“About valor, about exploits, about glory…” Alexander Blok

About valor, about exploits, about glory
I forgot in the woeful land
When your face in a simple frame
In front of me shone on the table.

But the hour has come, and you left the house.
I threw the cherished ring into the night.
You gave your fate to another
And I forgot the beautiful face.

The days flew by, spinning like a cursed swarm ...
Wine and passion tormented my life...
And I remembered you before the lectern,
And he called you, like his youth ...

I called you but you didn't look back
I shed tears, but you did not descend.
You are in blue raincoat turned around sadly
AT damp night you left home.

I don't know where your pride is
You, dear, you, gentle, found ...
I sleep soundly, I dream of your blue cloak,
In which you went into the damp night ...

No longer dream of tenderness, of glory,
Everything is over, youth is gone!
Your face in its simple frame
I removed the table with my hand.

Analysis of Blok's poem "About valor, about exploits, about glory ..."

The love lyrics of Alexander Blok are highly controversial and controversial. Until now, researchers of the poet's work are trying to understand the complex relationship between the author and his wife Lyubov Mendeleeva, who was Blok's muse. However, their marriage was not happy, and a few years after her marriage, Mendeleeva went to the poet Alexander Bely. Then she returned, repentant perfect mistake, and - started again new novel from whom she bore a son. Blok himself also experienced several romantic hobbies during this period. The spouses could not see each other for months, since Lyubov Mendeleeva was an actress and often went on tour. But they still remained friends at the insistence of the poet, who believed that spiritual closeness was much more important than physical.

Nevertheless, Blok was very hard going through the problems in family life. And in 1908, when Lyubov Mendeleev got along with Alexander Bely, he wrote his own famous poem"About valor, about exploits, about glory ...", in which he spoke about his experiences. And he admitted that he managed to overcome a painful passion for a woman, who, by the will of fate, played a fatal role in the fate of the poet.

It is worth noting that the future spouses have known each other since childhood, as their families were friends. However, when they met years later, they barely recognized each other. Blok fell in love with a 16-year-old beauty who dreamed of becoming an actress. She responded to his courtship with complete indifference. By that time, Blok was fond of mysticism and was looking for secret signs of fate in any set of circumstances. And then one day, being a student and an aspiring poet, he met Mendeleev on the street, believing that this was not coincidence. Blok not only convinced himself that he loved this woman, but also infected Mendeleev herself with an unshakable belief that they were destined to be together. In 1903, the couple got married, but they really became husband and wife only a year later, since the poet refused to overshadow the ideal, in his opinion, spiritual union, with carnal pleasures.

Indeed, many eyewitnesses recalled that in life, Blok treated Mendeleeva not as a wife, but as a muse. And, recalling parting with her, he wrote in his poem that "tears shed, but you did not descend." The symbol of love for Mendeleeva for the poet was "a face in a simple frame" - a portrait of his wife, which after the wedding always stood on the poet's table. And this was also a kind of symbol, to which Blok attached special importance. He was convinced that it was this portrait that helped him in his work, while not paying any attention to his wife, who could stand behind him. As a result, the poet states the inevitable: “You sadly wrapped yourself in a blue cloak, you left the house on a damp night.”

It is noteworthy that for the poet Lyubov Mendeleev was not only a symbol of spiritual purity, but was also associated with youth. Therefore, the author notes that her departure marked the end of a carefree youth. “No longer dream of tenderness, of glory, everything has passed, youth has passed?” Blok asks. And he replies to himself that this is true. The woman whom the poet idolized took with her not only the feeling of lightness and carelessness inherent in youth, but also inspiration. However, Blok still managed to cope with his feelings, so he wrote: “I removed your face in a simple frame with my hand from the table.”

The poet could not even imagine that fate forever connected him with this woman. She left and returned. Blok even agreed to acknowledge her son own child, but at the same time he started novels on the side. However, until his death, he believed that Lyubov Mendeleev was " Holy place souls."

Read by V. Kachalov

Alexander Alexandrovich Blok lived and wrote in very difficult historical conditions, painfully feeling the lack of harmony in the “terrible world”. He did not feel it in his soul either. Only love could bring Blok that necessary, desired peace, without which it was impossible to live. Love was called upon to exclude chaos not only in the soul, but also in the world surrounding the poet. Blok deified the love that revealed to him lofty sense life. He devoted a large number of poems to this wonderful feeling. One of them - "About valor, about feats, about glory...".
This work was written in 1908. It has the structure of a ring composition: the first line repeats the last, but is opposed to it; at the end of the poem, the author seems to want to repeat the first line, but he no longer thinks of valor or exploits, he is looking for at least tenderness, but does not find it either.
The genre of the poem is a love letter. The hero turns to the beloved woman who left him. He has a passionate desire to return the love lost many years ago:

And I remembered you before the lectern,
And he called you, like his youth ...
I called you but you didn't look back
I shed tears, but you did not descend.
Those days when the face of a loved one shone have changed terrible days, spinning in a “cursed swarm”. Image " scary world” is symbolic, it is one of the key in the poem. Merging with the image of a damp night, it contrasts with the “blue cloak” of the past, the cloak that the heroine wrapped herself in when she left home (blue color is treason):

You sadly wrapped yourself in a blue cloak,
On a damp night, you left the house.
I do not know where the shelter of my pride
You, dear, you, gentle, found ...
I sleep soundly, I dream of your blue cloak,
In which you left on a damp night ...

Days are like nights, life seems like a dream ("I'm fast asleep"). Found in the poem a large number of epithets: “on the woeful earth”, “cherished ring”, “cursed swarm”, “damp night”. The tenderness with which the hero recalls his beloved, comparing her with his youth: “And he called you as his youth ...”, is emphasized in the work by such epithets as: “beautiful face”, “you, dear”, “you tender." There are personifications and metaphors in the poem: “when your face in a simple frame shone on the table in front of me”, “I threw the cherished ring into the night”, “you gave your fate to another”, “days flew”, “wine and passion tormented my life ".
If you carefully read the poem “On valor, on exploits, on glory ...”, then it is easy to see that it echoes the poem by A. S. Pushkin “I remember wonderful moment...”. Block has:

When your face is in a simple frame
In front of me shone on the table.
Pushkin:

I remember a wonderful moment:
You appeared before me.

“And I forgot your beautiful face” - “and I forgot your tender voice”; “days flew by” - “years went by”, etc. But, despite such similar scenario, the finals of the works are completely opposite: in Pushkin, by the end of the poem, the soul awakens, while in Blok we see only bitterness and despair (the hero did not return his beloved).
In the saving power of love, love as a cleansing bright feeling, A. Blok always believed and strove to give all of himself to love, great love to the woman, to the motherland. He devoted his feelings, thoughts, soul to love, which is clearly expressed in his work.

Comprehensive analysis of A. Blok's poem

“About valor, about exploits, about glory…”

Completed by: Course Student

in new sociocultural conditions"

1. Theme of the poem

In the work of Alexander Blok, the theme of love has always prevailed. Joy and sadness combined in his love lyrics, apparently because the ideal of a refined and sublime, proud and trusting, beautiful and tender woman did not find its earthly incarnation.

At first, Blok was very passionate about his future wife, Lyubov Dmitrievna Mendeleeva, to whom he dedicated the cycle “Poems about the Beautiful Lady”. According to the words, if you carefully read this book, you will see that “this is a true story about how one teenager fell in love with a neighbor so enthusiastically that he created the Radiant Virgin from her and transformed her entire surrounding landscape into unearthly villages. It was exactly what Dante did to Partinari's neighbor's daughter." lived and wrote in very difficult historical conditions, painfully feeling the lack of harmony in the "terrible world". He did not feel it in his soul either. Only love could bring Blok that necessary, desired peace, without which it was impossible to live. Love was called upon to exclude chaos not only in the soul, but also in the world surrounding the poet. Blok deified love, which revealed to him the lofty meaning of life. Great amount he dedicated poems to this wonderful feeling. One of them - "About valor, about feats, about glory...".
This poem was written in 1908 and was included in the third volume of the Poet's Collection of Poems. The cycle of "Retribution", to which the poem refers, continues the theme of the "terrible world". The word "retribution" is usually understood as punishment for a certain crime. Moreover, the punishment emanating from the outside, from someone. Retribution, according to Blok, is, first of all, a person's condemnation of himself, the judgment of his own conscience. The main fault of the hero is betrayal of once sacred vows, high love, a betrayal of human destiny. And the consequence of this is retribution: spiritual emptiness, weariness from life, submissive expectation of death. These motives are heard in all the poems of the "Retribution" cycle.
That high, sinless love has gone forever from the life of the poet, reality has destroyed the ideal, and the poet mourns for the lost pure dream, in which he is now unable to believe so strongly:

About valor, about exploits, about glory
I forgot in the woeful land

In front of me shone on the table ...
No longer dream of tenderness, of glory,
Everything is over, youth is gone!

I removed the table with my hand.

All the verses of the collection are imbued with a thirst “to see the unearthly in the earthly” (V. Bryusov). A purely personal experience is melted here into a universal one, into a mystery with the coming descent to the earth of the Eternal Femininity.

For six years, Blok wrote about one woman, dedicated 687 poems to her. In 1903, the poet married Lyubov Dmitrievna. This is where it stopped lyrical diary addressed to the Beautiful Lady. AT poetic world The block includes new themes, new images. In the cycle "Retribution", in which the poet prophesies a speedy judgment and retribution to the society that fettered, enslaved and "frozen" a person, the famous "About valor, feats, glory ..." (1908) is published. The poem is written in a special manner and differs markedly in style and subject matter from other poems in the "Retribution" cycle.

2. Genre

The genre of the poem is a love letter. This is a conversation with a portrait of a distant lover who once left the lyrical hero. However, the hero perceives him as a living, spiritualized image. That is why he calls him not a portrait, but a face, and, turning to the portrait, he speaks as if the beloved who left him is able to hear his words, realize the full depth of her mistake and, perhaps, return to the hero. The whole poem is built on the opposition of two images (the lyrical hero and his beloved woman), which only emphasizes the insurmountable distance between them.

3. Plot

The plot of the poem and its development are inextricably linked with the personality of the lyrical hero. In the first stanza, we see that the whole world of the hero is focused on the image of his beloved. About valor, about exploits, about glory

4. Artistic media

"I forgot on the woeful earth" - these first lines confirm that it is common for lovers to experience feelings complete satisfaction and harmony with the world and oneself only when the object of love is nearby.

But now “the hour has come,” in the second stanza, the beloved leaves the hero. And the meaning of life disappears with it. The loss of internal guidelines completely unsettles the hero, and he is left alone with the passions that "torment" his life.

During the period of time contained in the next three stanzas, the life of the lyrical hero is filled only with memories and pain from the realization of loss. However, in the last stanza, we see that he finally manages to make a mature decision to let go of the lost love, and this undoubtedly shows the maturation of the hero and his formation as a self-sufficient person.

Composition: size, rhyme, rhythm.

Poem size:

_ _" / _ _" / _ _" /_ _"/ _ _" /_ iambic pentameter. This poetic size used by many poets from Shakespeare to contemporaries" Silver Age". He recreates human speech within the framework of an epic or dramatic story, tension of will, clarity, firmness are inherent in him. It is obvious that Blok uses the names of this size to emphasize the tragedy expressed in the work.

Rhyme cross.

The first line of the last stanza "No more dreaming of tenderness, of glory ...", on the one hand, completes the poem, forming ring composition. On the other hand, it contains a deep thought that the personal happiness of a person and his social role are closely related.

trails. To give language literary work greater expressiveness are used special means: epithets, comparison, metaphors.

The first line of the work "On valor, on exploits, on glory ...", as it were, deceives the reader's expectation: it seems that we will talk about the topic of civic duty. However, love experiences turn out to be most important for the hero at a certain stage of life, so great and boundless is the bitterness of his loss. In the poem, we come across a large number of epithets: "on the woeful earth", "cherished ring", "cursed swarm", "damp night". The tenderness with which the hero remembers his beloved, comparing her with his youth: "And he called you as his youth", is reflected in the work with such epithets as: "beautiful face", "you, dear", "you, tender" . There are personifications and metaphors in the poem: “when your face is in a simple frame”, “it shone on the table in front of me”, “I threw the cherished ring into the night”, “you gave your fate to another”, “days flew”, “wine and passion

tormented my life", "I sleep soundly."
From the first lines, the poet hints to the reader at the mood of the whole work, using the epithet "On the woeful earth." In the second stanza in a central way is cherished ring- a symbol of love fidelity. The boundless despair of the lyrical hero, caused by the departure of his beloved, is expressed in the episode when he throws out the “cherished ring”. Night in this case symbolizes darkness and the unknown. However, according to the aesthetic views of the symbolist poets, to which he belonged, the meaning of a symbol can never be fully exhausted. In this case, it can be perceived more broadly: the night is the time when demonic forces rise. Despair and the loss of the meaning of life for the narrator are described by the epithets "damned swarm", "damp night".

To convey to the reader how much his chosen one meant to the hero, the comparison is used: “And he called you as his youth.” The author points out that with the departure of love, the better days our hero's life. The serene youth is behind, the time has come for a harsh growing up.

The metaphors "when your face is in a simple frame", "before me shone on the table", pointing us to the heroine, reflect what lyrical hero inclined to deify and idealize her even after the betrayal. "I threw the cherished ring into the night", "you gave your fate to another" - these metaphors, as it were, indicate the choice of both characters and the fact that their paths diverge. Blok uses the personifications “days flew by”, “wine and passion tormented my life” to show that otherworldly dark forces dominate the life and fate of the hero, with which he does not want to fight. Strength love feeling the lyrical hero is also updated by the motive of sleep:

"I sleep soundly, I sleep your blue cloak,

In which you went into the damp night.

Stylistic figures:

Repetitions/refrain: "a face in a simple frame." Repetition demonstrates the importance for the author of the described object, process, action, etc. When using this figure, the author repeatedly mentions something that particularly excited him, also concentrating the reader's attention on this.

Antithesis: Contrasting - means of expression, which makes it possible to make a particularly strong impression on the reader, to convey to him the strong excitement of the author due to the rapid change of concepts that are opposite in meaning, used in the text of the poem. Also, opposite emotions, feelings and experiences of the author or his hero can be used as an object of opposition.

"When your face is in a simple frame

In front of me shone on the table ...

Your face in its simple frame

With my hand I removed from the table”;

Inversion: “They tormented my life”, “your blue cloak”, “I left on a damp night”, “I cleared the table”. Inversion in poetic texts performs an accent or semantic function, a rhythm-forming function for building a poetic text, as well as the function of creating a verbal-figurative picture.

Assonance: “I don’t know where your shelter is pride/ I sleep soundly, I dream of your cloak blue"," Everything passed, youth passed! / With my hand I removed from table».

Anaphora gives the text additional emotionality.

“And I remembered you before the lectern,

And he called you, as his youth ... "

Even after years, the lyrical hero still remembers that fateful day of farewell:

"I called you, but you did not look back,

I shed tears, but you did not descend.

Synonyms: valor, deeds, glory; sweet, tender.

Archaisms: the hour has come, lectern, pride.

In the poem "On valor, on exploits, on glory," an image of a man devastated by life appears with hard fate. The poem is autobiographical, because during this period his first love leaves him - Lyubov Dmitrievna, granddaughter famous chemist Mendeleev, and goes to close friend Blok - to the poet Andrei Bely.

After parting with his beloved, the hero lost the meaning of life, he lost himself. He does not meet again true love, on the life path he encounters only passion. We see that, having lost his beloved, the hero lost faith in life, lost his moral support. The loss turned the carefree life of the hero into existence. He is tormented by wine and passion, but this is not a spiritual life, but only a sinful parody of it, burning and devastating the soul. It is symbolic that the hero remembers his beloved in front of the lectern (an lectern is a high table with a sloping top, on which icons and holy books). Obviously, in love, he seeks salvation for his lost soul. Also, it is in front of the lectern in the Temple that the wedding ceremony is held. This image is used to show how dear to the hero are already forgotten vows of eternal love and fidelity.

The line "Everything is over, youth is gone!" emphasizes that time cannot be turned back. A man, immersed in his sufferings, and then, seeking to be consoled, spending his days in search of truth in wine, lost not only love. He lost everything. The ambitious dreams of youth are irrevocably a thing of the past. Life plans remained unfulfilled. Only realizing this, the lyrical hero found the strength to remove the portrait of his beloved from the table. However, having lost his beloved, the lyrical hero did not become embittered against her. Years later, he still calls her sweet and gentle. The gap is perceived by him as a fatal accident, in which pride is to blame.

All his life he cherished the hope of her return. The portrait removed from the table at the end of the poem testifies to the final loss of this hope, but at the same time it is a certain courageous step of a person in which the mind finally defeated the painful feeling that has grown to universal proportions. However, the hero managed to put so much grief and longing into this farewell gesture that the reader, even realizing the correctness of the perfect deed, still continues to sympathize with the unfortunate person.

The poem has a pronounced dramatic beginning, which is typical for the lyrics in general. Typical love triangle turned into an inconsolable drama of a broken heart. Some of the images in the poem also resemble the details of theatrical props.

During this difficult period, the poet breaks with his symbolist friends. Blok seemed to be drowning despair in wine. But despite this, main theme poems of the period of the "Terrible World" still remains love. But the one about whom the poet writes his magnificent poems is no longer the same Beautiful lady but fatal passion, temptress, destroyer. She torments and burns the poet, but he cannot escape from her bonds, her power.

Even about the vulgarity and rudeness of the terrible world, Blok writes soulfully and beautifully. Although he no longer believes in love, does not believe in anything, but the image of a stranger in the poems of this period still remains beautiful. The poet hated cynicism and vulgarity - they were never in his poems.

If you carefully read the poem "About valor, about exploits, about glory ...", then it is easy to see that it echoes the poem "I remember a wonderful moment ...".
When your face is in a simple frame
In front of me shone on the table ...
In Pushkin we see similar lines:
I remember a wonderful moment:
You appeared before me.
"And I forgot your beautiful face" - "And I forgot your gentle voice." "Days flew" - "years went by." But, despite such a similar scenario, the endings of the poems are completely opposite: at the end of the poem, the soul awakens, in Blok we see only bitterness, despair (the hero did not return his beloved).
In the saving faith of love, love as a cleansing bright feeling, A. Blok always believed and strove to give all of himself to the great love for a woman, for the Motherland ... He dedicated his feelings, thoughts, soul to love, which is clearly expressed in poems throughout his work poet, whose name Russia is still proud of.

Analysis of Blok's poem "On valor, on exploits, on glory" (addressed to his wife).
I. Love is peace for the soul.
II. Analysis of the poem.
1. The composition of the poem.
2. The genre of the poem.
3. Epithets, personifications, metaphors.
4 Parallel with Pushkin's poem.
III. Faith in love is the salvation of the soul.
Alexander Alexandrovich Blok lived and wrote in very difficult historical conditions, painfully feeling the lack of harmony in the "terrible world". He did not feel it in his soul either. Only love could bring Blok that necessary, desired peace, without which it was impossible to live. Love was called upon to exclude chaos not only in the soul, but also in the world surrounding the poet. Blok deified love, which revealed to him the lofty meaning of life. He devoted a large number of poems to this wonderful feeling. One of them - "About valor, about feats, about glory".
This poem was written in 1908. That high, sinless love has gone forever from the life of the poet, reality has destroyed the ideal, and the poet mourns for the lost pure dream, in which he is now unable to believe so strongly:
About valor, about exploits, about glory
I forgot in the woeful land

In front of me shone on the table
No longer dream of tenderness, of glory,
Everything is over, youth is gone!
Your face in its simple frame
I removed the table with my hand.
The poem "On valor, on exploits, on glory" has the structure of a ring composition: the first line repeats the last, but is opposed to it; at the end of the poem, the author seems to want to repeat the first line, but he no longer thinks of valor or exploits, he is looking for at least tenderness, but does not find it either.
The genre of the poem is a love letter. The hero turns to the beloved woman who left him. He has a passionate desire to return the love lost many years ago:


I called you but you didn't look back
I shed tears, but you did not descend.
After parting with his beloved, the hero lost the meaning of life, he lost himself. He did not meet more and true love, on his life path

There was only passion
The days flew by, spinning with a cursed swarm
Wine and passion tormented my life
And I remembered you before the lectern,
And he called you as his youth
Those days when the face of the beloved shone were replaced by terrible days, spinning like a "damned swarm". The image of the "terrible world" is symbolic, it is one of the key in the poem. Merging with the image of a wet night, it contrasts with the "blue cloak" of the past, the cloak that the heroine wrapped herself in when she left home (blue color is treason):
You sadly wrapped yourself in a blue cloak,
On a damp night, you left the house.

I do not know where the shelter of my pride
You, gentle, you, dear, found
I sleep soundly, I dream of your blue cloak,
In which you left on a damp night.
Days are like nights, life seems like a dream ("I'm fast asleep").
In the poem, we come across a large number of epithets: "on the woeful earth", "cherished ring", "cursed swarm", "damp night". The tenderness with which the hero remembers his beloved, comparing her with his youth: "And he called you as his youth," is reflected in the work with such epithets as: "beautiful face", "you, dear", "you, tender". There are personifications and metaphors in the poem: “when your face is in a simple frame”, “it shone on the table in front of me”, “I threw the cherished ring into the night”, “you gave your fate to another”, “days flew”, “wine and passion tormented my life", "I sleep soundly."
If you carefully read the poem "On valor, on exploits, on glory", then it is easy to see that it echoes the poem by A.S. Pushkin "I remember a wonderful moment".
When your face is in a simple frame
In front of me shone on the table
In Pushkin we see similar lines:
I remember a wonderful moment:
You appeared before me.
"And I forgot your beautiful face" - "And I forgot your gentle voice." "Days flew" - "years went by." But, despite such a similar scenario, the endings of the poems are completely opposite: A.S. Pushkin, by the end of the poem, the soul awakens, while in Blok we see only bitterness, despair (the hero did not return his beloved).
In the saving faith of love, love as a purifying light feeling, A. Blok always believed and strove to give all of himself to love, great love for a woman, for the Motherland. He devoted his feelings, thoughts, soul to love, which is clearly expressed in his poems throughout the work of the great poet, whose name we are proud of to this day.

Reading the verse “About valor, about exploits, about glory” by Alexander Alexandrovich Blok is offered to students in grade 11 in a literature lesson. At home, he is asked to learn completely by heart. On our website you can download it to your gadget for free or read it online.

The text of Blok's poem "On valor, on exploits, on glory" was written in 1908. It is dedicated to the wife of the poet Lyubov Mendeleeva. Alexander Alexandrovich had a very difficult relationship with her. They met in childhood. Then they didn't see each other for a while. In their youth they met again. The poet fell deeply in love with her and, in the end, in 1903 they signed. They converged, then diverged, but nevertheless, she was a muse for him all her life. This work was created after her next departure. In it, he writes that she left him on a damp night in a blue cloak. With the help of the color of the clothes, he tries to convey to the reader that she did not just leave him. She went to the other person. Blue color symbolizes change. Blok was very upset by this event. He couldn't understand why she did it. He couldn't think of anything but her. In a verse, he writes that he began to drink a lot, change women, but this did not help him to forget. She was always in front of his eyes. Even in his sleep, he constantly dreamed of her. He called Lyubov Mendeleeva back, but she did not return. For Alexander Alexandrovich, her departure was eventually marked not only by the loss of her beloved, but also by the loss of his youth. All his dreams, thoughts, desires were connected with her, but she was no longer around. That young ardent boy who was hopelessly in love with her was also gone. In the last stanza, we learn that after a while he was still able to cope with the pain of loss, he forgot his beloved. In it, Alexander Alexandrovich writes that he removed the portrait of his beloved from the table.

About valor, about exploits, about glory
I forgot in the woeful land
When your face is in a simple frame
In front of me shone on the table.

But the hour has come, and you left the house.
I threw the cherished ring into the night.
You gave your fate to another
And I forgot the beautiful face.

The days flew by, spinning like a cursed swarm ...
Wine and passion tormented my life...
And I remembered you before the lectern,
And he called you, like his youth ...

I called you but you didn't look back
I shed tears, but you did not descend.
You sadly wrapped yourself in a blue cloak,
On a damp night, you left the house.

I don't know where your pride is
You, dear, you, gentle, found ...
I sleep soundly, I dream of your blue cloak,
In which you went into the damp night ...

No longer dream of tenderness, of glory,
Everything is over, youth is gone!
Your face in its simple frame
I removed the table with my hand.