The most outstanding, dominant event of Dante's youth was his love for Beatrice. He first saw her when they were both still children: he was nine, she was eight years old. The "young angel," as the poet puts it, appeared before his eyes in an outfit befitting her childhood: Beatrice was in clothes of a "noble" red color, she had a belt on her, and, according to Dante, she immediately became "the mistress of his spirit." "She seemed to me," said the poet, "more like a daughter of God than a mere mortal." “From the very moment I saw her, love took possession of my heart to such an extent that I had no strength to resist it and, trembling with excitement, I heard a secret voice: “Here is a deity that is stronger than you and will rule you.”
Allegorical portrait of Dante by Bronzino
Ten years later, Beatrice appears to him again, this time dressed in white. She walks down the street, accompanied by two other women, looks up at him and, thanks to "her inexpressible mercy", bows to him so modestly and charmingly that it seems to him that he has seen "the highest degree of bliss."
Painting by Henry Holliday "Dante and Beatrice"
Intoxicated with delight, the poet runs away from the noise of people, retires to his room to dream of his beloved, falls asleep and has a dream. When he wakes up, he writes it down in verse. This is an allegory in the form of a vision: love with Dante's heart in her hands carries at the same time in her arms "a sleeping and veiled lady." Cupid wakes her up, gives her Dante's heart and then runs away crying. This sonnet by the eighteen-year-old Dante, in which he addresses the poets, asking them to explain his dream, drew the attention of many to him, among other things, Guido Cavalcanti, who heartily congratulated the new poet. Thus began their friendship, which has never wavered since.
In his first poetic works, in sonnets and canzones, surrounding the image of Beatrice with a bright radiance and poetic halo, Dante already surpasses all his contemporaries with the power of poetic talent, the ability to speak the language, as well as sincerity, seriousness and depth of feeling. Although he, too, still adheres to the former conventional forms, the content is new: it has been experienced, it comes from the heart. However, Dante soon abandoned the old forms and manners and took a different path. He contrasted the traditional feeling of worshiping the Madonna of the troubadours with real, but spiritual, holy, pure love. He himself considers the truth and sincerity of his feelings to be the "powerful lever" of his poetry.
The poet's love story is very simple. All events are the most insignificant. Beatrice passes him down the street and bows to him; he meets her unexpectedly at a wedding celebration and comes into such indescribable excitement and embarrassment that those present and even Beatrice herself mock him and a friend must take him away from there. One of Beatrice's friends dies, and Dante composes two sonnets on this occasion; he hears from other women how much Beatrice grieves for the death of her father ... These are the events; but for such a lofty cult, for such love, which a sensitive heart was capable of brilliant poet, this is a whole inner story, touching in its purity, sincerity and deep religiosity.
This so pure love is timid, the poet hides it from prying eyes, and his feeling remains a mystery for a long time. In order to prevent other people's eyes from penetrating into the sanctuary of the soul, he pretends to be in love with another, writes poetry to her. Gossip begins, and, apparently, Beatrice is jealous and does not return his bow.
Dante and Beatrice, painting by Marie Stillman
Some biographers, not so long ago, doubted the real existence of Beatrice and wanted to consider her image as just an allegory, in no way connected with a real woman. But now it has been documented that Beatrice, whom Dante loved, glorified, mourned, and in whom he saw the ideal of the highest moral and physical perfection, undoubtedly historical figure, daughter of Folco Portinari, who lived next door to the Alighieri family. She was born in April 1267, married Simon dei Bardi in January 1287, and died on June 9, 1290, at the age of twenty-three, shortly after her father.
Dante himself narrates his love in Vita Nuova (New Life), a collection of prose and verse, which was dedicated by the poet Guido Cavalcanti. According to Boccaccio, this is Dante's first work, which contains complete history the poet's love for Beatrice until her death and beyond, - written by him shortly after the death of his beloved, before he dried his tears for her. He called his collection "Vita Nuova", as some believe, because through this love a "new life" has come for him. His dear - for Dante, the personification of the ideal, something "divine, who appeared from heaven to give the earth a ray of heavenly bliss", "the queen of virtue." Clothed in modesty, says the poet, shining with beauty, she walks among praises, like an angel who descended to earth to show the world the spectacle of her perfections. Her presence gives bliss, pours joy in the hearts. Those who have not seen her cannot understand all the sweetness of her presence." Dante says that, adorned with the grace of love and faith, Beatrice awakens the same virtues in others. The thought of her gives the poet the strength to overcome any bad feeling in himself; her presence and bow reconcile him with the universe and even with enemies; love for her turns the mind away from all evil.
Michael Parkes, portraits of Dante and Betarice
Under the clothes of a scientist, Dante beats a pure, young, sensitive heart, open to all impressions, prone to adoration and despair; he is gifted with a fiery imagination that lifts him high above the earth, into the realm of dreams. His love for Beatrice is distinguished by all the signs of the first youthful love. This is a spiritual, sinless worship of a woman, and not a passionate attraction to her. Beatrice for Dante is more an angel than a woman; she, as if on wings, flies through this world, barely touching it, until she returns to the best, from where she came, and therefore love for her is "the road to goodness, to God." This love of Dante for Beatrice realizes in itself the ideal of Platonic, spiritual love in its highest development. Those who did not understand this feeling, who asked why the poet did not marry Beatrice. Dante did not seek the possession of his beloved; her presence, bow - that's all he wants, which fills him with bliss. Only once, in the poem "Guido, I would like to ...", fantasy captivates him, he dreams of fabulous happiness, of leaving with sweetheart far from cold people, staying with her in the middle of the sea in a boat, with only a few , dearest, friends. But this beautiful poem, where the mystical veil rises and the sweetheart becomes close, desired, Dante excluded from the collection "Vita Nuova": it would be a dissonance in his general tone.
One might think that Dante, worshiping Beatrice, led an inactive, dreamy life. Not at all - pure, high love only gives new, amazing strength. Thanks to Beatrice, Dante tells us, he ceased to be an ordinary person. He began to write early, and she became the impetus for his writing. "I had no other teacher in poetry," he says in "Vita Nuova", "except myself and the most powerful teacher - love." All the lyrics of "Vita Nuova" are imbued with a tone of deep sincerity and truth, but its true muse is sorrow. And indeed, Short story Dante's love has rare glimpses of clear, contemplative joy; the death of Beatrice's father, her sadness, the premonition of her death and death are all tragic motifs.
The Vision of the Death of Beatrice by Dante Gabriel Rossetti
The premonition of Beatrice's death runs through the entire collection. Already in the first sonnet, in the first vision, Cupid's short joy turns into bitter lamentation, Beatrice is carried to heaven. Then, when her friend is kidnapped by death, the blessed spirits express a desire to see Beatrice in their midst as soon as possible. Her father, Folco Portinari, is dying. In the soul of the poet, the thought is immediately born that she, too, will die. A little time passes - and his premonition comes true: shortly after the death of his father, she follows him to the grave. Dante saw her already dead in a dream, when the women covered her with a veil. Beatrice dies because "this boring life is unworthy of such a beautiful being," says the poet, and, returning to her glory in heaven, she becomes "a spiritual, great beauty," or, as Dante puts it elsewhere, "an intellectual light full of love." ".
When Beatrice died, the poet was 25 years old. Death, dear, was a heavy blow to him. His grief borders on despair: he himself wishes to die and only in death awaits consolation for himself. Life, homeland - everything suddenly turned into a desert for him. Dante is crying about the dead Beatrice like a paradise lost. But his nature was too healthy and strong for him to die of grief.
Painting by Jean-Leon Gerome
From his great grief, the poet seeks solace in science: he studies philosophy, attends philosophical schools, zealously reads Cicero and, most of all, the last representative of the culture of the ancient world, Boethius, who, with his translation and interpretation of Greek philosophical works, especially the "Logic" of Aristotle, made available to the next generations part of the Hellenic thinking and left them the work "De Consolatione Philosophiae" ["Consolation of Philosophy" (lat.)], so highly valued by the Middle Ages. Boethius wrote this book in prison, shortly before his execution, and tells in it how, at a time when he was languishing under the weight of his position and was about to fall into despair, he was visited by a bright vision: he saw Philosophy, which appeared to console him, remind him about the vanity of all earthly things and to direct the soul to a higher and lasting good. The direct connection of the work with the fate of the author, the fate in which many saw a reflection of their own position, as well as the clarity of its main ideas accessible to everyone and the noble warmth of presentation, brought a special influence to the book of Boethius in the Middle Ages; many have read it and found comfort in it.
"The Anniversary of the Death of Beatrice" by Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Dante's indefatigable zeal for philosophy, which even temporarily weakened his eyesight, soon revealed to him, in his words, the "sweetness" of this science to such an extent that love for philosophy even eclipsed for a while the ideal that until then had only dominated his soul. And yet another influence struggled in him with the memory of the deceased. In the second half of Vita Nuova, Dante tells how one day, when he was immersed in his sadness, a beautiful woman appeared at the window, looking at him with eyes full of compassion. At first he felt grateful to her, but, seeing her again and again, gradually began to find such pleasure in this spectacle that he was in danger of forgetting the dead Beatrice. However, this new feeling did not give Dante consolation; a strong struggle flared up in his soul. He began to feel low and contemptible to himself, scolding and cursing himself for being able to distract himself, even temporarily, from the thought of Beatrice. The inner struggle of the poet did not last long and ended in the victory of Beatrice, who appeared to him in a vision that greatly excited him. Since then, he again thinks only of her and sings only of her. Later, in his other work, "Convito" ("Feast"), which concludes the most enthusiastic praise of philosophy, Dante gave an allegorical character to the verses dedicated to his second love, which he calls here "Madonna la Filosofia". But there can hardly be any doubt about its real existence, and this little deception of the poet is very excusable.
The feeling that at first seemed to him, under the influence of exaltation, so criminal, in fact was an extremely innocent and quickly flashed meteor of platonic love, which he later realized himself.
Salute to Beatrice by Dante Gabriel Rossetti
But Dante's other love, for a certain Pietra, about whom he wrote four canzones, has a different character. Who was this Pietra - is unknown, like much in the life of the poet; but the four canzones mentioned were written by him before his exile. They sound the language of still youthful passion, youthful love, this time already sensual. This love was easily combined in those days with mystical exaltation, with the religious cult of the feminine ideal; pure, chaste worship of a woman did not then exclude the so-called "folle amore" [crazy love (It.)]. It is quite possible that, with his passionate temperament, Dante paid tribute to him, and that he, too, had a period of storms and delusions.
A few years after the death of Beatrice - when, in fact, it is not known, but apparently in 1295 - Dante married a certain Gemma di Maneto Donati. Former biographers report that the poet had seven children from her, but according to the latest research, there are only three of them: two sons, Pietro and Jacopo, and a daughter, Antonia.
Dante in Exile, painting by Sir Frederick Leighton
Very little information has been preserved about the poet's wife, Gemma. Apparently she outlived her husband; at least as far back as 1333, her signature appears on one document. According to information reported by Boccaccio, Dante did not see his wife again after his exile from Florence, where she remained with her children. Many years later, at the end of his life, the poet called his sons to him and took care of them. In his writings, Dante nowhere says anything about Gemma. But this was a common occurrence in those days: none of the then poets touched on their family relationships. The wife was destined in that era to play a prosaic role; she remained completely outside the poetic horizon; next to the feeling that was given to her, another could perfectly exist, which was considered higher. Boccaccio and some other biographers claim that Dante's marriage was unhappy. But nothing definite about this is known; it is only true that this marriage was concluded without any romantic lining: it was something like a business arrangement in order to fulfill a public duty - one of those marriages, of which there are many now /
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Chapter Six
Death of Beatrice
Beatrice's praises are unexpectedly interrupted by a tragic quotation from the biblical book "Lamentations of the Prophet Jeremiah": "As a city sits alone, once crowded, it has become like a widow, once great among the nations." This quote is the epigraph to the last part of the New Life, which tells about the death of an incomparable lady. By hook or by crook, the poet seeks to date the events with the number "nine". Beatrice died in 1290, on June 8, but Dante resorts to the account adopted in Syria, according to which he finds that the month of her death is the ninth, "for the first month there is Tizrin, the first, which we call October." It seems to us that these terrible exaggerations and the use of oriental exotic calendars are indisputable proof that Beatrice really existed. If she were a symbol or an allegory, what would be the point of all these cunning calculations? To glorify and exalt Beatrice, Dante needed star numbers and cosmic images, and he turned to the popular in medieval Europe the book of the Uzbek astronomer of the 9th century, a native of Samarkand, Al Fergani. The "Principles of Astronomy" by Al Ferghani were known thanks to the Latin translation of Gerard from Cremona. Dante carefully studied this work, and it largely determined his ideas about the structure of the universe. In order to explain the sublime meaning of the date of the doom of his beloved, Dante turns to the calculations of the Central Asian mathematician and astrologer. The number "nine" turns out to be the main number of the universe, for there are nine moving heavens, and the ninth heaven is the prime mover in which the world movement is concluded.
Perceiving the death of Beatrice as a cosmic catastrophe, Dante felt it necessary to inform the whole world about it. He addresses a Latin epistle to earthly rulers, beginning with the above quotation from Jeremiah. But the princes of Italy and the city governors of the republics hardly responded to the letter of the young Florentine poet. Six centuries later, Alexander Blok penetrated into the insane meaning of this message that did not reach us:
In messages to earthly rulers
I spoke about Eternal Hope.
They didn't believe the cries
And I'm not the same as before.
I will not open to anyone now
That which is born in thought.
Let them think - I'm in the desert
I wander, languish and number.
Dante began to spend days and nights in tears. At that time, as in ancient Greece, men were not ashamed of tears. Then he wrote the canzone. It is connected thematically with the canzona, which said that Beatrice was expected in heaven.
Beatrice shone in the sky,
Where angels are imperturbable peace ...
And, looking at her with surprise,
Her to the abode of paradise
The Lord of eternity called to himself,
Blazing with perfect love,
Then, that this life is so unworthy,
Boring, her holy light.
Despite some beautiful lines, this canzone is a bit long, assurances about the poet's inconsolability, about his fidelity to Beatrice, about his unspeakable grief are repeated, perhaps too often, but one cannot doubt their sincerity for a single moment. Then Dante says that when this canzone was written, one of his best friends came to him, who "was such a close blood relative of that glorious lady that there was no relative closer." This paraphrase means that the visitor of the mourning Dante was the brother of Beatrice. He asked Dante to compose poems about a young dead lady, without naming her. However, Dante realized that he was talking about Beatrice. And Dante composed a sonnet beginning:
Let my grief sound in my greetings;
Thus befits noble hearts.
My every breath hastens to meet you.
How can I live without sighing in the world!
Deciding that he did not satisfy the request of his friend enough, Dante also wrote a small canzone, which begins: “Many times, alas, I remember that I won’t be able to see…” Raya":
Her beauty is not seen by mortal eyes.
She became a spiritual beauty
And shone in the sky
And the choir glorified her angels.
There the higher spirits have a refined mind
Marveling, admiring perfection.
On the anniversary of the death of Beatrice, Dante sat in a secluded place and drew an angel on a tablet, thinking of an incomparable lady.
“Drawing,” he recalls, “I looked up and saw people next to me who were to be honored. They looked at my work. And as I was told afterwards, they had been there for some time before I noticed them. When I saw them, I got up and, greeting them, I said to them: “A certain vision was with me, and I was completely immersed in thoughts.” When these people left, I returned to my work and again began to draw an angel. And while working, it occurred to me to compose poems, as it were, for the anniversary, addressing those who visited me. Then I wrote a sonnet beginning: “She appeared to me ...” This sonnet has two beginnings, the second is, as it were, a poetic transcription of the story:
Appeared to me in the hours of solitude -
Her Amor mourned with me.
Have you seen my quick drawing,
Bow down at her image.
So a year has passed. Immersed in sorrow, loneliness, memories, Dante wrote sonnets, canzones, in which the former inspiration, the former passion no longer breathed. And suddenly something changed in his state of mind, something trembled, something inspired him again. The sad man's face was distorted with grief, his eyes reddened from tears, but the thought of whether they see or not see his grief did not leave the poet, forever devoted to introspection. “One day,” Dante continues, “realizing my agonizing condition, I looked up to see if they were seeing me. Then I noticed a certain noble lady, young and beautiful, who was looking at me from the window with such pity that it seemed that all the pity in the world had found its refuge in her. And since the unfortunate, seeing the compassion of others who have felt their torment, more easily yield to attacks of tears, as if pitying themselves, I felt in my eyes a desire to shed tears. But, afraid to show the miserable state of my life, I retired from the eyes of this noble lady, saying to myself: “It cannot be that the most noble Amor was not with this compassionate lady.” It was a dangerous neighborhood. Next to the beautiful lady, whom Dante did not know, or, perhaps, knew, since she lived nearby, there was a fatal companion - Amor. Dante was confused, bewildered. The lady, full of compassion, shed tears, and wherever she saw the young sufferer, pallor - the color of love - appeared on her cheeks. In her views, Dante began to seek solace, and finally he wrote a sonnet:
And the color of love and the goodness of regret
Your grieving face has shown me more than once.
He shone with such mercy,
That on earth I find no comparison.
I contemplated miraculous phenomena.
Your sad gaze met my mournful gaze.
This is where my heart bursts with excitement.
Weakened eyes I forbid
I couldn't look at you...
Dante's eyes, he said, began to experience too much pleasure when he saw a compassionate lady; in vain did he reproach his eyes, and even wrote a reproachful sonnet to himself. His eyes involuntarily directed in the direction where the comforting lady was. Dante was well aware - with his tendency to analyze - the contradiction of his feelings. The image of a compassionate lady, lively, smiling or sad, was too attractive and seduced the very depths of his heart. He wrote in his poetic diary: “I saw again and again the face of a compassionate lady in such an unusual form that I often thought of her as a person I liked too much. “This noble lady,” I thought, “beautiful, young and wise, appeared, as you can judge, by the will of Amor, so that I could find rest in my life.” And often I thought even more lovingly, so that my heart more and more deeply perceived the arguments of this thought. And when I was already quite ready to agree with them, I again plunged into meditation, as if driven by reason itself, and said to myself: “God, what kind of thought is this, which so shamefully wants to console me and almost does not allow any other thought?” Then another thought arose and said: “In such a painful state you are, why do you not want to be freed from sorrows? You see - this is the obsession of Amor, bringing love desires to us. Amor comes from a place as noble as the eyes of a lady who has shown me such great compassion.” So I, struggling with myself, wanted to express my state of mind in verse. And since in the clash of my thoughts those who spoke in her favor won, it seemed to me that I should turn to her. Then I wrote a sonnet that begins: Good Thought.
If this sonnet was sent to a lady of compassion, then it sounded like a declaration of love.
A good thought speaks to me biasedly
About you, who captivated my days and dreams.
The words of love are so full of sweetness
That the heart seems to agree with everything.
The soul seeks to know hourly
At the heart: “By whom are you captivated?
Why should she be the only one to listen to?
Other words you expel imperiously!”
"A thoughtful soul," says
Her heart is a new spirit of love for us;
He secretly revealed his desire to me.
And the virtues of its foundation
In the eyes of the beautiful one that promises us
And consolation and compassion.
Then, in the New Life, written (rather composed, since the poems arose earlier) a year after Beatrice's death, Dante's repentance and his return to Beatrice are described. He again sheds tears, again suffers day and night, and his agony is aggravated by his brief betrayal. Finally, Dante tells of the pilgrims heading for Rome, whom he met on the streets of Florence. On this occasion, he writes a sonnet in which, with his characteristic exaggeration, he assures that if the sad news of the death of Beatrice touched the ears of these wanderers who came from unknown and distant lands, they would fill Florence with sobs. There is also a story about some noble ladies who asked Dante to write poetry. Dante sent them one of his sonnets dedicated to Beatrice, written after her death, and a new sonnet - the apotheosis of an exalted lady in heaven.
Beyond the sphere of limiting motion
My breath flies into the shining hall.
And God cherishes the sorrow of love in the heart
For a new universe of understanding.
And, reaching the region of lust,
The pilgrim spirit in glory could see
Leaving the captivity of earthly anxieties,
Worthy of praise and admiration.
I didn't understand what he said then.
So refined, secretive were the speeches
In a sad heart Good thoughts
In my soul grieving caused.
But Beatrice - in heaven far away -
I heard the name, dear ladies.
After this, Dante had a "wonderful vision." In this vision, he says, “in which I saw that which made me decide not to speak more of the blessed one until I was able to speak of her more worthily. To achieve this, I do my best, which she truly knows. So, if the one who gives life to everything deigns, so that my life lasts a few more years, I hope say something about her that has never been said about any woman. And may my soul, by the will of the lord of the courtesy, ascend and see the radiance of my lady, blessed Beatrice, contemplating in her glory the face of the one who is blessed forever and ever. Thus, Dante, on the last page of the New Life, promises that he will say about Beatrice "what has never been said about any woman." This final chord of the "book of memory" opposes the whole idea of Dante's next work - "Feast", written in the first years of exile. It must be assumed that the three (or perhaps only the first two) allegorical and moralizing canzones included in the "Feast" originated in Florence. Dante claims that the “compassionate lady” was “the most worthy daughter of the Ruler of the universe, whom Pythagoras called Philosophy” (I, XV, 12). It is not easy to explain the completely obvious contradiction between the two works. It is also difficult to get rid of the idea that the “compassionate lady”, before turning into an allegorical image, actually existed in the “foreground”. It can be assumed with sufficient probability, along with many modern dentists, that the New Life had two editions and that a second edition has come down to us, in which the end was redone and supplemented by the author himself at the time when he left the Feast and the treatise On folk eloquence" and began to write "Monarchy" and "Divine Comedy". Having abandoned the intellectualism of the first years of exile, Dante sought to connect his youthful work with the songs of the poem, glorifying the one who became his driver in Paradise.
Yet to determine what was the end of the first edition of Novaya Zhizn is not an easy task. We can assume that the conclusion was the triumph of the compassionate lady and the sonnet dedicated to her. Perhaps not only the story of his "wonderful vision" was attributed later, but also chapter thirty-nine on Dante's repentance and eleven on the pilgrims. In the twenty-ninth chapter, despite the weeping, sighing and repentance, one feels a certain artificiality and coldness - the greatest opponents of poetry. The sonnet about the pilgrims speaks more about the external image of wanderers walking "through the city of sorrows" than about the feelings of the poet himself.
At the beginning of The Feast, Dante categorically declares that the compassionate lady is not a woman, but Philosophy, the daughter of the Lord God himself - and let whoever can believe believe! But we know that Dante subsequently abandoned this exaggeration and repented in the earthly paradise before the face of Beatrice in all his hobbies, both simply earthly and allegorical. We believe that the most likely hypothesis is that the "wonderful vision" was given to the book of memory later, when the prophecy of the last sonnet was already being fulfilled in the Divine Comedy. Some scientists of the last century believed that the noble lady was none other than the bride, and then the wife of Dante - Gemma Donati. This caused a storm of indignation and indignation among the critical dantologists of our age, who do not want to solve the riddles of the lady of compassion. Why, however, not to assume that the beauty who took pity on Dante was really Gemma Donati, who had been waiting for her fiancé for a long time and betrothed to him as a child? Dante was obliged to take her as his wife under an agreement signed by his father, and therefore did not notice her beauty, but after the death of Beatrice, he could suddenly notice the charm of his bride, her tenderness, compassion and forgiveness, and appreciated the long love that she had for him . The misogynist Boccaccio reports that relatives supposedly married Dante after the death of Beatrice, not realizing that marriage is harmful to poets, as it interferes with their poetry. The gray-haired author of the Decameron became a devout misanthrope at the end of his life, but his testimony cannot be trusted. Dante married after Beatrice's death, probably a year later, when he was twenty-six and Gemma was about twenty. How Gemma, who gave Dante four children, could become a symbol of divine wisdom, I find it difficult to explain. Dante, however, loved the most unexpected transformations of meaning, but could later easily refuse them. The great man was characterized by the eternal play of ideas, real and fantastic. Without these reincarnations, changes, spiritual ascents and many, alas, many falls, including in the allegorical and moralizing times of the Feast, Dante would not have become the author of the Divine Comedy.
(1265 – 1321)
STROKE BIOGRAPHY
Dante was born on Santa Margherita Street, in Florence, and died away from his homeland, in exile, in the city of Ravenna. In those days, the homeland of a person was not a country, as it is today, but a city, what is now called " small homeland"And therefore, for Dante, the Italian city of Ravenna could well be called a foreign land. Dante was born in Florence, and the most significant events his personal life.
In the church of Santa Margherita, Dante first saw the beautiful Beatrice, who became his eternal platonic love. Beatrice was the wife of another, and therefore Dante could only admire her from a distance. She died young, which in the Middle Ages was not uncommon, but rather the rule. And that is why Beatrice in " Divine Comedy"- the main creation of Dante - can lead the poet through Paradise and show him all the wonders of heaven.
Dante's love for Beatrice was so sublime and so far from carnal desires that it could not interfere with his marriage. Just a stone's throw from the meeting place with his heavenly beloved, in the church of San Martino de Vescovio, Dante married his earthly life partner, Gemma Donati. However, he was soon forced to leave her forever. And not by choice. The fact is that Dante in his life not only indulged in the heavenly delights of Platonic love. He was very active in political life city, which was very confusing in those days. Florence was torn apart by the struggle between the two parties - the Guelphs and the Ghibellines. Legend has it that the feud began on a very romantic occasion. A noble young man from a family belonging to the Ghibelline party broke off his engagement to a girl from the Adimari family of Guelph. To endure such an insult was, of course, impossible. And therefore, the brothers of the disgraced girl ambushed the offender, who was calmly riding his horse along the Ponte Vecchio - the Old Bridge, and stabbed him to death. Well, then off we go. In fact, the enmity between the Guelphs and the Ghibellines was of a quite ordinary nature and was primarily a struggle for power, and not a vendetta. The Guelphs were supporters of the Pope, while the Ghibellines supported the Emperor of the Holy Empire.
Dante Alighieri belonged to the Guelph party, who eventually won, expelled their opponents from the city and built a government building, which they called the Palazzo di Parte Guelph - the Palace of the Guelph Party. It would seem that everything was going well for Dante. He even participated for some time in the government of the city, was a prior - something like a member of the city council - and sat with other priors in the Castagna tower. But the Guelphs, having come to power, immediately divided into two parties and began to quarrel with each other. The black Guelphs continue to support the Pope, while the whites, to whom Dante belonged, stand for the independence of Florence and reconciliation with the remnants of the Ghibellines.
In 1301, the black Guelphs finally defeated the whites. And at the beginning of the next year, Dante Alighieri, as a white Guelph, was sentenced to burning and confiscation of property. Luckily for him, he was away at the time. But the sentence meant for him eternal exile, separation from his native city, wife and children. And his main work - "The Divine Comedy" - Dante created away from Florence. But he dreamed of returning here, and returning with glory.
"The anger that has cut off my access will be humbled
To my native sheepfold, where I slept like a lamb,
Not nice to the wolves that disturbed her peace,
In a different rune, in a different majestic ringing.
I will return, poet, and fall with a crown
Where he was baptized as a child ... "
That is, in the Baptistery of San Giovanni, where Dante was baptized, and with which one significant incident of his life is connected. Dante recalls this incident in the Nineteenth Canto of Hell:
"I saw an innumerable number of Round wells in a grayish stone. They are exactly the same in appearance, Like those in my beautiful San Giovanni, Where the sacrament of baptism is performed. I, saving a boy from suffering, In a recent year, broke one of them ... "
These lines are rather dark, if you don't know what's the matter. Once Dante was present at a baptism in San Giovanni. The negligent priest dropped the baby into a huge font and they could not fish him out. Then Dante broke the font and saved the child. This act required not only resourcefulness, but also courage. After all, it could be considered sacrilege.
In 1315, the Florentine authorities realized that Dante could serve the greater glory of the city. He was offered to return on the condition that he recognize himself as a political criminal, publicly repent, walk through the city with a candle to the Baptistery of San Giovanni, kneel and ask for forgiveness from the people of Florence. But Dante refused.
"Can't I look at the sun and stars from anywhere on earth? Can't I meditate on great questions anywhere under the sky? Why should I undergo a shameful and humiliating procedure in front of the people of Florence?"
Interesting Facts from life
* Initially, Dante called his main work simply “Comedy”. This name corresponded to the medieval tradition of naming poetic works. The epithet "divine" was added to the name by Giovanni Boccaccio.
* The Divine Comedy is full of allegories and without their analysis much of the meaning is lost. Also, the poem has a well-thought-out structure: the number of songs in each part (and in the work as a whole), the number of lines in each song, the choice of terzan as a measure - all this matters.
* The portrait of Dante by Raphael, placed in the title of the biography, is considered "canonical" - it is this image that is present on the 2 euro coin. This portrait was painted by Raphael 200 years after Dante's death, based on the description of Giovanni Boccaccio. Boccaccio himself was 8 years old in the year of Dante's death, and most likely his verbal portrait was recorded from the words of other people. In 1921, the grave of Dante in Ravenna was opened, and scientists took measurements of the bones of the poet's skull. Based on these measurements, the alleged appearance of Dante was reconstructed in 2007 (given above).
DANTE AND BEATRICE
I had no other teacher in poetry,” he says in Vita nuova, “except myself and the most powerful teacher - love.”
* The most outstanding, leading event of Dante's youth was his love for Beatrice. He first saw her when both of them were still children: he was 9, she was 8 years old. The “young angel,” as the poet puts it, appeared before his eyes in an outfit that did not befit her childhood: Beatrice was dressed in a “noble” red color, she had a belt on her, and, according to Dante, she immediately became “the mistress his spirit." “She seemed to me,” says the poet, “more like the daughter of God than a mere mortal,” “From the very minute I saw her, love took possession of my heart to such an extent that I had no strength to resist it and, trembling with excitement , heard a secret voice: Here is a deity that is stronger than you and will own you.
Ten years later, Beatrice appears to him again, this time dressed in white. She walks down the street, accompanied by two other women, raises her eyes to him and, thanks to "her indescribable grace", bows to him so modestly - charmingly that it seems to him that he has seen "the highest degree of bliss." Intoxicated with delight, the poet runs away from the noise of people, retires to his room to dream of his beloved, falls asleep and has a dream. When he wakes up, he writes it down in verse. This is an allegory in the form of a vision: love with Dante's heart in her hands carries at the same time in her arms "a lady asleep and wrapped in a veil." Cupid wakes her up, gives her Dante's heart and then runs away crying. This sonnet of the 18-year-old Dante, in which he addresses the poets, asking them for an explanation of his dream, drew the attention of many to him, by the way, Guido Cavalcanti, who congratulated the new poet from the bottom of his heart. Thus began their friendship, which has never wavered since. In his first poetic works, in sonnets and canzones, surrounding the image of Beatrice with a bright radiance and poetic halo, Dante already surpasses all his contemporaries with the power of poetic talent, the ability to speak the language, as well as sincerity, seriousness and depth of feeling. Although he, too, still adheres to the same conventionality of form, the content is new: it is experienced, it comes from the heart. Dante soon abandoned the form and manner that had been handed down to him and took a new path. He contrasted the traditional feeling of worshiping the Madonna of the troubadours with real, but spiritual, holy, pure love. He himself considers the truth and sincerity of his feelings to be the "powerful lever" of his poetry.
BEATRICE PORTINARI
The poet's love story is very simple. All events are the most insignificant. Beatrice passes him down the street and bows to him; he meets her unexpectedly at a wedding celebration and comes into such indescribable excitement and embarrassment that those present, and even Beatrice herself, make fun of him, and his friend must take him away from there. One of Beatrice's friends dies, and Dante composes two sonnets on this occasion; he hears from other women how much Beatrice grieves for the death of her father ... These are the events; but for such a high cult, for such love, which the sensitive heart of a poet of genius was capable of, this is a whole inner story, touching in its purity, sincerity and deep religiosity.
This so pure love is timid, the poet hides it from prying eyes, and his feeling remains a mystery for a long time. In order to prevent other people's eyes from penetrating into the sanctuary of the soul, he pretends to be in love with another, writes poetry to her. Gossip begins, and, apparently, Beatrice is jealous and does not return his bow.
The second meeting of Dante and Beatrice took place at a celebration dedicated to the wedding of mutual acquaintances, but this day did not bring the poet in love anything but bitter suffering and tears. Always self-confident, Alighieri was suddenly embarrassed when he saw his beloved among his acquaintances. He could not utter a word, and when he came to his senses a little, he said something incoherent and absurd. Seeing embarrassment young man, not taking his eyes off her, the lovely girl began to make fun of the uncertain guest and ridicule him along with her friends. That evening, the inconsolable young man finally decided never to seek rendezvous with the beautiful Beatrice and devote his life only to singing his love for Signorina Portinari. The poet never saw her again.
Beatrice for Dante is the personification of the ideal, something "divine, who appeared from heaven to give the earth a ray of heavenly bliss", - "the queen of virtue." “Clothed in modesty,” says the poet, “radiant with beauty, she walks among praises, like an angel who descended to earth to show the world the spectacle of her perfections. Her presence gives bliss, pours joy into the hearts. Whoever has not seen her cannot understand all the sweetness of her presence.
A plausible hypothesis is that Beatrice's early death is related to childbirth. It is traditionally believed that her grave is located in the church of Santa Margherita de Cherchi, not far from the houses of Alighieri and Portinare, in the same place where her father and his family are buried. It is here that Memorial plaque. However, this version is doubtful, since, according to custom, she was to be buried in her husband's tomb (the Basilica of Santa Croce, next to the Pazzi Chapel).
* According to some historians, when Beatrice was opened, a volume with Dante's poems was found on her chest.
* Dante Alighieri was very upset by the death of Beatrice. On the anniversary of her death, he sits and draws on a tablet: the figure of an angel comes out.
His grief subsided so much that when one young beautiful lady looked at him with compassion, condoling with him, some new, vague feeling woke up in him, full of compromises, with the old, not yet forgotten. He begins to assure himself that in that beauty there is the same love that makes him shed tears. Every time she met him, she looked at him the same way, turning pale, as if under the influence of love; it reminded him of Beatrice, for she was just as pale. He feels that he is beginning to look at the stranger, and that, while before her compassion brought tears to his eyes, now he does not cry. And he catches himself, reproaches himself for the unfaithfulness of his heart; he is hurt and ashamed.
* Seriously, Dante did not know his beloved Beatrice so well. Dante Alighieri first saw her at a party hosted by his parents. He was then nine years old, and the girl was eight. Literally nine years later, he met her again - briefly, on the street, Beatrice was already a married lady.
But it was these two meetings that left such an indelible mark on Dante's soul that Beatrice forever became his muse. After the girl's early departure from life (1290), he sang his love for her in the New Life. Soon Dante himself married, but in the Divine Comedy, his mature work, Beatrice again appears to us in the form of a guide to Paradise.
LAST YEARS
On the slope of his life, Dante found a quiet marina in Ravenna, where, far from the bustle, in the circle of his children (Jenny remained in Florence) and friends - poets, he completed his creation of three parts of a hundred songs.
In the summer of 1321, Dante was sent as an ambassador to Venice to conclude peace with the Republic of St. Mark. Returning along the road between the banks of the Adria and the swamps of Po, Dante fell ill with malaria and died in Ravenna on the night of September 13-14, 1321.
Fifty years later, all of Italy called him the divine poet. The authorities of Florence have repeatedly asked Ravenna to return his ashes to their homeland. But Ravenna refused. After all, Dante did not want to return to his homeland, even in the form of dust. However, in Florence, in the Cathedral of Santa Croce, he was still given a magnificent tombstone. This tombstone is a pure convention, since Dante's body still rests in Ravenna. The tombstone is a tribute to the vanity of Florence and a reminder that the poet passionately loved his native city and hated it just as passionately.
"He sent her a curse from hell. And in heaven he could not forget her, - But barefoot, in a repentant shirt, With a lit candle, he did not go Through his desired Florence, Treacherous, low, long-awaited ..."
AFTERWORD
Dante is the creator of Italian literary language, based on which he puts the Tuscan dialect, enriching it with words and phrases from other dialects, Latinisms and neologisms. The style of the poem combines vernacular and solemn book vocabulary, picturesqueness and drama. Dante, like no one in his time, already spoke on behalf of the entire Italian nation and during the period of the struggle for the freedom of Italy, was the spokesman for national sentiments, the prophet of the unity of the country's freedom, expressing its historical aspirations. He, according to Engels, is "... the last poet of the Middle Ages and at the same time the first poet of modern times." Dante's work had a huge impact on the development of Italian literature and European culture in general.
FROM DANTE'S POEMS
One day Tosca appears:
"I intend to be with you."
Pain and Anger seemed to come with her,
That acted as a leader.
"Go away!" - I ask, but looks down
She is Greek - how dare I, they say -
And he says his own, and I'm dumb,
No wonder, and suddenly from afar
Amora in an unexpected dress
I see - in black from head to toe -
And with tears in an unfeigned look.
I wonder: "What kind of masquerade?"
And he answered: “We are in great sorrow.
Cry, our lady is dying, brother."
The objectives of the lesson: to introduce students to a special poetic form that became widespread and reached an unprecedented peak in the Renaissance; to create conditions for the creative work of the students themselves to complete the unfinished sonnet.
Lesson layout.
The topic of the lesson is written on the board and portraits of Dante, Michelangelo, Petrarch, Ronsard, Shakespeare are placed, the words “sonnet” and “sonata”, composition and rhyming schemes of the classical sonnet and Shakespeare’s sonnet are written.
A handout has been prepared for each student: Shakespeare's unfinished sonnet No. 65 and Petrarch's 13th sonnet.
During the classes
Sounds like a fragment from Beethoven's Pathetique Sonata
Teacher:
- Why do you think the lesson on the sonnet - one of the poetic forms - we started with the Beethoven sonata? Is there anything in common between a sonata and a sonnet?
- Yes, you are absolutely right, the words “sonnet” and “sonata” are of the same root and originated from the Latin word “SONARE”, which in translation means “sound”, “ring” In poetry, this peculiar poetic form of 14 lines originated in Sicily in 13th century. As a canonical form, the sonnet reached its perfection in the Renaissance in the work of Dante and especially Petrarch. Michelangelo also wrote wonderful sonnets. From Italy, the sonnet came to France, where it established itself as a classical form of verse in the poetry of Ronsard in the 12th century. Almost at the same time, Shakespeare was writing sonnets in England.
Now we will hear several sonnets of the poets we have named. Let's start with the sonnet of Dante Alighieri, who is called the last poet of the Middle Ages and the first poet of the Renaissance. He dedicated most of his sonnets to Beatrice Portinari, for whom Dante began to love when he was a nine-year-old boy and lasted all his life. It was love from afar. Deeply concealed, she ate only rare chance meetings, a fleeting glance of her beloved, her cursory bow. And after the death of Beatrice (she died very young in 1290), love becomes a tragedy.
(Student reads Dante's 15th sonnet)
No less beautiful image of the beloved Laura is created in his sonnets by Francesco Petrarch. Twenty-three-year-old Petrarch met twenty-year-old Laura in the spring of 1327. She was married to another man. Twenty-one years after this meeting, the poet sang Laura in his sonnets and canzones. He divided the poems in which the poet sang of his passion for Laura into 2 cycles: the first cycle “On the Life of the Madonna Laura”, the second “On the Death of the Madonna Laura”. In the image of this woman, for Petrarch, all beauty, all perfection, all the wisdom of the world merged. She is both the woman whom the poet selflessly loves, and the symbol of glory that he dreams of, and the highest expression of poetry, which he serves. In the poems of Petrarch, a Renaissance understanding of love is born - a powerful force capable of revealing all the riches of the individual, filling all life, bringing joy and torment. Such is it - the love of a new era. Sensual and spiritual, formidable and merciful, giving light and bringing suffering, different for everyone, each time unique, individual, but always triumphant.
(The student reads the 13th sonnet of Petrarch, then the students are given his text)
Blessed is the year, and the day, and the hour,
And that time, and time, and moment,
And that beautiful land, and that village,
Where was I taken in full of two sweet eyes;
Blessed is the secret excitement,
When the voice of love overtook me,
And the arrow that pierced my heart
And this wound burning languor.
Blessed be my stubborn voice,
Tirelessly calling the name of Donna,
And sighs, and sorrows, and desires;
Blessed are all my writings
To her glory, and the thought that adamantly
He tells me about her - about her alone!
- Let's try, based on the text of Petrarch's sonnet, to determine the features of the composition and rhyming of the classic Italian sonnet.
So, the sonnet consists of 14 lines, divided into 2 quatrains (quatrain) and 2 tercet (tercet). The verse is most often eleven-syllable (less often ten-syllable). Quatrains are built on two quadruples of rhyme, usually located like this: abba / abba. Tercetes are most often built on three pairs of rhymes with the following scheme: vvg / dgd
Moreover, if a is a feminine rhyme, then b is masculine, c is masculine, d is feminine, e is masculine. If a is male, then vice versa.
Thus, an impeccable and thoughtful structure of the sonnet is created. In quatrains, with inclusive rhyming, the same rhymes either approach or diverge, giving a harmonious play of “expectations”. In tercetes, the structure changes, which creates diversity. The unity of rhyme in quatrains emphasizes the unity of the theme, which should be set in the first quatrain, developed in the second, so that in the first tercet a “contradiction” is given, and in the second “resolution”, a synthesis of a thought or image, crowned with a final formula, the last line, the "lock" of the sonnet.
Shakespeare modified the classic sonnet somewhat. Keeping in general the internal sonnet composition, he wrote sonnets from three quatrains and completed them with one couplet containing the main idea. Their rhyming scheme is also different. Having written 154 sonnets, Shakespeare seemed to be in competition with the great masters of lyrics. He strove not so much to catch up with them, but to distinguish himself from them by the novelty and originality of situations and images. Written over a period of years, apparently between the ages of twenty-eight and thirty-four, the Sonnets are heterogeneous. Many of them, especially the initial ones dedicated to a friend, bear the stamp of obvious idealization, while the later ones amaze with the same force of psychological truth that is characteristic of Shakespeare's best dramas. But with all the internal differences between the individual groups of sonnets, they are united by the commonality of the poetic principle. Having gained complete control of the form of these small lyric poems, Shakespeare boldly introduces into them images and comparisons drawn from all spheres of life, including prosaic everyday life. Shakespeare intensified the drama of sonnet poetry and, more than his predecessors, brought the lyrics closer to the real feelings of people.
(Prepared students read several of Shakespeare's sonnets: 90, 91, 130.)
- Well, now that we have got acquainted with the basic principles of constructing a sonnet, let's test our creative possibilities - we will add Shakespeare's unfinished sonnet, create a "castle" of the sonnet, the final two lines that should contain the main idea of the poem.
(The children are given sheets with Shakespeare's unfinished sonnet (No. 65) and they work on its completion)
If copper, granite, land and sea
They won't stand when their time comes
How can it survive, arguing with death,
Is your beauty a helpless flower?
How to keep breathing scarlet roses,
When the siege is hard times
Unshakable crushes the rocks
And destroys the bronze statues and columns?
Oh, bitter reflection! .. Where, what
Find a refuge for beauty?
How, stopping the pendulum with your hand,
Save the color from time to time?..
PRESENTATION OF THE RECEIVED FINALS OF THE SONNET.
(Below I present the best of the couplets written in the lesson)
Mindiyarova S.:
1) Why do we live if we have to die?
After all, death will come to us sooner or later.
2) We will all leave, life will also go away ...
Poetry will live forever.
Sedova E.:
1) So, sitting at the window, the creator met the dawn,
After all, for canvas and paints no death,
2) Yes, time destroys everything,
But beauty lives in my verse
Bazhenova A.:
And only a verse is more reliable than granite,
The breath of a scarlet rose will save.
Penzina L.:
1) My sonnet will sound about your charms,
And the beauty of your descendants will surprise.
2) Oh donna, I’ll tell you about you in a sonnet
And I will save your beauty from time.
One of the features of E. Raevsky's poetry is that it often relies on the achievements of the classics, as they say now, stands "on the shoulders of giants." Adherence to traditions is reflected not only in following the themes and motives of predecessors, but also in the development traditional forms, which include the sonnet.
The name of this poetic form comes from the Italian word sonare, which emphasizes the peculiarity of the sound of the verse. After all, in Italian this word means “to sound”. In the same way, having appeared in Germany, this poetic type was called Klieggedicht, which means “ringing verses” in translation. Both names convey the sound originality of the sonnet, its musicality and sonority of its rhymes. At the same time, a sonnet is a work of especially clear form, mainly consisting of fourteen lines, organized in a peculiar way into stanzas. But this form has its own flexibility. As the researcher writes, “the variety of rhymes, the rarity and value of all visual means verse, the flexibility of its rhythms, the ability to obey various strophic types - all this appears with exceptional fullness in this most demanding of poetic forms.
The sonnet is known to have originated in Sicily in the thirteenth century, when European culture prepared to enter the period of the Renaissance. Dante already knew the sonnet well and used it quite generously in his La Vita Nuova. So, in the sonnet "To souls in love ..." you can see the first part, in which great poet sends his greetings to the bearers of nobility, asking for an answer, and the second part, where the author indicates what he is waiting for an answer to 43 . In the corpus of poems of the Florentine period, we also find sonnets addressed to contemporaries (Guido Cavalcanti, Lippo, etc.) or glorifying the beautiful lady of the heart. Here is an example of a Dante sonnet:
Beloved eyes radiate light
So noble that before them
Objects become different
And it is impossible to describe such an object.
I see these eyes, and in response
I repeat, trembling, plunged into horror by them:
"From now on, they will not meet mine!",
But soon I forget my vow;
And again I go, inspiring the guilty
My eyes are confident, there,
Where defeated, but, alas, I will close them
From fear where it melts without a trace
The desire that serves as their guide,
Amora decide how to be with me 44 .
Dante's sonnets are not yet divided into separate quatrains and terzets, although they actually consist of them. Most of the works of this form by the creator of the Divine Comedy are correct sonnets (I, III, VI, VIII, etc.), there are already free and complicated ones (IV, V, XIII), not subject to strict rules. Dante's best sonnet is the one that begins with the lines: Tanto gentile e tanto onesta pare:
So noble, so modest
Madonna, answering the bow,
That near her the language is silent, embarrassed,
And the eye does not dare to rise to her ... 45
It is no coincidence that Pushkin will say that "severe Dante did not despise the sonnet ...". In Dante, works of this form usually include two quatrains (first movement) and two tercetes (second movement). Poems are written in iambic pentameter; the construction is characterized by the fact that first in quatrains there follows a girdle rhyme, then in tercetes two or three rhymes are given that bind them into a single complex, for example:
She brings such delight to her eyes,
That when you meet her, you find joy,
Which the ignorant will not understand.
And as if coming from her mouth
Love spirit pouring sweetness into the heart,
Firmly to the soul: "sigh" - and sigh 46 .
At the same time, sonorous, sonorous rhymes are chosen so that they fully correspond to the name of this poetic form. These are “carries” - “understands” - “goes” - “breathes” and “joy” - “sweetness” in the above example.
The work of Dante was continued by Petrarch, the first humanist of the Renaissance, with his passionate interest in the problems of the individual and in the culture of antiquity. His love for Laura, combined with the same adoration of fame, he strives to present as ideal, and for this, the sonnet serves him to the greatest extent. Petrarch made the sonnet perfect both in content and in formal terms. In his sonnets, Petrarch finds special words to glorify his beloved and at the same time convey the ardor of his own feelings. Laura, according to Petrarch, not only surpasses all other women in her beauty, but, like the Sun, outshines the small stars with her radiance. Very precisely the essence of the “Book of Songs” was designated by the literary historian Fr. De Sanctis: “Dante elevated Beatrice to the Universe, became her conscience and herald; Petrarch concentrated the whole Universe in Laura, created his own world from her and from himself. At first glance, this is a step back, but in reality it is a step forward. This world is much smaller, it is only a small fragment of Dante's huge generalization, but a fragment that has turned into something complete: a full-fledged, concrete, given in development, analyzed, explored to the innermost recesses” 47 .
Francesco Petrarch conveyed the content and originality of the construction of his book of lyrics in the first sonnet, which must be quoted here:
In a collection of songs true to youthful passion,
The aching echo of sighs has not died away
Since the first time I made a mistake
Unaware of your future part.
In vain dreams and vain torments in power,
My voice breaks at times
For which I ask not for your forgiveness,
Lovers, but only about participation.
After all, the fact that everyone laughed at me,
Didn't mean the judges were too strict:
I see myself today that I was ridiculous.
And for the former thirst for vain blessings
I'm executing myself now, realizing in the end,
That worldly joys are a brief dream 48 .
It follows from this text that the book of sonnets is a collection of love songs, that the voice of young passion will be interrupted from time to time in it, and that, finally, the author will turn to readers, calling for participation. The range of feelings is set as follows: "from vain dreams" to "vain torments." The result of love, it is said in the final part of the sonnet, will be repentance and understanding that "worldly joys are a short dream."
Nevertheless, the poet does not reject his deep feeling, inspired by Cupid, and does not regret it. He will remember his birth, maturation, deepening, his reflection, split feelings and unfulfilled hopes, counting on the transfer of his sad experience to others. Laura appears in these lyrics as a completely real, albeit slightly idealized, woman. Just as alive and real is her lyrical hero, identified with a new humanist who knows how to analyze his love. The new understanding of love was a whole revelation that "beckoned to a new social ideal," as A. N. Veselovsky noted 49 .
Each sonnet of Petrarch is something completed, and at the same time it is introduced into art space books of love songs and is perceived as one of the links of the whole. Now the appearance of the sonnet has also changed. It consists of two quatrains separated from each other (connected by two sonorous rhymes) and two independent tercetes, soldered by three rhymes. All 365 sonnets of Petrarch are written in the Italian vernacular. They contain echoes of the poetry of the troubadours, the influence of Dante's lyrics, reminiscences from Roman poets (Ovid), but basically they are truly original. Their confessional language is enriched with personifications, subtle allegories, mythological comparisons, but this language is devoid of any philosophical abstractions and symbols and is truly accessible to readers. Sometimes Petrarch plays in the name of his beloved (Laura, Cauro, laura), is fond of these harmonies, as well as combinations of rhythms and rhymes, which gives his lyrics some artistry, grace 50, but these hobbies are not frequent with the poet.
Petrarch's sonnets had a powerful influence on world poetry. It is noteworthy that Boccaccio included Petrarch's sonnet "Blessed is the day, month, summer, hour ..." in his poem "Filostrato", and Poliziano began one of his poems with this Petrarchian phrase. The style of Petrarch became the style of the Renaissance. All the great lyric poets of France, England, Spain, Portugal, and also the countries of the Slavic world 52 passed through the school of Petrarchism.
A new page in the history of the sonnet is associated with the name of Pierre Ronsard. In the new historical conditions, this French poet continued the traditions of Petrarch. In imitation of the Italian lyricist, Ronsard created in 1552 a collection of sonnets, Love Poems for Cassandra. The young girl Cassandra Salviati, whom Ronsard met at the court in the castle of Blois and passionately fell in love, became for the poet the source of creating a poetic image, sublime to the ideal, similar to Petrarch's Laura. Here is one of these sonnets translated by S. Shervinsky:
Kohl, mistress, in your hands I will die,
I rejoice: I do not want to have
Worthy of honor than to die,
Leaning towards you in the moment of a kiss.
Others, stirring their breasts with Mars,
Let them go to war, wishing in the future
Rattle with power and armor,
The Spanish steel in the chest seeking itself.
And I have no other desires:
Without glory to die, having lived a hundred years,
And in idleness - at your feet, Cassandra!
Although it may be my mistake,
For this death I would sacrifice
The might of Caesar and the violence of Alexander 53 .
It is easy to see that Ronsard, a deep connoisseur of antiquity, saturates his sonnet with the names of Greek and Roman rulers and mythological heroes, sharply contrasting the exploits on the battlefield with the knightly service of his beloved in an atmosphere of idleness and peace. In its structure, Ronsard's sonnet is original: it pulls together both quatrains into a kind of integrity, building them on two rhymes, but separates both tercets from each other, voicing them with different adjacent rhymes and uniting the third ("Cassandra" - "Alexandra"). The sonnet is written in the spirit of sublime Platonism. The spirit of Petrarchism is still felt here, but it is overcome in the Continuation of Love Poems (1555) and the New Continuation of Love Poems (1556), whose sonnets are dedicated to Marie Dupin. hallmark of these verses becomes the simplicity and naturalness of the "low style" 54, which was chosen for sonnets, since the addressee of these verses was a simple peasant woman, cheerful, crafty and earthly. And love for her is just as simple.
The highest achievement of Ronsard in the field of the sonnet was the late cycle of "Sonnets to Helena" (1578), which is distinguished by classic clarity. The addressee of this collection, this "Third Book of Love", was Helena de Surger, the young maid of honor of Catherine de Medici, distinguished by her virtue and beauty. She attracted the attention of the poet and aroused his later feeling. As Z. V. Gukovskaya notes, the third and last cycle of Ronsard's lyrical sonnets was fanned by the sad charm of the love of an almost old man for a young and proud girl. These sonnets “stand out for their calm and majestic simplicity: after all, it was during these years that Ronsard came to a certain unified style in his poems, sublime and clear:
Not too low, not too pompous style:
Horace wrote thus, and Virgil wrote thus.
Here is a sample of Ronsard's sonnets presented in his late cycle, which was the last major event in poetic life a French author who united around himself a group of poets of the Pleiades and, in general, France of the 16th century:
When already old, with a candle, before the heat
You will twist and spin in the evening hour, -
Having sung my verses, you will say, marveling:
I was glorified by Ronsard in my youth!
Then the last maid in the old house,
Half asleep, working a long day,
At my name, driving drowsiness from my eyes,
Immortal praise will surround you not in vain.
I'll be underground and - a ghost without a bone -
I will be able to find my peace under the shadow of myrtle.
Near the coals you will be an old woman you bent
To regret that I loved, that your refusal was proud ...
Live, believe me, catch every hour
Roses of life immediately pluck the color instant 56 .
Such a very curious historical fact: when Mary Stuart, being in the Tower of London, awaiting her execution, she comforted herself by singing the sonnets of the great Ronsard. Best Achievements The poet was continued by the Pleiades, created by him.
A significant milestone in the development of the sonnet form was the work of Shakespeare. Published at the very beginning of the 17th century, in 1609, by the publisher T. Thorp, the sonnets of the great playwright became one of the pinnacle creations English poetry. All 154 of Shakespeare's sonnets depict the image of such a lyrical hero who knows how to appreciate devoted friendship and experience a complex, painful love for a mysterious heroine. Lyrical excitement is combined in these works with the drama of feelings and the philosophical depth of thought. Most of Shakespeare's sonnets are addressed to a nameless young man. A smaller part of them is devoted to a woman, who in Shakespeare studies was assigned the designation "Dark Lady". Shakespeare scholars identify the young man, the poet's friend, with Henry Risley, Earl of Southampton or William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke. In the sonnets addressed to one of these addressees, the themes of the transience of time, beauty as the eternal value of life and the philosophy of Neoplatonism are developed. At the same time, the author believes in the indissolubility of beauty, goodness and truth. As for the "Swarty Lady", after revealing harmonious relations with her, love-hate towards the woman who allowed infidelity and treason gradually begins to dominate in the poems. World poetry before Shakespeare did not know the disclosure of such circumstances and feelings in sonnet form. However, when analyzing Shakespeare's sonnets, the least of all is to search for biographical and near-literary facts, which was correctly noted by V. S. Florova 57 . Thus, the characterized works of Shakespeare consist of two parts: sonnets 1-126 constitute a cycle addressed to a friend; sonnets 127-154 form a cycle dedicated to the Swarthy Lady. But since the hero and heroine are closely related, entering into love triangle with the author, all 154 sonnets represent a holistic unity.
Speaking about the construction of Shakespeare's sonnets, it should be noted that their author sometimes reproduced the structure of the Italian sonnet, but more often resorted to his own composition, called "dramatic". The third quatrain was his culmination in the development of the theme, followed by the final couplet - the denouement, often unexpected. This can be seen by reading sonnets 30, 34 and 66 58. Such a structure was most suitable for the playwright-poet for his lyrical confession, the life of the heart, for the angry denunciation of deceit, hypocrisy, cruelty, characteristic of the then society. Such, for example, is sonnet 66, which speaks of the ulcers of reality and echoes the monologues of Hamlet.
The perfection of Shakespeare's sonnet is manifested in its conciseness, in its thoughtful rhyming according to the scheme: ABAB, CBSS, EFEF, GG. The dramatic development of the theme is conveyed with the help of oppositions, antitheses, contrasts, clashes of motives. The final distich usually aphoristically conveys a significant, as a rule, philosophical thought.
The language of Shakespeare's sonnets is based on the alternation of assonances and alliterations. Their vocabulary includes such layers that are able to capture the contradictions of reality. There are high book words, and expressions from the everyday sphere of life, and even rude “homemade” sayings necessary for expressing anger. So, in the famous 130th sonnet, Shakespeare not only refuses euphuistic (mannered, sophisticated) comparisons, but also resorts to such "indecent" words as English verb reek. Neither the translations of N. Gerbel, O. Rumer, A. Finkel, nor the classical translation of S. Marshak convey the nature of this sonnet, which paints a portrait of “my lady”. That is why R. Kushnerovich calls this sonnet by Shakespeare still untranslated 59 .
What was created by the genius of Shakespeare became the property of subsequent poetry. Sonnet writers often referred to its dramatic form. True, Edmund Spenser (1552-1599), a contemporary of the tragedian, invented for his sonnets a very complex system of rhyming and the "Spencer stanza". But they did not take root in the work of poets of new generations, and Shakespeare himself did not use these wisdoms without needing them.
The art of the sonnet was also developed in Germany. True, Schiller did not use this art form, but Schlegel, Werner, Zacharius and Goethe turned to it.
Goethe's sonnets are the most significant. The poet creates them in the late period of his life, starting from 1807. The choice of this form is connected with the passion for the poetry of Petrarch. Goethe's sonnets are autobiographical in nature. It is no coincidence that in the IV sonnet the heroine, referring to the lyrical hero, expresses her reproach in the following words:
You are so harsh, my love! With a statue
You are like an icy posture with your ...
These sonnets are mainly dedicated to Minna Herzlieb, an eighteen-year-old girl, for whom the already middle-aged poet had a love feeling. For the author, his love languor is “so nice to throw out another into a song.” Goethe's sonnets became such songs at this stage.
These works have pronounced features. First of all, a large cycle of seventeen sonnets is based on a single plot. Against a typically romantic background of towering rocks and roaring streams, he meets a young girl whom he once knew as a child. Confessions and hugs are replaced by separation, lamentations of the beloved, new meetings, cooling. Another feature of this form in Goethe is their internal and external dramatization. Internal - stems from the collision of sensual attraction and fettering restraint, looseness of behavior and a warning prohibition. External dramatization is conveyed by a dialogue between skeptics and lovers (sonnet XIV), a girl and a poet (sonnet XV). Another feature of Goethe's sonnets is the combination of a lyrical expression of feelings with an epistolary form: individual fragments of the cycle are letters from a girl to her lover. These are sonnets VIII, IX and X. Finally, in his works of this cycle, the poet managed to bring together and simultaneously oppose two poetic eras: the time of Petrarch (it is his sonnet form that he inherits) and his own time, which the poet counts "from one thousand eight hundred and seventh year" ( sonnet XVI). Therefore, Goethe's sonnets significantly outgrow the boundaries of the lyrical "I" and include the experiences of others and the signs of the era. As the researcher notes, “the confrontation between closeness and detachment, familiarity without novelty fits well into the rigid form of a sonnet. The form enhances frank sensuality, at the same time turns reality into a romantic episode ‹…›. Sonnets are the link between the past and the present of the poet” 60 . The sonnets turned out to be so capacious and important for Goethe that, to a certain extent, they prepared his "Affinity of Souls", "Mignon" and individual scenes of "Faust".
For some time in the 18th century, the sonnet was forgotten: the ideological struggles of this century had no time for its cultivation. But the Romantic movement returned to this form again. The French poet Augustin de Sainte-Beuve summed up everything done by sonnet authors over the course of several centuries. He wrote:
Do not blaspheme the sonnet, mocking Zoil!
He once captivated the great Shakespeare,
He served Petrarch like a mournful lyre,
And Tass, bound, relieved their souls.
Camões shortened his exile,
Singing in sonnets the power of a love idol,
For Dante, he sounded more solemn than the clergy,
And he covered the poet's forehead with myrtle.
Im Spencer clothed magical visions
And in slow stanzas he exhausted his languor,
Milton in them revived the fire that had died out in the heart.
Well, I want to revive their unexpected system with us.
Du Bellay brought them to us first from Tuscany,
And how many of them our forgotten Ronsard sang.
It is noteworthy that it was this sonnet of Sainte-Beuve that A. S. Pushkin was guided by when creating his famous masterpiece “Severe Dante did not despise the sonnet ...”. Pushkin, of course, took into account the achievements in the development of this form not only by European authors, but also by domestic ones: he completely devoted the last tercet to Delvig, the author of six magnificent sonnets. Speaking of this poetic form, Pushkin remarks:
Our maidens did not know him yet,
How did Delvig forget for him
Hexameter sacred tunes.
Pushkin himself was an adherent of sonnets to a lesser extent than his friend who died early. He owns only three works of this form: "Sonnet", "To the Poet" and "Madonna", but they contain the richest content and are distinguished by their unusual harmony and sonority of strophic rhythms. At the same time, Pushkin did not take too much into account the canon that arose around this poetic form. True, he observes the external drawing of the sonnet, builds it from 14 verses, breaks it into two quatrains and two tercetes in the spirit of Petrarch and especially Wordsworth, whose words became the epigraph of the Sonnet and to whom the entire second quatrain is dedicated:
And today he captivates the poet:
Wordsworth chose him as an instrument,
When away from the vain light
Nature he draws an ideal.
However, Pushkin does not accept some other rules of sonnet poetic practice. He innovatively rejects encircling rhymes in the first two quatrains and uses cross rhymes, as in the second tercet above. Pushkin does not respond to the demand to use rich or varied rhymes in the sonnet: his “Severe Dante ...” is based on five verbal rhymes (“pourned out” - “clothed” - “chosen” - “concluded” - “forgotten”), supplemented by the noun “ ideal". At the same time, the rhymes of quatrains were used in the tercetes, which was considered undesirable.
In the sonnet “To the Poet”, Pushkin mixes the cross-rhyming of the first quatrain with the encircling one in the second, although he retains the unity of the rhyme here. In the sonnet "Madonna" he returns to such a mixture and uniformity of rhymes and himself introduces a transfer (enjambement) forbidden for a sonnet from the second quatrain to the first tercet. As the theorist of the sonnet writes, “the severity of the form does not accept such ordinary combinations as “the heat of love”, “ vain light"," enthusiastic praise. Permissible to question in this form, essential feature which is impeccable, such clearly “filling” lines as: We have not yet known the virgins ‹…› All this, quite acceptable in an ordinary poem, is intolerable in a sonnet, which resolutely removes all poetic liberties from itself, deliberately increasing and complicating difficulties » 61 . In addition, Pushkin often allows in the sonnet the forbidden technique of repeating words, which is found both in Madonna and in the sonnet To the Poet.
However, it should be said that Pushkin, who was excellent in the theory of verse and the practice of versification, these liberties are by no means a manifestation of negligence, but a conscious innovation, an expression of Pushkin's constant innovation. For a great poet, freedom is important, including in conveying the content that is significant for him, contained in these three sonnets, which affirms the independence of the Creator from praise, and the judgment of fools, and from the laughter of a cold crowd, and from the rules that constrain him:
You are the king: live alone. By the road of the free
Go where your free mind takes you
Improving the fruits of your favorite thoughts...
It can be argued that Pushkin's innovations in his sonnets are also their emancipation and improvement. After all, it is important for the poet in Madonna to emphasize that he dreamed of only one picture, and therefore he repeats this word. It is important for him to highlight and glorify the purity of his Madonna, and he repeats this word in superlatives:
The purest beauty, the purest example.
This repetition is necessary. Its use is a manifestation of Pushkin's "free mind" and his own "highest court" 62 .
In parallel with Pushkin, the Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz (“Crimean Sonnets”) gave brilliant samples of the sonnet.
Following Delvig and Pushkin, such Russian poets as P. Katenin, E. Baratynsky, N. Shcherbina, A. Fet, M. Lermontov, V. Benediktov, Ya. Polonsky, K. Pavlova, A. Grigoriev turned to the sonnet form, P. Buturlin, V. Bryusov, Vyach. Ivanov, M. Kuzmin, N. Gumilyov, M. Voloshin, I. Annensky, O. Mandelstam, Yu. Verkhovsky.
IN Soviet time the sonnet form was cultivated by L. Vysheslavsky. His works of the 1960s, such as “The Sonnet of Wine” and “The Sonnet of the Garden Knife”, reproduce the structure developed by Petrarch: two quatrains are replaced by two tercets, although the rhyming characteristic of the canon he established is not sustained: first, a cross-rhyme is given, and then - in tercetes - adjacent. A special cycle in the lyrics of L. Vysheslavsky was "Star Sonnets", which includes 22 works. The same structure is used here as in the already named poems. Hooked on space theme, the poet varies it in many aspects in “Sonnet of My Star”, “Chief Designer”, “Sonnet of Sleep”, “One Hundred and Eight Minutes” (in memory of Yu. A. Gagarin), “Sonnet of the Path”, etc., and pays less attention to versification rules, sonority and completeness of rhymes and legitimacy of rhyme. Only in the sonnets "Soldier" and "Obelisk in the field" he used encircling rhyme in quatrains, but the accuracy and fullness of rhymes ("obelisk" - "embraced") leaves much to be desired. Both the themes and the construction of L. Vysheslavsky's sonnets turn out to be quite monotonous, being devoted to a single star theme 63 .
A review of the development of sonnet art naturally leads us to the work of Evgeny Raevsky. Our poet pays the closest attention to this poetic form. From collection to collection, he improves his ability to build a sonnet and subordinate its form to the intended content.
We remember that already his first collection proclaimed "Power to sonnets." His very first work of this form (“On Myself and on the Sonnet”) was devoted to understanding his commitment to the sonnet; it persistently attracts readers to listen to the aphorism of the lines:
Whoever is in voice has no right to remain silent;
Listen to my sonnet.
It is noteworthy that the poet mentions a special "magic of fourteen lines." This magic fascinates even Evgeny Raevsky himself.
The subsequent sonnets of the first collection adopt the structure that was characteristic of Shakespeare's reforming art: the sonnets include three quatrains and one final couplet. The poet adheres to this scheme in the future. It allows E. Raevsky to thoroughly develop his theme in three quatrains, in order to then complete the sonnet with a clear and capacious couplet in its aphorism. So, the sonnet "On the outraged faith" is crowned with a biting maxim:
Only meanness rich fools
They burn the temples where their fathers prayed.
And the sonnet "On old age" ends with a wise conclusion from what has been said:
Only then will we honor her,
When we appreciate the brilliance of our gray hairs.
Usually such final lines in Raevsky are not something unexpected, as is observed in the practice of many sonnetists. On the contrary, these maxims naturally follow from the content of the main body of the sonnet. Thus, the sonnet "On the Mercilessness of Drunkenness" very naturally ends with this reflection, filled with doubt and based on a hypothesis:
Wine sang tempting Khayyam,
But he probably drank too much himself.
And thinking about the intensity of poetic work, about the high degree of suffering that a true artist experiences, ends with a confession:
But here I was looking for a draft -
All over again, did not suffer, did not penetrate.
As for the construction of the three main quatrains, Raevsky often maintains the well-known requirement to build them on encircling rhymes. This is how the sonnets “To the Poet”, “On the mercilessness of drunkenness”, “On a person’s faith in one’s own strength”, “On jealousy”, “On blind love” and others are organized. The poet is also faithful to another requirement: he uses ringing, filled, inherent in the sonnet rhymes: "knife" - "similar", "dog" - "fight", "in a hurry" - "in chains" ("About the reigning slave"), "errors" - "unsteady", "passions" - "parts" ("About blind love").
One of the features of Rayevsky's sonnets is their predetermined tonality. For example, in the first collection we meet the "Winter Sonnet". Having received such a definition in the title, this work strives to withstand the minor key and programmed coldness to the end. Motifs of cold, cold and darkness run through the entire poem. They sound in the first line (“Why in the midst of cold and darkness ...”) and the last two: “The cold mocks, the darkness splashes ... Winter will repay me in full.” But the central verses also speak of such phenomena that inevitably tune in to a minor key: mistakes, inevitable worries, shame, fatigue, everyday phrases, doubts, a sad outcome, frank conversation, reproaches, loss of tenderness, strife. All this is consistent with winter cold and the accompanying darkness. So the content justifies the designation that is given in the title of the sonnet.
“Sonnet Confusion” is the name of one of the miniatures of the second collection. And here the unusual title of the poem is justified by its tone. Everything gloomy that the author wants to tell about, which made up the content of his experiences (boredom, fatigue, heartache, anxiety, impotence of songs, dislike, suffering, sadness, a feeling of impotence, flattery) - all this makes up such a range of feelings that clearly does not correspond to the poet's major mood, conveyed in the collection about a bright beginning in life. Hence the confusion that becomes inevitable for the author and which is carried into the title of the sonnet.
Another sonnet, included in the second collection, is called "Peaceful". To what extent is this definition justified? It's like talking about war. The vocabulary of this work is made up of words prickly, like bayonets: "pierced", "I scream", "war", "bayonets", "nightmare", "brutal", "freak", "hostile", "recklessness", "violence" , "captive". It would seem that the content of the poem clearly contradicts the title. But the tone of the poem is by no means cheerful, its pathos is by no means militant. Although it is loud, it cries out about the inadmissibility of war, about its inadmissibility. In contrast to the “prickly” words, the poet imperceptibly introduces “soft”, “quiet”, peaceful ones, and they sound insistent in their own way: “sadness”, “peace”, “rest”, “bed”, “I regret”, “I live” , "family", "common sense", God, "living names", "churches". The peaceful beginning prevails, and the poet intends to "captivate the war" in the name of the coming Fatherland. This justifies the definition next to the word "sonnet" - "Peaceful sonnet".
“Light Sonnet” is the name of one of the poems included in the collection “My Love is a Magical Child”. The title here is supported by a variety of motifs and various imagery. It begins with the word "candles" and ends with the image of "candles of love." The light of these candles vibrates in each fragment of the text, in each of the three quatrains and in the final couplet. Light "dances", poetry is also accompanied by light, the heroine is "light-tongue", and the hero tries to hold back his light, although he penetrates into the dance art of his friend and illuminates it, becoming "a pledge of reward". How can you not call the sonnet "light"? The most appropriate definition.
Another sonnet of this book is called "Rowan ...". And again, not randomly. The image of mountain ash is central in the poem. Bunches it - like "merry harmonies" of melodies. The ruby lips of the beloved are compared with the harmony of mountain ash. To what extent is the title of another poem justified - "Pure Sonnet"? After all, it does not speak at all about the platonic relationship of a man and a woman ... Here, "dreams and hands sensually closed." But who said that the union of lovers cannot be pure? And in the work of E. Raevsky, it is purity that appears before the reader. Not only because pure white snow accompanies the music of love outside the window. And not only because, as the sonnet says, “the secret of pure music” is felt. But also because the very feeling of those who love is conveyed as pure, devoid of rudeness, tactlessness, impermissibility. Fatigue has gone, the charm of peace has set in, the characters of the sonnet are fettered by an affectionate dream, silence is enveloping, a gentle and silent “romantic snow scherzo” and other sounds whispering riddles. Finally, everything depicted and expressed in the sonnet overshadows with goodness. That is why the sonnet itself is named precisely and wisely - “pure”.
"Instructive sonnet" is also named after its own name not by chance. From the point of view of form, not everything is perfect in it. If the first quatrain is shackled by encircling rhyme, then the second and third quatrains are built on cross rhymes, and “beauty” - “height” cannot be called a pair of fresh consonances. But for the poet, the expression of a number of thoughts he has borne about the inadmissibility of the slavish submission of one of the lovers, about the humiliation of beauty kneeling on its knees, about the inadmissibility of lies and insincerity in human relationships becomes significant and paramount here. And all these thoughts here take the form of maxims, didactic instructions of a person who has known life, wise edifications. It is their substantive form that is essential here, and by no means ossified canonical. That is why the sonnet received by no means a winning, but justified definition.
It may seem inappropriate to address Sergei Yesenin in the form of a sonnet. The author of "Anna Snegina" and "Letter to a Woman" did not compose sonnets. In addition, he, completely free and uninhibited, seems to be alien to the constricting regularity of the form of the sonnet. Raevsky himself recalls how the "singer of the earth" "hooliganized and frolicked", drank wine and "scandalized with the invisible God." But Yesenin is our author's favorite poet. In an interview, Raevsky spoke with admiration that “Yesenin was an educated, advanced person of his time. Then five classes of the parochial school were probably equal to ten classes. modern school. He was very inquisitive, like a sponge, absorbed all the innovations of Russian versification, was aware of Russian and foreign literary life. He was constantly improving." For this reason, Yesenin is by no means contraindicated in the form born of high European and Russian culture. In addition, the poet wrote about love, and this theme often asks to be embodied in the sonnet form intended for this, which Yevgeny Raevsky took into account. Yesenin, along with Pushkin, is a longtime idol of our author. “To the song of a dream / I got drunk with you to boyishness,” Raevsky admits in his sonnet addressed to Yesenin. It is no coincidence that he participated in the Yesenin poetry competition and is proud of the poet's medal. That is why the sonnet in memory of the great poet is internally justified. Its author finds heartfelt words to express his love for his predecessor:
... you are the singer of the earth and eternal here, like a cross,
Like a temple, like everything sacred and dear.
Another feature of Rayevsky's sonnets is their predominant dedication to the theme of love. In this he is a follower of the great predecessors - Dante, Petrarch, Ronsard, Goethe, Pushkin. As Sergei Novikov notes, “like the sonnets of Petrarch imperishable in their poetic grandeur, the sonnets of Yevgeny Raevsky are addressed to the woman he loves. Its image is invariably reflected in the soul of the poet, but we, the readers, are unable to concretize this image in our minds, and we perceive it as a reflection distant stars reaching the poetic world of the poet…” 65 .
That is why the motif of stars is connected with the sky and space, where the lyrical hero of Raevsky's poems often soars, which often sounds in the poet's poems. Lyrical hero intends to fly "to the fabulous stars." If in Lermontov’s poems “a star speaks to a star”, without making contact with a lonely person, then our author establishes other, special relationships with the stars: “I am blissfully friendly with every star” (“You listen to the dreams of my silences ...”). “I believed every morning star,” the poet recalls in The Blues Sonnet. He notices how "the star touches the window" of his beloved ("Dream"). The poet is inclined to liken the life of people to the life of the luminaries: “And we will remain, like stars, imperishable” (“Voice of Light”). The noted figurativeness gives Rayevsky's sonnets a sublimity of sound.
Friends and like-minded poets, appreciating the work of Yevgeny Raevsky, invariably linger on his sonnets. Alexander Ozhegov believes that it was not by chance that the poet "chosen a clear canonized sonnet, which arose seven and a half centuries ago and has come down to our time of troubles" as the form of his work.
Ozhegov does not explain why this appeal to the sonnet was not accidental. I think that this is due to the fact that the bright emotionality of Raevsky's poems paradoxically combines with sober rationality, rationality. The poet himself feels this synthesis, this amplitude of fluctuations “from love to the boiling of consciousness” (“Autumn Joy”). Sometimes this conjugation is introduced by him in order to give verses about the experiences of feelings philosophical. “Reasonable is the simplicity of evening fantasy,” we read, for example, in Videosonnet. That is why the strict, rationally meaningful, clear form of the sonnet turned out to be close to E. Raevsky as a poet.
Yevgeny Ilyin rightly believes that Rayevsky's sonnets are innovative, because they are liberated and synthesize different intonations, styles, eras 67 . This is a correct observation. For example, in the civil sounding sonnet “Wherever you look!..”, included in the collection “Thank you”, next to the very specific phenomena captured by the poet (“cries of the poor”, “shamelessness of power”, “wars success”, “sin of violence”) abstract categories coexist (“obviousness of Truth”, “the absolute of the unrecognized”, “the fate of misfortune”). Equally polar are the conclusions in the final couplet:
To get away from thought into delirium is an abyss in darkness.
My country! Are you in your mind?
If the first verse is philosophical and abstract in nature, then the second is frankly journalistic. This contraction of opposite phenomena is the originality of a number of E. Raevsky's sonnets.
The lexical richness of our author's sonnets is beyond doubt. Sergei Skachenkov finds in it unborrowed words full of freshness and purity, and in support of this judgment he cites "Sonnet-Awakening" 68 .
Evgeny Raevsky boldly masters various varieties of sonnet form. The "Rainbow Duet" is a shortened sonnet: it contains two quatrains with paired rhymes and one final couplet. The same scheme in "Flight". The Crystal Garden increases the number of quatrains from three to four and at the same time changes the traditional iambic pentameter to a four-foot trochee. The same elongated sonnet is presented in the "Key of the Wind ...". The so-called "Long Sonnet" consists of six quatrains and one couplet.
Raevsky also dared to create a wreath of sonnets that required more ingenuity and skill from the author: this is the “Necklace of free erotic sonnets”, which we find in the collection “Thank you”. Here the first line of the next sonnet "clings" to the similar last line of the previous sonnet. Thus, the works are united by a related rhyme. Sometimes Raevsky alternates quatrains and tercetes with one unrealized line. That is why one must agree with D. Kirshin, who writes: “Indeed, Evgeny Raevsky is the master of the sonnet. I think that here we can say about the author's "innate" understanding of this complex form, its technical, rhythmic, sensual laws - Yevgeny Raevsky's sonnets are so original and diverse. One can find social and even civic themes in them (“A slave who gained power through the stupidity of slaves…”), but still, most of the sonnets are dedicated to love” 69 .
E. Raevsky himself, realizing that sonnets are not fashionable today due to their too strict form and loftiness of content, nevertheless, highly appreciates this kind of strophic construction. “I tried myself in different rhythms and sizes,” the poet said in an interview. - And suddenly I realized that 14 lines of a sonnet is perfect. Everything can be said in them. And this form has its own mysticism. The sonnet dictates its own conditions - simplicity, conciseness" 70 .
Distinguished by these properties noted by the author, Rayevsky's sonnets help him discipline his thought, introduce capacious content into 14 lines, and complete it with an aphoristic ending of two lines. In this regard, he cultivates the structure not of Petrarch's, but of Shakespeare's sonnet, which always, as we remember, ended in two shock verses. But Rayevsky never copies the creator of Hamlet and the famous sonnets, its content differs significantly from what Shakespeare put in, referring to the Friend and the Swarthy Lady. Raevsky has his own language, his own system of thoughts and his addressees, he has his own springiness lyrical plot and its own, excellent conciseness. S. Makarov is right when he remarked that "Evgeny Raevsky, an obvious supporter of both the classical and free sonnet, never forgets that brevity is the sister of talent" 71 .
Such is the magic of Rayevsky's sonnet, which never leaves the poet and keeps him in its beneficial captivity.
