Blok Alexander Alexandrovich was born in St. Petersburg on November 28, 1880. His father was Alexander Lvovich Blok, who worked as a professor at Warsaw University, and his mother was the translator Alexandra Andreevna Beketova, whose father was the rector of St. Petersburg University.

The mother of the future poet married her first husband at the age of eighteen, and soon after the birth of the boy, she decided to break all ties with her unloved husband. Subsequently, the poet's parents practically did not communicate with each other.

In those days, divorces were rare and condemned by society, but in 1889, the self-sufficient and purposeful Alexandra Blok ensured that the Holy Governing Synod officially terminated her marriage to Alexander Lvovich. Soon after, the daughter of the famous Russian botanist remarried for true love: an officer of the guard Kublitsky-Piottukh. Alexandra Andreevna did not change her son's surname to her own or to the intricate surname of her stepfather, and the future poet remained Blok.

Sasha spent his childhood years in his grandfather's house. In the summer he left for Shakhmatovo for a long time and carried warm memories of the time spent there throughout his life. Moreover, Alexander Blok lived with his mother and her new husband on the outskirts of St. Petersburg.

Between the future poet and his mother there has always been an incomprehensible spiritual connection. It was she who opened the works of Baudelaire, Polonsky, Verlaine, Fet and other famous poets to Sasha. Alexandra Andreevna and her young son studied together new trends in philosophy and poetry, carried on enthusiastic conversations about the latest political and cultural news. Subsequently, Alexander Blok first of all read his works to his mother and it was from her that he sought consolation, understanding and support.

In 1889, the boy began to study at the Vvedensky gymnasium. Some time later, when Sasha was already 16 years old, he went on a trip abroad with his mother and spent some time in the city of Bad Nauheim, a popular German resort of those times. Despite his young age, on vacation he selflessly fell in love with Ksenia Sadovskaya, who at that time was 37 years old. Naturally, there was no talk of any relationship between a teenager and an adult woman. However, the charming Ksenia Sadovskaya, her image, imprinted in Blok's memory, later became his inspiration when writing many works.

In 1898, Alexander completed his studies at the gymnasium and successfully passed the entrance exams to St. Petersburg University, choosing jurisprudence for his career. Three years after that, he nevertheless transferred to the historical and philological department, choosing for himself the Slavic-Russian direction. The poet completed his studies at the university in 1906. During his higher education, he met Alexei Remizov, Sergei Gorodetsky, and also became friends with Sergei Solovyov, who was his second cousin.

The beginning of creativity

The Blok family, especially on the maternal side, continued a highly cultured family, which could not but affect Alexander. From a young age, he enthusiastically read numerous books, was fond of the theater and even attended the corresponding circle in St. Petersburg, and also tried his hand at poetry. The boy wrote his first uncomplicated works at the age of five, and as a teenager, in the company of his brothers, he enthusiastically engaged in writing a handwritten magazine.

An important event in the early 1900s for Alexander Alexandrovich was his marriage to Lyubov Mendeleeva, who was the daughter of an eminent Russian scientist. The relationship between the young spouses was complex and peculiar, but filled with love and passion. Lyubov Dmitrievna also became a source of inspiration and a prototype for a number of characters in the poet's works.

You can talk about a full-fledged creative career of Blok starting from 1900-1901. At that time, Alexander Alexandrovich became an even more devoted admirer of the work of Afanasy Fet, as well as the lyrics and even the teachings of Plato. In addition, fate brought him together with Dmitry Merezhkovsky and Zinaida Gippius, in whose journal, under the name "New Way", Blok took his first steps as a poet and critic.

At an early stage of his creative development, Alexander Alexandrovich realized that the direction in literature close to his liking was symbolism. This movement, which pierced all varieties of culture, was distinguished by innovation, a desire for experimentation, a love of mystery and understatement. In St. Petersburg, the symbolists close to him in spirit were the above-mentioned Gippius and Merezhkovsky, and in Moscow - Valery Bryusov. It is noteworthy that around the time when Blok began to publish in the St. Petersburg "New Way", his works began to be printed in the Moscow almanac called "Northern Flowers".

A special place in the heart of Alexander Blok was occupied by a circle of young admirers and followers of Vladimir Solovyov, organized in Moscow. The role of a kind of leader of this circle was assumed by Andrei Bely, at that time an aspiring prose writer and poet. Andrei became a close friend of Alexander Alexandrovich, and members of the literary circle became one of the most devoted and enthusiastic admirers of his work.

In 1903, in the almanac "Northern Flowers", a cycle of Blok's works entitled "Poems about the Beautiful Lady" was printed. At the same time, three poems by the young rhymer were included in the collection of works by students of the Imperial St. Petersburg University. In his first famous cycle, Blok presents a woman as a natural source of light and purity, and raises the question of how much a real love feeling brings an individual person closer to the whole world.

Revolution of 1905-1907

The revolutionary events became for Alexander Alexandrovich the personification of the spontaneous, disordered nature of life and quite significantly influenced his creative views. The beautiful Lady in his thoughts and poems was replaced by the images of a blizzard, snowstorm and vagrancy, the bold and ambiguous Faina, the Snow Mask and the Stranger. Love poems faded into the background.

Dramaturgy and interaction with the theater at that time also fascinated the poet. The first play, written by Alexander Alexandrovich, was called "Balaganchik" and was composed by Vsevolod Meyerhold in the theater of Vera Komissarzhevskaya in 1906.

At the same time, Blok, who, idolizing his wife, did not refuse the opportunity to have tender feelings for other women, inflamed with passion for N.N. Volokhova, theater actress Vera Komissarzhevskaya. The image of the beautiful Volokhova soon filled Blok's philosophical poems: it was to her that the poet dedicated the cycle "Faina" and the book "Snow Mask", the heroines of the plays "Song of Fate" and "The King on the Square" were copied from her.

In the late 1900s, the main theme of Blok's work was the problem of the relationship between the common people and the intelligentsia in the domestic society. In the poems of this period, one can trace a vivid crisis of individualism and attempts to determine the place of the creator in the real world. At the same time, Alexander Alexandrovich associated the Motherland with the image of his beloved wife, which is why his patriotic poems acquired a special, deeply personal individuality.

Rejection of symbolism

The year 1909 was very difficult for Alexander Blok: his father died that year, with whom he still maintained a fairly warm relationship, as well as the newborn child of the poet and his wife Lyudmila. However, the impressive legacy that Alexander Blok Sr. left to his son allowed him to forget about financial difficulties and focus on major creative projects.

In the same year, the poet visited Italy, and the foreign atmosphere further pushed him to reassess the values ​​that had developed earlier. This internal struggle is told in the cycle “Italian Poems”, as well as prose essays from the book “Lightning of Art”. In the end, Blok came to the conclusion that symbolism, as a school with strictly defined rules, had exhausted itself for him, and from now on he felt the need for self-deepening and a “spiritual diet”.

Focusing on great literary works, Alexander Alexandrovich gradually began to devote less and less time to journalistic work and appearances at diverse events that were in vogue among the poetic bohemia of those times.

In 1910, the author began to compose an epic poem called "Retribution", which he was not destined to finish. Between 1912 and 1913 he wrote the well-known play The Rose and the Cross. And in 1911, Blok, taking as a basis five of his books with poetry, compiled a collection of works in three volumes, which was reprinted several times.

October Revolution

The Soviet government did not evoke such a negative attitude from Alexander Blok as it did from many other poets of the Silver Age. At a time when Julius Aikhenvald, Dmitry Merezhkovsky and many others criticized the Bolsheviks who came to power with might and main, Blok agreed to cooperate with the new government leadership.

The name of the poet, who by that time was quite well known to the public, was actively used by the authorities for their own purposes. Among other things, Alexander Alexandrovich was constantly appointed to positions of no interest to him in various commissions and institutions.

It was during that period that the poem "Scythians" and the famous poem "The Twelve" were written. The last image of the "Twelve": Jesus Christ, who was at the head of a procession of twelve soldiers of the Red Army - caused a real resonance in the literary world. Although this work is now considered one of the best creations of the “Silver Age” of Russian poetry, most of Blok’s contemporaries spoke about the poem, especially about the image of Jesus, in an extremely negative way.

Personal life

The first and only wife of Blok is Lyubov Mendeleev, with whom he was madly in love and whom he considered his real destiny. The wife was support and support for the writer, as well as an unchanging muse.

However, the poet's ideas about marriage were rather peculiar: firstly, he was categorically against bodily intimacy, singing spiritual love. Secondly, until the last years of his life, Blok did not consider it shameful to fall in love with other representatives of the fair sex, although his women never mattered to him as much as his wife. However, Lyubov Mendeleev also allowed herself to be carried away by other men.

The children of the Blok couple, alas, did not appear: the child, born after one of the few joint nights of Alexander and Lyubov, turned out to be too weak and did not survive. Nevertheless, Blok left quite a lot of relatives both in Russia and in Europe.

Death of poet

After the October Revolution, there were by no means only interesting facts from the life of Alexander Alexandrovich. Loaded with an incredible amount of duties, not belonging to himself, he began to get very sick. Blok developed asthma, cardiovascular disease, and mental disorders began to form. In 1920, the author fell ill with scurvy.

At the same time, the poet was also going through a period of financial difficulties.

Exhausted by poverty and numerous illnesses, he passed away on August 7, 1921, while in his apartment in St. Petersburg. The cause of death is inflammation of the heart valves. The funeral and burial service of the poet was performed by Archpriest Alexei Zapadalov, Blok's grave is located at the Smolensk Orthodox Cemetery.

Shortly before his death, the writer tried to get permission to travel abroad for treatment, but he was refused. They say that after that, Blok, being in a sober mind and sound mind, destroyed his notes and, in principle, did not take any medicine, or even food. For a long time there were also rumors that before his death, Alexander Alexandrovich went crazy and raved about whether all copies of his poem "The Twelve" had been destroyed. However, these rumors have not been confirmed.

Alexander Blok is considered one of the most brilliant representatives of Russian poetry. His large works, as well as small poems (“Factory”, “Night street lamp pharmacy”, “In a restaurant”, “Dilapidated hut” and others), have become part of the cultural heritage of our people.

Outside the city grew a deserted quarter
On the soil of the marsh and unsteady.
Poets lived there - and everyone met
Another haughty smile.

In vain and the bright day rose
Over this sad swamp;
Its inhabitant devoted his day
Guilt and hard work.

When they got drunk, they swore friendship,
Chatting cynically and directly.
In the morning they vomited. Then, shut up
They worked hard and hard.

Then they crawled out of the booths like dogs,
We watched the sea burn.
And the gold of every passer-by braid
Captivated with knowledge of the matter.

Relaxed, dreamed of a golden age,
Publishers scolded together.
And wept bitterly over a small flower,
Above a small cloud of pearl ...

This is how the poets lived. Reader and friend!
Do you think it could be worse?
Your daily powerless attempts,
Your philistine puddle?

No, dear reader, my critic is blind!
At least the poet has
And braids, and clouds, and a golden age,
You don't have access to all of this!

You will be pleased with yourself and your wife,
With its scant constitution,
But the poet has a worldwide binge,
And constitutions are not enough for him!

Let me die under the fence like a dog
Let life trample me into the ground, -
I believe that God covered me with snow,
That blizzard kissed me!

Analysis of the poem "Poets" by Blok

One of the most daring poems by Alexander Blok "Poets" was written on July 24, 1908. Having read this poem for the first time, many refuse to believe that the romantic Blok could write something like that. In the work, the author writes about the poetic brotherhood, which he presents to the reader as a sad swamp. The year 1908 was full of events and hard for Alexander. The emotional state of the creator was especially bad, and this is probably the reason for such a pessimistic mood of the poem. Despite the hardships, the poet continued to believe that soon everything would get better, and everyone would live in a new, better world, in which there would be a place for everyone, including poets.

In the poem, the author raises the theme of creativity and the creative path. This topic is viewed through the prism of the experiences and feelings of a real creator. Alexander noted that a person who is not close to art, such a life can be unpleasantly surprised.

Compositionally, the work consists of two parts. The first part tells about the life of poets, each of whom considers himself more capable and better than the other. At the same time, every evening they get drunk in the company of each other. Poets created exclusively with a hangover, if they did not write, there could be two explanations for this: a beautiful lady turned their heads or they grieve over something.

The whole poem is built on the same antithesis: the unpleasant creators that ordinary people see them as, and the poets of the new world, where they appear as they really are. The theme of the place of man-art in society was important for Alexander. In "Poets" he sought to assess the situation as objectively as possible, which helped him to see many repulsive things in people-arts.

In the last lines of the work, symbols appear - images of snow and blizzards, which Blok often used in his work. For the poet, they symbolized love, creativity and mystery.

The poem is written in amphibrach with cross rhyme, thanks to which the poem sounds melodic. As in his other works, in "Poets" the author actively uses various tropes: epithets, metaphors, personifications, comparisons. All artistic techniques are united by the fact that they serve to build an antithesis and more vividly express the thoughts and feelings of the author.

Starting a new section on the site "Tree of Poetry", I would like to wish all real readers a joyful reading, creative excitement when new information is discovered. Poetry, in my opinion, is the best that remains for centuries and can fill with beauty. poetry no need to freeze it, it is always more alive than all the monuments of material values: after all, if you start reading it, it will immediately sound! And if you sing it in a song, then it turns out really cool, friends.

New rubric - "Poetic Taste". If you like to eat, then, of course, you will understand me. Pasta with cheese especially tasty when kneaded in them beef stew. All this is supposed to be asked compote and have a bite foreign bar. So it is with poetry. In a sense, she has taste. But only here we are not talking about the satisfaction of bodily needs, but about spiritual taste, when soul inside out asks to taste beauty, truth, truth and joy. Well, good luck to everyone, so cheerfully with your head - we dive into poetry!

I present to you a poem by Alexander Blok.

POETS

Outside the city grew a deserted quarter
On the soil of the marsh and unsteady.
Poets lived there - and everyone met
Another haughty smile.

In vain and the bright day rose
Over this sad swamp;
Its inhabitant devoted his day
Guilt and hard work.

When they got drunk, they swore friendship,
Chatting cynically and directly.
In the morning they vomited. Then, shut up
They worked hard and hard.

Then they crawled out of the booths like dogs,
We watched the sea burn.
And the gold of every passer-by braid
Captivated with knowledge of the matter.

Relaxed, dreamed of a golden age,
Publishers scolded together.
And wept bitterly over a small flower,
Above a small cloud of pearl...

Do you think it could be worse?

Your philistine puddle?

At least the poet has

You don't have access to all of this!

With its scant constitution,

And constitutions are not enough for him!

That blizzard kissed me!

Start over. Outside the city grew a deserted quarter. That is, outside the city where the main population lives, a a certain neighborhood practically in swamps, in kurmish, how homeless people live, with tenants - poets. Block makes it impossible to learn more about mysterious quarter, about its origin. But it doesn't really matter to us. The main thing is that we understood poetry party.

Good. Poets hung out, all of them creative, arrogantly smiled at each other, because every dog, after all, is proud, thinks that he is the most genius. If you have ever been in such an environment, you understand me. Farther Block says that the place was so rotten that the day rose over it in vain: poets constantly indulged in drunkenness and wrote poetry.

And how does it happen in creative people, especially writers, then, having drunk, they felt in each other a fellow writer, here promises of support, oaths of friendship, and all sorts of drool immediately begin. Then came the apotheosis of alcohol in the heads and sick stomachs: creative people vomited not like a child.

Having gone through the torment, having rested, sleeping off, poet, feeling the approach of death due to poisoning of the body, begins to work zealously: he writes and writes, writes and writes ...

Having written a lot ingenious, poets tired of eternity, climbed out of their booths, or where they lived there in the swamps - and looked at the sun, at the passing girls, and their hearts trembled.

Then they finally came to a more or less normal state: they sat somewhere on the verandas, drinking coffee, smoked, talked about literature, about the reptile publishers who do not want to publish them, about the lack of money and the futility of everything that exists. Then poets fell into melancholy, pitying themselves, began to pity everything around: a small bum, flower under the fence cloud in the sky ... And, of course, after that they got drunk again.

This is how the poets lived. Reader and friend!
Do you think it could be worse?
Your daily powerless attempts,
Your philistine puddle?

That is, for those who don't understand: friend, do you think these are silly poets live worse you, your daily stupid senseless movements about nothing in philistine society when nothing new happens, stupidity, repetitions ...

No, dear reader, my critic is blind!
At least the poet has
And braids, and clouds, and a golden age,
You don't have access to all of this!

And further: at poets there is even an advantage: in addition to bestiality, there are experiences, excitement, rapture, life in all its glory, pain, suffering, love… BUT common man with "framework" happiness, where all the attributes are norms: a house, a wife, a Sunday pie, a stable salary, an electric stove, a mistress, a cottage with cherries, children - a boy and a girl, days off after work ... you can list two days and even three ... common man has none of this and, most importantly, does not want to have.

You will be pleased with yourself and your wife,
With its scant constitution,
But the poet has a worldwide binge,
And constitutions are not enough for him!

Common man satisfied with his life, apartment, mink, his dead happiness, happiness is frail, short constitution It's practically a skeleton. And at poet life between life and death - he drinks worldwide - he is not determined, does not fit in one or even several constitutions, legislation, written and unwritten laws marginalized people.

And at the end of the poem A. Blok talking about himself:

Let me die under the fence like a dog
Let life trample me into the ground, -
I believe that God covered me with snow,
That blizzard kissed me!

I think - nothing needs to be chewed, and so everything is clear. like this philological text analysis turned out. See you again. Read more Russian classical literature, drink and smoke less, play computer games less and be less dumb, friends! Good luck.

Alexander Tenenbaum

Blok began to compose his poems at a young age: from poem to poem, his talent only became stronger. The first poems were inspired by Vasnetsov's paintings depicting the prophetic birds of ancient Russian legends: Sirin, Alkonost, Gamayun. And if you look more deeply, then these poems were about life, about time, about the Motherland and Russia: they only speak about it in a large and symbolic way.

After the revolution, the theme of two Russias emerges in the poet's work: autocratic and popular. Russia for the poet is a huge, native creature, similar to a person, but more comfortable and affectionate. All works are imbued with love for the motherland, for his country: therefore, the events of the revolution are too hard for him. Hunger, poverty and defeat cause Blok to dislike lyrics: and he begins to create only satirical poems with poisonous mockery.

In the plays (dramas) that were released at that time, one feels bitter disappointment from the imperfection of the world and deceived hopes.

Alexander Blok also wrote works of a historical nature: the most famous of them are the poems of the Kulikovo battle cycle. The Battle of Kulikovo for the poet is a historical fact that gives reason to reflect on the present and future of Russia.

But his best poems are dedicated to the Beautiful Lady, to whom the knight (monk, youth, poet) aspires. There is a lot behind this desire: a mystical comprehension of God, the search for a life path, the pursuit of an ideal, beauty, and many other shades. Even descriptions of nature are not given by themselves. Dawn, stars and the sun are synonyms for the Beautiful Lady, morning and spring are the time of hope for a meeting, winter and night are separation and evil. The theme of love permeates all the work of the poet.

The famous poet of the Silver Age also had an interest in children's literature, wrote many poems, some of which were included in collections of poems for children.

Blok's work is multifaceted: he wrote about Italy and St. Petersburg, about poetry, about time and death, about music and friendship. He dedicated his poems to his mother, God, woman, Pushkin, Shakhmatov, Mendeleeva. Look at the lyric works on this page - and choose those that will awaken your soul and give you the pleasure of the Word.

Alexander Blok was not only a great poet of the era, which we now call the "Silver Age", the creator of the cycles "Poems about the Beautiful Lady", "Snow Mask", "Yambas", "Poems about Russia" of the poem "The Twelve" - ​​and for contemporaries, and for us he remains a man of high spirit, amazing honesty. Blok believed that poetry could change the world if their creators were pure enough in spirit. And the fact that bloody tragedies began to shake the world with the beginning of the twentieth century, he put, in particular, himself to blame. I offer you a film about Alexander Blok and a short essay about this mysterious poet, for whom poetry was not just literature, but Service.

Among the poets of the beginning of the 20th century, talented and bright, Alexander Blok somehow stood apart. He rarely went where all the poets of the "Silver Age" went: at the religious and philosophical meetings at Merezhkovsky's, in the Stray Dog cabaret, where all the bohemians of St. Petersburg gathered after 1912. He shunned noisy gatherings, literary debates, spoke little and argued, because he did not like to "talk about the unsaid." And in general, against the background of emotional, even exalted colleagues in the pen, he struck with restraint and some kind of self-absorption, as if guarding some secret that he carried in himself. Nevertheless, he was treated with special respect, as evidenced by the memoirs of his contemporaries. It was amazing how differently they saw him, how difficult it was to betray even the idea of ​​​​his appearance. Someone called Blok very handsome, someone spoke of a motionless face, as if carved from stone. Andrei Bely wrote about the luminosity of this face, as if covered with a golden-pink tan. Zinaida Gippius found in him something sweet, childlike. The main lady of literary Petersburg, who judged her contemporaries very sharply, Gippius wrote about Blok almost tenderly. Chukovsky recalled a special magic that emanated from this man. And his friend, then enemy, rival in love, Andrei Bely, after his death, will write an autobiographical trilogy, where he will continue to sort things out with him, the deceased, again and again.

It is surprising that in the era of the "Silver Age", the time of talented people, even brilliant, but noisy, emotional, explosive, prone to a bohemian lifestyle, this silent person was recognized as the greatest authority. And the point is not only in poetic genius, but also in the uniqueness of Blok's personality. There was something in him from a mysterious medieval knight, or this Pushkin's "poor knight":

There lived a poor knight in the world,

Silent and simple

Looks gloomy and pale,

Bold and direct in spirit

He had one vision, incomprehensible to the mind ...

A vision or a dream of a vision - this was the beginning of Blok's youth. Then everyone dreamed of revelations. The youth raved about the poet, philosopher, mystic Vladimir Solovyov, who, among other works, wrote the poem "Three Dates", where he described three mystical meetings when a woman appeared to him, whom he considered Sophia the Wise. For Blok, acquaintance with Solovyov's work was a shock.

Those vague dreams, signs in nature that worried him, about which he did not tell anyone, suddenly received an explanation, a justification. From Blok's notebooks, September 1901: “In the Sign I saw a prophetic dream. Something broke in time. And she clearly appeared to me ... and the secret was revealed. I saw the family leave, and I remained at the door in front of them. She stood up to meet me and said a strange word that I love her. I, holding the volume of Solovyov in my hand. I gave it to her, and suddenly I see that this is no longer poetry, but a small German book ... "

Blok had no doubt that this was the same woman who appeared to Solovyov three times, he did not doubt the reality of this event and was waiting for it, in reality. He believed that his poems were a mystical phenomenon. “This is a diary in which God allowed me to express myself in verse.” In it first — expectation of a miraculous event. Then pain and despair, when something happened in the world, pink dawns went out. Then whirlwinds and blizzards appeared in his poems. And then everything fell silent, and Blok repeated in different verses “ How hard it is for a dead man among people, said the soul is dead .

And then the body died. No one could say why Blok died at only 40 years old. Or maybe it was just that rare case. , when the body simply dies, abandoned by the light of heaven. After 1914, he wrote almost nothing, but reworked and reworked his youthful "Poems about the Beautiful Lady". He recognized their immaturity. But he still thought it was the best he had written. He even mentioned to someone that he did not consider himself their author, that they were dictated to him from above. In "Poems about the Beautiful Lady" there is some special tension, purification before her arrival.

I anticipate you. Years pass by

All in the guise of one I foresee You.

The whole horizon is on fire - and unbearably clear,

And silently I wait, longing and loving.

However, someone can say that "Poems about the Beautiful Lady" were created in the period. When Blok was in love with Lyubochka Mendeleeva, his future wife. And these verses are addressed to her. In her memoirs, Lyubov Dmitrievna writes that often, when Blok read his poems to her, she suspected that they were addressed to her, but with a jealous feeling she did not find herself in his Lady. She was a very earthly girl - ruddy, with a thick braid, there was nothing in her from the incorporeal Lady. This annoyed her, and once she even decided to break up with him, writing in a letter: “You look at me as some kind of abstract idea, you imagine all sorts of unnecessary things about me, and behind this fiction, which is alive only in your imagination, you they didn’t notice me, a living person with a living soul.”

She did not send this letter to him, just as Blok did not send the letter that he wrote to her at the same time, in case of a break: “My life, i.e. the ability to live is inconceivable without some Spirit coming from you, which I vaguely feel. If we are divided in thoughts or separated in life, my strength weakens, only longing remains. In their lives there will be different periods - and bright young joy, and betrayal, and misunderstanding. Blok will write one day: “Lyuba brought her mother to illness. Lyuba created that unbearable complexity and tediousness of relations, which is now. Lyuba is a terrible message on earth in order to torment and destroy earthly values ​​... But the years 1898-1902 made me unable to part with her and love her. These were just the years of the Beautiful Lady, the premonitions and insights that they experienced together, when her strength, energy were needed for him.

Blok was a man of another world, he thought and felt differently, and we should not try to explain him. It's just that in his poems it will not be clear before us that the image of the beloved woman, or the image of the Majestic Wife, will flicker. He lived in another dimension, saw as reality what seems to us fantastic visions. But if you accept Blok, you must also accept the reality of his visions and mystical experiences.

He has an amazing article On the current state of symbolism» It is about the world of his poetry, about the reality that he considers the only one, and which gives meaning to his work. He writes in it about the worlds in the light of the radiant sword, about the purple-purple worlds “The golden sword flares up dazzlingly and pierces the heart of the poet. Already beginning to see through the face among the heavenly roses. A dialogue arises... But, as if jealous of the poet, someone suddenly cuts off the golden thread. The blade of the radiant sword fades and ceases to be felt in the heart. Worlds that have been permeated with golden light lose their purple hue, as blue-lilac dusk bursts through a broken dam. And the face that appeared among the roses disappeared. And in its place is a dead doll.

The poet is surrounded by demons, they are submissive to the will of the poet, in those purple worlds, they scour in search of the best jewelry, so that with their help the poet creates an earthly miracle, a beautiful doll, "The Stranger". Blok was often asked why his Beautiful Lady turned into a Stranger? He kept silent. He could not explain to everyone he met that this was the essence of his spiritual drama. He once wrote: “Oh. how I will fall and sadly, and low, without overcoming deathly dreams ... ”I didn’t overcome it, I couldn’t be clean and high enough or what? But who ever thought about what worlds poetry comes from, if they are beautiful? Block only. And in this high spiritual exactingness lies his greatness. They say he loved only his youthful poems. We can't help but admire his Stranger.

"The Stranger" was written in 1906. Troubled, troubling times. Bloody events of the first Russian revolution. Blok will write about the real life of Russia at the beginning of the century, but he is more concerned about shifts in that other dimension, which he perceived as reality. And he considered the storms of earthly life an echo of storms there. He is sure: "Just as something broke in us, so it broke in Russia." I almost blamed myself for the Russian tragedy. And one more woeful phrase of Blok: "We were prophets, we wished to become poets."

In 1907, the cycle of poems "The Snow Mask" was born. They are also dedicated to the woman with whom Blok was in love in the cold snowstorm of 1907 - Natalya Nikolaevna Volokhova, an actress of the Komissarzhevskaya theater, a beautiful woman with "winged eyes". In that blizzard of winter, his "Balaganchik" was staged in the theater. There were many young people around, carnivals were organized, sleigh rides along the snow-covered streets, and Blok was cheerful. And in his poems of this period - a blizzard, a snowstorm, cold and confusion.

And again, sparkling from a cup of wine,

You put fear in my heart

With your innocent smile

In heavy snake hair.

I'm overturned in dark jets

And I breathe in again, not loving,

Forgotten dream about kisses

About snow blizzards around you.

It is unlikely that these poems are directly connected with N. N. Volokhova. This blizzard was in Blok's soul, which lived its own, separate life. Returning to the article on symbolism, here is another quote: “Art is hell. No wonder Bryusov bequeathed to the artist: "like Dante, the underground flame should burn your cheeks." Only one who has a companion, a teacher and a guiding dream of one that will lead where the teacher does not dare to enter can go through countless circles of hell ... One way or another, the purple worlds swept over Lermontov, who threw himself under the gun of his own will. And Gogol, who burned himself, floundering in the velvet paws of a spider. And he described his fate in verse:

How did it happen, how did it happen?
I was poor, weak and small.
But the greatness of some mystery
It opened up to me before the time
I have known the High.
Unworthy slave, treasure
without keeping those handed to me,
I was a king and a random guard.
Hosts of fierce monsters
They ran into me.

And at the end there are these lines:

I don't hide in front of you
Look at me:
I'm standing in the fire
Burnt with tongues
Underworld fire.

It is interesting that Andrei Bely, recalling the young Blok, writes about the golden-pink haze of his face. Then he wrote that Blok's face was, as it were, burned. And Blok wrote about the same thing: “We are offered: sing, be merry, but our faces are burned by the lilac dusk.” But in that lilac twilight music sounded, poems were born. Either disastrous and tragic, or full of quiet sadness.

There were bursts of feelings, impulses for life, joy:

Oh, I want to live crazy

All that exists is to perpetuate,

Impersonal - incarnate,

Unfulfilled - to embody!

Blok will sensitively capture the music of the elements and embody it in poetry. Love is part of the world element. And the Carmen cycle will be born.

Oh yes, love is free like a bird
Yes, it doesn't matter - I'm yours!
Yes, I still dream
Your camp, your fire!

He will hear the whirlwinds of the elements in history, and they will sound in his cycle “On the Kulikovo Field”

And eternal battle! Rest only in our dreams

Through blood and dust...

Flying, flying steppe mare

And crushes the feather grass ...

And then the music began to subside, the “iron day” came and it fell silent .. Only once did the swirling element sound in his poems: in the poem “The Twelve”. After writing it, he exclaimed: "Today I am a genius." The poem was not liked by either the right or the left. The Bolsheviks did not want to recognize revolution in this demonic whirlwind, their opponents decided that Blok had sold himself to the Reds. And he just heard and recorded the music for the last time, which he used to catch in the world.

Black evening.
White snow.
Wind, wind!
A person does not stand on his feet.
Wind, wind -
In all God's world!

The element of the revolution, albeit a terrible element, was replaced by world vulgarity, so disastrous for the poet. And the soul died.

How hard it is to walk among people
And pretend to be invincible
And about the game of tragic passions
To narrate to those who have not yet lived.

And peering into your nightmare,
Build to find feelings in a discordant whirlwind,
To the pale glow of art
Learned life disastrous fire!

The epigraph to this Blok poem was a line from Fet: "There's a man on fire" . We think that poetry is a cozy light on which you can warm your hands in the cold, your soul in sadness. And poetry can be a terrible fire that burns those who come too close. Those who fly into this flame are mad, but they are the best of those who have lived on earth.