Each artist of the word, to one degree or another, in his work touched upon the question of the purpose of the poet and poetry.
The best Russian writers and poets highly appreciated the role of art in the life of the state and in the life of society, and especially the affirming significance of poetry. The poet has always been considered a herald of progressive ideas, a defender of the interests of the people.
Mayakovsky could not ignore this topic and expressed his attitude towards it in many of his poems, such as “At the top of his voice”, “Poet-worker”, “Conversation with the financial inspector about poetry” and others.
In the miniatures “Order No. 1” and “Order No. 2 of the Army of Art,” Mayakovsky sought to theoretically comprehend the tasks of the new art. And in his fundamental article “How to Make Poems,” Mayakovsky talks about the enormous work on the word, on the line and on the verse.
One of Mayakovsky’s first poems about the purpose of the poet and his work is “The Worker Poet.” With the help of vivid metaphors, Mayakovsky says that his work is important, like the work of any technician: “I am also a factory. And if without pipes, then maybe it’s more difficult for me without pipes.”
In almost all of his lyrical works on this topic, Mayakovsky writes that poetic creativity for him is a huge and painstaking work, which, as a rule, is not appreciated, despised by many and often dangerous.
But this does not discourage Mayakovsky from writing poetry and glorifying the work of the poet:
We have a huge job ahead of us -
Every person needs poetry.
Let's work until we sweat
Over the concept of quantity,
To improve quality.
The poem “Conversation with the Financial Inspector about Poetry” continues the tradition of conversation about literature and its place in the life of society. It is reminiscent of Pushkin’s poem “Conversation of a Bookseller with a Poet.”
Mayakovsky turned to such a dialogue for a reason, because writers at that time were subject to taxes and many of them protested in the press about this. For Mayakovsky:
Poetry is like radium mining.
Production per gram, labor per year.
You exhaust one word for the sake of
Thousands of tons of verbal ore.
In another poem - “Brothers Writers” - Mayakovsky addresses poets who write carefree romantic poems and prefer not to touch on the bitter truth of life in them:
Aren't the pages, palaces,
Love, lilac bush for you?
If people like you are creators -
I don't care about any art.
Original poetic forms of your poems (without beautiful words, correct rhymes and sound) Mayakovsky justifies in one of his own works entitled “Reflections on Ivan Molchanov and Poetry,” where he says: “Now it is a low honor for me that I introduce wonderful rhymes. The main thing for me is to eat better, eat better than the bourgeois,” and continues this thought in another poem: “... the poet’s rhyme is a caress and a slogan, and a bayonet, and a whip.”
“My work is akin to any work,” Mayakovsky writes in his poem “At the Top of My Voice,” where his reflections on Soviet poetry are heard. Here he speaks with hatred of petty-bourgeois poetry with its base ideals and compares it with real creations created by the poet’s labor: “Poems stand leaden-heavy, ready for both death and immortal glory.”
“At the top of my voice” is Mayakovsky’s final work. Probably, by this time the poet already had a presentiment of his death - with pain and pride he declares: “Die, my poem, die like a private, like our nameless ones died during the assaults.”
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Russian classical literature has given the world magnificent examples of poetic creativity. The poems of Pushkin, Lermontov, Nekrasov became true masterpieces. One of the main topics for these great masters of words was the problem of the purpose and place of poetry in life, the purpose of the poet, his role in society.
A. S. Pushkin, with all his creativity, asserted the unity of poetry and real life. For him, the poet was a person endowed with a divine gift. The muse should not turn away from people, considering it unworthy to pay attention to simple plots. For Pushkin, a poet is a prophet capable of influencing society with his creativity. The poem “The Prophet” is dedicated to this topic, in which the voice of the author is heard calling on the poet:
“Rise up, prophet and leader, and listen,
Be fulfilled by my will,
And, bypassing the seas and lands,
Burn the hearts of people with the verb.”
A poet can see and feel what others cannot. But he is obliged to dedicate his gift to people, and not languish with “spiritual thirst” or go into the transcendental heights of dreams and dreams. This is the deep conviction of Pushkin himself, who in the poem “Monument” addresses the muse with instructions:
By the command of God, O muse, be obedient,
Without fear of insult, without demanding a crown,
Praise and slander were accepted indifferently
And don't challenge a fool.
A. S. Pushkin until his death remained devoted to his convictions, faith in the high purpose of poetry, the power and abilities of a poet-citizen, poet-prophet.
These views were fully shared by Pushkin’s successor M. Yu. Lermontov. The same motives sound in his work, but time has left its mark on the poet’s poems. During the years of reaction, the poet's fate was very difficult. In the poem “The Poet,” Lermontov compares the poet with a dagger, which used to be a formidable weapon that served its master faithfully. And now the dagger has become a toy, no one needs it. So the poet lost his purpose and exchanged his mighty voice for gold. Previously, the poet’s words raised the spirit of people, sounded “like a bell on a veche tower on days of celebration and troubles of the people.” It is painful for Lermontov to observe how petty and deceptive poetic creativity has become. He asks bitterly, hoping for a better future:
Will you wake up again, mocked prophet?..
Or never to the voice of vengeance
You cannot snatch your blade from its golden scabbard,
Covered with the rust of contempt?..
Lermontov himself experienced the full severity of the position of the poet-prophet in his contemporary society. In the poem “The Prophet,” the hero faces a completely different fate than the hero of Pushkin’s poem of the same name. People didn’t need the “God’s gift” of the prophet; he had to live in the forest, hide from people:
I began to proclaim love
And the truth is pure teachings:
All my neighbors are in me
They threw stones wildly.
This is exactly what their “neighbors” did with Pushkin and Lermontov, whose lives were cut short in the prime of their creative powers. Pushkin died, Lermontov fell in a duel, but in Russia there was a man who continued the work of great artists.
N. A. Nekrasov dedicated all his work to the Russian people. The poet's lyrics served as a model of citizenship for his contemporaries. A poet, first of all, must be a citizen, Nekrasov said, and serve the people:
It's a shame to sleep with your talent.
It’s even more shameful in a time of grief
The beauty of the valleys, skies and sea
And sing of sweet affection...
Nekrasov calls on poetry to be an expression of people's interests. The poet is obliged to write about the people and for the people:
Be a citizen! Serving art
Live for the good of your neighbor,
Subordinating your genius to feeling
All-embracing love...
The same theme is heard in the poem “Elegy”. Nekrasov argues that poetry cannot forget about the suffering and aspirations of the common people, because this is precisely its high purpose. The most worthy for the lyre:
Remind the crowd that the people are in poverty
While she rejoices and sings.
Arouse people's attention powerful of the world…
Nekrasov's poetry, like the lyrics of Pushkin and Lermontov, had a huge influence on the minds and hearts of people. These great Russian poets raised poetic creativity to unattainable heights, earning fame and recognition from their descendants. And Nekrasov’s words can be safely attributed to each of the brilliant poets of Russia:
I dedicated the lyre to my people...
Pushkin and Lermontov are two geniuses of Russian literature, two great Russian poets. IN different time they created their masterpieces. The heyday of Pushkin’s creativity occurred during a period of social upsurge in Russian society. A.S. Pushkin was well acquainted with many of those who “went into the fire for the honor of the Fatherland.” Lermontov worked during the years of reaction that came after the defeat of the uprising in Senate Square. However, Lermontov's poetry is as freedom-loving as Pushkin's lyrics, and patriotic motives are strong in the poems of both poets.
A. S. Pushkina with youth I was concerned about the topic of Russia, its people, its glorious history. In his romantic poems, the poet glorifies the free Motherland:
Tremble, tyrant! The hour of fall is near!
You will see a hero in every warrior,
Their goal is either to win or to fall in the heat of battle
For Rus', for the holiness of the altar.
The young poet graduated from the Lyceum, his poetic skill grew. The theme of patriotism never ceased to be heard in Pushkin’s works. True patriotism for him was associated with the struggle for freedom. The poet calls for selfless service home country. This is the main idea of the poems “To Chaadaev”, “Village”, and the ode “Liberty”. The message “To Chaadaev” reflects the views that united the poet with the future Decembrists. Pushkin calls on his friend to fight for the freedom of Russia. Love for her is inseparable from the struggle for her happiness:
While we are burning with freedom,
While hearts are alive for honor,
My friend, let's dedicate it to the fatherland
Beautiful impulses from the soul!
In a friendly message, the poet poses the problem of the unity of personal and public interests. The image of the poet reflected in the poem is beautiful with the strength and spontaneity of patriotic feeling. The poem “Village” with great poignancy raises the problem of the abolition of serfdom and the liberation of the country from slavery. Pushkin is outraged by what is happening in the country that he loves so much. It is impossible to admire our native nature as long as “wild lordship” oppresses “skinny slavery.” The poet asks with pain in his heart:
I'll see, oh friends! The people are not oppressed
And slavery, which fell due to the king’s mania,
And over the fatherland of enlightened freedom
Will the beautiful dawn finally rise?
But Pushkin believes that “she will rise, a star of captivating happiness.” And after the defeat of the Decembrist uprising, he remained faithful to the ideals of the progressive people of the era. In the poems “In the depths of the Siberian ores...”, “Arion”, Pushkin glorifies the great feat of the Decembrists, accomplished for the benefit of the country. In the 30s, patriotism in Pushkin’s lyrics was especially pronounced in the days Polish uprising. The poet appears neither as a defender of the monarchy nor as an enemy of the Polish people, but as a Russian patriot thinking about the fate of Russia:
But you, tormentors of the chambers,
Easy-tongue twists,
You, the rabble of the disastrous alarm,
Slanderers, enemies of Russia!
In the poem “Monument,” which is a kind of summing up of his poetic activity, Pushkin says that he has always remained a humanist, a freedom-lover and a patriot. Until his death, the poet was true to his ideals.
Pushkin's death “awakened” Lermontov. The previously unknown poet became familiar to every Russian person. Hatred of serfdom, thirst for freedom, protest against autocracy made him related to the progressive people of the era. A true example of Lermontov’s civic lyricism was the poem “The Death of a Poet,” in which the Russian poet responded to a great loss. The poet was keenly concerned with the topic social behavior person. A poet-citizen, Lermontov loved his homeland with great love. He wished happiness to his country, the Russian people, contrasting his patriotism with official patriotism:
I love the Fatherland, but with a strange love!
My reason will not defeat her.
Nor glory bought with blood,
Nor the peace full of proud trust...
The poet admires Russian nature, folk holidays. Lermontov hates the “country of slaves”, the “country of masters”. He refers to the glorious period in the life of Russia, which defeated Napoleon. The poet speaks about the strength of Russian character, about the courage of the common people who defended their Motherland:
We'll go and break the wall,
Let's stand with our heads
For your homeland!
Lermontov glorifies the feat of arms, the heroism of the people in the war:
The enemy experienced a lot that day,
What does Russian fighting mean?
Our hand-to-hand combat!
This is true patriotism! This is exactly how Lermontov understood the feeling of love for Russia, and this was reflected in the poet’s works.
It is difficult to overestimate the importance of the poetry of Pushkin and Lermontov. A. S. Pushkin laid the foundation of Russian poetry, M. Yu. Lermontov “picked up the banner” from the hands of the murdered Pushkin. Both citizen poets sang of Russia, free from “slavery and chains.” And with this they deserved historical immortality, love and gratitude of their descendants.
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Theme of the poet and poetry
In the lyrics of A.S. Pushkin's theme of the poet and poetry occupies a very important place. Pushkin’s interest in this topic is quite understandable. One of the most brilliant poets of world significance, well acquainted with the poetry of all times and peoples, who devoted his entire life to poetic creativity, he wrote more than a dozen poems that reveal the theme of the poet and poetry from different sides. “A Conversation between a Bookseller and a Poet”, “The Prophet”, “The Poet”, “The Poet and the Crowd”, “To the Poet”, “Echo”, “Monument” - these are Pushkin’s most important poems on this topic. Who is a poet? What is his place in society? What should his work be like? How should he relate to the world around him? Let's see what answers Alexander Sergeevich gives to these difficult questions. Considering this topic in Pushkin’s lyrics, it seems to me that first of all we need to turn to his masterpiece “The Prophet”. This poem, written in 1826, tells the reader about the spiritual qualities and purpose of the poet. The title and content of the work tell us about Pushkin’s use of the biblical legend about the prophet Isaiah, who is in despair, seeing the depravity of people, and feels desecrated. The hero of the poem is in a dejected state, he is tormented by “spiritual thirst,” and then the messenger of God, the six-winged seraphim, appears to him." He is endowed with an acuity of vision unusual for a person: With fingers as light as a dream, he touched my eyes. The prophetic eyes opened, Like those of a frightened woman. And then: He touched my ears, And they were filled with noise and ringing: And I heard the trembling of the sky, And the flight of angels from above, And the underwater passage of the sea, And the vegetation of distant vines Now the poet is gifted with a subtle sense of perception of life, he is freed from doubts and fear, but this is not enough: And he cut my chest with a sword, And he took out my trembling heart, And he pushed a coal, blazing with fire, into my open chest. So, a poet, according to Pushkin, should strive for knowledge and moral purity, he should have a genius insight, the ability to see and understand what is often inaccessible ordinary people, and most importantly, the gift of speech, a soul capable of deeply feeling and experiencing. The opportunities that have opened up for the poet, on the one hand, elevate him above people, and on the other, place a difficult task on him. His mission is to “burn the hearts of people with a verb,” that is, to bring people the truth, fight evil, promote the progress of life, awaken in a person’s soul the best that is in him. The poem “Echo” is also important to consider for a clearer understanding of Pushkin’s thoughts about the poet. Written in 1831, it reflects the poet’s mood at the moment of the greatest aggravation of his relations with noble society. The poet feels lonely among empty people busy chasing insignificant goals. Secular society did not understand or appreciate creative activity poet, was alien and hostile to him. The whole poem is like one big comparison: the poet is like an echo. Just as an echo responds to all the sounds of the world, so the poet reflects in his work all the phenomena of the life around him. But, like an echo, the poet does not find a response to his calls. On August 21, 1836, Pushkin wrote the poem "Monument". This work is, as it were, a poetic expression of the brilliant poet’s many years of reflection on questions about the purpose of art, about the essential aspects of his creativity, about his services to the Motherland and the people. He says that the people’s path to his “miraculous monument” will not be overgrown,” that is, the people will turn to his works as an inexhaustible source of ideological, moral and artistic values. great poet believes that his responsible mission has been completed: And for a long time will I be so kind to the people, That I awakened good feelings with my lyre? That in my cruel age I glorified freedom and called for mercy for the fallen. The poet addressed all the peoples of his homeland as equal members of one family (“and every language in it will call me. And the proud grandson of the Slavs, and the Finn, and the now wild Tungus, and the friend of the steppes Kalmyk”). The poet's monument rose above the "rebellious head" higher than the Alexandria pillar. Pushkin had the right to talk about this. No persecution of the government and its servants broke the freedom-loving views. In ideological and artistic terms, Pushkin's "Monument" stands immeasurably higher than poems on the same topic created by the poet's predecessors (Horace, Lomonosov, Derzhavin). How much more significant in socio-political terms is the merits of the Poet (with capital letters Poet!) before the people, noted by him in his “Monument”: the struggle for freedom, the protection of the oppressed (“fallen”), the education of “good feelings”. So, firmness, determination, exactingness, contempt for the “court of a fool”, for awards and honors - these are the qualities that Pushkin considers obligatory for all poets. The poet hears the whole world and must be deaf only to the opinions of the “uninitiated.” It is loyalty to these principles that leads him to immortality. The poem “Monument” is a testament to Russian poetry: By the command of God, O muse, be obedient, Without fear of resentment, without demanding a crown; Praise and slander were accepted with indifference and do not challenge the fool.
The theme of the poet and poetry was leading in the work of A.S. Pushkin throughout his life. While the ideals of freedom, creativity, inspiration and happiness of the poet changed, the theme of the poetic purpose of the poet and poetry in public life remained constant.
Already during early creativity Pushkin expresses his opinion about contemporary poets with a considerable amount of irony. The poem “Licinia” is indicative, which reflects the poet’s attitude to Russian reality and anticipates the political cycle of the St. Petersburg period. Here the image of a poet appears, standing above sinful earthly power, obedient only to the truth:
In righteous satire I will depict vice
And I will reveal the customs of their centuries to posterity.
Thus, at the moment of greatest irritation with injustice, pettiness of views and the pickiness of the majority of his critics, who did not understand the true tasks of literature, Pushkin, with all the clarity of poetic thought, hones in his work the theme of the purpose of the poet and poetry. The poet, unable to follow the backward aesthetic views of his time, also did not want to meet the demands of the world, which saw in literature a means for moral teaching in the spirit of loyal morality.
In the poems “The Poet,” “The Poet and the Crowd,” and “To the Poet,” Pushkin proclaims the idea of freedom and independence of the poet from the crowd, the mob, meaning by these words the secular mob, people deeply indifferent to true poetry. The call for the poet to “follow the free path” did not at all mean that Pushkin acted as a preacher of “art for art’s sake.” The point was different: the poet despised authors who write aimlessly. The proclamation by A.S. Pushkin of the idea of freedom of the poet and his art was caused not by the fact that the poet really deprived poetry of a public role, separated art from public life, but by the fact that he wanted to preserve the independence of his talent from encroachments by the ruling circles and public opinion. All the activities of the great poet, his views on the tasks of poetry speak of Pushkin’s defense of the idea of serving art, poetry, life, and society. The poet is called upon, like the prophet, to “burn the hearts of people with his verb.” Even in the ode “Liberty,” Pushkin formulated one of the poet’s main tasks:
I want to sing Freedom to the world,
... Smite vice on the thrones.
A realistic note subsequently sounds in the poem “Echo.” In it, the poet develops the idea that, like an echo, a poet in his work must reflect everything that happens in reality, especially in his homeland.
Of course, the most striking lyrical work reflecting the theme of the purpose of poetry is the poem “The Prophet”. Before us is a poet, tormented by thirst, who suddenly turns into a prophet. The magical metamorphoses that happen to the poet turn him into the bearer of a great poetic idea. The newly acquired warmth of his heart forces him to preach truths known only to him. Reviving the hero, God gives him instructions:
And, bypassing the seas and lands,
... Burn the hearts of people with the verb.
Thus, Pushkin tells the reader about the poet’s chosenness by God, his special gift to see and notice the phenomena of life much more sensitively than those around him, comprehending what is happening around him more deeply and wisely. At the same time, the prophet is faced with the task of bringing the truth to the people, embodying it in poetry.
The poet repeatedly thinks about the question: do the people need these truths? Suddenly the poet understands that the seeds of providence are falling on barren soil. So the poet finds himself face to face with a hostile crowd that does not understand his poetic work. It turns out that the people do not need freedom (“Freedom is a desert sower”), because they have only one heritage in their blood:
A yoke with rattles and a whip.
The same idea is heard in the poem “The Poet and the Crowd.” According to Pushkin, a poet unrecognized by the “cold crowd” should not value people’s love; on the contrary, his work is even more elevated to the status of being chosen:
You are the king: live alone. On the road to freedom
... Go wherever your free mind takes you.
In the poem “I erected a monument to myself, not made by hands,” A.S. Pushkin sums up his work and substantiates his life and creative principles. Only art, in the opinion of the great poet, can “survive the ashes and escape decay,” and its direct purpose is to awaken “good feelings” and to glorify freedom in a “cruel age.” It was these principles that Pushkin followed throughout his life.
Lesson Plan
Educational.
Developmental.
Educational.
Equipment.
A stand with portraits, illustrations, books on the topic of the lesson.
During the classes
Teacher's opening remarks:
This theme is traditional, cross-cutting in European culture. The poet's monologue about himself is found in ancient poetry.
Key aspects:
The creative process, its purpose and meaning
- the relationship between the poet and the reader (the “crowd” motif)
- the relationship between the poet and the authorities (the “poet and the king” situation)
- the poet’s relationship with himself (guilt, conscience, justification)
All these areas of the topic are widely represented in Pushkin. During the lyceum period of creativity, we encounter the image of a poet - an idle sloth (goes back to Batyushkov). But already in the poem “Licinius” the theme of the poet’s civil mission is heard, his tasks before posterity are spoken of:
In satire I will depict righteous vice
And I will reveal the morals of these centuries to posterity.
The theme of the poet and poetry in Pushkin’s lyrics is closely connected with the theme of freedom - in the aspect of freedom of creativity - and on different stages reveals itself differently. The same theme will be decisive in the poems “Liberty” (1817) and “Village” (1819).
In “Liberty,” the poet seems to renounce the theme of love that previously worried him and devotes his talent to chanting freedom:
Run, hide from sight,
Cytheras are a weak queen!
Where are you, where are you, thunderstorm of kings,
Freedom's proud singer?
Come, tear off the wreath from me,
Break the pampered lyre...
Further in the text of “Liberty” the image of the poet is concretized: we see a pensive singer who reflects on the fate of the tyrant, looking at the “abandoned palace” of Paul I, boldly gives a “lesson” to the kings in the last stanza of the poem.
In the elegy “Village,” the poet, free from vanity and delusion in a sweet rural solitude, surrounded by the works of great writers and thinkers, wants to give his poetry civic pathos:
There's a barren heat burning in my chest
And hasn’t the fate of my life given me a formidable gift?
In addition to the motive of civil service, during this period the motive of the internal (“secret”) freedom and independence of the poet (“N.Ya.Plyusova”) acquired special significance:
Only by learning to glorify freedom,
Sacrificing poetry only to her,
I was not born to amuse kings
My shy muse.
………………………………………
And my incorruptible voice
There was an echo of the Russian people.
The idea of a select circle of poets as initiates, “friends of the sacred truth”, opposed to the crowd (“Zhukovsky”):
You're right, you create for the few,
Not for envious judges,
Not for the poor collectors
Other people's judgments and news,
But for the strict friends of talent,
Sacred truth friends.
These motives remain significant for Pushkin throughout his work.
Subsequently, new motives appear in Pushkin’s reading of the theme of the poet and poetry.
In the poem “Conversation between a bookseller and a poet,” which is written in the form of a dialogue,
What explains this choice?
The dialogue form of the poem conveys the conflicting points of view of the bookseller and the poet on issues of art.
we encounter the image of a romantic poet who makes high demands on art and speaks of the selflessness of his creativity.
- Carefully re-read the first 5 answers of the poet. What three aspects of creativity does the poet reject, and why? Which answer is the meaningful climax of the poem? What autobiographical motives are heard in these answers?
The poet rejects three aspects of creativity:
1) for the sake of money;
2) for the sake of fame;
3) for the sake of a woman.
Disillusioned with his work (neither the crowd nor his beloved are able to comprehend it), the poet chooses freedom.
What will you choose?
Freedom (!!! – culmination).
But to be free, you must sell your labor:
Inspiration is not for sale
But you can sell the manuscript.
This is how freedom and dependence on the public turned out to be connected
What demands does time make?
Our age is a huckster; in this iron age
Without money there is no freedom.
What's glory? – Bright patch
On the singer's shabby rags.
But what if the poet agrees with the demands of cruel times?
The poet will cease to be himself!!!
What becomes the embodiment of this?
The intrusion of prose into the final line of the poem: “You are absolutely right. Here's my manuscript. Let's agree."
Teacher's word.
It is impossible to protect poetry only by human forces from the onset of cruel human vulgarity, and therefore the search for the highest protection for the creative freedom of art leads to the appearance of philosophical motives in Pushkin’s poems about the poet and poetry.
Thus, in “The Prophet” (written in 1826 on the road from Mikhailovskoye to Moscow, where the disgraced poet was traveling to meet the Tsar) biblical motifs are heard. The poem is directly related to the topic of the poet and poetry, because the word “verb” is the main weapon of both the prophet and the poet.
Conversation.
What philosophical meaning does the poet put into the motifs “spirit of thirst”, “desert”, “crossroads” at the beginning of the poem?
Pushkin’s poem “The Prophet” is interesting to compare with its biblical source. The “Book of the Prophet Isaiah” talks about how a person wanted to become a prophet (a prophet is a messenger of God’s will in the Bible, a predictor; prophets cultivated faith and piety among the people, led civil rulers, performed miracles, wrote sacred books). In Pushkin, the hero does not at all consider himself superior to people and does not want to oppose himself to them. This man did not at all consider himself a being of a higher order and was not preparing to be a prophet. He was chosen by the six-winged seraphim, and this angel of the highest rank will perform all actions with a person without asking his desire.
Why was this person chosen?
He was “tormented by spiritual thirst” and was not satisfied only with the blessings of the material world. The “crossroads” where Seraphim met him is also a sign of the spiritual quest of the future prophet.
What is special about the construction of the poem? Why physical Is most of the poem devoted to the hero’s transformation? How do you think this is due to the ideological meaning of the poem?
As a result of Seraphim’s actions, the human senses and body are transformed: the prophet must have inhuman vigilance, special hearing, different from ordinary person, tongue and heart. And the angel’s mission is to transform the body of the future prophet. Towards the end, this operation becomes more and more painful and bloody: if he touches the eyes “with fingers as light as a dream,” then in order to remove the heart, he cuts the chest with a sword.
What happens to the human senses and body at the moment of transformation?
The eyes of the future prophet became “prophetic” and began to look like the eyes of a “frightened eagle”: they saw too much. And he began to hear what is inaccessible to human hearing: sounds come to him from heights, depths, and distances:
And I heard the sky tremble,
And the heavenly flight of angels,
And the reptile of the sea underwater,
And the valley of the vine is vegetated.
The sinful tongue (and “idle and wicked”) has been replaced by the sting of a wise snake - the merciless truth will henceforth be spoken by this tongue. The human heart, too, it turns out, is not suitable for fulfilling the new mission: it is too tender, “quivering.” Instead, “a coal blazing with fire” will be inserted into the chest. The heat and light of this heart is necessary for the new transformed being to boldly proclaim his prophecies, the height and power of which is given by the will of God:
Arise, prophet, and see and listen,
Be fulfilled by my will,
And, bypassing the seas and lands,
Burn the hearts of people with the verb.
Who did Pushkin imagine in his hero: the distant biblical prophet or a poet who accepted the prophetic gift?(the poem is called not “Poet”, but “Prophet”.)
Different points of view:
1) “Who did he (Pushkin) give us in his “Prophet”? This perfect image a true poet in his essence and highest calling.”
V. Soloviev. The meaning of poetry in Pushkin’s poems. 1899.
2) “The Bible and the Koran gave Pushkin, at the time of his mature formation, the opportunity to establish himself in his new self-awareness as an artist of unprecedented responsibility and high missionary work. And - accordingly - freedom and independence from anything other than his calling... Pushkin raises himself to the status of a prophet..."
N. Skatov. Pushkin. 1990.
3) “In “The Prophet” they saw and see the image of a poet, for which, in essence, there is no data... The Prophet is only one of Pushkin’s heroes, comprehended with genius, but not adequate to Pushkin... “The Prophet” is by no means a self-portrait or a portrait at all poet... Pushkin portrayed the poet in “The Poet”, and not in “The Prophet”. Knowing very well that a poet is sometimes more insignificant than the most insignificant children in the world, Pushkin recognized himself as a great poet, but did not in the least lay claim to the “important rank” of prophet.
V. Khodasevich. “Pushkin’s Lot.” Article by S. Bulgakov. 1937.
4) “His (Pushkin’s) “Prophet”, which confused everyone and was so famous by Dostoevsky, is a wonderful biblical stylization... Pushkin almost never took the pose of a prophet.”
A. Kushner. Among the insignificant children of the world: Notes on the margins. 1994.
“This poem, as a truly perfect poetic work, allows for several interpretations. We are not obliged to make a choice between a prophet - a preacher of the word of God, and a divinely inspired poet; both of these meanings flicker through one another with “the same artistic authenticity.”
V.S.Baevsky. History of Russian poetry: 1730 – 1980. 1994.
The prophet and the poet have in common the ability to see the world as a simple person will never see it: they both see its hidden, secret sides. The prophet “corrects” the world; the poet reflects the world. The prophet brings the word of God to people - the poet creates his words (maybe when he becomes inspired by God?) They both address people, revealing to them the truth about earth and heaven.
Teacher's word.
In 1827 – 1830 Pushkin created three program poems on the theme of the poet and poetry. He needed to defend creative freedom.
The 1828 poem “The Poet and the Crowd,” constructed in the form of a dialogue, is devoted to the problem of the poet’s relationship with the “crowd.”
Conversation.
What is the significance of the dialogic form of the poem?
By the way, the “senseless people” are called a “crowd” only in the title, but directly in the text of the poem they are called “rabble.” It is unlawful to mean by “rabble” the so-called “black people”, the common people. Literary historians have long come to the idea that “rabble” is a broader concept: these are all those who tried to infringe on his creative freedom.
What is the image of the crowd, the mob?
The “rabble” gives the poet orders that are by no means new: after all, she only asks the poet to “teach” her, to give her “bold lessons,” because she is mired in vices. But in the words of the “rabble” there are only consumer notes:
You can, loving your neighbor,
Give us bold lessons,
And we will listen to you.
- What does the poet reproach her for?
There is no desire to change in this at all. And the poet answers the crowd with dignity:
You would benefit from everything - worth it's weight
Idol you value Belvedere.
You don’t see any benefit or benefit in it.
But this marble is God!.. so what?
The stove pot is more valuable to you:
You cook your food in it.
This is the kind of denial of art that one can come to if one proceeds from the requirement of benefit.
Is it possible to involve art in eradicating crimes?
Who does Pushkin liken the poets to?
Over the many centuries of the existence of civilization, Pushkin believes, crimes on earth have only increased, and it is futile to involve art in their eradication, since “scourges, dungeons, and axes” could not do this. And in general, “sweeping away the rubbish” is the job of the cleaners, not the priests. This is what Pushkin likened poets to – priests. “Service, altar and sacrifice” is the high mission of both.
What does Pushkin see as the true calling of poetry?
The purpose (not the goal!) of poetry is:
Not for everyday worries,
Not for gain, not for battles,
We were born to inspire
For sweet sounds and prayers.
Denial of the “everyday” - the topic of the day, any benefits, calculations in art and the affirmation of the beauty (“sweet sounds”), divine meaning (“inspiration”, “prayer”) of his service - this was Pushkin’s position in 1828 at the most fundamental issue of art.
Teacher's word.
Pushkin was able to defend his creative freedom in 1828 by rejecting the “educational” role of literature. But several years will pass, Pushkin, realizing himself in a different, much broader social environment, will pose the question of the purpose of the poet and poetry somewhat differently.
In the sonnet “To the Poet” (1830), Pushkin, calling the poet “tsar” (precisely as a tsar, the poet must live alone and not depend on anyone), not only proclaims the poet’s freedom (“the free road”), but also introduces a significant restriction this freedom:
...On the road to freedom
Go where your free mind takes you.
“A free mind” is a guarantee of faithfulness to the poet’s path. Once the mind is free, the road is free. And so, having gained freedom, without being distracted by anything (neither the noise of “enthusiastic praise,” nor the “judgment of a fool,” nor the “laughter of a cold crowd,” “not demanding rewards for a noble deed”), evaluating himself ( “You are your own highest court”), “a discerning artist” must follow life path. And if he is satisfied with the result, then let him not be bothered by the scolding of the crowd, which “spits on altar where your fire burns, and in children's Your tripod shakes with agility.” Once again, as in the poem “The Poet and the Crowd,” an association arises poet - priest. But there is no irritation at the “childish”, unconscious behavior of the crowd, because it does not know what it is doing.
What does the poet see as the true calling of poetry?
“Pushkin was convinced that poetry is a self-sufficient phenomenon that does not need justification or anyone’s approval. She has no tasks outside of herself. He wrote to Zhukovsky: “Are you asking what the goal of the Gypsies is? here you go! The purpose of poetry is poetry - as Delvig said (if he didn’t steal it). Thoughts are aiming at Ryleev, but it’s all wrong.”
V.S.Baevsky. History of Russian poetry: 1730 – 1980. 1994.
Teacher's word.
During these years, the poet acutely felt the attacks on his freedom. A poet is a vocation and profession, the subject of Pushkin’s thoughts in 1827 - 1831. Who is this poet? Is he different from other people or the same as everyone else? Pushkin’s answer, which he gives in the sonnet “The Poet,” is not simple.
What is the nature of a poet?
Pushkin expresses a paradoxical opinion on this matter:
1) it turns out that his soul is not alien to anything human. He, just like others, is immersed in the vanity of the world; his “soul tastes a cold sleep”; the author even fully admits that a poet may be “more insignificant than all” among the “insignificant children of the world,” that is, he can be an ordinary, earthly person, because his “holy lyre is silent.” Until the moment when Apollo demands the poet to the sacred “sacrifice”.
How did the poet hear “Apollo’s demands”?
It comes in the form of a “divine verb”, intelligible to the “sensitive ear” of the poet. The beginning of the creative process, according to Pushkin, is unexpected for the poet and inspired by the deity (that is, creative inspiration is from God). It is the powerful force of inspiration, to which the poet is subject, that takes his life in a different direction, tearing the poet away from the vanity, from the “cold sleep” of the soul.
The poet’s powerful transformation immediately begins, his sleeping soul awakens:
The poet's soul will stir,
Like an awakened eagle.
How does a poet change?
2) After this event, the poet changes dramatically.
He distances himself from human vanity (at the same time he has no contempt for people);
Stops worshiping the “people's idol”;
He “yearns”, surrounded by the amusements that captivated him.
How does the relationship between the poet and society develop at this moment?
Does he become proud, “wild and harsh”, plunges into himself, cannot be among ordinary people, in the bustle of the world?
Inspiration requires solitude, freedom from everyday life:
The service of the muses does not tolerate fuss;
The beautiful must be majestic.
He runs... “to the shores of desert waves, into the noisy oak forests” - this, of course, is a poetic convention, symbols peace and solitude. There it is easier to transform into poetry the “sounds” and “confusion” with which he found himself filled.
And Pushkin seems to “stop the moment” - before us is a poet captured at the moment of inspiration. Therefore there is no visual image, it is replaced psychological details.
Is Vl. Solovyov right when he asserts that “the second half of it takes us back to the “Prophet”?
How, as a result of the actions of the seraphim, the senses and body of a person are transformed: a prophet must have inhuman vigilance, special hearing, a tongue and heart different from those of an ordinary person; So the mighty power of inspiration (“divine verb”) before our eyes transforms the poet’s life (which no longer belongs to him) into a different direction.
But speaking about Pushkin’s ideal of the poet and poetry, one cannot help but recall his following statement: “poetry ... should not have any goal other than itself,” “the goal of art is an ideal, not moral teaching.” These two ideals (prophet and priest) contradict each other, but in Pushkin they harmoniously complement each other. The next generation of poets lost this harmony and divided into supporters of the idea of “pure art” and supporters of the idea of social poetry.
Teacher's word.
At the end of his life, Pushkin finds a powerful way to express his cherished thoughts about the purpose of poetry. In 1836, his famous poem “I erected a monument to myself not made by hands…” was written, which is usually called simply “Monument”.
Conversation.
Which poets were Pushkin’s literary predecessors in the development of this theme?
Pushkin had brilliant predecessors in interpreting his poetry as a monument: the ancient Roman poet Horace, whose epigraph opens the poem. In Russian literature, this idea was continued by Lomonosov and Derzhavin.
What does Pushkin compare his miraculous monument to?
Pushkin begins with a comparison: he compares his “monument not made by hands,” erected by poetry, with the “Pillar of Alexandria.” What is meant here - the lighthouse in Alexandria or the Alexander (in honor of Alexander I) column on Palace Square in St. Petersburg, erected shortly before the poem was written? By the way, Pushkin found an excuse not to appear at the celebration of the opening of this column. The divine meaning of true poetry begins to be revealed from the first lines of the poem: this monument is “not made by hands,” it “ascended” as if not by the will of people, but by its own power. But Pushkin also emphasized that he miraculous monument- “the head is disobedient.”
What is meant?
Independence and freedom are characteristic of Pushkin's poetry.
What thought is the spiritual and philosophical center of the poem?
A majestic thought about overcoming death. The eternal life of man is ensured by true poetry:
No, all of me will not die - the soul is in the treasured lyre
My ashes will survive and decay will escape...
Let's think about how Pushkin called his poetry here - “treasured lyre.” This name has sincerity and love.
- What does Pushkin see as the guarantee of the immortality of his poetry?
If predecessors connected the idea of the poet's posthumous glory with the greatness and power of the state (“As long as great Rome rules the world...”, “As long as the Slavic race will be honored by the universe...” - the magic of the poet’s name extends to this time among Lomonosov and Derzhavin). Pushkin rethinks this motif and fundamentally changes the scale of the relationship between poetry and statehood. His poet rises above state borders and symbols of sovereign power; the priests of art seem to have their own Fatherland, and therefore the “monument” - poetry exists until it itself disappears from the face of the earth:
And I will be glorious as long as I am in the sublunary world
At least one piit will be alive.
What does Pushkin see? main reason his long life among the people, the source of his love?
1) In the good (“good feelings”) that his poetry awakens. Goodness is the absolute quality of great poetry. In the process of working on the poem, Pushkin rejected the line “I have found new sounds for songs,” which was closer to the original source. High ethical the meaning of poetry seems extremely important to him, and it is the thought of the moral power of poetry that allows Pushkin to identify another source of his posthumous fame -
2) This is a glorification of freedom. It is in it that the guarantee of “independence”, the poet’s independence from the “cruel century” in which he had to live, lies.
3) “And he called for mercy to the fallen.” The Christian concept of mercy, “mercy” becomes very important in the late Pushkin, combining with popular pity for those who have stumbled, the “fallen”. Mercy towards those who have sinned is one of the main moral values among the people. In the poet’s invocation of “mercy” there is a justification for his life and poetry, loyalty to the friends of his youth, regret for all those who suffer, humiliate, and get lost.
Appeal to the muse in the last stanza. How do you understand its meaning?
At the end of the poem there are calls - exhortations to your muse. To ensure meaninglessness for yourself, you must be obedient to the “command of God” and learn not to react to insults, honors, or unjust judgment.
Conclusion.
Thus, at the end of Pushkin’s life, his early demands for genuine poetry came together
with later ideas about the rootedness of real poetry in folk soil, its involvement in imperishable folk values
