“Oh, how many wonderful discoveries we have” was prepared by the poetry of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin (1799 - 1837). This is truly an inexhaustible treasury, both for fans and for professionals in the world of poetry. Among the sparkling diamonds of the great poet’s work, the pearl “To Chaadaev” does not lose its special brilliance. Let's try parse a poem, briefly consider the circumstances of its creation, genre, idea, stylistic features.
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Previous events
The history of the creation of the work is as follows. The date of writing the poem is 1818, Pushkin was then only 18 years old.
In his verse one hears not so much dedication, how much is the appeal to Pyotr Yakovlevich Chaadaev (1794 - 1856), as a specific addressee and friend.
Pyotr Chaadaev was an outstanding personality - a hussar officer, a participant in the Patriotic War of 1812, many (including Borodino) battles, a publicist, philosopher, trendsetter in the salons of St. Petersburg.
Pushkin met him in 1816 at the home of Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin (1766-1826). Chaadaev had a great influence on the formation of the young poet as a person. In addition, they had warm friendly relations. All this is reflected in the work of Pushkin, his works:
- poem "",
- poetic signature "To the portrait of Chaadaev".
But it is precisely the views, ideas and dreams that are most voluminously represented in the poem “To Chaadaev”. It was also called "Pushkin's letter". The poem was not published anywhere for a long time, but was distributed in a rewritten form.
Important! A small excerpt was published in the journal Sirius (1827), and in a more complete form (the last five lines were missing) - in the almanac "Northern Star", and, without the consent of the author, in 1829. By the way, the manuscript of the poem has not survived, so there are several dozen of its variations.
How is the analysis of the poem "To Chaadaev" carried out? First you need to make a plan, which includes:
- History of writing
- Features of the genre affiliation.
- Poem idea.
- The main theme of the poem that the poet touches on.
- Description lyrical hero.
- Mood change.
- Lexical composition. syntax, size.
Genre
Written in the genre of "message" or "letter", very popular among poets of the late 18th and early 20th centuries, but lyrical notes (dominant in the work of A.S. Pushkin) are clearly traced in it, especially in the first half of the poem, where we are talking about the aspirations of the hero and the attitude towards the addressee, and closer to the end, the tonality of the manifesto begins to appear more and more.
That's where the echoes are progressive ideas of Chaadaev, most likely, and served as an inspiring factor for writing the work.
Rethinking the views of a friend found its poetic expression in Pushkin's lines. The composition is circular and three-part - at the beginning the poet talks about the past, youth, in the middle - about the present, in the third part a look into the future is shown. The main motif of awakening from sleep is heard in the first and last parts.
Main Topics
The analysis plan should include several thematic areas. Main theme of the poem- liberation from the orders of the existing system (“under the yoke of fatal power”), which does not allow the manifestation of inner freedom, creative, aimed at the good of the Fatherland.
Liberty
The lyrical hero in the poem, having become disillusioned with the naivety of past “amusements of youth”, seeks to change the oppressive state order out of feeling and responsibility towards future generations. To this he calls not only his addressee, but also any other listener who is not indifferent to the fate of the Fatherland. In the overthrow of the "fatal power" he sees real liberation - "the moment of the liberty of the saint." And he believes in it with all his heart, trying to convey his impulse to others.
Love
The desire for freedom in the hero of the verse is akin to a feeling of love for a woman (this eternal theme), which demonstrates the lyrical component (“how a young lover waits”). The hero's soul is impatient, and thoughts are the highest, which is typical for a lover. He longs for the release of his own thoughts and with confidence in their indispensable fulfillment (“minutes of faithful rendezvous”).
unity
At the same time, the poet speaks not on his own behalf, but on behalf of a certain community, most likely an entire generation (“we wait with languor of hope”), whose views he shares. Unity Theme, though not the main one, but very important!
And this is not surprising, because it was at this time that the rise of the liberation movement against began, culminating in the Decembrist uprising in 1825 (Chadaev himself became a member of a secret society in 1821, but could not take part in the uprising, as he was being treated abroad).
If in the first three stanzas the lyrical hero's thoughts about the past, present and future are presented, then in the final two (quatrain and quintuple) a direct call sounds. But why? It is generally accepted that the overthrow of autocratic power. Probably so. Revolutionary sentiments after the Patriotic War of 1812 were simply in the air.
The people and liberal-minded representatives of the nobility, the intelligentsia were waiting for greater rights and freedoms, but the expectations were not justified. The lyrical hero does not represent service for the good of the Motherland without the illuminating fire of freedom (“as long as we burn with freedom”). Only a new person, free from the past, is capable of "soul-like impulses."
Friendship
At the beginning, Pushkin addresses Chaadaev as “my friend”, which indicates the presence of a warm close relationship, and in the final stanza, the appeal “comrade” sounds, which also indicates the revolutionary nature of the call for a comrade-in-arms.
Note! IN real life Pushkin called Chaadaev "the only friend."
It is the appeal "comrade" that will become one of the symbols of future revolutions. The poet calls to believe that the struggle will not be in vain and " a star will rise captivating happiness ”- a symbol of such a desired freedom.
Conscription progressiveness
The dearly beloved Fatherland will rise from the centuries-old sleep of autocracy, on the ruins of which comrades-in-arms or descendants will sooner or later write the names of all who strived for liberation without sparing their lives.
This is the essence of the idea of the poem "To Chaadaev". The lyrical hero firmly believes in this and instills this faith in others.
No wonder later the poem "To Chaadaev" became in liberal environment of the 19th century present appeal of a proclamatory nature. It was copied and distributed in hundreds of copies among progressively minded sections of society.
For the purpose of this brief analysis detailed analysis from the point of view of versification is not included. To the above genre of "message", it should be added that the work is written in iambic tetrameter, consists of five stanzas (the first four lines of four and the final five lines).
Brief analysis of the verse "To Chaadaev"
We study Pushkin's poem To Chaadaev
Conclusion
The poem "To Chaadaev" was a vivid example civil lyrics Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin, until now it has not lost its patriotic relevance and motivational component in serving the interests of our Motherland.
Love, hope, quiet glory
The deceit did not live long for us,
Gone are the funs of youth
Like a dream, like a morning mist;
But desire still burns in us;
Under the yoke of fatal power
With an impatient soul
Fatherland heed the invocation.
We wait with longing hope
Minutes of liberty of the saint,
As a young lover waits
Minutes of true goodbye.
While we burn with freedom
As long as hearts are alive for honor,
My friend, we will devote to the fatherland
Souls wonderful impulses!
Comrade, believe: she will rise,
Star of captivating happiness
Russia will wake up from sleep
And on the ruins of autocracy
Write our names!
Updated: 2011-05-09
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Historical and biographical material
History of creation and date of writing the poem
The poem was written in 1818. Ever since his lyceum years, Pyotr Yakovlevich Chaadaev was a close friend of the poet, despite the difference in age. During the period when this poem was created, Pushkin saw in his friend a man endowed with freedom-loving ideals, but at the same time wise life experience. Chaadaev was a member of the Union of Welfare (a secret Decembrist society). For publishing his views in the Philosophical Letter, he was declared insane by the government.
Pushkin addressed several more poems to Chaadaev, but they already differed greatly from the one created in 1818 in their mood.
The main theme of the poem
Despite the fact that the poem is written in the genre of a friendly message, the theme of friendship cannot be considered the leading one in it. Here sounds the theme of freedom and the struggle against autocracy, the hope for the awakening of Russia. The political views and moods that were the same for both Chaadaev and Pushkin are reflected. "To Chaadaev" served as a means of political agitation and was widely distributed in the lists.
Composition of the poem
The composition of this poem can be divided into three parts. The first is an analysis of the past, of naive youth. The second is introspection in the present tense. And the third is a look into the future. The composition is circular: at the beginning and at the end there is a motif of awakening from sleep.
Lyrical hero
At first, the lyrical hero recalls the past. He is disappointed that his hopes were not realized. Now he has woken up from his dreams. But his main desire to serve for the good of his Motherland did not fade away in him. It uplifts him and lifts his spirits. And the hero compares this desire with a feeling of love. With his message, he not only instills faith in others, but also encourages himself.
The prevailing mood, its change
At the beginning of the poem there is a minor motive - the hero's dreams are dispelled by the phenomena of real life. Further, the mood becomes cheerful, there is still hope in the hero. The appeal of the lyrical hero sounds like a call, very insistent.
Vocabulary of the poem
Pushkin uses the vocabulary of the so-called "high style": "listen", "hope". There are also socio-political concepts: "power", "liberty", "oppression".
Poetic Syntax
The poem contains a wide variety of artistic expressiveness. These are comparisons (“like a dream, like a morning fog”), and metaphors (“burning desire”, “we burn with freedom”, “Russia will rise from sleep”), and epithets (“quiet glory”, “liberty of the saint”).
The work is written in iambic tetrameter, using ring and cross rhymes. Divided into quatrains and a quintuple at the end. The intonation in each of the parts is independent.
Analysis of the poem "To Chaadaev"
The poem was written in the St. Petersburg period of A.S. Pushkin, in 1818, when Pushkin was under the strong influence of P.Ya. Chaadaev, one of the most remarkable minds of Pushkin's modernity.
O.E. Mandelstam wrote about Chaadaev: “The trace left by Chaadaev in the minds of Russian society is so deep and indelible that the question involuntarily arises: is it not a diamond that has been drawn over glass? ... All those properties that Russian life was deprived of, which she did not even suspect, were purposely combined in Chaadaev's personality: tremendous internal discipline, high intellectualism, moral architectonics and the coldness of the mask, the medal that a person surrounds himself with, realizing that in centuries he is only a form, and preparing in advance a cast for his immortality.
At this time, Pushkin communicates with people who are in secret societies, future Decembrists. The ideas of civil freedom, service to the fatherland, discussed among these people, and the echoes of conversations with Chaadaev are reflected in the poem.
Subject
The poem speaks of the high ideals of freedom, the struggle against "autocracy", the civic position of the lyrical hero is declared.
Main thought (idea)
The idea of the poem is most fully heard in the lines:
... While we burn with freedom,
As long as hearts are alive for honor,
My friend, we will devote to the fatherland
Souls are wonderful impulses!..
The poet speaks of the need to connect the "soul of wonderful impulses" with serving the fatherland, its good, with activities in the name of the glory of the motherland.
The poet calls “liberty” a condition for the good of the fatherland, meaning not only personal freedom, but also civil rights.
Poetics
The genre of the poem "To Chaadaev" is a friendly message. It belongs to the civil type of lyrics. Written in iambic pentameter and tetrameter, the rhyming system is cross, with alternating male and female rhymes.
The chosen slender form gives the poem a solemn sound.
Pushkin saturates the poem with vivid epithets: quiet glory, morning fog, youthful fun, fatal power, an impatient soul.
Each of the epithets gives brightness and bulge to the image. For example, calling the “minute of liberty” a saint, Pushkin emphasizes his high understanding of this category, raises the concept of freedom to the most brilliant pedestal, as if leaving all other values \u200b\u200b(power, fame, wealth) below.
The epithet "fatal" (power) is also endowed with strong energy - Pushkin emphasizes the severity and inevitability of the pressure of power on a person, on society, his oppression. The metaphorical image of "the fragments of autocracy" is a contrast to this gravity, the appointed and inevitable way of its completion.
The metaphors of the poem are also vivid and strong:
... she will rise,
Star of captivating happiness ...
This is how freedom looks in the poet's mind - a captivating (beckoning with a magical, enchanting, attracting) ideal, a star shining in the darkness.
The image is romantic and sublime.
Russia will wake up from sleep...
The homeland appears to the poet as being under the power of torpor, sleep - like a fabulous sleeping beauty, who is waiting for the hour of her awakening, liberation from the spell.
... And on the ruins of autocracy
Write our names!
Some of Pushkin's contemporaries were outraged by these lines: why should the names of two young dandies and impudent violators of public peace, secular varmints - Chaadaev and Pushkin, be written on the ruins of the autocracy?
But precisely this type of behavior, demonstrating personal independence and combined with freedom-loving thoughts, showed that autocracy is not eternal, that the ideas of freedom, civil service will sooner or later destroy the monolith of despotic rule.
One of the most remarkable passages in the poem is the simile:
... We are waiting with languor of hope
Minutes of liberty of the saint,
How a young lover waits
Minutes of a free meeting.
Pushkin compares high civic feelings with the impatience of a man in love, with his hopes and expectations of happiness.
Pushkin's "serious" friends reproached him for such frivolity.
But this is precisely the feature of Pushkin's lyrics - the combination of personal feeling with public pathos, the unity of the human personality.
The poem as a whole has a high pathos, it expresses the ideals of civil society, freedom, and the struggle against despotism.
Analysis of the poem
1. The history of the creation of the work.
2. Characteristics of the work of the lyrical genre (type of lyrics, artistic method, genre).
3. Analysis of the content of the work (analysis of the plot, characterization of the lyrical hero, motives and tone).
4. Features of the composition of the work.
5. Analysis of the means of artistic expression and versification (presence of tropes and stylistic figures, rhythm, meter, rhyme, stanza).
6. The meaning of the poem for the entire work of the poet.
The poem "To Chaadaev" was written by A.S. Pushkin in 1818. It is addressed to a person whose friendship the poet greatly valued. P.Ya. Chaadaev was five years older than Pushkin, he had a rich life experience, an excellent education (Moscow University), he was a man of a deep, encyclopedic mind. He participated in Patriotic War 1812, in 1816–1820 was an officer in the Life Guards Hussars. Chaadaev had a great influence on the young poet, Pushkin greatly valued his friendship with him. The poet addressed several messages to Pyotr Yakovlevich and the quatrain “To the portrait of Chaadaev”, in which he compares his older comrade with the heroes of antiquity:
He is by the will of heaven
Born in the fetters of the royal service.
He would be Brutus in Rome, Pericles in Athens,
And here he is a hussar officer.
The message "To Chaadaev" was widely disseminated in the lists. In a distorted form, without the knowledge of Pushkin, it was published in the almanac "Northern Star" for 1829. And it was completely printed only in 1901.
The genre of the work is a friendly message. The style is romantic, which combines intonations of love and civil lyrics. However, the message refers to civil, freedom-loving poetry. Its main theme is the theme of freedom, it is the dream of awakening Russia.
As researchers have repeatedly noted, in this poem Pushkin writes on behalf of a whole generation, which is only yet aware of its goals and objectives. The message begins with a sad note: rapture with life, love, hopes - all this turned out to be just a deception, a myth, a pipe dream. And this kind of loss often took place in contemporary poet reality. Dreams of glory and freedom often turned into bitter disappointment when faced with the realities of life. So it was with Chaadaev. This is exactly what the poet says in the first lines of the poem:
Love, hope, quiet glory
The deceit did not live long for us,
Gone are the funs of youth
Like a dream, like a morning mist...
However, then the sad tone of the poet is replaced by a cheerful and life-affirming one:
But desire still burns in us,
Under the yoke of fatal power
With an impatient soul
Fatherland listen to hope
Minutes of liberty of the saint,
As a young lover waits
Minutes of true goodbye.
Neither the difficulties of the struggle, nor the "yoke of fatal power" can drown out the inspired dream of "the liberty of the saint." The poet here compares the service of the Fatherland with a feeling of love, with the ardor of a young lover. At the same time, it is important that this heat of the soul should not burn out, cool down.
The poet's appeal to his elder friend is so insistent and inviting:
Comrade, believe: she will rise,
Star of captivating happiness
Russia will wake up from sleep
And on the ruins of autocracy
Write our names!
And this appeal is not to one Chaadaev, but to the whole generation.
Compositionally, we can distinguish three parts in the work. The first part is the thoughts of the lyrical hero about the past, a kind of analysis of the departed feelings, attitude, hopes inherent in naive youth. The second part is an analysis of your feelings in the present. The center of the poem is an appeal to a friend and like-minded person:
While we burn with freedom
As long as hearts are alive for honor,
My friend, we will devote to the fatherland
Souls wonderful impulses!
The third part is thoughts about the future, revealing the hero's ardent faith in the idea of freedom, in the possibility of transforming Russia. At the end of the poem, the same motif appears as at the beginning of it - awakening from sleep. Only in the finale this motif sounds very broad: it is no longer the individual attitude of the hero, but the attitude of the whole people, Russia. Intimate-lyrical intonation becomes civil-pathetic here. In this sense, we can speak of a ring composition.
The message is written in iambic tetrameter, cross and ring rhymes are used. The whole work is divided into quatrains and a final five-line. Each group is independent in its intonation. Pushkin uses a variety of means of artistic expression: metaphor (“we burn with freedom”, “burning desire”, “Russia will wake up from sleep”), epithets (“quiet glory”, “minutes of liberty of the saint”), comparison (“Young amusements have disappeared, Like a dream like morning mist). The message uses the vocabulary of the "high" style ("listen", "homeland", "hope"), socio-political terms ("oppression", "power", "liberty", "freedom", "honor", "autocracy" ).
Thus, in the romantic message "To Chaadaev" Pushkin departs from romanticism in its traditional thematic incarnation. The main idea of the work is the idea of freedom and chivalrous service to the Motherland.
History of creation. The poem was written in 1818 - in the St. Petersburg period of Pushkin's work. It became widely known, especially in Decembrist circles, and began to circulate in lists. It was for such poems that Pushkin fell into disgrace - he ended up in southern exile. Much later, in 1829, without the knowledge of the poet, this poem was published in a distorted form in the almanac "Northern Star".
The poem is addressed to a specific person: Pyotr Yakovlevich Chaadaev (1794-1856), one of Pushkin's close friends since his lyceum years. In addition to this poem, Pushkin's messages to Chaadaev (1821), Chaadaev (1824) are addressed to him. The poet was connected with Chaadaev by many years of friendship: both of them were characterized by freedom-loving moods, the desire to change life in Russia, and non-standard thinking. Chaadaev, like many of the poet's lyceum friends, was a member of the secret Decembrist society "Union of Welfare", although he subsequently moved away from this movement, taking his very peculiar position on the issue of state power and the future fate of Russia, for the publication of the "Philosophical Letter", in which these views were expounded, Chaadaev was declared insane by the government - this is how the autocracy fought dissent and love of freedom. Not always Pushkin's positions, especially in his mature years, coincided with Chaadaev's thoughts, but in 1818 the young poet saw in his older friend a man wise in life experience, endowed with a sharp and sometimes sarcastic mind, and most importantly - freedom-loving ideals, so in tune with Pushkin's mood.
genre and composition.
Pushkin's lyrics are characterized by the desire to transform established genres. In this poem, we see the manifestation of such innovation: a friendly message addressed to a certain person develops into a civil appeal to the entire generation, which also includes the features of an elegy. Typically, a poem in the genre of a message is addressed to either a friend or a lover, and in terms of subject matter it belongs to intimate lyrics. Changing the addressee of his poem, Pushkin creates a new work of genre - a civic message. That is why its construction is based on an appeal to comrades: "Comrade, believe ...", in style close to civil political poems from the time of the Great French Revolution. But at the same time, the composition of the poem, built as a thesis - antithesis, implies the presence of a contrast. This is how poetic thought develops: from the elegiac beginning, imbued with mood sadness and sadness, through the opposing union “but” (“But desire still burns in us ...”) the first elegiac part is connected to the second, completely different in mood, feeling and thought: civil themes prevail here, accusatory mood. And the end of the poem, summing up the development of poetic thought, sounds like a bright major chord: “My friend, we will dedicate to the fatherland / Beautiful impulses of the soul!”
Main themes and ideas. main idea the poems are a call to like-minded people to move away from private interests and turn to civil problems. It is connected with the poet's belief that freedom-loving dreams will come true, and "the fatherland will rise from sleep." At the end of the poem, there is a very rare idea in Pushkin’s work of breaking the entire state system, which, according to the poet, will happen in the near future (“And on the ruins of autocracy / They will write our names!”). The state poet often called for gradual transformations, coming primarily from the authorities themselves, as in the poems "Liberty" and "Village". We can assume that such a radical position of the author in the poem "To Chaadaev" is evidence of youthful maximalism and a tribute to romantic moods. The general pathos of the poem is civil, but it contains elements of romantic and elegiac pathos, especially in the first part, which is reflected in the specifics of a number of images.
For the first time in this poem, a connection of civil themes with intimate ones - love and friendship, characteristic of Pushkin's further work, appears. In this regard, the poet raises the problems of civic duty and political freedom in conjunction with the issues of individual freedom and the private life of a person, which sounded extremely unusual at that time. Consider how poetic thought develops. The beginning is imbued with elegiac moods. The lyrical hero, turning to his soulmate, sadly recalls that many of his former ideals turned out to be a “deception”, a “dream”:
Love, hope, quiet glory
The deceit did not live long for us,
Gone are the funs of youth
Like a dream, like a morning mist.
All poetic vocabulary, all the figurativeness of the first quatrain is built in the style of romantic elegies: quiet, lifeless, sleep, morning mist. What is left of the days of passing youth? There is no longer love or hope. But it seems that some word is missing in this familiar triad? Of course, there is no first of the words of this sustainable combination- "faith". This key word will still appear in the poem - it is left for the final, shock ending, in order to give it the character of a special, almost religious inspiration and conviction. But the transition from a pessimistic key to a major sound occurs gradually. This transition is associated with images of burning, fire. Usually the assimilation of passionate desire to fire was characteristic of love lyrics. Pushkin introduces a completely different sound into the motif of fire: it is associated with a civil appeal, a protest against the "oppression of the fatal authorities":
But desire still burns in us,
Under the yoke of fatal power
With an impatient soul
Fatherland heed the invocation.
This is followed by such an unexpected comparison that not all of the Decembrist friends, even those close in mind and spirit, accepted it. It was believed that the comparison of civil life with private life, the combination of high patriotic motives with sentimental ones is unacceptable. But Pushkin in this poem chooses a truly innovative move: he combines the concepts of "freedom" and "love" into a single and inseparable image. Thus, he shows that love of freedom and civic aspirations are as natural and inherent in every person as his most intimate feelings - friendship and love:
We wait with longing hope
Minutes of liberty of the saint,
As a young lover waits
Minutes of true goodbye.
And then the transition of the image of burning from the sphere of love feelings into the sphere of civic motives is already quite logical:
While we burn with freedom
As long as hearts are alive for honor,
My friend, we will devote to the fatherland
Souls are wonderful impulses.
Now it is obvious that the appeal to a friend has grown into a call to faith in the ideals of freedom and the possibility of achieving them, addressed to the entire young generation of Russia. It is not for nothing that another, higher word is used in the last quatrain - “friend” is replaced by “comrade”. And the poetic image of the “star of captivating happiness”, which completes the poem, becomes a symbol of hope for the triumph of the ideals of civil freedom.
Artistic originality. The message "To Chaadaev" is written in Pushkin's favorite size - iambic tetrameter. In addition to genre innovation, which is associated with the development of the author's thought and the construction of the poem, it is distinguished by unusual artistic imagery. This is a noted comparison of the desire for "the liberty of the saint" and love; metaphorical images of “burning”, epithets of romantic coloring (“under the yoke of fatal power”, “minutes of freedom of the saint”), high-style metonymy (“Russia will wake up from sleep”). Of particular note is the symbolic image of a star - the "star of captivating happiness", which entered not only Russian literature, but also became an element of the consciousness of Russian society.
The value of the work. The poem became a milestone for Pushkin's work, denoting the most important theme of freedom for his poetry, as well as its special interpretation. In the history of Russian literature, it was the beginning of the tradition of combining civil, freedom-loving and intimate themes, which is confirmed by the work of Lermontov, Nekrasov, the novels of the second half of XIX century, and then moves on to such poets of the 20th century as Blok.
