“Tenderer than Tender” Osip Mandelstam

Tenderer than tender
Your face
Whiter than white
Your hand
From the whole world
You're far away
And everything is yours -
From the inevitable.

From the inevitable
Your sadness
And fingers
Uncooling,
And a quiet sound
Cheerful
Speeches,
And the distance
Your eyes.

Analysis of Mandelstam’s poem “Tenderer than Tender”

In the summer of 1915, Osip Mandelstam met Marina Tsvetaeva in Koktebel. This event became a turning point in the poet’s life, as he fell in love like a boy. By that time, Tsvetaeva was already married to Sergei Efront and was raising a daughter. However, this did not stop her from reciprocating.

The romance between two iconic representatives of Russian literature did not last long and was, according to Tsvetaeva’s memoirs, platonic. In 1916, Mandelstam came to Moscow and met with the poetess. They spent days wandering around the city, and Tsvetaeva introduced her friend to the sights. However, Osip Mandelstam looked not at the Kremlin and Moscow cathedrals, but at his beloved, which made Tsvetaeva smile and want to constantly make fun of the poet.

It was after one of these walks that Mandelstam wrote the poem “Tenderer than Tender,” which he dedicated to Tsvetaeva. It is completely different from other works of this author and is built on the repetition of words with the same root, which are designed to enhance the effect of the overall impression and most fully emphasize the merits of the one that has the honor of being sung in verse. “Your face is more tender than tender,” is the first touch to the poetic portrait of Marina Tsvetaeva, which, as the poetess later admitted, did not entirely correspond to reality. However, Mandelstam further reveals the character traits of his chosen one, saying that she is completely different from other women. The author, addressing Tsvetaeva, notes that “you are far from the world as a whole, and everything you have is from the inevitable.”

This phrase turned out to be very prophetic. Its first part hints at the fact that at this time Marina Tsvetaeva considered herself a futurist, so her poems were indeed very far from reality. She often mentally rushed into the future and acted out a variety of scenes from her own life. For example, during this period she wrote a poem that ended with a line that later became a reality - “My poems, like precious wines, will have their turn.”

As for the second part of the phrase in Osip Mandelstam’s poem “Tenderer than Tender,” the author seemed to look into the future and from there brought out a clear conviction that Tsvetaeva’s fate was already predetermined and it was impossible to change it. Developing this idea, the poet notes that “your sadness comes from the inevitable” and “the quiet sound of cheerful speeches.” These lines can be interpreted in different ways. However, it is known that Marina Tsvetaeva experienced the death of her mother very painfully. Plus, in 1916 she broke up with her best friend Sofia Parnok, for whom she had very tender and not only friendly feelings. The return to her husband coincided with the arrival of Osip Mandelstam in Moscow, who found Tsvetaeva in a state close to depression. True, behind the patina of feelings and words, the poet was able to discern something more. It was as if he was reading the book of Marina Tsvetaeva’s life, in which he saw much that was frightening and inevitable. Moreover, Mandelstam realized that the poetess herself guessed what exactly fate had in store for her, and took it for granted. This knowledge does not darken the “distance of the eyes” of the poetess, who continues to write poetry and dwell in her own world, full of dreams and fantasies.

Tsvetaeva later recalled that her relationship with Mandelstam was like a romance between two poets who constantly argue, admire each other, compare their works, quarrel and make up again. However, this poetic idyll did not last long, about six months. After this, Tsvetaeva and Mandelstam began to meet much less frequently, and soon the poetess left Russia altogether and, while in exile, learned about the arrest and death of the poet who wrote an epigram on Stalin and had the misfortune of reading it publicly, which the poet Boris Pasternak equated to suicide.

“Tender is the Night” (a brief summary will be given in this article) is a work on which Fitzgerald began work back in 1925. Moreover, the main idea and name changed several times.

Manuscripts of the first few chapters of the novel have reached us, in which the main character, Francis Melarki, travels through Europe with his mother. They meet rich compatriots. Melarki finds himself under their negative influence and decides to kill his mother.

In 1929, Fitzgerald began creating a second draft of the novel. At this stage Rosemary Hoyt appeared, also with her mother. This time on an ocean liner they meet the popular Hollywood director Kelly and his wife Nicole. Only two chapters survive from this version of the novel.

The third option arose in 1932. This time, the writer began by developing a detailed plan for the work, indicating the age and psychological characteristics of the characters, and describing the motives that led to Nicole’s mental disorder. He graduated from the novel in 1933. It was then that the book received its final title.

Reviews from critics

Reviews about the book "Tender is the Night" received the most contradictory. Many critics accused the author of violating the logical and chronological sequence. Therefore, in 1938, the author himself volunteered to rework the text of the novel. But he was never able to complete this work.

Researchers have at their disposal a copy of the book with the author's notes made in pencil. Based on them, the novel was revised by Fitzgerald's friend, the famous literary critic Malcolm Cowley. A new version was published in 1951.

Novel "Tender is the Night" (summary)

The action of this work takes place in 1925. At the center of the story is the young Hollywood actress Rosemary Hoyt. She has already earned fame thanks to her role in the film "Daddy's Daughter."

She stays with her mother on the Cote d'Azur. True, the season has not yet arrived, so only a few hotels are open, and the beaches are deserted. The heroes meet two companies of compatriots. Rosemary calls some “dark-skinned,” and others “white-skinned.”

The girl likes the first ones more. They are beautiful, tanned and relaxed. At the same time, they are emphatically polite and tactful. She joins them with pleasure and almost immediately falls in love with Dick Diver. Dick has a wife, Nicole. They themselves are local. All the rest are their guests who came from America.

“Tender is the Night” (we are looking at a summary) is a work that describes how Rosemary was fascinated by their beauty and ability to live cheerfully. They constantly played innocent pranks and fun. A particularly powerful force came from Dick Diver. He seemed to force people to obey him with his charm.

First love

Fitzgerald, in Tender is the Night, a summary of which is given in this article, especially notes that Rosemary is only 17 years old. This is her first truly big crush on a man. In the evenings, she sobs on her mother’s chest, telling how she is in love with him. She cannot encroach on his happy family life, because his wife Nicole also sympathizes with her.

After some time, the Divers call her to go with them to Paris to see off their guests. The evening before leaving, Dick organizes a farewell dinner. In the evening everyone is enchanted, but everything ends unexpectedly. A duel.

One of the "fair-skinned" people who were also invited to dinner, Mrs. McKisco, saw something inappropriate in the house. She was advised not to discuss this in the villa, but it all ends in a duel between Mr. McKisco and Tommy. Both remain alive.

Travel to Paris

The characters of the novel are written so carefully that literally from the first pages the novel “Tender is the Night” captivates the reader. A chapter-by-chapter summary describes the heroes' trip to Paris.

Rosemary and Nicole go shopping. A young actress learns how an experienced and wealthy woman spends money. Meanwhile, Rosemary becomes more and more interested in Dick every day. It is becoming increasingly difficult for him to remain an adult and serious person. He involuntarily succumbs to the charms of a young and attractive girl.

Meanwhile, one of Abe North's guests begins to drink. He does not fly to America, but instead provokes a conflict in one of the bars between American and Parisian blacks. Dick has to solve these problems. It all ends with a corpse in Rosemary's room.

With great difficulty, Dick manages to arrange everything so that her name remains untarnished. The case was hushed up, and without reporters. But I have to leave Paris in a hurry.

Domler Clinic

The summary of the book “Tender is the Night” (students are often asked to write a summary of this work) tells about the fate of Richard Diver, MD. In 1917, he returned from the army and went to complete his education in Zurich. He hopes to earn a science degree. Before that, in Vienna, he interned with Sigmund Freud himself, and now he was working on the book “Psychology for the Psychiatrist.”

Meanwhile, the daughter of an American millionaire named Nicole has been being treated at Dr. Domler’s clinic for three years now. She lost her mind when, at the age of 16, she became her father's mistress. Her treatment program includes correspondence with Diver. The summary of Fitzgerald's novel "Tender is the Night" describes that during this time her state of mind improved significantly. They are going to discharge her. During this time, Nicole falls in love with Diver. Richard himself struggles with contradictions. On the one hand, he understands that this feeling was provoked for therapeutic purposes. At the same time, he himself, who knows her personality better than anyone, realizes that it will be almost impossible to take away this feeling. Otherwise, there will be emptiness in her soul.

In addition, Nicole is a beautiful girl who attracts him. Contrary to logic, reason and the advice of his colleagues, Dick marries Nicole. At the same time, he understands that relapses of the disease are most likely inevitable. But I’m ready to help her deal with it.

Her condition seems to him to be a bigger problem. After all, he does not marry for money, as many people around him think, but solely for love.

In the novel Tender is the Night by Francis Scott Fitzgerald, a summary confirms this, Dick pretends to be a convinced homebody in order to prevent possible relapses. For 6 years of marriage, they never leave each other for almost a day.

One of the prolonged relapses occurs when their second child is born. During this time, he manages to form the personality of "Nicole Healthy", who turns out to be a bright and strong woman. At the same time, it begins to seem to him that she is using her illness to have power over the people around her.

Family life

In Fitzgerald's Tender is the Night, a summary of which we are considering, attention is also paid to how Dick tries to maintain financial independence in marriage. But it's not easy at all. At this time, Dick himself is torn from his dual position - at the same time a husband and a doctor. He is not always able to maintain the necessary distance in these cases.

All this makes him realize the appearance of Rosemary in his life.

Christmas in the Swiss Alps

Summary of Fitzgerald's Tender is the Night describes Christmas 1926, which the Divers spend in the Swiss Alps. Franz Gregorovius visits them there. The latter invites Dick to jointly buy a clinic so that Dick can begin to see patients there and receive materials for new books on psychology and psychiatry. Gregorivius himself promises to take on all the clinical work.

He turns to Dick so that he, first of all, helps him financially. After all, to open a clinic you need start-up capital.

Baby convinces Dick to agree, since he sincerely considers this venture profitable. In addition, she expects that being in the clinic will have a beneficial effect on Nicole’s health.

Relapse on Lake Zug

Let's continue to look at the summary. “Tender is the Night,” the retellings describe this in detail, tells the story of another severe relapse, which occurred after a year and a half of relatively calm and measured life on Lake Zug. Nicole makes a scene of jealousy, and then, starting to laugh madly, almost sends the car into a derailment.

Moreover, at this time, not only she and Dick are in the cabin, but also their children. Tired of living from attack to attack, Dick leaves for Berlin for a congress of psychiatrists. He leaves Nicole in the care of Franz. The hero himself wants to take a break from his too restless wife.

In Berlin, he receives a telegram about his father's death. Therefore, I am forced to go to the USA for the funeral. Returning back, Dick succumbs to temptation and stops by in Rome. He hopes to meet Rosemary. In Italy she is filming another film.

Meeting with Rosemary

They manage to see each other in Italy. Both feel that the relationship that began in Paris has now been continued. True love breaks out between them. But she is no longer able to save Dick. He is sure that he is not capable of sincere love, but only brings misfortune to people.

Therefore, he decisively breaks up with Rosemary and gets drunk. He is beaten and taken to the police station. From there he is taken by Baby, who ends up in Rome.

Dick begins to abuse alcohol in earnest. He is less and less able to understand and forgive others. He is practically not even affected by the readiness with which Franz accepts his decision to leave their common cause. Dick leaves the clinic. After all, his condition, when he often comes to work drunk, does not benefit the reputation of the clinic.

What is also new for Nicole is that she can no longer shift her problems onto her husband. She has to answer for her own actions. When this happens, her husband becomes disgusted with her. It serves as a living reminder of her years of darkness. A crisis is brewing in their relationship; in fact, they become strangers to each other.

Return to Tarm

Arriving in Tarm, the Divers meet Tommy Barban. He has been to several wars and has changed a lot. Nicole also looks at him with new eyes. She remembers that he always loved her.

At this time, Rosemary also arrives on the Cote d'Azur. The summary of the work “Tender is the Night,” the analysis of which allows us to understand all the contradictory nature of human feelings, tells how a Hollywood actress quickly recalls her first meeting with Dick, which took place about five years ago.

Nicole begins to be jealous of her husband and at the same time sees how he has aged and changed. Everything around her also changed. Tarm has become a fashionable resort, with many holidaymakers all year round. The deserted beach, which Dick used to clear with a rake himself, is now filled with vacationers. And their old friend Mary North, who by this time had become Countess Minghetti, refuses to recognize them. Dick leaves the beach like a king who has lost his kingdom.

At the novel's conclusion, Nicole celebrates her recovery by becoming Tommy Barban's mistress. Soon she marries him. Dick leaves for America. He begins to see patients in small towns, but does not stay anywhere for long.

The poem “Tenderer than Tender” was written by Mandelstam in 1909. It was included in the collection “Stone”. The young poet is only 18 years old. At this time he studies at the Sorbonne, and visits St. Petersburg in the “Tower” of Vyacheslav Ivanov.

There is information on the Internet that the poem is dedicated to Marina Tsvetaeva. This opinion is wrong. Mandelstam and Tsvetaeva first saw each other at Voloshin's in Koktebel in 1915. Only in 1916 did Mandelstam and Tsvetaeva meet in St. Petersburg. Then Mandelstam came to Moscow several times to see Tsvetaeva. She called their relationship platonic. After one of his walks with Tsvetaeva around Moscow, Mandelstam allegedly wrote the poem “Tenderer than Tender.”

It is tempting to see in this poem a portrait of Tsvetaeva and the prophetic path of her poetry, but the poems were written before the poets met.

Literary direction and genre

In 1909, the Acmeist program had not yet been announced (1912), but the poem was already in tune with Acmeist ideas, although it was written under the influence of the evenings in the “Tower” of the symbolist Vyacheslav Ivanov. The images of the poem are concrete and material, the words are carefully selected and precise. The poem “Tenderer than Tender” is not at all studentish. The genre of the poem is a declaration of love, love lyrics.

Theme, main idea and composition

The theme of the poem is admiration for the appearance and inner world of the beloved. The main idea is the exclusivity of the chosen woman. The subtext is the youthful confidence of the lyrical hero in his own exclusivity and, hence, the ability to see the individuality, chosenness, and inevitable loneliness of another person, a woman.

The poem consists of eight and nine lines. In the first stanza, individual details of the beloved’s appearance, her distance “from the world as a whole” find a reason - “from the inevitable.” The second stanza begins with the same phrase that ends the first. It rethinks the details of the beloved’s appearance, which are filled with her soul.

Paths and images

The main trope in the poem is epithets describing the face, hands, fingers, voice, eyes of the beloved. Mandelstam uses tautology as an artistic device, repeating the same roots in adjective and noun phrases: softer than tender, whiter than white. Thus, the superlative degree of quality is even brighter than when using the superlative degree of the adjective: not just the most tender, but more tender than the most tender.

Pronoun repetition is yours all the time returns the reader to the personality of the beloved. Participle constructions with prefix Not repeated three times. Word gentle, which is repeated twice in the first line and seems to set the tone for the entire poem, also begins with Not, although this is part of the root in the word. This creates a general denial, separating the beloved from a number of other personalities.

At the center of the poem is the twice repeated “from the inevitable.” The substantive leaves a mystery without indicating the subject of the inevitable. In the second stanza, Mandelstam uses metaphorical epithets, from which the images acquire depth and ambiguity: fingers of uncooling hands, cheerful speeches. Metaphor distant eyes again returns to the emotional alienation of the heroine, stated in the first stanza.

Meter and rhyme

The poem “Tenderer than Tender” is unusual in terms of form. If the stanzas are turned into quatrains, the result is iambic pentameter with pyrrhic and internal rhymes, which becomes tetrameter in the last line. Then only the middle two lines in each stanza will rhyme, and one rhyme will be masculine, and the second will be dactylic. The remaining lines will not rhyme. The result will be half free verse.

But Mandelstam divided each line into two parts. Thus, the poem became multi-footed, with two- and three-syllable lines alternating randomly. Four three-syllable lines out of 16 consist of one independent word, that is, they have one stress. Such a galloping rhythm of the poem perfectly conveys the ragged breathing of a young man declaring his love, and this is difficult to do smoothly. At the end, the lyrical hero falls silent altogether, suffocates, shortening the lines.

The poem's rhyme system is even more complex. Each line rhymes, but out of order. In the first stanza, the central 4 lines rhyme with a cross rhyme, and the outer ones - with a ring rhyme. That is, the rhyme is symmetrical relative to the center of the stanza. In the second stanza, the symmetry disappears, the rhyme scheme is A'bvG'vG'dbd. The cross-rhyme pattern of the central part of the stanza remains. But the first line of the second stanza generally rhymes with the first and last of the first stanza.

The lack of orderliness and symmetry, repeated repetition of words, sounds and rhymes is a feature of the complex formal organization of the poem, corresponding to the complex expression of the feelings of a lover.

• “Notre Dame”, analysis of Mandelstam’s poem
• "Leningrad", analysis of Mandelstam's poem

Living a certain period of his life in Moscow, Osip Mandelstam found his second home there, and in his youth he was almost happy - he was in love with Marina Tsvetaeva, who, like the poet himself, went down in the history of Russian literature.

“She opened Moscow to him, and was one of the first enthusiastic and at the same time strict critics of his work,” Vladimir Krizhevsky, a leading researcher at the State Literary Museum in Moscow, noted in an interview with the Voice of Russia:

“Tsvetaeva and Mandelstam treated each other very tenderly in their youth. They had a brief romance, but, as everyone says, it was not so much a love affair as a poetic romance. There are, in my opinion, eight poems by Mandelstam dedicated to Tsvetaeva, and approximately the same amount in the cycle of Tsvetaeva herself. There she calls her poem next to it “ill-mannered." Even then, in 1915-16, their differences with each other became clear. Tsvetaeva was a futurist, and Mandelstam was closer to the poetry of the 19th century. 19th century - Gabriel Derzhavin, Fyodor Tyutchev, that is, to poets who easily wrote in a high style. And this “odic note” was very strongly developed in him."

You can listen to one of the eight poems set to magnificent music in this video.

Series of messages " ":
Part 1 -
Part 2 -
...
Part 18 -
Part 19 -
Part 20 - Osip Mandelstam. More tender than tender.
Part 21 -
Part 22 -

1916: the First World War is underway, the population is drowning in loyal feelings, poets are challenging the right to express the spirit of the era more accurately than others. Vladimir Averin remembers the great Russian poets of the early 20th century.

Osip Emilievich Mandelstam (birth name - Joseph) - poet, prose writer and translator, essayist, critic, literary critic.

Joseph Mandelstam was born on January 3, 1891 in Warsaw into the family of a glove maker. His father was a member of the first guild of merchants, which gave him the right to live outside the Pale of Settlement, despite his Jewish origin. A year later, the family settled in Pavlovsk, then in 1897 they moved to St. Petersburg. Here he graduated from one of the best St. Petersburg educational institutions - the Tenishevsky Commercial School.

In 1908-1910, Mandelstam studied at the Sorbonne and the University of Heidelberg. By 1911, the family began to go bankrupt, and studying in Europe became impossible. To bypass the quota for Jews when entering St. Petersburg University, Mandelstam was baptized by a Methodist pastor.

In 1910, he published his texts for the first time in the Apollo magazine. Since November 1911, he regularly participates in meetings of the Workshop of Poets. In 1912 he became a member of the Acmeist group. In 1913, the first book of poems by Osip Mandelstam, “Stone,” was published, immediately placing the author among the significant Russian poets. In the pre-war years, Mandelstam was a frequent participant in literary evenings, where he performed readings of his poems.

After October 1917, he lived in Moscow, Petrograd, and Tiflis. Chukovsky wrote: “... he never had not only any property, but also a permanent settlement - he led a wandering lifestyle, ... I understood his most striking feature - his lack of existence.”

The 1920s were a time of intense and varied literary work for Mandelstam. New poetry collections were published - "Tristia" (1922), "Second Book" (1923), "Poems" (1928). He publishes articles on literature, two books of prose - the story "The Sound of Time" (1925) and "The Egyptian Stamp" (1928). Several books for children have also been published.

In the fall of 1933, Mandelstam wrote the poem “We live without feeling the country beneath us...”, for which he was arrested in May 1934. Next - years of exile and a second arrest. Sentence: 5 years in camps. On December 27, 1938, Osip Emilievich Mandelstam died in a hospital barracks in a camp near Vladivostok. Rehabilitated posthumously: in the case of 1938 - in 1956, in the case of 1934 - in 1987. The location of the poet's grave is still unknown.

In 1916, Osip Mandelstam lives in St. Petersburg and heads the Workshop of Poets. Marina Tsvetaeva enters his life. A friendship began, the peculiar “poetic” result of which was several poems dedicated to each other.

In transparent Petropol we will die,
Where Proserpine rules over us.
We drink mortal air in every breath,
And every hour is our hour of death.

Goddess of the sea, formidable Athena,
Take down the mighty stone shell.
In transparent Petropol we will die, -
It is not you who reigns here, but Proserpina.

Tenderer than tender
Your face
Whiter than white
Your hand
From the whole world
You're far away
And everything is yours -
From the inevitable.

From the inevitable
Your sadness
And fingers
Uncooling,
And a quiet sound
Cheerful
Speeches,
And the distance
Your eyes.

Not believing Sunday's miracle,
We walked to the cemetery.
- You know, the earth is everywhere for me
Reminds me of those hills

Where Russia ends
Over the black and deaf sea.

From the monastery slopes
A wide meadow runs away.
To me from the Vladimir expanses
I didn’t really want to go south,
But in this dark, wooden
And the holy fool's settlement
With such a foggy nun
To stay means to be in trouble.

I kiss the tanned elbow
And a piece of wax on the forehead.
I know - he remained white
Under a dark strand of gold.
I kiss the hand where the bracelet is
The stripe is still white.
Taurida fiery summer
Works such miracles.

How soon did you become dark-skinned?
And she came to the poor Savior,
Kissed me without stopping,
And I was proud in Moscow.
All we have left is the name:
Wonderful sound, long lasting.
Take it with my palms
Sprinkled sand.

Popular

18.04.2019, 10:10

The Great Migration will change Europe

EVGENY SATANOVSKY: “The Great Migration of Peoples – what does it mean? A mass of people comes to you, who are not at all interested in who lived here and how they lived, they come from somewhere where they cannot and do not want to live, somewhere where everything seems fine to them. And she destroys everyone in her path. And it doesn’t matter, it’s the Huns who are going against the Roman Empire, it’s the Tatars-Mongols who are going against everything that is in Europe, including the Russian principalities.”