza takes us back to the first.
Option 2
Being a supporter of symbolism in literature, V.Ya. Bryusov in the poem "Creativity" presented a peculiar vision of the creative process. The embodiment of the idea occurs with the help of blurry images that are not entirely clear to the reader at first glance. They are devoid of dynamics (“a shadow trembles”, “a shadow sways”, “hands draw sleepily”).
The author, as if from the outside, observes the uniformity in the execution of the plan. The path of creation is long. The beginning of the poem represents the poet's thoughts in anticipation of the birth of a new, long-awaited work as a result of long thoughts and dreams.
By creating unusual forms (“the moon is naked”, “sounds are caressing”, “purple hands”), the creator makes it clear that he is a poet of his time - a time when symbols rule. The use of a peculiar vocabulary (moon, night, silence, mystery) occurred at the moment of the poet's inspiration, which does not leave him throughout the entire work. Only in the last stanza, feeling the denouement, does he talk with satisfaction about the secrets of "created creatures." This path is shrouded in mystery. This is due to the fact that the creative process is individual. Everyone who has a talent also has the right to freedom of expression, conceals a mystery in his soul. The secret is revealed only when the poet achieves what he wants.
The composition of the poem is unusual. The last line in each of the five quatrains takes the place of the second line of the following stanza. Such repetition puts emphasis on phrases that the author distinguishes from the rest. Everything that at the beginning was a shadow, ghostly, by the end of the poem approaches the moment of truth, thoughts take shape, become reality.
The images in the poem are not expressive. In their image there is no clarity of boundaries, semantic load. This leads to the idea that the process that results in a creative masterpiece also looks ridiculous at the beginning of the journey. At first, only outlines of future works (“patching blades”, “transparent stalls”) are visible, which should subsequently result in “creation”.
Among the artistic means, a special place is occupied by alliteration, saturated with the sounds (p), (s), (h). They convey an unusual atmosphere, bewitching musicality.
Reading the text, there is no doubt that the poet describes the state at the moment of the rise of strength, emotions, at the moment of inspiration. The means used, which have expressiveness, include personifications (“kiosks grow”, “sounds fawn”, “shadow trembles”), epithets (sonorous silence, naked moon). They emphasize the confusion of consciousness at the beginning of the creation of the work.
The direction followed by V.Ya. Bryusov, gives the reader the opportunity to think, offers freedom to the imagination.
Option 3
Valery Bryusov's poem "Creativity" was written on March 1, 1985. This work can be attributed to the early period of the poet's work.
At first glance, "Creativity" is a rather complex and incomprehensible work. Reading his lines, it is not clear what exactly the author wanted to say, to whom it was addressed. The turns and expressions used in the poem (“purple hands”, “enamel walls”, “naked moon”) make you wonder if the author was conscious when he wrote his work? Many of Bryusov's contemporaries did not understand the meaning of this creative work. But now we can analyze and perhaps understand why the author created such a strange poem.
If you turn to history and look at what art was like at the turn of the century, it becomes clear that Bryusov's poem "Creativity" is not so strange. If we recall the creations of Chagall and Picasso, then art at the turn of the century will not seem so absurd and meaningless. At that time, something new, unknown, and therefore not understood was necessary.
Do not forget the fact that Bryusov was the founder of Russian symbolism. He once said that symbolism is the poetry of allusions.
With his poem "Creativity" Valery Bryusov tried to convey to us the state of the author at the time of work on the future work. Reading a poem, we seem to go from the beginning (“the shadow of uncreated creatures”) to the final stage (“the secrets of created creatures”) of work on a work of art. But the journey doesn't end there. Valery Bryusov believes that art cannot be fully comprehended, it has no boundaries and limits.
The poem "Creativity" - analysis according to the plan
Option 1
A work called "Creativity" was written by Bryusov on March 1, 1895. This creation was included in the very first collection of his lyrical works.
Only after reading the first lines of the poem, one can ask a completely logical question, which, no doubt, will arise for everyone, but who could write them? Maybe this is just a madman who has no place in the ordinary normal world, who has a place in a psychiatric hospital?
It was this idea that visited the heads of most of the author's contemporaries, who lived at the same time as he did. There is nothing surprising in this, since everything, literally everything that was written in a poem, is hardly possible to calmly fit into the framework of ordinary human consciousness. What can you think, at least after reading such epithets as “purple hands”, “naked month” and many others. What is absurdity or nonsense?
However, not everything is so simple, because if you look at the works of art by Marc Chagall, at the faces of Picasso made in cubism, you can find that a characteristic feature of the art of that time is a kind of absurdity, which, however, is not without meaning. This situation can be easily explained by the fact that art, which was then at the turn of the century, needed new forms. Bryusov is the father of national symbolism. It was he who considered symbolism the poetry of allusions.
In his work, Bryusov described exactly the state in which the poet is, creating his masterpiece. Bryusov shows two worlds, the first of which is quite real, and the second is the world in which everything that he will soon create is located. And if at the beginning of the poem it will be told about the “uncreated creatures”, then at the end it talks about those creations that have already come to life, however, despite this, they have unspoken secrets.
The poet managed in his work to very accurately combine sound as well as visual images, such as, for example, “transparent kiosks”, “azure moon” or “vociferous silence”. The compositional construction of the poem, which is replete with all sorts of sound repetitions, can be called very interesting.
In this verse, the last line of the first stanza acts as the second line of the next stanza, and the last stanza again takes the reader back to the first.
Option 2
This poem was written March 1, 1895. The work, almost from beginning to end, is permeated with quivering expectation. From the first to the last stanza, the author reveals to us the secrets of the process of creating a work of art. The poem consists of three parts. The first stanza is an introduction, in which the creator captures something invisible to mere mortals. He is taken up by a flood of inspiration, and from the second to the fourth stanza we delve into one of the most wonderful deeds in the world - the creation of something sublime. The artist, inspired by the impulse of the heart, is able to see the sound:
Sleepily draw sounds
In the resounding silence
But, oddly enough, we do not see the creator himself, he serves as a guide. Everything is created by nature, the surrounding world. The task of the creator is to convey this mood, the state of the world. But his role is one of the most important. Only thanks to his hands everything around acquires a different color, is born again in a new guise:
And transparent stalls
In resounding silence
Grow like glitter
Under the azure moon.
The last stanza shows us that only the artist himself can fully reveal his creation, only he is able to understand all the secrets of his works. Everyone around can only admire what they have done with awe, often not even having the ability to penetrate at least superficially.
Secrets of the created creatures
caress me with affection,
And the shadow of patching trembles
On the enamel wall.
In the first stanza, as keywords, we can designate “uncreated creatures”, “in a dream”, “patching blades”, “on an enamel wall”. In the second one, these images are embodied: “hands”, “drowsyly drawing sounds”. In the third: "And transparent stalls", "Grow like sparkles." In the fourth, the whole stanza without the third line can be taken as a basis.
In Bryusov's "Creativity" we see how the lyrical hero narrates from the first to the third stanza, speaking in the third person. This can be explained by the fact that the artist in the process of creation cannot objectively describe or evaluate his actions. He created this small world with echoes of the soul of the creator himself.
The position of the author here is divided into two parts, each of which is original, separate. The observer admires the artist, but does not fully understand him. The artist initially experiences a slight dissatisfaction with the world around him, which he remakes in his work. Then he experiences delight and pride in his creation.
According to the poetic size - this is a trochee. The rhyme is mostly exact, cross masculine and feminine. Many repetitions help to focus on the idea of the poem, which is that the creative process itself is amazing, delights and delights not so much the reader, listener, but the author himself, the creator.
Read the 1894 poem by Fyodor Sologub, which has no title. It is indicated by the first line - "Restless rain ...".
"Relentless rain
It beats noisily on the glass,
Like a sleepless enemy
Howling, tears pouring.
Wind like a tramp
Moaning under the window
And rustling paper
under my pen.
Random as always
Here is this day
Somehow proma
And thrown into the shadows.
But no need for anger
Invest in the game
How the bones lay
So I take them."
The poem is written in three-foot trochaic. This meter has its own associative array in Russian poetry, like almost every classical meter. This connection is not structural, but historical. It just so happens that sometime (especially if we are talking about a rare size) poems appear that become an event in Russian poetry, and further poems written in the same size are somehow associatively connected with this first prototype.
In this case, the three-foot trochee evokes the famous poem by Lermontov (Fig. 2), which in turn is a translation of Goethe's poem. Lermontov calls this poem "From Goethe".
Rice. 2. M. Yu. Lermontov ()
In this poem, not only a three-foot trochee, but also a cross rhyme. That is, it is a fairly classic stanza. Therefore, Sologub's poem is associated primarily with the poem "From Goethe":
"Mountain peaks
Sleep in the darkness of the night;
quiet valleys
Full of fresh haze;
The road is not dusty
Sheets do not tremble ...
Wait a bit,
You will rest too."
For Goethe and Lermontov, it is primarily about reconciliation, about achieving peace, about understanding a person as part of a natural community. There is a natural-philosophical view of nature. But this peace, sought after and desired, which is promised in the last line, is bought at the price of death. Because the phrase sounds "rest and you...", which in this case means peace, which will come only after death.
The range of themes of this poem one way or another roams through very many poems written in this size. In the era of modernism, we see a constant return to this size. For example, Balmont writes:
"There is one bliss -
Dead peace…”
Again the theme of bliss, peace, but deathly peace is raised.
Or Bryusov, who argues with Balmont and writes:
"There is no peace of mind,
I looked into the eyes of the day ... "
But we see that this is a theme of anxiety, a silent and serene nature, partly indifferent even. The search for this peace, for which one must pay with death, will vary all the time in poems written in three-foot trochaic.
Consider how Sologub works with these themes and this size.
"Relentless rain
It beats noisily on the glass,
Like a sleepless enemy
Howling, tears pouring.
The rhythm shows the alternation of different rhythmic patterns. If the first and third line consists of long words that add a gap to the stress, and a melodic arc sounds, then the next line is full-stressed, as if it beats out the rhythm. This combination of melodic intonation and a harshly beating rhythm creates a ragged rhythm of the poem, a constant interruption of his reading, intonational anxiety.
Look at the grammatical forms of this passage. Pay attention to the large number of verb forms - verbs, gerunds. In fact, every second word contains the meaning of action, energy. We see a world filled with endless work, endless action. The reader sees the rain, which is restless, which beats noisily on the windows, never sleeps, howls, sheds tears. We see that the very circle of associations evoked by these words is anxiety growing into despair. The sounds are very strong and aggressive. A complete feeling that beyond the threshold of the house - the world is disharmonious, aggressive, filled with disturbing action.
"The wind is like a tramp,
Moaning under the window
And rustling paper
under my pen.
In these lines, the transition inside is very interesting - into the house, into the space of the author. We have seen in so many verses the opposition of the kingdoms of the elements, which are outside the house, and inside the house - a refuge, a kingdom of peace, a place where a lyrical hero can hide. In this poem, nothing of the kind happens, because we hear that the rain is beating restless, the wind is howling and shedding tears, like a tramp groaning under the window. Pay attention to what sound image is being created. And in the phrase "and the paper rustles under my pen" we hear an unpleasant rustling sound, also added by the union "and" to the previous picture of the world. There is no contradiction between the house and what surrounds it. The whole world of the lyrical hero is filled with grinding, unpleasant sounds, filled with disturbing, aggressive, almost feverish activity. This is a world of endless care and constant movement, the meaning of which we do not understand at all. It is not clear to the reader why the wind is howling, why the rain is pounding, and what this has to do with us.
In the third stanza, there is a transition from phonetic forms of onomatopoeia - consonant joints, which create a disharmonious sound in previous lines, to smoother, sonorous sounds. Pay attention to the verb forms. They become passive, passive:
"As always random
Here is this day
Somehow proma
And thrown into the shadows.
Something that is stronger than a poet, does something with his time. The day becomes a victim. Time becomes a victim of the impact of some kind of force, aggressive, terrible, incomprehensible, which acts on this time of the lyrical hero living this day. This is a very curious moment, because there is a contrast between a deaf aggressive external force, the meaning of which we do not know and do not understand, and the impossibility of resisting, the death of this human dimension, a human section of life.
Here one can already see echoes of Schopenhauer's philosophy (Fig. 3), of which Sologub was an admirer.
Rice. 3. Schopenhauer ()
Much of his poetry is explained by this philosophy. Even if you do not read Schopenhauer, it is clear that some kind of terrible force is stronger than the time in which the poet exists, and stronger than his life. His lived day is distorted, crumpled and cast into the shadows. It lives aimlessly, it has no meaning. This should lead to the next round - a feeling of despair that arises both in Schopenhauer and in all his followers, because we will always lose the battle with this world will, with this world force. The man is too weak. What we are in the flow is always stronger. It will crush us and throw us out. But here we see a completely different, unexpected development of the topic. Consider it:
"But no need for anger
Invest in the game
How the bones lay
So I take them."
This is where the image of the game comes in. The game of dice has traditionally been a symbol of chance, the game of fate, the unpredictability of human existence, independence from human efforts. This is a very popular image in the literature of romanticism, and in the literature of modernism. Man is a toy of fate. They play dice. Throw away his fate, which may lie anyway. And man can't do anything about it. Here the lyrical hero is absolutely consistently deprived of all the ways to somehow interact with the outside world, to influence his own destiny. And suddenly we see that there is no need to put anger into the game - “As the bones fall, so I take them.” The only way not to fall into despair is to accept the order of the world that exists. This world is sinister, grinding, aggressive. He tries to break into this life and reshape it, he tries to cut the ground from under his feet, throw away the day and knock out the bones to determine what the next day will be. But if we understand how this world works, if we feel and know that the world is irrational, indifferent to us and absolutely victorious in relation to us, then this knowledge already gives the very peace we are looking for.
The last stanza is dedicated to finding peace, which combines knowledge, wisdom and some courage to exist in such a world.
In poems there is such a feature - each next line adds meaning to the previous one. When we reach the end of a poem, we can go back to the beginning, because the whole point of the poem allows us to revisit the first lines. If we look at this poem first, we will see that, paradoxically, creativity ( "rustling paper under my pen") becomes part of this rebellious and troubled world. A person is not just an object of influence of these forces, he is also a participant, but only when he himself belongs to the elements. In this case, when he himself is the creator.
These are some of the associations that may arise when parsing this poem. You may have it will cause some other associations. The main thing is that you should know what to look for when parsing poems: meter, grammatical forms, rhymes, choice of words can play a big role in establishing understanding between you and the author of the poem.
The next poem we're going to look at is completely different. This is a poem by Konstantin Balmont (Fig. 4), who was also a senior symbolist, but in its style fundamentally opposed to the style of an existential poet, the singer of death, the singer of despair, the singer of a chaotic world.
Rice. 4. Konstantin Balmont ()
Balmont's world is absolutely harmonious, bright, beautiful, saturated with all colors. Balmont was very fond of poetry built on alliteration and assonance.
The poem we will discuss in this lesson is from the 1902 collection Let's Be Like the Sun.
In this poem, phonetics is built much more complicated. This is no longer a simple sound recording, not a simple imitation of some music. This is already an attempt to use sound as a source of meaning.
Read this poem:
Harmony of words
Were there thunders of melodious passions?
And the harmony of colorful words?
Why in the language of modern people
The sound of bones being thrown into the pit?
The imitation of words, like an echo of rumor,
Like the murmur of swamp grass?
Because when, young and proud,
Water sprang up between the rocks
She wasn't afraid to push forward.
If you stand before her, she will kill you.
And kill, and flood, and run transparently,
Only values his will.
This is how the ringing for future times is born,
For the pale tribes of today."
The very size of the poem, its stanza, the alternation of the lines of the four-foot and three-foot anapaest first of all refer us to the genre of ballads. This is how it was written in the 19th century. It was one of the most common ballad meters.
Ballad - This is a narrative poem, with a tragic, often criminal plot, in which we are talking about some death, death, or some other tragic incident. The ballad came from folklore and was introduced into world literature by romantics who studied folklore. The tense and dramatic structure of the ballad was immediately appreciated.
In addition, this poem has a very unusual rhyme: a continuous alternation of male rhymes, where the stress falls all the time at the end of the word. This results in a rhythmic beat. These rhymes are very aggressive towards the structure of the verse. This meter and rhyming system gives the reader some harshness, aggression, and some supposed criminal plot: whose murder happened? who will die in this poem?
Here the choice of subject is very curious, because the terrible event in this poem is not the death of a hero, not some kind of bloody crime, but the death of a language that occurs in modern times from the point of view of Balmont. The fading of the language, its strength, its colors.
It is clearly seen that the first stanza is the past, the second is the present. Look at how phonetics works, how images connect. First stanza:
"Why in the language of departed people
Were there thunders of melodious passions?
And hints of the ringing of all times and feasts,
And the harmony of colorful words?
If you look at the phonetic component of this stanza, you can see an incredible phonetic richness. It involves all sounds and all their combinations. This stanza both rings, and bubbling a little, and growls, and whistles. It is both melodic and difficult to pronounce. This is an opportunity to show all the phonetic material that is in the language.
“Why in the language of modern people
The sound of bones being thrown into the pit?
Instrumentation is felt for hissing, whistling, disharmonious sound. The whole bright phonetic palette of the previous stanza seems to narrow down to a certain rustle and “serpentine hiss”. The colors fade, the sound itself is unpleasant. And the articulation is also very complicated:
“The sound of bones being poured into the pit…”
Modern language is a grave for language.
Consider the line:
“The imitation of words, like an echo of rumor,
Like the murmur of swamp grass?
"Imitative Words"- this is a very curious term in the Balmont technique. We are not talking about borrowed words, although Balmont loved exotic words, and it seemed to him that every sound of a foreign word enriches the sound of Russian speech. An imitative word is a word that does not come from meaningful consumption, but is the result of mindless repetition. Hence the image "Echoes of Rumor". The echo itself is a mechanical, automatic repetition. And rumor is a thousand-mouthed repetition of this word. That is, it is a symbol of a mechanical language that has lost its meaning, which is only a formal, meaningless repetition.
The second meaning of the term imitative words lies in the fact that, from the point of view of Balmont, ordinary, everyday language and the language of realism, which tries to get closer to everyday language, interact very simply with the outside world. There is a certain object, and there is an exact word by which we call this object. In Balmont's mind, this word of ordinary language imitates an object; it does not add anything to this object. But what is art for? Only in order to name, or in order to see and describe what is in this object: essence, associative series, meaning, impression that it makes on a person?
The imitative word aims only to name, to identify the object among other equals. But that is not the purpose of art. This is a dead word for art. So this second stanza, filled with a snake's thorn, is dedicated to the death of modern language, because it has lost its creative beginning, it is not able to produce new meanings. We see that the modern generation, pale and weak, drinks water from a source that existed before, but there is no personal source from which they draw their inspiration.
The image of the source as a symbol of inspiration is very ancient; it dates back to the time of ancient mythology. We know that there was a source of Hippocrene, which killed the winged horse Pegasus (Fig. 5) from a hoof strike and flowed from Mount Helikon.
The well-known source is the Kastalskiy key, which flowed from Mount Parnassus. Both Helikon and Parnassus were the habitats of the Muses. This source of inspiration, fanned by ancient mythology, is very strong and powerful for Balmont. He does not just hit - he will kill a person who gets in his way. This is creativity that knows no barriers, that does not think about sacrificing life.
In the final stanzas, we see how Balmont creates an image of poetry, which is life, in contrast to the pale death of modernity, where only "the sound of bones poured into the pit". But this art is beautiful, it carries with it life and energy and at the same time is deadly.
In this lesson, we talked about two poems, carefully analyzing their structure, words, phonetics, stanza. In Balmont's poem, we even see an internal phonetic composition, because it begins with full-sounding phonetics, then there is a transition to hissing and phonetic poverty, and then, when the source theme appears, Balmont's favorite sound writing appears again - assonance, alliteration.
A poem is such a ball from which we can pull any thread and gradually unwind it. We can start with phonetics, we can start with strophics, we can start with the composition of words, but the main task is to be attentive, read and think about what semantic, emotional, pictorial associations arise in each word. Parsing a poem is slow reading. Try to learn how to read the verses of Russian symbolism in this way.
Valery Bryusov. "Creativity", 1895
Valery Bryusov's poem (Fig. 6) "Creativity" was published in the first collection "Russian Symbolists", which was supposed to demonstrate to the reading world that a new modernist trend had appeared in Russia.
Rice. 6. Valery Bryusov ()
This poem served as a kind of poetic manifesto.
Of course, it is far from a masterpiece. These are angular, tongue-tied, youthful poems. But the resonance of this poem was really very great. Only the lazy did not laugh at him, they parodied him. But at the same time, there is something very important in this poem, which tells us how poems are arranged in symbolism and in general in modernism. Despite the fact that the poem has become known, rather, as an object of parody, it is useful to read it. Because sometimes in such a distorted mirror you can see more than in a straight one.
Be careful while reading this poem. It has a very complex associative array.
Creation
"Shadow of Uncreated Creatures
Swaying in a dream
Like blades of patching
On the enamel wall.
purple hands
On the enamel wall
Sleepily draw sounds
In resounding silence.
And transparent stalls
In the resounding silence
Grow like glitter
Under the azure moon.
The naked moon rises
Under the azure moon...
The sound hovers half asleep,
Sounds caress me.
Secrets of the created creatures
caress me with affection,
And the shadow of patching trembles
On the enamel wall.
The size, rhyme and stanza of this poem do not go beyond the classical - it is a four-foot trochee with a cross rhyme (male and female). The main thing here is the connection of images, the transition from one image to another and the violation of all logic, common sense when linking these images. But this, as we know, was exactly what Bryusov was trying to achieve: an explosion of formal logic and common sense, an attempt to propose a different logic, a different type of linkage of images.
Let's try to understand how these words fit together.
"Shadow of Uncreated Creatures
Swaying in a dream ... "
It is very difficult to imagine something more ghostly, because here is a shadow, and it sways, and this happens in a dream, and the creatures have not yet been created. That is, this is the starting point, the beginning of the internal wave, which then pretends to be a work of art. And yet there is nothing. There is only a presentiment - a certain shadow in a dream. Before us is the illusory illusory.
Latania is an exotic palm tree (Fig. 7).
Passion for the exotic, which swept across Europe, including Russia, in the late XIX - early. XX centuries, when bored Europeans suddenly felt the need for new colors, new perfumes, fabrics, exotic flowers, palm trees, passionflowers and other various beautiful plants delivered from the subtropics come into fashion. This fashion literally overwhelmed houses in the late XIX - early. XX centuries We see in the poems of so many symbolists not only the image of these plants, because, of course, they sound on their own, their names are very exotic and suitable for poetry, they are very good with their unusual phonetics for modernist poems, but we also really we see in many memories.
The blades of patching, the leaves of this palm tree, which resemble hands, are reflected here on the enamel wall. We see a certain orchestration, alliteration on "l". We see something that is just being born, that is only swaying ( "shadow of uncreated creatures") that trembles on the wall. This whole circle of associations gradually begins to create meaning.
"Purple hands
On the enamel wall
Sleepily draw sounds
In resounding silence.
Why the hands are purple, you can guess if you remember what patching is. Its cut leaves, which resemble fingers, are purple because it is a shadow. There is also a predilection of symbolists for violet-lilac tones. Recall that the classical poet Golenishchev-Kutuzov counted all the poems in which he encountered the word "lilac" as symbolist.
Here the shadows begin to be perceived as hands, which, trembling, draw something on the wall. As if they are trying to convey some meaning to us. They draw not letters, but sounds. You must have seen the metaphor "deafening silence" the complete absence of sound, as a negative reception, as if the whole world has disappeared, and silence itself becomes sound, it itself begins to sound. "Sound-sounding silence" - silence that turns off all sounds, and some new sounds begin to be born in it, which we have not yet heard and which we only see so far. Seeing sound is not an impossible story for Bryusov.
"And transparent stalls,
In the resounding silence
Grow like glitter
Under the azure moon.
Meaning of the word "kiosk" very close to modern. This is a temporary building, a gazebo. And the intersection of these arms (patching blades) reminds us of something openwork, a kind of gazebo, a kind of house that suddenly lines up from the shadows on the wall.
Bryusov constantly repeats the same lines as a leitmotif, so that the rhythm of the poem is not lost, so that the feeling of music is maintained.
"The naked moon rises
Under the azure moon...
The sounds are half asleep
Sounds caress me."
Why does the moon rise under the moon, also naked, and also under the azure moon? We see how the second reality is being created, because creativity is the second reality. The sounds that begin to arise create a whole new world, and a new moon is born. Here we have a moon in the window (for some reason azure), and a new one is born. The moon is naked because it was just born. This is the second, still young, just born, defenseless reality. The sounds and images that have just appeared have been created by the poet, and they fawn over him.
In the finale, we see that those uncreated creatures that just started to whisper, started a wave inside the poetic consciousness, finally incarnate.
"Secrets of Created Creatures
caress me with affection,
And the shadow of patching trembles
On the enamel wall.
We see the birth process. And it doesn't matter what exactly is born: a line, a sound, a rhythm, an image. This is the moment of the birth of the second reality, in the creation of which it is not logic that is important, but the associative chain, the ability to listen, see and capture that second, parallel reality that this world presents to us. There is a doubling of the world due to creativity.
Khodasevich, who knew Bryusov and his house very well, left a kind of commentary on this poem:
“The house on Tsvetnoy Boulevard was old, awkward, with a mezzanine and outbuildings, with semi-dark rooms and creaking wooden stairs. There was a hall in it, the middle part of which was separated from the side ones by two arches. Semicircular ovens adjoined the arches. The tiles of the stoves reflected the paw-patterned shadows of patching and the blue of the windows. These patches, stoves and windows give a real interpretation of one of Bryusov's early poems, which at one time was proclaimed the height of nonsense.
Now it is clear what is "enamel wall" that is mentioned in the poem. It's just a tiled stove. It is clear what blue light is - the color of windows. And what are purple hands - a reflection of the shadow of patching.
But if we assume that we do not know any of this, it still does not change much in this poem. We see how something appeared, we see the transition from silence to sound, from a flat one-dimensional reality to a double one, which is both similar and not like the real one. What is this if not creativity? This early, youthful manifesto of Bryusov turns out to be absolutely not such a meaningless, endlessly parodied poem, which one can only laugh at. If you are careful, you can always see a certain meaning that is made up of the combination of images and its sound, even if it seems that this is absurd.
Fedor Sologub. "Nedotykomka gray ...": analysis of the poem
In 1899, Fyodor Sologub wrote the poem "Gray Nedotykomka". At this time, for five years he has been working on one of his most famous works - the novel "Small Demon". In this novel, we are talking about provincial life, about a certain gymnasium teacher, about some events that take place among the inhabitants of this provincial town. And suddenly, into such a measured, gray, dusty, dull life of the province, a small whirlwind, a creature, a half-hearted creature plunges. Sologub has a poem dedicated to the appearance of this strange creature, which will be discussed later.
Lump gray
"Nedotykomka gray
Everything around me twists and turns,
Is it not famously outlined with me
In a single deadly circle?
Lump gray
Tired of an insidious smile,
Tired of sitting down unsteady, -
Help me, mysterious friend!
Gray undercoat
Drive away with magic spells
Or some cherished word.
Gray undercoat
Let's try to find a mention of underdevelopment in dictionaries. This word is in Dahl's dictionary:
Nedotykomka - the same as a nerd - a touchy, overly scrupulous person who does not tolerate jokes in relation to himself.
But we see that in this poem and in the novel "The Little Demon" this is a completely different image. This is not about a person, but about a certain concentrated image of evil, but not majestic, demonic, romantic evil, but petty, everyday evil, which every person gets under his feet.
If we compare the appearance of the underdog in the novel and in the poem, the first thing that catches the eye is the change in color. In the novel, the nedotykomka shimmers with different colors all the time, all the time mimics the environment, it constantly flares up with fire, then turns green. She is like a guest from another world, which contains a ghostly light from another world. Sologub's poem contains a constant leitmotif epithet "grey".
Blok wrote about the underdevelopment:
“This is both a creature and - no, so to speak. Not two, not one and a half. If you like, this is the horror of worldly vulgarity and everyday life. If you like, it is threatening fear, despondency and powerlessness.
Consider what kind of appearance the underdog has in this particular poem. Gray is, on the one hand, the color that traditionally depicts certain phenomena associated with boredom, melancholy, dust. On the other hand, gray is the absence of color and light, it is a kind of mixture of black and white. This is the absence of colors that can somehow color the world around us, this is a minus color - a color that does not exist. If boredom has a color, this is it.
This poem has a very broken rhythm. This is an alternation of two-foot and three-foot anapaest. The first line seems to be highlighted intonationally. Then comes a kind of narrative, which is linked through rhymes through, and "Nedykomka gray" - it is each time a leitmotiv repetition of what is before our eyes. But in each stanza, some new feature is added to this image. Let's see which one.
At first, we only know about the nedotykomka that she is gray and that "it twists and turns" and reminds the hero famously, grief, misfortune, which outlines a certain circle around the lyrical hero, puts a certain border. The absence of something specific - this is the gray color. This is the current, sliding evil.
Variability and fluidity - these are the signs of vulgar everyday evil, for example, in Gogol. Everyday evil, compared to the romantic diabolical image, is much more imperceptible. This is a small domestic evil, issued to each individual person and accompanying him all his life. Here it is spinning and spinning underfoot.
“I was tired of an insidious smile,
Tired of sitting down unsteady.
Insidiousness and unsteadiness - this is the very combination that makes the underdog elusive. She is not something global that we can handle, that we can notice, but something that flows through our fingers, that spins around, that cannot be grasped.
Here another hero of this poem appears - a certain mysterious friend, to whom the hero turns for help. It is very important what kind of help he seeks:
"Nedykomku gray
Drive away with magic spells
Or backhand, or something, with blows,
Or some cherished word.
A mysterious friend is a kind of protector who can put up a barrier between this everyday, familiar, gray evil, which is evil because it makes the whole world unsteady and deprives it of colors. But this is also evil, which has its own strength, which simply cannot be dealt with, for which both magic spells and cherished words are needed.
In the final stanza, the underdog turns out to be much stronger than both the lyrical hero and the mysterious friend. She was given to the lyrical hero for life:
"Nedykomku gray
Even if you kill me, vicious,
So that she, at least in melancholy requiem
Didn't scold my ashes."
This evil is petty, small, but tenacious. This is all that Sologub and his attentive reader Blok associate precisely with everyday vulgarity, boredom and melancholy. These are the temptations, the everyday faces of evil, that we face every day and that we cannot get rid of. This is a very bright and complex image, partly associated, on the one hand, with the idea of folklore small devils that get confused under a person’s feet, and on the other hand, it has absorbed the absence of light, the color of certainty.
Bibliography
- Chalmaev V.A., Zinin S.A. Russian Literature of the 20th Century: Textbook for Grade 11: In 2 hours - 5th ed. - M .: OOO 2TID "Russian Word - RS", 2008.
- Agenosov V.V. . Russian literature of the twentieth century. Methodological guide - M. "Budt Bustard", 2002.
- Russian literature of the twentieth century. Textbook for applicants to universities - M .: uch.-nauch. Center "Moscow Lyceum", 1995.
- Learn by heart Valery Bryusov's poem "Creativity".
Girshman M.M..
The creative path of V. Bryusov began in a difficult time for Russian poetry, and in its formation it was closely connected with the development of Russian symbolism.
“The decadents are united not by style, but by the similarity and affinity of their worldview,” V. Bryusov wrote in 1907, looking back and comprehending the past. “That worldview that was dear to all the “decadents” has already been sufficiently clarified: this is extreme individualism.” However, for the decadent Bryusov, already from the first poetic experiences of character, not a fence off from the world, but, on the contrary, a stormy movement towards it.
Even in his reflections on decadence, Bryusov shows such energy and a vigorous thirst for activity that the very word, speaking of decline and decay, seems somehow decidedly out of place in his mouth. It is enough to listen to the tone of combat orders that he gives to the young poet: do not live in the present! don't feel sorry for anyone! worship art! And in this tone and in the echo of the battle following the given commands (“I will fall silently as a defeated fighter ...”), among other things, one can hear how life is at war with the proclaimed covenants.
“Everything on earth is transient, except for the creations of art,” Bryusov proclaimed in the preface to the first edition of his first collection of poetry, which bears an emphatically defiant title - “Masterpieces”. But the magical power of art receives from him a “this-worldly” interpretation in the cult of poetic mastery. One of the original versions of Sonnet to Form says:
So divinity is merged with the form,
So the appearance is clothed with a dream,
Thus the eternal spirit is seized by the power of the body.
Recognize it! Created an ideal
Keep it for life's work
And leave the gods their pedestal.
V. Bryusov himself and his contemporaries close to him subsequently repeatedly explained that “patching blades on an enamel wall”, and even “a naked moon under an azure moon”, and many other extravagant images of his early poets have a real, even everyday justification. But all the more important is the purposeful transformation of this life, when, for example, the quite ordinary white window sill of the poet's room becomes "gray". This is how a special and original “world of charms” arises in Bryusov’s poems, which is connected with reality and at the same time repels from it.
This relationship between dream and reality appears with the utmost clarity in the poems about nature in the second collection of the poet "Me eum esse":
I created in secret dreams
The world of ideal nature, -
What is this dust in front of him:
Steppes, and rocks, and waters!..
Let the unchanging ocean threaten
Let the ice ridges proudly sleep:
The day of the end for the universe will come,
And only the dream world is eternal...
Already in the early lyrics of Bryusov, the leading role of the intellectual principle was revealed. Subsequently, it not only became stronger, but also received quite peculiar forms of poetic expression. Bryusov's intellectualism does not at all mean the dominance in his lyrics of a single rationalistic concept of being. Attempts to find the "one truth", as well as the "one God", lead him to the skeptical:
Do you believe that you have become
over Jordan...
But everything will be just a shadow
just deceit.
And if so, then it is quite natural to try, so to speak, to quantitatively cover this “everything”, without finally surrendering to anything with the soul, for there are many truths:
My spirit was not exhausted in the mist of contradictions,
The mind has not weakened in fatal clutches.
I love all dreams, all speeches are dear to me,
And to all the gods I dedicate a verse.
This is, so to speak, a spatial image of the lyrical "I", combining all the contradictions. Translated into a temporal perspective, this image turns out to be a chain of continuous changes, a continuous change of accepted and rejected appearances:
Pretty, pretty! I'm leaving you! take both dreams and words!
I hurry to a new paradise, I run away, the dream is always alive!
I created and gave, and I raised the hammer to forge again first.
I am happy and strong, free and young, I create to throw again.
And such a "relentless striving from fate to a different fate" becomes the main lyrical leitmotif of Bryusov's poetry.
Dreams and “feelings of the world”, to which the poet addresses, can, in his opinion, be the subject of rational knowledge, and then extremely expressive figurative expression. This is how the favorite idea in Bryusov's intellectual lyrics is formed - passion. For its proclamation, a loud, exalting word is needed. And next to the ideal of the master becomes an orator - the herald of "general truths", elevated to the dignity of passion. Intellectualism, oratory, skill - these are the three "pillars" of the emerging poetic system of Bryusov.
His lyrical experiences, with their invariably inherent rationalism, tension and complete distinctness, tend to be cast into minted and frozen “instants”, in the sculptural depiction of which the dominant image of Bryusov’s thought-passion always shines through. Its usual signs are generalization and quantitative gigantism:
I've exhausted you to the core
earthly glory,
That night you experienced everything
happiness of audacity ...
In this regard, pictorial and expressive concretization recedes into the background: only the most general words are used - the names of landscape signs or the designations of feelings, thoughts, actions. Much more important is the lexical coloration that affirms greatness: Slavicisms, solemn paraphrases, oratory pathos of an oratorical monologue in the first person or address, the power of rhythmic beats rhythmically following each other, sound pressure.
V. Bryusov's experiments in the field of landscape poetry are unproductive: in them, in general terms, at best, book illustrations or allegorical pictures are created. The city is quite another matter. - This is a "receptacle of antitheses" with its huge, but at the same time clear and visible boundaries, "frozen bulks", "immovable buildings" and filling all this immobility with life, "where every moment is fatal."
Bryusov is rightly called one of the founders of Russian lyrical urbanism. But before us is not the city's singer, but rather its accuser. Analytical poetry gives him the opportunity to show, for example, in the poem "Closed", the deadly vulgarity of a measured and calculated bourgeois-urban life, the ephemeral nature of momentary exits into imaginary freedom, inextricably linked with vulgarity, "where there is a gambling house, and where there is a brothel!" And finally, the most important conclusion of this artistic analysis is the inevitability of the coming catastrophes:
But no! avoid painful
falls,
The ruin of all good things than we are now
proud!
There will come again delirium and blood and
battles,
The world will again be divided into enemies
two hordes.
The struggle, like an ardent whirlwind, will rush
across the universe
And in rage will sweep away like grass,
cities,
And the waves will howl over the deserted
Seine,
And the walls of the Tower will disappear without a trace.
The feeling of a “resurrection day” permeates the entire collection “Wreath”, and it sounds all the stronger because the horror of everyday vulgarity or exhausting labor is also expressed in individual verses of the collection (see, for example, “The Mason”). So naturally appear in the work of Bryusov, civil verses so important for Russian poetry, confirming that
The poet is always with people when a thunderstorm roars,
And the song with the storm is forever sisters.
Bryusov sees in the revolution the “general content” of life, so necessary and desired by him, consecrated by centuries of historical tradition:
This song is familiar to the soul,
I have listened to it for centuries.
This song is like thunder
Above the plain, in the clouds.
Harmodius sang it on his day,
Repeated the stern Brutus,
In every called people
The same sounds will come to life.
However, the problem also lies in making this common content one's own, which is possible only with organic closeness to that historical force that is called upon to transform the world. Without it, for the poet, the coming storm is both close, and at the same time extraneous with its historical and creative ideas, so that the most visible and tangible “burning” beginning opens up to the eye, reflected in the well-known poems “The Coming Huns”, “Close”, etc.
The oratorical, strong-willed melody gives these verses some kind of purely effective content, so that destruction here begins to resemble the poet’s usual readiness for the next revival. Another thing is that with all the energy of the lyrical experience, it sometimes seems to be raised to some kind of artificial cothury, a somewhat deliberate excitation is felt in it. It is in the immensity of calls for destruction, and in the same immeasurable rhetoric of “happy” pictures:
Freedom, brotherhood, equality, all that
What do we yearn for, almost without faith,
To which none of us will fall, -
Those will taste boldly, completely, beyond measure.
Revealed the secrets of the holy spring
They will be drunk in a sleepless thirst for knowledge,
And the beauty of the realized face
Satisfies their ultimate desires.
However, the pronounced desire to get closer to truly revolutionary ideals, to sing the fateful minutes of the world helps Bryusov eventually overcome this aesthetic "chill". “Every time he heard a call for revolution,” A.V. Lunacharsky, - his heart trembled, as if from contact with his native element.
The overthrow of the autocracy in February 1917 was hailed by V. Bryusov as a wonderful and unexpectedly quick fulfillment of an old dream. He writes to M. Gorky: “We all waited and believed, but believed that what we expected would come true “someday”, in years, and suddenly, almost on the same day, the dream became a simple truth. I foresee, of course, various dangers, but all the same, what is there is too good, almost scary. The familiar formula "thought - passion" is now acquiring in Bryusov's work the form of the trinity "thought - passion - revolution", which is perceived by the poet as an organic link in a single chain of world-historical events.
The October Revolution surpassed the most ardent dreams of the poet, although in many respects it diverged from them. And yet, Bryusov had every right to address those of his brethren who are now afraid of the death of all the centuries-old foundations, with the caustic but fair words of his invective:
What flickered in a distant dream,
Embodied in the smoke and in the rumble...
Why are you squinting with the wrong eye
Frightened roe deer in the forest!
Well, do not rush into the whirlwind of events -
To revel in the storm, menacingly strange?
And what do you look at the past with longing,
Like some promised land?
Or you, science fiction writers, or you,
aesthetes,
The dream was sweet how far?
And only in books yes in tune with
poet
Do you love originality?
“The coup of 1917 was a profound revolution for me personally,” writes V. Bryusov, “at least I myself see myself completely different before and after this edge.”
Bryusov is especially close to those creative ideas that "the most solemn hour of the earth" carried with it. After all, even on the eve of it, Bryusov praised the intense work that always stood next to his poetic dream:
The only happiness is work,
In the fields, at the machine, at the table, -
Work to a hot sweat
Work without extra bills, -
Hours of hard work!
In one of Bryusov's best poems - "The Third Autumn" - such a doxology of new life becomes all the more convincing and artistically reliable because it grows out of a description of very difficult post-revolutionary everyday life:
Howling wind of the third autumn,
Sweep the expanses of Russia,
Rough through the empty cages,
Get the poor on the way;
Catch trains on slopes
Where in the carriages people crowd
Cursing, writhing, moaning.
Trembling on sacks of grits.
But already in these painful pictures, not only despondency sounds, and it is no coincidence that all the stanzas are covered by the through image of the “wind”, and this is one of the most common symbols in the poetry of those years for expressing the revolutionary spirit of the era. And the syntactic structure of the oratorical monologue with appeals and imperatives repeated in each stanza, and the rhythmic energy of the dolnik - all this recreates such a lyrical experience, in which the main thing is volitional pressure and the energy of vital movement.
Keywords: Valery Bryusov, Russian symbolism, criticism of the work of Valery Bryusov, criticism of the poetry of Valery Bryusov, analysis of the poems of Valery Bryusov, download criticism, download analysis, free download, Russian literature of the 20th century
The poem by V. Ya. Bryusov is a reflection on the fate of the poet, on the purpose of poetic creativity. Bryusov sees the difficult difficult path of the poet. All his work is a kind of instruction, an appeal to those who consider themselves a real poet.
Poetry is above everything ordinary, everything perishable is “only a means for brightly melodious verses.”
Bryusov connects creative torments with the torments of hell:
Like Dante, the underground flame should burn your cheeks.
Like a sinner, a poet must pass through all nine circles of hell in order to achieve perfection. The path to the top is thorny, but the one who reaches it will be happy.
And remember: from the century of the thorns of the Poet, the cherished wreath.
The poet, according to Bryusov, is an outside observer who must “catch”, “search”, “fix his gaze”, but not influence events. Bryusov is absolutely sure of the artist’s destiny in his vocation, which is why the verse sounds so harsh - an instruction, a parting word to someone who firmly
Chose the path. The whole poem is built on imperative verbs (“should”, “be”, “seek”, “glorify”, “catch”, “remember”). The word “should” dominates rhythmically and sonically, overlapping all other words. Bryusov compares poetry with a sword. heavy and weighty weapons, calling from “carefree childhood to look for combinations of words”, that is, to embody one’s thought literally in everything.
Bryusov's road is a path that was not chosen by the poet himself, not by fate, but was prepared for him from above. it simply could not be otherwise. The path of the poet is the path to Calvary, this is a renunciation in favor of the highest - poetry:
May your virtue be
Ready to climb the fire.
Sacrifice, voluntary burning at the stake in the name of poetry have always been characteristic of Russian artists of the word. Creativity is self-valuable and self-sufficient, therefore the poet's life should belong to him completely, without a trace. And “minutes of loving embraces” and “an hour of merciless crucifixion” are all means for poetry.
To give the poem some monumentality, Bryusov uses a three-foot amphibrach. The poet tends to use solemn vocabulary, creating his own unique style.
Bryusov's poem reflects a kind of "ideal" of the poet, his view of what the creator should be like:
You must be proud as a banner;
You must be sharp as a sword...
Glossary:
- analysis of Bryusov's poem
- analysis of the poem Bryusov's creativity
- Analysis of Bryusov's poems
- Bryusov analysis of the poem
- Bryusov creativity analysis of the poem
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- The poem "Dagger", written by Valery Bryusov in 1903, is rightfully considered an image of Russian literary classicism. Despite the fact that the poet was directly related to symbolism and preferred to express his thoughts metaphorically, in this case he deviated from his own rules. This is explained by the fact that the poem "Dagger" is a kind of tribute to two great Russian poets - Alexander […]...
- Since his youth, carried away by French symbolism, Valery Bryusov was constantly looking not only for new forms of expression of his thoughts, but also for original themes for his works. The poet was alternately fond of love lyrics and social problems, touched upon issues of religion and politics. At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, Bryusov had another direction in his work, inspired by European romantics and associated with [...] ...
- In 1903, Bryusov published the fourth poetry collection, called "Urbi et Orbi" ("City and Peace"). In it, a huge place is devoted to the urban theme. Valery Yakovlevich draws pictures of life in a big city, paying attention to a variety of characters. In particular, the thoughts of a worker and a woman of easy virtue are revealed to readers. In this collection, the poet gets closer to the real […]...
- At the age of 25, Valery Bryusov could boast of rich life experience. By this time he was a last-year student at the Faculty of History and Philology of Moscow University, the author of four literary collections and closely connected his future life with literature. Friendly drinking parties, unsuccessful novels, dreams that with the help of poetry you can change the world - young Bryusov went through all this, [...] ...
- History of creation The poem “To the Young Poet” was written by Bryusov in 1896. The poet is only 23 years old, meanwhile, the poem is perceived as a testament, an instruction to the next generations. It is possible that Bryusov, who sincerely considered himself a genius, simply wrote his own program in the poem, symbolically referring to himself. The poem was published in Bryusov's second collection "Me eum esse", "This […]...
- The poem "In the Future" refers to the early work of Bryusov. The poet included it in his debut collection "Chefs d'oeuvre" ("Masterpieces"), created largely under the influence of Paul Verlaine and published in 1895. Criticism of the time in the evaluation of the book was restrained. Many of its representatives believed that the title did not match the content. Indeed, from the low self-esteem of the Bruces [...] ...
- Valery Yakovlevich Bryusov had a huge impact on the literary process of the first half of the 20th century. He reminded the poets that poetry is the most modern way to use the human word and that it is “sinful and shameful” to exchange it for trifles. Bryusov dreamed of returning the poets to the high position they had occupied in the ancient world. The program aesthetic manifesto of the beginning poet was the poem “Creativity”. […]...
- In his youth, Valery Bryusov experienced a stormy romance that ended very tragically. His beloved Elena Kraskova, with whom the poet hoped to be legally married, died of smallpox in 1893. However, fate decreed that after six months Bryusov began a love relationship with aspiring actress Natalia Daruzes, although he was burdened by this relationship, because he did not feel [...] ...
- Bryusov considered himself a true patriot of Russia, so he perceived the beginning of the First World War with enthusiasm. However, very soon it was replaced by depression, in the work of the poet, notes of decadence began to slip again, to which Bryusov was not indifferent in his youth. Therefore, it is not surprising that in 1914 the author published a rather pessimistic poem entitled “To the Dead World!” in which he expressed […]
- Valery Bryusov did not take revolutionary ideas seriously, although he understood that society needed change. However, the poet considered his path of development through wars and upheavals to be erroneous. The events of 1904-1905, when mass strikes swept across Russia, turning into a kind of dress rehearsal for the revolution of 1917, forced Bryusov to take a closer look at this social […]...
- Reading this poem aloud will help you tune in to the perception of Bryusov's contrasting style system to Balmont. This is not the lullingly chanting melody of Balmont's "Fantasy", but the energetic, clearly articulated tread of Bryusov's poem. Note that contemporaries noted the jerky, “barking” manner of Bryusov’s recitation of his poems. When reading Bryusov, you probably have new rhythmic associations: in contrast to Balmont's overflows and light streaming, here [...] ...
- At the beginning of the 20th century, Valery Bryusov discovered such a literary movement as symbolism, and was so delighted with it that, without hesitation, he joined a small group of writers who shared his views. It was in a symbolic vein that the poem “To the City” was written, which was published in 1907 and became a kind of anthem to Moscow. While many [...]
- History of creation Bryusov wrote the poem "Assargadon" in 1897. It was published in the collection "The Book of Reflections", published in 1899. This collection included poems by four authors. In 1900, the poem was published in Bryusov's collection "Tertia vigilia" in the cycle "Favorites of the Ages". Literary direction and genre The Symbolists, to which Bryusov belonged, belonged to history and [...] ...
- In the literary process, V. Ya. Bryusov is traditionally assigned the place of the master of symbolism, the leader of the decadents. Indeed, he devoted a lot of energy both to teaching young poets and to the very organization of poetic work. Appeal to elusive images, an attempt to break into the irrational were combined in Bryusov with the ability to “construct” poetry, to strictly follow poetic forms. The poet in his understanding had to be true [...] ...
- In 1900, the publishing house "Scorpion" released the third collection of Bryusov, called "Tertia Vigilia" (translated from Latin - "Third Guard"). Valery Yakovlevich dedicated the book to his colleague in the symbolist workshop - Balmont. An important place in it is occupied by poems on historical and mythological themes. They tell about Dante, Cleopatra, Cassandra, Orpheus, Alexander the Great and other significant personalities. […]...
- In 1909, Bryusov published the collection "All the tunes". The poet himself said that there is less novelty in it than in his other books, "but more art, perfection." In fact, a kind of summing up was presented to the attention of readers. Valery Nikolaevich demonstrated what a high level of skill he had achieved. Pay attention to the variety of genres embodied in the collection: messages and elegies, rondo [...] ...
- In 1912, Bryusov created the poem "Monument". The text immediately refers to two great works of the same name in Russian literature. From the twentieth century, the poet communicates with Derzhavin and Pushkin. In addition, Valery Yakovlevich looks back at the ancient Roman genius Horace, taking an epigraph from his XXX ode. In Russia, it is best known in the translation of Kapnist under the title “I erected a monument to myself [...] ...
- The monument to Peter I by Falcone has long become a symbol of St. Petersburg and was sung by many Russian poets. Alexander Pushkin dedicated the poem “The Bronze Horseman” to the monument, since then the second, unofficial name has been assigned to the monument. Sculpture full of power and dynamics inspired Adam Mickiewicz, Boris Pasternak, Pyotr Vyazemsky, Anna Akhmatova, Osip Mandelstam. The Bronze Horseman left his mark in the work of [...] ...
- The exact date of creation of this poem is unknown, but there is no doubt about who exactly it was addressed to. The fact is that in 1897 Valery Bryusov married the Czech translator Joanna Runt, who until the end of her life remained not only a faithful companion, but also the poet's muse. Men express their feelings for women in different ways, but they experience [...] ...
- The lyrics of Valery Bryusov have their own distinctive features, one of which is the focus of readers' attention on the topic of urbanization. The poet sincerely admired the achievements of the scientific and technological process and easily adapted them to his own perception of the world around him. Even in the sound of telegraph wires, he found a special romance and tried to convey it to the reader. In a similar vein, the poem “Twilight”, created in [...] ...
- History of creation Bryusov's attitude to social upheavals, revolutions and upheavals at the beginning of the 20th century. was clear and unambiguous: revolutions are destructive, they destroy old values, like barbarians. Bryusov expressed his point of view in the article "The Triumph of Socialism" (1903), which was never published. The theme of social cataclysms and destruction is devoted to a number of verses of 1905: “To the Satisfied”, “The Coming Huns”, […]...
- Sixteen lines with the title "First Snow" were published in 1985 and were included in one of the first collections of Valery Bryusov "Masterpieces". In this sparkling poem, the poet reflected his impressions of the transformation of a dull urban landscape. The miracle happened after the first snow adorned the streets, trees and houses. Landscape lyrics were characteristic of Russian literature of the 18th and […]...
- History of creation The poem “Work” was written in 1917 and published in the collection “Such Days” in 1923. Today, Bryusov would be called a workaholic. He worked not because he had to earn a living. Work was his passion and pleasure. Unusually able-bodied, very talented and sincerely confident in his genius, Bryusov considered literary work to be […]
- History of creation Bryusov conceived the poem “To the Happy” in 1904. The text was finally finalized in 1905. The poem was published in 1906 in a collection, which is translated from Greek as “Wreath”. Literary direction and genre In the era of the revolution of 1905, Bryusov created the cycle “Modernity”, in which he tried to give his assessment of the political and social events in the country […]...
- History of creation The poem "It's all over" was written by Bryusov in 1895 and was included in the collection, the name of which is translated from French as "Masterpieces". It was published in 1845 and was reprinted a year later. The poem was included in the cycle "Poems about love." It is dedicated to the actress Natalya Alexandrovna Daruzes, who performed under the pseudonym Raevskaya on the stage of the Moscow German […]...
- The history of creation "Sonnet to Form" was written in 1894 by a young 21-year-old Bryusov, a student of the Faculty of History and Philology of Moscow University. The writer included it in the “Prologue” cycle in the collection of youthful poems “Juvenilia”, which he prepared for publication in 1896. The collection was never published. The poem, along with others prepared for publication in an unpublished collection, was included in the “Complete [...] ...
- V. Bryusov's poem "For a Young Poet" was written on July 15, 1896. Already the name of the work indicates its form - dedications. In general, dedication is traditional for Russian classical poetry. Let us recall at least such works as “Kn. Vyazemsky and V. L. Pushkin” by V. A. Zhukovsky, “To a Poet Friend”, “To the Poet” by A. S. Pushkin, “Russian Writer” by N. A. Nekrasov. […]...
- Valery Yakovlevich Bryusov - Russian poet, literary critic, historian, playwright, translator, prose writer, founder of Russian symbolism. In the second half of the 90s of the nineteenth century, as a young poet, Bryusov became close to the Symbolist poets, and in 1899 he united the supporters of the “new art” in the Scorpion publishing house. In 1900, the collection "The Third Guard" was published. The poem “In the depths of the secret universe” was created […] ...
- The poem by V. Ya. Bryusov “In the Future”, one of the most beautiful and sincere poems of the poet. It is not the most famous among readers, but its sincerity, lyricism simply bewitches. The poem is short, consisting of three stanzas. Each stanza has four lines. A cross rhyme is used. Immediately, from the first line, in the first stanza, the romantic mood of the poet sounds. The words “aroma of azaleas” [...] ...
On instructions from above, he printed the text of the poem on a piece of paper, and on the back - an analysis. I quote it below, considering the topic is very relevant.
Valery Bryusov "Vesnyanka"
Vesnyanka is a spring lyrical ritual song among the Eastern Slavs.
Bryusov wrote a poem in the lyrical genre. The author shows his attitude to winter. The only thing he is waiting for in winter is the arrival of spring. In dreams and dreams, she has already arrived, and in life, Bryusov is looking forward to her arrival. He does not like winter in this poem. "Only in the north do we appreciate all the delight of spring." After all, it is in the north during severe, endless frosts that a person wishes with all his heart that the cold would end and the darkness recede. And now, finally, this moment comes. The author compares the landscape of winter and spring. Before us are absolutely opposite objects: colorless, boring, snow that has already bothered everyone and a bright, fresh young shoot. Bryusov uses the sign of the arrival of spring to once again show that spring has come. This sign is the first snowdrop. Against the background of white snow, the snowdrop stands out not with the same white petals, but with its blue core. The author sees in this an eye that looks out from under the snow with its pale blue eyes. All nature, and with it the old deadwood, comes to life.
For us, spring is the beginning of something new, "we live in spring like children." Our spirit, bound by cold and blizzards, comes to life.
The last stanza of this poem is a summing up of all the results. All people are tired of winter and therefore everyone goes against winter. And when spring finally conquers winter, we are all happy. An important role in the poem is played by the comparison "like a prisoner, leaving the prison." Of course, we are not prisoners in the literal sense of the word, but we were in captivity, in slavery by winter. By this, the author shows how happy everyone is that winter is over.
Valery Bryusov is a symbolist poet. This means that he shows his ideas through images. This is what characterizes the title of the poem "Vesnyanka". Vesnyanka is a ritual song, spring is lured to it and winter is expelled by deceit. This is not an anthem that sounds at the parade, because you can’t directly show the winter that we are tired of it, so as not to jinx it.
Girshman M.M..
The creative path of V. Bryusov began in a difficult time for Russian poetry, and in its formation it was closely connected with the development of Russian symbolism.
“The decadents are united not by style, but by the similarity and affinity of their worldview,” V. Bryusov wrote in 1907, looking back and comprehending the past. “That worldview that was dear to all the “decadents” has already been sufficiently clarified: this is extreme individualism.” However, for the decadent Bryusov, already from the first poetic experiences of character, not a fence off from the world, but, on the contrary, a stormy movement towards it.
Even in his reflections on decadence, Bryusov shows such energy and a vigorous thirst for activity that the very word, speaking of decline and decay, seems somehow decidedly out of place in his mouth. It is enough to listen to the tone of combat orders that he gives to the young poet: do not live in the present! don't feel sorry for anyone! worship art! And in this tone and in the echo of the battle following the given commands (“I will fall silently as a defeated fighter ...”), among other things, one can hear how life is at war with the proclaimed covenants.
“Everything on earth is transient, except for the creations of art,” Bryusov proclaimed in the preface to the first edition of his first collection of poetry, which bears an emphatically defiant title - “Masterpieces”. But the magical power of art receives from him a “this-worldly” interpretation in the cult of poetic mastery. One of the original versions of Sonnet to Form says:
So divinity is merged with the form,
So the appearance is clothed with a dream,
Thus the eternal spirit is seized by the power of the body.
Recognize it! Created an ideal
Keep it for life's work
And leave the gods their pedestal.
V. Bryusov himself and his contemporaries close to him subsequently repeatedly explained that “patching blades on an enamel wall”, and even “a naked moon under an azure moon”, and many other extravagant images of his early poets have a real, even everyday justification. But all the more important is the purposeful transformation of this life, when, for example, the quite ordinary white window sill of the poet's room becomes "gray". This is how a special and original “world of charms” arises in Bryusov’s poems, which is connected with reality and at the same time repels from it.
This relationship between dream and reality appears with the utmost clarity in the poems about nature in the second collection of the poet "Me eum esse":
I created in secret dreams
The world of ideal nature, -
What is this dust in front of him:
Steppes, and rocks, and waters!..
Let the unchanging ocean threaten
Let the ice ridges proudly sleep:
The day of the end for the universe will come,
And only the dream world is eternal...
Already in the early lyrics of Bryusov, the leading role of the intellectual principle was revealed. Subsequently, it not only became stronger, but also received quite peculiar forms of poetic expression. Bryusov's intellectualism does not at all mean the dominance in his lyrics of a single rationalistic concept of being. Attempts to find the "one truth", as well as the "one God", lead him to the skeptical:
Do you believe that you have become
over Jordan...
But everything will be just a shadow
just deceit.
And if so, then it is quite natural to try, so to speak, to quantitatively cover this “everything”, without finally surrendering to anything with the soul, for there are many truths:
My spirit was not exhausted in the mist of contradictions,
The mind has not weakened in fatal clutches.
I love all dreams, all speeches are dear to me,
And to all the gods I dedicate a verse.
This is, so to speak, a spatial image of the lyrical "I", combining all the contradictions. Translated into a temporal perspective, this image turns out to be a chain of continuous changes, a continuous change of accepted and rejected appearances:
Pretty, pretty! I'm leaving you! take both dreams and words!
I hurry to a new paradise, I run away, the dream is always alive!
I created and gave, and I raised the hammer to forge again first.
I am happy and strong, free and young, I create to throw again.
And such a "relentless striving from fate to a different fate" becomes the main lyrical leitmotif of Bryusov's poetry.
Dreams and “feelings of the world”, to which the poet addresses, can, in his opinion, be the subject of rational knowledge, and then extremely expressive figurative expression. This is how the favorite idea in Bryusov's intellectual lyrics is formed - passion. For its proclamation, a loud, exalting word is needed. And next to the ideal of the master becomes an orator - the herald of "general truths", elevated to the dignity of passion. Intellectualism, oratory, skill - these are the three "pillars" of the emerging poetic system of Bryusov.
His lyrical experiences, with their invariably inherent rationalism, tension and complete distinctness, tend to be cast into minted and frozen “instants”, in the sculptural depiction of which the dominant image of Bryusov’s thought-passion always shines through. Its usual signs are generalization and quantitative gigantism:
I've exhausted you to the core
earthly glory,
That night you experienced everything
happiness of audacity ...
In this regard, pictorial and expressive concretization recedes into the background: only the most general words are used - the names of landscape signs or the designations of feelings, thoughts, actions. Much more important is the lexical coloration that affirms greatness: Slavicisms, solemn paraphrases, oratory pathos of an oratorical monologue in the first person or address, the power of rhythmic beats rhythmically following each other, sound pressure.
V. Bryusov's experiments in the field of landscape poetry are unproductive: in them, in general terms, at best, book illustrations or allegorical pictures are created. The city is quite another matter. - This is a "receptacle of antitheses" with its huge, but at the same time clear and visible boundaries, "frozen bulks", "immovable buildings" and filling all this immobility with life, "where every moment is fatal."
Bryusov is rightly called one of the founders of Russian lyrical urbanism. But before us is not the city's singer, but rather its accuser. Analytical poetry gives him the opportunity to show, for example, in the poem "Closed", the deadly vulgarity of a measured and calculated bourgeois-urban life, the ephemeral nature of momentary exits into imaginary freedom, inextricably linked with vulgarity, "where there is a gambling house, and where there is a brothel!" And finally, the most important conclusion of this artistic analysis is the inevitability of the coming catastrophes:
But no! avoid painful
falls,
The ruin of all good things than we are now
proud!
There will come again delirium and blood and
battles,
The world will again be divided into enemies
two hordes.
The struggle, like an ardent whirlwind, will rush
across the universe
And in rage will sweep away like grass,
cities,
And the waves will howl over the deserted
Seine,
And the walls of the Tower will disappear without a trace.
The feeling of a “resurrection day” permeates the entire collection “Wreath”, and it sounds all the stronger because the horror of everyday vulgarity or exhausting labor is also expressed in individual verses of the collection (see, for example, “The Mason”). So naturally appear in the work of Bryusov, civil verses so important for Russian poetry, confirming that
The poet is always with people when a thunderstorm roars,
And the song with the storm is forever sisters.
Bryusov sees in the revolution the “general content” of life, so necessary and desired by him, consecrated by centuries of historical tradition:
This song is familiar to the soul,
I have listened to it for centuries.
This song is like thunder
Above the plain, in the clouds.
Harmodius sang it on his day,
Repeated the stern Brutus,
In every called people
The same sounds will come to life.
However, the problem also lies in making this common content one's own, which is possible only with organic closeness to that historical force that is called upon to transform the world. Without it, for the poet, the coming storm is both close, and at the same time extraneous with its historical and creative ideas, so that the most visible and tangible “burning” beginning opens up to the eye, reflected in the well-known poems “The Coming Huns”, “Close”, etc.
The oratorical, strong-willed melody gives these verses some kind of purely effective content, so that destruction here begins to resemble the poet’s usual readiness for the next revival. Another thing is that with all the energy of the lyrical experience, it sometimes seems to be raised to some kind of artificial cothury, a somewhat deliberate excitation is felt in it. It is in the immensity of calls for destruction, and in the same immeasurable rhetoric of “happy” pictures:
Freedom, brotherhood, equality, all that
What do we yearn for, almost without faith,
To which none of us will fall, -
Those will taste boldly, completely, beyond measure.
Revealed the secrets of the holy spring
They will be drunk in a sleepless thirst for knowledge,
And the beauty of the realized face
Satisfies their ultimate desires.
However, the pronounced desire to get closer to truly revolutionary ideals, to sing the fateful minutes of the world helps Bryusov eventually overcome this aesthetic "chill". “Every time he heard a call for revolution,” A.V. Lunacharsky, - his heart trembled, as if from contact with his native element.
The overthrow of the autocracy in February 1917 was hailed by V. Bryusov as a wonderful and unexpectedly quick fulfillment of an old dream. He writes to M. Gorky: “We all waited and believed, but believed that what we expected would come true “someday”, in years, and suddenly, almost on the same day, the dream became a simple truth. I foresee, of course, various dangers, but all the same, what is there is too good, almost scary. The familiar formula "thought - passion" is now acquiring in Bryusov's work the form of the trinity "thought - passion - revolution", which is perceived by the poet as an organic link in a single chain of world-historical events.
The October Revolution surpassed the most ardent dreams of the poet, although in many respects it diverged from them. And yet, Bryusov had every right to address those of his brethren who are now afraid of the death of all the centuries-old foundations, with the caustic but fair words of his invective:
What flickered in a distant dream,
Embodied in the smoke and in the rumble...
Why are you squinting with the wrong eye
Frightened roe deer in the forest!
Well, do not rush into the whirlwind of events -
To revel in the storm, menacingly strange?
And what do you look at the past with longing,
Like some promised land?
Or you, science fiction writers, or you,
aesthetes,
The dream was sweet how far?
And only in books yes in tune with
poet
Do you love originality?
“The coup of 1917 was a profound revolution for me personally,” writes V. Bryusov, “at least I myself see myself completely different before and after this edge.”
Bryusov is especially close to those creative ideas that "the most solemn hour of the earth" carried with it. After all, even on the eve of it, Bryusov praised the intense work that always stood next to his poetic dream:
The only happiness is work,
In the fields, at the machine, at the table, -
Work to a hot sweat
Work without extra bills, -
Hours of hard work!
In one of Bryusov's best poems - "The Third Autumn" - such a doxology of new life becomes all the more convincing and artistically reliable because it grows out of a description of very difficult post-revolutionary everyday life:
Howling wind of the third autumn,
Sweep the expanses of Russia,
Rough through the empty cages,
Get the poor on the way;
Catch trains on slopes
Where in the carriages people crowd
Cursing, writhing, moaning.
Trembling on sacks of grits.
But already in these painful pictures, not only despondency sounds, and it is no coincidence that all the stanzas are covered by the through image of the “wind”, and this is one of the most common symbols in the poetry of those years for expressing the revolutionary spirit of the era. And the syntactic structure of the oratorical monologue with appeals and imperatives repeated in each stanza, and the rhythmic energy of the dolnik - all this recreates such a lyrical experience, in which the main thing is volitional pressure and the energy of vital movement.
Keywords: Valery Bryusov, Russian symbolism, criticism of Valery Bryusov's work, criticism of Valery Bryusov's poetry, analysis of Valery Bryusov's poems, download criticism, download analysis, free download, Russian literature of the 20th century
2. Valery Bryusov
Georgy Adamovich about Valery Bryusov
Today we will talk about Valery Yakovlevich Bryusov, a poet who was born in Moscow in 1873 and died in Moscow in 1924. One of the main critics, perhaps the most important critic of the Russian diaspora, Georgy Adamovich, wrote in the 1950s: “All Russian poetry over the past quarter of a century owes so much to Bryusov, and so often it is now forgotten.”
The literary fate of Bryusov
Indeed, the fate of Valery Yakovlevich Bryusov, given the posthumous fate, was not very happy. He was one of the most popular Russian symbolists - perhaps only Balmont was more popular than he was - in the early 1900s. He was a recognized poetic master. The most diverse poets studied with him, the most diverse poets imitated him, from Nikolai Gumilyov to the imagist Vadim Shershenevich. He was a trendsetter in poetic fashion. Maybe just simplifying a little, we can say that in Moscow it was the main figure, if we talk about modernists, if we talk about decadents.
His books received rave reviews. He was imitated. However, quite soon after his death, and even during his lifetime, Bryusov began to feel that his popularity was declining. And, if the other two Symbolists, whom we talk about in the course of our lectures - Blok and Annensky - are still read, their lines are known by heart, they touch the soul, if I allow myself to put it so unscientifically, then Bryusov is almost forgotten.
He himself, according to the memoirs of his younger friend Vladislav Khodasevich, said that he wanted at least two lines dedicated to him in any history of literature, no matter how detailed or, conversely, indeterminate. And these two lines are really devoted to him in any history of literature. However, it is probably not necessary to talk about it as a living phenomenon. And the words of Adamovich, with which I began, are true. Indeed, Bryusov is almost forgotten, and what contribution he made to Russian poetry is also almost forgotten. So let's try to restore justice at least a little and talk about this certainly wonderful poet and, frankly, a great literary figure.
Nevertheless, some justice will be preserved and continued in our lecture. Although Bryusov has been writing for many years, today we will only talk about the initial period of his work. However, quite a long initial period. We will talk about the first ten years of his creative activity - from 1893 to 1903, when, in fact, he did the main thing that he did as a poet and as a literary figure, when he wrote his best poems, when he organized the Symbolists into a certain single movement. And then, although it would be interesting and curious to talk about it too, but we will not talk further. Indeed, what was further interesting, perhaps for the history of literature, but for today's reader, even those interested in the poetry of the Silver Age, is not so interesting.
The beginning of Bryusov's work
Bryusov was the son of a Moscow merchant, and like almost all the poets of his time and later, even modernists, and we will talk about this quite a lot more, he began by imitating such a main poet of the era, quite already, and it seems rightly, forgotten, Semyon Yakovlevich Nadson, a tuberculosis youth who wrote civic poetry.
And indeed, the most diverse poets - from Merezhkovsky to Gumilyov of the same - began by imitating Nadson.
In 1892, in the September issue of the Vestnik Evropy magazine, an article by Zinaida Vengerova appeared under the title "Symbolist Poets in France". This was a review article. Vengerova was a very good translator and she was a good, as they say now, cultural agent. She wrote an article that dealt with the poets - the main French symbolists - Mallarm, Rimbaud, Verlaine and Maeterlinck, and cited in her translations and in French some examples of their poetry.
And for Bryusov, this was a major event. He himself later said in his diary: "It was a whole revelation for me." An article in Vestnik Evropy was published in 1992, and a year later, on March 4, 1893, Bryusov makes another entry in his diary, where he says that his guiding star in the fog will henceforth be decadence. We have already talked about what decadence, decadence is. And he himself said about himself that he was born to be the leader of decadence in Russia. And although this is a recording of a very, very young man, and it is colored with narcissism characteristic of youth, despite this, it really contains the program that Bryusov later embodied. He was supposed to create a school in Russia, he was supposed to lead it, which, in his own words, happened.
And he very early understood one more thing, which we also talked about in the very first lecture, he said that no new school in Russia is possible unless the most important problems are solved - the problems of language, what language should be spoken, in what language should the attitude of the new era be conveyed.
And in his diary he writes (in the same year 1893): “What if I decide to write a treatise on spectral analysis in Homeric language? I would not have enough words and expressions. No, symbolism is needed. And so Bryusov chooses symbolism as the main direction, chooses French poets as the main landmark on his path and starts his own activity.
At the same time, one thing should be noted immediately, which can be looked at in two ways. This may seem to us, on the one hand, unpleasant in a poet and, in any case, unusual in a poet. On the other hand, this, in fact, provided Bryusov with the leading place in Russian symbolism that he occupied, namely, he was an extremely rational person. There is some paradox in this: he, who wrote symbolist texts, who relied on irrationality, on magical poetry, while he was an extremely rational person. He acted very skillfully. All the time I have words from the modern lexicon on my tongue today. This is no coincidence. Indeed, in our such business time, Bryusov would also find himself perfectly fine. You can use the word "manager". He was a brilliant, wonderful manager.
And the first collection that he released, which he prepared, was called "Russian Symbolists". There will be several more of them later, and the first one came out in February 1894. And, in fact, there were two participants in this collection. It was Bryusov himself, and he was attracted by him, attracted by his skill, and Bryusov was generally famous for this - he knew how to attract different people to his side, and so, attracted by his hot speeches, his high school friend Lang, who signed himself with the pseudonym Miropolsky. They publish this collection "Russian Symbolists" - a collection that caused a stir in the literary environment, a collection after which for some time Bryusov, the most rational person, will be accompanied by accusations of insanity: take him to the yellow house, idiot. They started talking about it right away. a collection that violated the usual ideas about the properties of objects and phenomena, and which indeed very often used the method that we will talk about quite a lot more when we talk about modernist poetics - the method of discarded keys.
Bryusov liked to shock the reader by skipping logical links between the chains of his lines. The reader who wanted to, he could complete these links. Today we will see how this can be done using the example of analyzing one poem by Bryusov. But many - those who did not want to or did not know how to do this, were completely shocked.
Even more interesting, perhaps, to note that Bryusov remarkably imitated Russian symbolism in this collection, which, in fact, almost did not exist yet. What I mean? In this collection, besides him and Lang-Miropolsky, poems by several more people were published, which did not actually exist. These were fictitious figures. Bryusov himself wrote poems for them.
Bryusov's virtual poets
At the same time, it is remarkable that Bryusov did not just try to create a mass movement, or the impression of a mass movement, that one poet, another third, fourth, fifth. The most interesting thing is that he tried to endow each of the poets he invented with his own poetics. Moreover, in each of these poets, one can guess who Bryusov was guided by. One was the Russian Mallarmé, the other was the Russian Rimbaud, the third was the Russian Verlaine. That is, Bryusov tried to create the feeling that we also have symbolism in Russia. And it worked, because the poets who began to write poetry, having read this collection of "Russian Symbolists", received models that they could imitate. It was a tradition they could work with.
In 1894, at the end of the summer, Bryusov makes the second issue of "Russian Symbolists", in which ten authors already publish five poems. In fact, again eight authors were created by Bryusov himself. He wrote poetry for them. In 1894, he published this collection and at the same time he was engaged in vigorous activity to familiarize the Russian reader with the latest Western poetry. In 1894, the main book by Paul Verlaine, perhaps the best, most interesting among the Symbolists, Romances without Words, is published, which is also translated by Bryusov.
And in 1895, at the same time, he published his own book of poems, which is called "Masterpieces" (in French), and this, of course, was some shocking, and he released the third issue of "Russian Symbolists". And this is probably the most important, the most famous collection, where Bryusov shocks the reader in a way that no one dared to shock him before.
The most interesting for us will be the spread of this collection "Russian Symbolists". On one, on the left half in the middle of the page, only one line was printed. This was a line that is probably remembered even by those who today do not remember anything from Bryusov, but many people remember this line, however, having already forgotten that the author of this line is Bryusov. It's the line "O cover your pale legs.", which immediately provoked a howl of criticism, a bunch of imitations. Bryusov himself, playing a little, explained that he was talking about the feet of Christ. On another occasion he gave some other explanation. But, of course, the most important thing for Bryusov was here to tease the geese, to tease the reader.
In fact, he was one of the first ... Here we will talk about the futurists, who teased readers, shocked the reader, and in general, you can look at the avant-garde at a phenomenon in which provocation was the main thing - the main thing was, on the one hand, to interest, on the other hand on the other hand, cause a shock reaction. So the young Bryusov, of course, was an avant-garde artist. The line was really outrageous, and it played its role. Indeed, everyone remembered this line and everyone still remembers it.
Poem "Creativity"
The second poem, perhaps even more important, on another spread of this collection "Russian Symbolists", 3rd edition, was the poem "Creativity", about which I am just now planning to talk in more or less detail.
Well, it is clear that the title of this poem "Creativity" already indicates that this poem is programmatic. It is dated March 1, 1895. Let me try to read this poem, and we will try to look at it, we will try to see what, in fact, was the essence of Bryusov's symbolism.
"Creation"
The shadow of uncreated creatures sways in a dream, Like the blades of patching On an enamel wall.
Violet hands On the enamel wall Sleepily draw sounds In the sonorous silence.
And transparent stalls, In the sonorous silence, Grow like sparkles, Under the azure moon.
A naked moon rises Under the azure moon... Sounds hover half asleep, Sounds caress me.
The secrets of created creatures caress me with caress, And the patchwork shadow trembles On the enamel wall.
Analysis of the poem "Creativity"
There was a lot of shouting when this poem came out. Especially everyone took up arms against the lines "The moon rises naked Under the azure moon." And Bryusov was accused of being crazy, and that he probably wrote this poem drunk, and therefore everything is double in his eyes.
Now we will try to see that this poem is built extremely rationally. Even, I would say, too rational for a symbolist text. And just that key, that brief formula that we will select for the work of each poet, is precisely for me, for example, super-rational symbolism. Let's try to see how rationally, how super-rationally this text is arranged.
I think it is convenient to begin our analysis with a simple observation. Namely, the first and last stanzas of this poem correlate quite distinctly. The first stanza: "The shadow of uncreated creatures sways in a dream, Like the blades of patching On an enamel wall." The last stanza: "The secrets of created creatures caress me with caress, And the shadow of patching trembles On the enamel wall." We see an almost complete repetition with a very important difference. In the first case we have "uncreated creatures", and in the last stanza we have "created creatures".
Well, the name "Creativity" suggests how we should read this poem. Namely, this poem is what is sometimes called the cumbersome word autometa-description, that is, the poet describes the process of creation. Strictly speaking, the poem is a description of the birth of that poem, with which the reader will get acquainted. Here it is - the discarded key. And it seems to me that having received this discarded key, we will now easily understand the seemingly strange and illogical images of this poem.
Let's start now with the first stanza. "The shadow of uncreated creatures sways in a dream, Like the blades of patching On an enamel wall." I think the first thing to do is comment. Bryusov took a word that sounds exotic on purpose. Not very, even in his time, people knew what "patching" was. Latania is a genus of broad-leaved palm. And patchwork leaves really look like windmill blades, for example. And now we can imagine the picture. To analyze this poem, this will help us.
The poet is sitting. Maybe he is sitting in some kind of half-asleep: "Swaying in a dream." And suppose in front of him a plant - patching in a pot. Khodasevich, whom we have already spoken about, just recalls that Bryusov had these patches on the windows. Outside the window is the moon. It's already night. And it remains to understand what an enamel wall is. Enamel walls were near the stoves. It turns out a very intelligible description: the poet is sitting, he sees how they sway, maybe from a light breeze, patching, the shadow of these patching falls on the enamel wall. Here, in fact, what we see in the first stanza.
What is Bryusov doing in the second stanza? I think we can easily understand this now. "Violet hands On the enamel wall Sleepily draw sounds In the sonorous silence." As a matter of fact, Bryusov has already begun from the real world - patching - to create his own fantasy - "patching blades on an enamel wall." And so he continues, he deepens this fantasy. It seems very easy to understand that these reflections of patching on the enamel wall - they resemble hands, they are purple, because they are shadows, and this image of such scary magical, mystical purple hands appears. And then Bryusov makes it very simple, at least for us, accustomed to reading modernist poetry, for contemporaries this is not so, they were not used to this, he makes a very simple move. Which? Sounds that draw. Pretty simple oxymoron. Sounds cannot be drawn. Here he draws them, and then it appears, the same game continues - "in a sonorous silence." Silence cannot sound, but Bryusov does.
Next is the stanza: “And the transparent stalls, In the sonorous silence, Grow like sparkles, Under the azure moon.” One clarification needs to be made here. In general, this will be important for our entire course, and in general it will be important for reading any text. We often read through the eyes of today's man. In general, correct reading assumes that we forget all the modern meanings of words and look into the dictionary of that time for the meaning of each word, because here is the word “kiosk”, which is familiar to us as a kiosk in which, for example, newspapers are sold - a newsstand, at that time it did not have this meaning, or it was peripheral, and the main meaning of the word kiosk was "gazebo".
Thus, transparent arbors grow. This, of course, is the creation of Bryusov's fantasy. But the most important thing here, it seems, is to pay attention to the expansion of space. Here he is in this room. Here he sees first the shadows that the plants create. Then they seem like enamel hands to him, but now this space ... it captures, it conquers real space, and already all over the room, or in the entire visible spectrum, these same kiosks are growing.
And then, in fact, these lines, which caused such bewilderment and shock among contemporaries, which, it seems, will also be understandable to us. “The naked moon rises Under the azure moon ...” - what is it about? It is clear what is at stake. It's just about the shadow. Here is a real month that rises. The shadow of this month falls on the same enamel oven, and we see two moons: a real month, a real month, and an illusory month or moon, which is reflected in the oven.
And then come the triumphant lines: "Sounds hover half-asleep, Sounds caress me." What's happening? If at the beginning of the poem the poet, the lyrical hero is sitting in a room, and the life that takes place in the room is not subject to him, then he starts from this real life, from this real world to create his own world, an imaginary world, a symbolist world, let's say where, in this world, everything is absolutely subordinate to him, where he absolutely controls everything, and, accordingly, the sounds become submissive to him. And the poem ends with this triumphant statement: “The secrets of created creatures caress me with affection, And the shadow of patching trembles On the enamel wall.”
As you can see, this poem is not just thought out. It is super-thought out, super-rational. I repeat once again. Bryusov, and this, perhaps, is partly the reason for his low popularity today, his symbolism was in many respects the main one. So he came up with, he decided that he would be a leader - he began to become a leader, he began to publish these collections, he began to publish these books. He put it on symbolist poetics - and he began to write such poems, although, as it seems, judging even by this poem, he was born for a completely different purpose. He was born, perhaps, for super-rational poems. No wonder the acmeists will then try to make him their ally.
But it worked. Then these poems were perceived as an absolute revelation by that small part of the public who liked Bryusov and who accepted the Symbolists, and were met with howling, whistling, hooting by the general public, which, I repeat once again, the early and late avant-garde artists did quite deliberately. They very clearly calculated that the circulation was still sold. They did not take any steps, absolutely outrageous, but they balanced on this edge all the time. As a matter of fact, the task of the symbolists, including Bryusov, was not only to select the faithful, but also to cut off the audience that was not suitable for them for their activities. There should have always been this background.
Parody V.S. Solovyov on the work of the Symbolists
And even the smartest and most subtle people of the era were shocked by these poems, they were shocked by this collection. And one of those who was indignant was the person about whom we will definitely talk to you again when we talk about Blok and Bely, in any case we will definitely mention his name, this is Vladimir Solovyov, who wrote a very caustic parody, There were three of them, one for the Symbolists, one for Bryusov proper, and one of which can be read here.
Chandeliers are burning in heaven, And below is darkness. Did you go to him or not? Tell yourself! But do not tease the hyena of suspicion, Mice of anguish! Otherwise, look how the leopards of vengeance Sharpen their fangs! And do not call the owl of wisdom You this night! Donkeys of patience and elephants of thought Fled away. Your fate gave birth to a crocodile You are here yourself. Let chandeliers burn in the sky, Darkness in the grave.
I must say, Bryusov was terribly offended by this parody. And such a reaction, although he himself partly provoked it, he did not expect such a reaction, and even for some time he thought of disbanding the symbolists in order to stop writing symbolist texts. But still, he got over himself. In 1896, he wrote another book of poems, which dominates, in which the main thing is a different symbolism - not the symbolism, irrational, which he tries to create in the collection "Russian Symbolists", but the symbolism of the so-called Parnassian type, that is, the French Symbolists and the pre-symbolists are very important poets for him: Leconte de Lisle is cold and closer, probably more organic for Bryusov himself.
Collective collection "Book of Thoughts"
And finally, in 1899, that is, at the turn of the century, a very, very important event for Bryusov takes place. He manages to unite figures that are not illusory, not fantastic, but he manages to unite really, perhaps, the main Moscow decadent poets, poets who gravitate towards the symbolism of this time.
He publishes The Book of Thoughts, a collective collection in which he himself participates, in which such a friend-enemy of his many years and the main rival on the poetic Olympus and, perhaps, more popular than him, Konstantin Balmont, participates.
In which the remarkably gifted poet Ivan Konevskoy participates, who, unfortunately, drowned as a young man. And, you know, he became such a very important figure, which happens in almost every movement: here is the one who showed great promise, who probably would have become the main one. It is not clear whether Konevskaya would have become the main poet or not, but he played such a role, having already died, they all referred to him: such a wonderful philological young man, gifted. And the poet Modest Durnov.
Bryusov as a literary critic
And then Bryusov, realizing that the conquest of literary platforms and the conquest of the literary scene is not only poetry, but also criticism, he begins to seriously engage in literary criticism. He begins to write a lot about poetry collections that are coming out. Almost all serious collections are reviewed by him. And so, from 1894, he begins and in 1924 he ends, that is, this is such a long, long period of his work.
And I must say that Bryusov was a wonderful literary critic - surprisingly smart, surprisingly subtle. He had a quality that critics rarely have. Perhaps because of his somewhat coldness, he knew how to be objective. For example, the futurists who mocked him tried in every possible way to humiliate him and even in one of their manifestos they called him not Valery Bryusov, but Vasily Bryusov, which was very insulting for him, because he valued his beautiful name Valery Bryusov, and Vasily - it was also an allusion to his merchant past. So, in his critical articles, he writes very highly about them - about those who he liked. For example, he writes highly of Khlebnikov and Mayakovsky and praises their poetry.
And besides, he had another important property, as a critic, he was not an impressionist critic. Again, this probably comes from the rational structure of his personality, he was remarkably able not only to say “this is bad”, “but this is good”, “and this is not very good”, but he was remarkably good at painting, he was able to explain why this is good, why is that bad. And I must say that later all those modernist critics, from among modernist poets who came to replace Bryusov, say, Gumilyov, about whom we will still talk, and we will definitely talk about Bryusov in connection with Gumilyov - it is impossible to get around, so here Gumilyov studied with Bryusov as a critic. Adamovich, with whom we started, studied with Bryusov as a critic. Maybe that's why he just managed to more or less objectively recall Bryusov's contribution to poetry. Sometimes at the level of the structure of the phrase, at the level of the structure of the review, you can see if you put the book of selected reviews of Bryusov and the book of Gumilev, and the book of Adamovich side by side, you can see how they both learn Bryusov's lessons. And it was Bryusov's assessment of a particular book of poetry that meant very, very much to any poet. Bryusov's archive has been preserved in the archives of the RSL, the Russian State Library. And there, one of the most interesting set of materials is the books that were sent to Bryusov, in which everyone, without exception, is asked to write a review, respond, read, write a letter and explain whether it is worth doing poetry or not.
Let's say, the same Akhmatova, who put a lot of effort, frankly, into establishing the anti-Bryusov cult. She did not like Bryusov very much in her later years. So there is a letter from the beginning Akhmatova to Bryusov, where she writes no more no less than “do I need to study poetry?”. Bryusov the critic possessed such authority.
Publishing house "Scorpion"
And in 1900, together with a rich man, his friend Sergei Polyakov, he created the main symbolist publishing house "Scorpio", which is located in Moscow and which prints two streams of books. On the one hand, it publishes Russian symbolists, and many important books by Bryusov himself, and Balmont, and other symbolists were published precisely in this publishing house. On the other hand, Scorpio had, even today, a very good series of foreign books. Again, of course, these were modernist books. These were the books of the Polish prose writer Przebyshevsky, it was Verlaine, it was Rimbaud, it was Mallarme. These were other authors, this was Maeterlinck. They were very different authors. Bryusov very cleverly led the policy of the publishing house. He ordered translations from excellent translators, by the way, Vengerova was one of these translators, and he translated himself. And thus, Bryusov solved two problems. He inscribed himself and the Symbolists in the Western background. On the other hand, he simply introduced the reader to the latest Western literature. And commercially, by the way, Scorpio was a pretty successful publisher.
On March 27, 1903, Bryusov gives a lecture, and then it comes out as an article. It becomes one of the main texts of early Symbolism. He gives a lecture called "Keys of the Mystery", where he explains what symbolism is in his understanding. And it is very important, it will be important for our further conversations too, Bryusov says that symbolism is, first of all, aesthetic art. Symbolism should not pretend to religiously transform the world. According to Bryusov, this is not the task of symbolism. Later we will see that the Young Symbolists did exactly the opposite. They believed that the whole world should be religiously transformed with the help of language. But Bryusov did not think so, and most importantly - these are aesthetic discoveries, aesthetic holdings, aesthetic searches in those areas that poetry has not yet gone into.
Indeed, in Bryusov, the diversity of his themes is striking. He did not want to leave a single topic bypassed. This applies to a wide variety of areas. Even in erotic poetry, where, it would seem, this is not worth doing or it may be difficult to do this, and most importantly, no one has ever done this, rationally approached this, erotica and poetry are completely, it would seem, incompatible things, so here Bryusov sat down very easily and described different types of love in his poems. Khodasevich said that all this was invented, none of this happened, but it was just filling a niche. This topic was not touched upon, and so Bryusov filled it in.
Book of poems Urbi et orbi
And finally, the last two important events in the biography of Bryusov, in the biography of Russian symbolism and in the biography of all Russian literature, which need to be mentioned, are, firstly, in 1903 Bryusov publishes his best main book of poems, which is called “Urbi et orbi ”, that is, the Latin name,“ To the City and the World ”, in which he collects his main, best poems, where the main, dominant theme is the modern city. At the same time, the modern city is shown against the backdrop of history.
Two leading themes. history from antiquity. The book, in fact, is called “Urbi et orbi” for this reason, and how reflections from this story are reflected in our modern life. It's wonderfully done. And, besides, it is to this book that Bryusov writes a preface, which becomes the program text of Russian symbolism. We'll talk a lot more about this. Bryusov says that the book of poems is a very special genre. This will then have an impact on absolutely all poets after Bryusov. This will be important for Blok, it will be important for Annensky, for Mandelstam, for Akhmatova - it will be important for everyone.
But Bryusov was the first to say this: “A book of poems should not be an accidental collection of heterogeneous poems,” he writes, “namely, a book - a closed whole, united by a single thought, like a novel, like a treatise, a book of poems reveals its content sequentially from the first page to the last,” and so on and so forth.
What did this mean for Bryusov? For Bryusov, this meant that the book turns out to be such a model of the world, in the center of which is a poet, a poet-demiurge, but not a religious one - an aesthetic demiurge, a poet who transforms reality. If we dare to use such a not very high metaphor, the poet turns out to be such a kind of meat grinder that processes the real world into something new, a completely different world is created.
Magazine "Scales"
And the last event that we must mention, I promised that it would be from 1893 to 1903, but still we must definitely mention one event of 1904 - Bryusov creates the main symbolist journal. So he created a symbolist publishing house. Now he creates the main, by far the best symbolist magazine, which is called "Scales".
And this name, as always with the symbolists, plays with different shades. Perhaps the most important of them are two. Firstly, these are mystical scales - the constellation of scales, of course, it was implied. Heavenly Scales. And, on the other hand, Bryusov considered himself, and deservedly, considered himself entitled to act as an appraiser of all modernist and non-modernist literature that was at that time.
The magazine "Vesy" published reviews. Sometimes deadly, sometimes, on the contrary, laudatory. And for the latest theatrical productions, for books, for exhibitions. It was, in general, the main magazine, maybe not only about poetry, but also about modernist art.
Symbolist leader
What happened to Bryusov next? Then he continued to write poetry, he continued his activities. He was a very prominent figure in the literary firmament. And novice poets continued to fight for his attention. This is wonderfully shown in the portrait of the main modernist artist - in the portrait of Vrubel, for whom Bryusov posed: he is the leader, he stands in such a pose with crossed arms, as Peter I stands "on the shore of desert waves", creating Petersburg, here Bryusov is also standing, looks, and we can imagine the troops swaying at his feet. Indeed, Bryusov recruited many people into Russian symbolism.
But the verses, but his rational verses faded and faded more and more. And, I repeat, today, perhaps, we can remember two or three, it's good if four lines of this poet. But still, let's not forget about the very large and very important role of Bryusov both as the first Russian symbolist poet and as the organizer of literary life, and as the leader of that school, that great, perhaps the last great school of poetry in Russian art, in Russian culture, which we call symbolism.
Literature
- Gindin S.I. Valery Bryusov // Russian literature at the turn of the century. (1890s - early 1920s). Book. 1. M., 2001.
- Grechishkin S., Lavrov A. Biographical sources of Bryusov's novel "The Fiery Angel" // Novo-Basmannaya 19. M., 1990.
- Gasparov M. L. Bryusov the poet and Bryusov the poet // Gasparov M. L. Selected articles. M., 1995.
- Lekmanov O.A. Keys to the Silver Age. M.: Rosebud Publishing, 2017. C. 34–46.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, a large-scale and original phenomenon of “symbolism” appeared in Russian literature, which came to Russia from France. Valery Bryusov, a Russian poet, welcomed this innovation, became a member of the fashion trend and the creator of many works in the "symbolism" genre.
In 1897, Bryusov married Joanna Runt, who became not only the poet's lifelong companion, but also a friend, closest assistant, and muse.
As you know, the love lyrics of Russian poets are boundless in their expression of emotions and excitement. The creators of the artistic word put an incredible number of shades of this all-consuming feeling into the description of love.
In October 1900, Valery Bryusov wrote the poem "I love one thing." When reading this work, the reader imagines a picture in which the author wanders the streets of his native city, dreams, reflects, and, like a true creator of the word, expresses the whole gamut of his feelings in the lines of verse.
Building plot the most uncomplicated: over the course of four stanzas of the verse, the hero walks aimlessly through the streets and mentally describes his feelings. The streets of the city are filled with a noisy crowd, but the author emphasizes that he is walking alone, in a good mood, and now he has hours of idleness, he can afford to hang around, just dream.
What follows is a description of a heady spring evening. As you know, lovers intensify their feelings, the whole world seems amazing and harmonious. And so, every year the poet admires spring, its ever-new beauty, and crimson evening, and dusk.
During the evening, the author decided to join the people passing by. He looks into the faces of those coming towards him and tries to figure out what they think about, what worries them. And he speaks of himself like this: sometimes full of sadness, sometimes devout, sometimes in love. A whole palette of feelings visits him in a short period of time.
In the last quatrain, the author explains to us why it is on the streets that these emotions flare up in him: he is used to dreaming and thinking under the roar of carriages, and within the walls of the house there is a more conducive environment in order to "catch the face of the Lord". Against the background of the contrasts of the modern city, the poet recreated the attractive world of a happy man in love.
Lyrical hero Bryusova is lonely, but not in the understanding of love loneliness, but at the given moment in time of the described event. In love, this wonderful bright feeling, he sees the meaning of his existence. Love is a gift that comes from above, it is the most sublime, bright, sincere feeling that turns everything in a person’s soul.
The love lyrics of the poem combined the poetry of love with the poetry of the surrounding world, conveying the sublime spirituality of the author's feelings.
The clearly defined, strict composition of the verse is built in two-syllable iambic poetic size, and the consonance of the ends of the verses - cross rhyme.
In addition to displaying a creative impulse and sensory perception, the author tried to replace each phenomenon and object with beautiful, unusual metaphors and epithets: noisy streets, holy idleness, hours of paintings, new amazement, meet the blue, drunken evening, crimson fire, live in the twilight, look into secrets, full of sadness, free roar, narrow walls, catch the face.
Describing the upliftment, the author speaks of the triumph of the harmony of love against the backdrop of a vibrant urban landscape. Bryusov's lyrics are diverse and multifaceted. Correspondence of rhetoric and meaning gives the right to call his works as creativity "pictorial word".
The poet Bryusov is convinced that every person comes into our world with the main goal - to learn to love. Not each of us manages to meet true love, but if this happened, then we cannot wish a better fate for ourselves. In the poem “I love one thing,” the author described the wonderful world of joy and harmony, the doors to which love opens for us.
- "To the Young Poet", analysis of Bryusov's poem
- "Sonnet to Form", analysis of Bryusov's poem
- "The Coming Huns", analysis of Bryusov's poem
Valery Bryusov is an outstanding Russian poet of the Silver Age. But the nature of his activity was not limited to versification. He established himself as a talented prose writer, journalist and literary critic. Along with this, Bryusov was very successful in literary translations. And his organizational skills found their application in editorial work.
The poet's family
A brief biography of Valery Yakovlevich Bryusov is impossible without a story about the poet's family. This is necessary in order to find an explanation for the presence of many talents concentrated in one person. And the family of Valery Bryusov was the foundation on which his versatile personality was formed.
So, Valery Yakovlevich Bryusov, was born in 1873, on December 1 (13), in the family of a wealthy merchant, which was famous for outstanding people. The poet's maternal grandfather, Alexander Yakovlevich Bakulin, was a merchant and poet-fabulist from a very wealthy merchant family in the city of Yelets. Along with countless fables, grandfather's archive contained novels, short stories, poems, lyrical poems written by him without hope for a reader.
Selflessly devoted to literature and dreaming of devoting himself entirely to it, Alexander Yakovlevich was forced to engage in merchant affairs all his life in order to be able to adequately support his family. Many years later, the famous grandson will sign some of his works with the name of his grandfather.
On the father's side, Valery Bryusov had an equally remarkable grandfather. Kuzma Andreevich was a serf of the then famous landowner Bruce. Hence the surname. In 1859, my grandfather bought a free estate from the landowner, left Kostroma and moved to Moscow. In the capital, Kuzma Andreevich became a successful merchant and bought a house on Tsvetnoy Boulevard, in which his later famous grandson, Valery Yakovlevich Bryusov, was born and lived for a long time.
Valery Yakovlevich's father, Yakov Kuzmich Bryusov, also a merchant and poet, published in small editions. It was the father who sent the first poem of his son, which was printed, to the editor of one of the magazines. The poem was called "Letter to the Editor", Valery was then 11 years old.
Bryusov's sister, Nadezhda Yakovlevna (1881-1951), like many in the family, was a creative and musically gifted person. She became a professor at the Moscow Conservatory. She has several scientific works on musical pedagogy and folk music. And the younger brother of Valery Bryusov, (1885-1966), was an archaeologist and doctor of historical sciences, who wrote works on the history of the Neolithic and Bronze Ages.
The childhood of the poet
In continuation of the description of a brief biography of Bryusov Valery Yakovlevich, it is necessary to note the childhood of the poet. As a child, Valery Bryusov was left to himself, as his parents did not pay much attention to the upbringing of their offspring. However, children were strictly forbidden to read religious literature because their parents were staunch atheists and materialists. Subsequently, Bryusov recalled that his parents introduced him to the principles of materialism and the ideas of Darwin before they taught him to count. Any other literature in the family was allowed, so the young Bryusov absorbed everything: from the works of Jules Verne to tabloid novels.
All their children, including Valery, were given an excellent education by their parents. In 1885, at the age of eleven, he began studying at the private classical gymnasium of F.I. Kreiman, and immediately in the second grade. At first, young Bryusov had a very difficult time: he endured ridicule from classmates and had difficulty getting used to restrictions and order. However, very soon he won the favor of his comrades with his intelligence and talent as a storyteller. Valery could retell whole books with interest and enthusiasm, gathering many listeners around him. But for freethinking and atheistic views in 1889, the schoolboy Bryusov was expelled.
Then he is studying at another private gymnasium. This educational institution is owned by a certain L. I. Polivanov, a great teacher, whose mentoring had an invaluable influence on the worldview of the young Bryusov. In 1893, he successfully completed his studies at the gymnasium and entered the Faculty of History and Philology at Moscow University, from which he graduated in 1899.
First literary experience
Already at the age of thirteen, Valery was sure that he would become a famous poet. Studying at the Kreyman gymnasium, young Bryusov writes pretty good poetry and publishes a handwritten magazine. At the same time, his first experience in writing prose happened. True, the early stories were a bit angular.
As a teenager, Bryusov was passionately fascinated by the poetry of Nekrasov and Nadson. Later, with the same passion, he reads the works of Mallarmé, Verlaine and Baudelaire, who opened the world of French symbolism to the young poet.
Under the pseudonym Valery Maslov in 1894-1895. Bryusov publishes three collections "Russian Symbolists", where he publishes his poems under various pseudonyms. Along with poems, Bryusov included in the collections the works of his friend A. A. Miropolsky and the opium lover, mystic poet A. M. Dobrolyubov. The collections were ridiculed by critics, but this did not deter Bryusov from writing poetry in the spirit of symbolism, but rather the opposite.
Youth of a genius
Continuing the description of a brief biography of Valery Yakovlevich Bryusov, it is necessary to note the release of the first collection of poems by the young poet (Bryusov was 22 at that time). He called his collection "Masterpieces", which again caused chuckles and attacks from critics, according to whom the title was contrary to the content.
Youthful audacity, narcissism and arrogance were characteristic of the poet Bryusov of that time. “My youth is the youth of a genius. I lived and acted in such a way that only great deeds can justify my behavior, ”the young poet wrote in his personal diary, confident in his exclusivity.
Detachment from the world and the desire to hide from the dull everyday existence can be traced in the poems of the first collection, and in Bryusov's lyrics in general. However, it would be unfair not to note the constant search for new poetic forms, attempts to create unusual rhymes and vivid images.
Decadence: a classic of symbolism
The life and work of Valery Bryusov did not always go smoothly. The scandalous atmosphere around the release of the collection "Masterpieces" and the shocking nature of some poems drew attention to a new trend in poetry. And Bryusov became known in poetic circles as a propagandist and organizer of symbolism in Russia.
The decadent period in Bryusov's work ends with the release of the second collection of poems "This is me" in 1897. Here the young poet still appears as a cold dreamer, estranged from an insignificant, hated world.
But gradually a rethinking of his work comes to him. Bryusov saw heroism and loftiness, mystery and tragedy everywhere. His poems acquire a certain clarity when, at the end of the 19th century, significant changes take place in literature and symbolism is seen as a self-sufficient trend.
The release of the following collections ("Third Guard" - 1900, "To the City and the World" - 1903, "Wreath" - 1906) revealed the direction of Bryusov's poetry towards the French "Parnassus", the distinctive features of which were historical and mythological plot lines, the hardness of genre forms, the plasticity of versification, a penchant for the exotic. Much in Bryusov's poetry was also from French symbolism with a mass of poetic shades, moods and uncertainties.
The collection "Mirror of Shadows", published in 1912, was distinguished by a noticeable simplification of forms. But the nature of the poet prevailed, and Bryusov's later work is again directed towards the complication of style, urbanism, scientific and historicism, as well as the poet's confidence in the existence of many truths in poetic art.
Extrapoetic activity
When describing a brief biography of Bryusov Valery Yakovlevich, it is necessary to touch on some important points. After graduating from the university in 1899, Valery Yakovlevich worked in the Russian Archive magazine. In the same year, he headed the Scorpio publishing house, whose task was to unite representatives of the new art. And in 1904, Bryusov became the editor of the journal Scales, which became the flagship of Russian symbolism.
At this time, Valery Yakovlevich wrote many critical, theoretical, scientific articles on various topics. After the abolition of the journal "Vesy" in 1909, he headed the department of literary criticism in the journal "Russian Thought".
Then there was the revolution of 1905. Bryusov took it as an inevitability. At this time, he wrote a number of historical novels and translated. After the October Revolution, he actively cooperated with the Soviet authorities and even joined the Bolshevik Party in 1920.
In 1917, Valery Bryusov headed the committee for the registration of the press, was in charge of scientific libraries and literature. department of the People's Commissariat for Education. He holds high positions in the State Academic Council and lectures at Moscow State University.
In 1921, Bryusov organized the Higher Literary and Art Institute and became its first rector. At the same time, he teaches at the Institute of the Word and the Communist Academy.
Valery Yakovlevich Bryusov died in his Moscow apartment in 1924, on October 9, from lobar pneumonia. He was buried in Moscow at the Novodevichy Cemetery.
