The writing
The beginning of the twentieth century ... The coming whirlwind of social upheaval, it seems, must sweep away. But with the roar of weapons - the Russian-Japanese, World War I, other wars - the muses are not silent. I see, I hear, I feel the fiery hearts of poets beat, whose poems have now burst into our lives. They broke in - and are unlikely to be forgotten. The Silver Age is a time of vivid metaphors, a tireless search for the deep meaning of words, sounds, and phrases. The star, called Polynya, revealed its face to the earth - isn't it illuminating the pages of verses that have been inaccessible to us for a long time? Anna Akhmatova, Nikolai Gumilyov, Marina Tsvetaeva, Boris Pasternak - and, of course, the great Blok - they call to us through the storms of wars and upheavals, they call us to their rich imaginative world. I admire the poetry of Boris Pasternak. I like his hearty impetuosity, kindness, spirituality, rare impressionability. Again and again I see pages in front of me, covered with his patterned and flying handwriting, as if caught by the wind. Lyrics, poems, short stories, dramatic translations, memoirs, prose, showed us a huge world of living and bright images, not always clear at once, but when reading them, they reveal what could be said just like that, with these very words. Living modernity has always been present in Pasternak's poetry - it was precisely alive, all-pervading, breathing. “And the window on the crosspiece will squeeze the hunger of wood” - it’s hard for a superficial glance, but upon careful reading - it’s the cold of post-revolutionary winters here; a window ready to “enter” the room, “squeeze” it, and “hunger” becomes its essence, as well as the essence of those living in it. For all the originality of the poet's lyrics, readers sensitively responded even to his "ballad" lines like: "Let me in, I need to see the count", not to mention books of poems - such as "Over the Barriers", "Themes and Variations", "On Early Trains ". Reverence for the miracle of life, a sense of gratitude for it - almost main topic poems by Pasternak. He almost did not know the boundaries between living and inanimate nature. “And you can’t cross the road beyond the tyn without trampling the universe,” the poet wrote, as if echoing Tyutchev, surrounded on all sides by the “flaming abyss”, with Fet, whose lyrics were wide open to the infinity of the universe. Rains and blizzards, winters and spring streams, the Urals and the North, the poet's native Moscow region with its lilies of the valley and pines - all this entered Pasternak's soul with the primordial purity of colors. “This is the clicking of crushed ice floes,” he writes about poetry, “the house shuddered, pouring rain” ... His world is something alive that came to life under the magic brush of the artist. “Squints, looks, sees, recognizes” - it was not in vain that Akhmatova described his gaze, his “understanding”, “getting used to” the world. Questions about life and death, about art, about the self-affirmation of a person from adolescence excite Marina Tsvetaeva, whose poetry also entered my life and, I think, remained with me forever. Her poems reveal the charm of a deep and strong nature, not recognizing stereotypes, dogmas imposed by someone, extraordinary in everything, Tsvetaeva the poet is inseparable from Tsvetaeva the man. Ultimate sincerity - that's what attracts me to her poems, written "so early." Early - for our consciousness, which is not yet ready to trample on patterns. But late, very late, these lines came into the life of our country. In each - the strength of character, will, personality. And lyrical hero, or rather, the lyrical "I" in Tsvetaeva's poems is a strong personality, freedom-loving, endowed with the most beautiful of talents - the talent for love of life. There was no distant Yelabuga in her life, a terrible wooden beam, but there was a passionate desire to understand, appreciate, love. Conceal everything so that people forget Like melted snow and a candle? To be in the future only a handful of dust Under the grave cross? - I don't want! - exclaims the poetess. The lyrical "I" of Tsvetaeva is a man of action, an act. A serene, calm existence is not for her. Anna Akhmatova's poems seem completely different to me. Behind every word of her - that heartache, which the poet brings to the world, urging him to share suffering, and therefore becoming closer and dearer to every reader's heart. Akhmatova's style is that amazing simplicity that always characterizes a genuine feeling, that reticence that shocks, that laconism that makes me peer into her lines, looking for clues to the magical harmony that rings there. Thrown. Made up word! What am I, a flower or a letter? And the eyes are already looking sternly In the darkened dressing table. The loss of a friend, a loved one - and this is expressed so succinctly that it is as if you are experiencing that lump rising to the throat that tormented the poetess at that moment. The images are light and seem to be muffled, but these are the manifestations of the true torment of the grieving soul, suppressed in themselves. At times it seemed to the poetess that she was going "to nowhere and never", that her voice would be bent and trampled. This did not happen - her poems live, her voice sounds. "Silver Age" ... Surprisingly capacious words that accurately determined the whole period of the development of Russian verse. The return of romanticism? - obviously, to some extent, and so. In general, the birth of a new generation of poets, many of whom left their homeland that rejected them, many died under the millstones civil war and Stalinist madness. But Tsvetaeva was right, exclaiming: My poems, like precious wines, - Their turn will come! And he has arrived. Many are now more and more deeply comprehending Tsvetaeva's lines, discovering for themselves great truths, vigilantly, guarded for decades from prying eyes.
My discovery" silver age"Russian poetry
K. Balmont, N. Gumilyov, A. Akhmatova (Sample text of the composition)
The beautiful name "Silver Age" made me turn to Russian poetry late XIX- the beginning of the XX century. This wonderful world is striking in its unusualness, originality. It is not easy for a person brought up on the poems of Pushkin, Lermontov and Nekrasov to understand the poetics of the Symbolists, Acmeists and Futurists, their ideas, a special, unconventional view of the surrounding reality and oneself. K. Balmont became the first poet who opened the unique world of the Silver Age to me. For the amazing musicality of the verse, he was called "Paganini of Russian verse." His works are perceived as a fusion of poetry with music, on Balmont's poems, as on notes, you can put musical signs.
I dreamed of catching the departing shadows,
The fading shadows of the fading day,
I climbed the tower, and the steps trembled,
And the steps trembled under my feet.
A dream, shadows, a fading day, an attempt to catch what is gone, to stop time - these images help the poet express the idea that being is just a shadow, which means that there is no need to regret what was left and wait for the future. In my opinion, reading Balmont, you are convinced of the fidelity of the old truth that a person is a whole world that is interesting in itself. In the poems of this remarkable poet, all attention is focused on his own soul, which does not seek contact with others. In his poems, various shades of sensations, experiences, moods of the lyrical hero are conveyed.
I hate humanity
I run away from him, in a hurry.
My united fatherland -
My desert soul
In my opinion, the challenge and bravado that sound in these words of the poet cannot hide his extreme loneliness. It seems that Balmont creates a legend about himself. He was often reproached for egocentrism, for an enthusiastic attitude towards himself, towards his uniqueness, and chosenness. “Laws are not for me, since I am a genius,” Balmont wrote. But I think that this arrogance of a loner is only a pose, a role that the poet himself chose and which he did not always play brilliantly and convincingly. After all, a cold, arrogant egoist, who has risen above the crowd, could never have written such deeply humane, suffering lines:
I'm mortified by my conscience
I am wounded in the heart by my mind.
I am inseparable from this universe,
I created the world with all its suffering
A jet of fire, I'm dying myself like smoke.
Balmont's poetry is still alive. She excites with her emotionality, spirituality, the joy of being.
The romanticism of the worldview is characteristic of another remarkable poet of the "Silver Age" - N. Gumilyov. Unlike Balmont, Gumilyov tries in every possible way to hide his intimate world behind colorful exotic paintings, behind the "mask of the conquistador". It is very difficult, and most likely, it is simply impossible to more or less fully tell about the poems of this poet. After all, each of his poems opens up some new facet of views, moods, visions of the world. In one, he is a singer of courage, risk, courage. His "Captains" is a hymn to courageous people who challenge fate and the elements.
The swift-winged ones are led by captains -
Discoverers of new lands
Who is not afraid of hurricanes
Who has known the maelstroms and stranded.
Whose is not the dust of lost charters -
The chest is soaked with the salt of the sea,
Who is the needle on the torn map
Marks his audacious path.
But then the energetic, elastic rhythm of the verse is suddenly replaced by sad elegiac lines:
Another unnecessary day
Gorgeous and useless!
Come caressing shadow
And clothe a troubled soul
With his pearly robe.
The poem "Evening" is imbued with a mood of calm sadness, regret that only in a dream does the "promised country - a long-mourned happiness" appear to the poet. But when I think about Gumilyov, the mysterious Lake Chad, on which "a refined giraffe roams," first of all pops up in my memory. Why is such a strange, unusual image so touching, bewitching? This is a symbol of that wonderful, beautiful and mysterious, in which you need to believe.
I know funny tales of mysterious countries
About the black maiden, about the passion of the young leader,
But you inhaled the heavy mist for too long,
You don't want to believe in anything but rain.
And how can I tell you about the tropical garden,
About slender palm trees, about the smell of unthinkable herbs ...
You cry? Listen... far away, on Lake Chad
Exquisite giraffe roams.
In my opinion, this poem contains a sharp rejection of that gray, monotonous, meager reality in which we live. To feel the fullness and joy of being, you need to create the world yourself, color it with bright colors and sounds, and, most importantly, believe in its reality. But to do this is beyond the power of an ordinary person who cannot overcome his skepticism, rationality, rationalism. Such a person is spiritually poor: he is not able to see and feel beauty.
The poetry of A. Akhmatova also introduces us to the world of beauty, although it does not contain exotic paintings, refinement of language, or refinement of style. Despite the open ordinariness and the utmost simplicity of the language, her poems amaze inner strength feelings and immediacy of emotions. When thinking about Akhmatova's poetry, the word "love" immediately comes to mind. Meetings and partings, tenderness and selflessness, joy bursting from the heart and quiet sadness - I met all these various shades of love feeling on the pages of Akhmatov's books. True, the love of a poetess is rarely happy. It brings with it sadness, homelessness, tragedy. But let's turn to Akhmatova's poems, which will tell you about love much better.
You can't confuse real tenderness
Nothing, and she's quiet.
You vainly carefully wrap
My shoulders and chest are in fur.
And in vain the words are submissive
You talk about first love.
How do I know these stubborn
Your unsatisfied glances!
The burning dream of a truly high love, not distorted in any way, a heightened sense of falsehood, disappointment in a loved one found their expression in this short poem. love lyrics Akhmatova is perceived as a huge novel in which human destinies are intertwined, all the diverse nuances of intimate relationships are reflected. But most often these are stories about "mysterious non-meetings", "untold speeches", about someone "who did not come", about something not embodied. In the poem "Fisherman" the theme of foreboding, anticipation of love develops. The first, still childish feeling powerfully takes possession of the girl, "who goes to the city to sell kamsa."
Cheeks are pale, arms are weak,
The weary gaze is deep,
Crabs tickle her feet,
Crawling out onto the sand.
But she no longer catches
Their outstretched hand.
The beating of blood is getting stronger
In a body wounded by longing.
Akhmatova's lyrics reveal not only her spiritual life. It is consonant with the feelings and experiences of people whose lives were illuminated by love, giving joy, and sadness, and excitement, and suffering.
The poetry of the "Silver Age" opened to me a unique world of beauty, kindness, harmony. She taught me to see the beauty in the ordinary and familiar, made me listen to myself and to people. Thanks to my acquaintance with her, my life became richer and more spiritual. I felt like a discoverer of the land where "the union of magical sounds, feelings and thoughts" reigns.
The turn of the century (19th - 20th centuries) is rightfully considered the Silver Age, which gave art many artistic discoveries and brilliant names. It is interesting that chronologically this period lasts only twenty-seven years (1890 - 1917), but in significance it is comparable to an entire era.
This flourishing of literature and art in general coincided with a turning point in Russian history. The turn of the century is the time of colossal discoveries in world science, the time of the birth of new philosophical ideas. But it is also a time of instability, uncertainty, crisis. Russian literature of that time tried to resolve this crisis in its own way, to find ways for the further development of Russia. Futurism is undoubtedly the most striking, shocking and ambiguous trend in the literature of the turn of the century. Its adherents considered themselves the poets of the future, hence the great attention to language and form, where they are rightfully considered great innovators.
I think that Vladimir Mayakovsky is the largest representative of futurism. I love this poet very much for the ambiguity of his work. Since childhood, everyone has become accustomed to associating Mayakovsky only with the singer of the revolution, but this is a very narrow perception of him. In fact, in his early poems, the poet appears before us as a strongly feeling, incredibly vulnerable person with a huge heart, perceiving all the pain of the world:
And God will cry over my book!
Not words - convulsions stuck together in a lump;
And run across the sky with my poems under his arm
Mayakovsky conveys strong emotions with the help of neologisms and the innovative form of the poem - the now well-known "ladder".
I would like to note that I really like the era of the Silver Age in Russian literature. I do not beg for the greatness and grandiose significance of the “golden” era of Pushkin and Lermontov, but in my thoughts and worldview, the Silver Age is still closer to me with its variety of forms, ideas, thoughts, innovative search, ambiguity. Therefore, I can say with confidence that in each literary direction of this period I found my poet.
Edit for yourself, replace the words that you don’t understand or don’t know
“Poems about a Beautiful Lady” - early
morning dawn - those dreams and fogs,
with which the soul struggles to get
the right to live
Loneliness, darkness, silence - a closed book
Genesis... everything there... captivates with inaccessibility...
Alexander Blok
Early work of Alexander Blok. His first collection - "Poems about the Beautiful Lady." It reflected the thoughts, mood and attitude of a twenty-two-year-old youth. Just look at the photograph taken in 1904. What universal sadness in the eyes! "The tragic tenor of the era" called Alexander Blok Anna Akhmatova.
The first collection of A. Blok collected poems containing often opposite views on the world.
Vladimir Solovyov had a great influence on the poet and his work. The idea of duality, the feminine principle did not leave Blok.
The poet's desire to comprehend the world was reflected in his early lyrical works. The feminine principle rules the world, it is eternal, imperishable. According to Blok, a person in a state of love breaks through to higher spheres being. The love of a poet is a constant expectation.
In the first collection - admiration and service of fate to the eternal Beautiful Lady and the expectation of love. But over time comes the realization of the impossibility of meeting with the harmonization of the world that owns the universe. There is a gap between the poet and the Lady, which the poet is very hard going through. A bright dream is being replaced by hopelessness, incomprehensibility. Symbols such as a blizzard, a whirlwind, a blizzard appear. The flickering light of the lantern symbolizes the local world, white countries, dawns, azure - other places, leaving A. Blok's early lyrics. Appear bloody, red, crimson tones. The city appears before the eyes of the reader in a mystical guise. The knight's armor of the hero is replaced by a harlequin costume. Instead of a bowing monk, there is a laughing jester, a fantastic, ghostly vision: “A black man was running around the city ...” Blok has an ordinary, everyday life intertwined with the mystical, unreal.
But, despite the inconsistency of thoughts, the main motives, the views of A. Blok's early poems have been preserved throughout the poet's work. The cycle of poems about the Beautiful Lady is an attempt to merge the individual soul of the poet with the soul of the world.
The collection "Poems about the Beautiful Lady" has three sections, internally interconnected; through them, as it were, the dramatic movement of the poet's creative thought is carried out: these are sections-chapters - "Immobility", "Crossroads", "Damage".
The first section, "Stillness", contains verses directly addressed to the Beautiful Lady. The title was distributed similarly to the poem by V. Solovyov “Poor friend! The path has worn you out...”:
Death and Time reign on earth, -
You do not call them masters;
Everything, whirling, disappears into the mist,
Only the sun of love is motionless.
and the very concept of “immobility” Blok puts a deep philosophical meaning, and it has many shades in his poetic allegory. The most undoubted of them expresses the idea of constancy, fidelity, knightly service, expressing the most important thing, “hidden and inexpressible”.
Oh, Holy One, how gentle are the candles,
How pleasing are Your features!
I hear neither sighs nor speeches,
But I believe: Honey - You.
“Stillness” is a poetic prologue to Blok's entire work. It is here that the story of the sacrificial love of the Knight for the Beautiful Lady is told, and at the same time it is a true story, a real, earthly story of A. Blok's love for L. D. Mendeleeva. In "Stillness" a sacred theme for Blok is born: the poet and his ideal of the Beautiful (the fusion of Good, Beauty, Truth), to which he was faithful all his life.
The love story of the Knight and the Beautiful Lady is dramatic from beginning to end. At the heart of the plot movement of the first book is the initial and ever-increasing drama, which lies in the very nature of the characters, and above all in the character of the Beautiful Lady. Her appearance is changeable, she is incomprehensible. This motive was identified immediately, in the second poem of the collection “I Anticipate You ...”:
But I'm afraid: you will change your appearance.
This prophetic poem is a tuning fork to all lyrics. In it, not only the future “damage” of the Beautiful Lady is “foretold” -
Audacious arouse suspicion,
Replacing the usual features at the end, -
but also the future inevitable path of the lyrical hero:
Oh, how I fall - both sadly and lowly,
Not having overcome deadly dreams!
The poem ends with a couplet, which expresses the tragic inconsistency of Blok's hero:
How clear is the horizon!
And radiance is near.
But I'm afraid: you will change your appearance.
The poem "I kept them in the chapel of John ..." was written the day after L. D. Mendeleeva agreed to become Blok's wife. “... What has never happened before, what I have been waiting for four years ...” - Blok wrote in his diary.
And then the vaults lit up with an evening beam.
She gave me the Royal Answer.
In the second section of the collection, which Blok called "Crossroads", the tonality and rhythm change dramatically, Blok's Petersburg, his City, appears. In "Stillness" the extraordinary fusion of the poet with the natural world attracts attention. This merger is similar to I. Bunin's worldview.
"Crossroads" reflected a sharp turn in Blok's lyrics.
The section "Crossroads" opens with a meaningful and frankly bold poem "Deception", far from the radiance of the first part of the collection. Instead of pink dawns, factory fumes, a red color catches the eye: a red dwarf, a red cap, a red sun: “Red slingshots are put along the streets. The soldiers are slapping...”
The following poems increasingly develop the theme of deceit, the theme of the city, in which vice and death are concentrated. The red tones intensify even more: the bloody sun, the red limits of the city, the red janitor, the drunken scarlet water. In the poem “The City in Red Limits...”, dedicated to his best friend Yevgeny Ivanov, who also experienced painful love-hatred for the city of Peter, Blok exaggerates to such an extent that we no longer have a city, but a “gray-stone body” with a “dead face”, a bell with a “bloody tongue”.
The poems of this section “Everyone shouted at the round tables ...”, “The light in the window staggered ...”, “I went out into the night ...” anticipate Blok, the poet “ scary world". Here the tragic themes of the booth, harlequin, doubleness appear.
I do not believe in admiration
With darkness - one -
At the thoughtful door
The harlequin laughed.
Blok explains that duality, that is, the splitting of the human soul, crossroads, crossroads, comes from an accurate understanding of the tragic dialectics of life at the turn of the century. “Crossroads”, “Crossroads”, “Crossroads” are also synonymous with the historical milestone - the end of the 19th and the beginning of the new 20th century.
In one of his last letters, Blok said words that were prophetic for him, which can be equally applied to his past, present and future, to his whole life: “... art is where there is damage, loss, suffering, cold. This thought always guards. The title of the final section of the cycle "Poems about the Beautiful Lady" - "Damage" - contains exactly this meaning, which was mentioned in the letter.
The first poem that opens the final section of the book is "Ekklesias". This is a frank story about the inevitability of a catastrophe. The epigraph to the poem was taken by Blok from the Bible.
All wild fear is confused.
Crowded in a heap of people, animals.
And in vain close the doors
Until then, looking out the window.
The poem “I got up in the radiance ...” is a story about the tragic death of a woman.
Mommy doesn't hurt, pink kids,
Mommy lay down on the rails herself.
Good man, fat neighbor,
Thanks. Mom didn't help.
It would seem that here the Beautiful Lady disappears, giving way to the heroine of the harsh, dramatic everyday life of the city. But here is the elegy “When I go to rest from the times...” does not let this magical image be forgotten. Moreover, if we consider the work of A. Blok as a whole, then this poem is perceived as a harbinger of Blok's elegy “On valor, on exploits, on glory ...”, which opens the lyric book “Night Hours”.
The collection ends with the poem “The distance is blind, the days are without anger ...” This poem, in its tone, resembles a poem from the “Prayers” cycle, placed by Blok at the end of the first section of “Immobility” - “Watchmen at the entrance to the tower ...” It picks up the last lines "Prayers":
Silently tie our hands together
Let's fly into the sky.
Now in these lines the motive of eternal battle, Blok's restlessness sounds:
What are moments of powerlessness?
Time is a light smoke...
We'll spread our wings again
Let's fly again!
And again, in a thoughtless shift
dissecting the firmament,
Meet a new whirlwind of visions
Let's meet life and death!
The Silver Age of Russian poetry does not quite deserve this name. After all, the discoveries and innovations that arose at that time can rightfully be called golden. It was at that time that cinema appeared in Russia, art reached highest point its dawn, the era of modernism is coming - a completely new cultural phenomenon that was not understood by many, but carried great ideas. Creators appeared in literature, painting and music, whose names we know today, and we study with interest the details of their lives. Despite the fact that this time was crossed out by the war and terrible revolutionary events, this does not prevent us from talking about those wonderful things that appeared then.
It is impossible to overestimate the achievements of the Silver Age. Never before in the history of culture has there been such a rich and tragic period at the same time. The life of many writers and artists was broken by the revolution, and most of them, unfortunately, could not withstand its atrocities, both in the moral and physical sense.
It all started in the 20th century, which, according to dating, coincided with the emergence of modernism. It was then that an atmosphere of incredible creative upsurge arose. At that time in Russia, people have the opportunity to get an education that has become available not only to the wealthy segments of the population. Many famous scientists make discoveries in the field of medicine, botany, unexplored secrets of the cosmos are discovered, round-the-world trips are made. But still, the era of the Silver Age most revealingly manifested itself in literature. This was the period when various directions, writers united in groups in order to create art and discuss ripened fruits.
Naturally, it is almost impossible to single out a specific reference point for the Silver Age. At the beginning of the 20th century, authors who were still trying to maintain the spirit of realism (Chekhov, Tolstoy) maintained their strong positions and remained at the peak of popularity. But the galaxy of young writers who tried to overthrow the canons and create a new art approached with terrifying swiftness. traditional culture had to be removed, the classical authors eventually stepped off their pedestal and gave way to a new current. One can probably say that it all started in 1987, when one of the main theorists of symbolism, Solovyov, published the book Justification of the Good. It is in it that all the basic philosophical ideas that the writers of the Silver Age took as a basis are contained. But everything was not so simple. Young writers did not just appear in the cultural environment, it was a reaction to the changes that were brewing in the country. At that moment, ideas, moral values, human orientations were changing. And such a total change in all aspects of life literally forced the creative intelligentsia to talk about it.
The stages of the Silver Age can be divided into:
- -90s 19th century - the beginning of the first Russian revolution of 1905 - 1907. – there is a turn from the reaction of the 80s. to a social upsurge, accompanied by new phenomena in culture;
- -1905 - 1907, when the revolution became the most important factor in the cultural process;
- -1907 - 1917 - a time of acute ideological and artistic struggle and revision of traditional values;
- -1917 - the end of the 20s. XX century, when pre-revolutionary culture, in part, preserved the traditions of the “Silver Age. Russian emigration declares itself.
currents
The Silver Age stands out very sharply against the background of all other cultural phenomena with the presence of many currents. All of them were very different from each other, but in their essence they were related, since one came from the other. Symbolism, acmeism and futurism stood out most clearly. To understand what each of the directions carried in itself, it is worth delving into the history of their occurrence.
Symbolism
1980 - mid 19th century. What was the worldview of man at that time? He was confident in himself through knowledge. The theories of Darwin, the positivism of Auguste Comte, the so-called Eurocentrism, created solid ground under their feet. But at the same time, an era of great discoveries began. Because of this, the European man could no longer feel as confident as he used to be. New inventions and changes made him feel lost in abundance. And at this moment comes the era of denial. Decadence took possession of the minds of the cultural part of the population. Then Mallarme, Verlaine and Rimbaud became popular in France - the first poets who dared to find a different way to display the world. Russian poets will very soon learn about these most important figures and begin to follow their example.
From this moment the symbolism begins. What is the main idea behind this direction? Symbolist poets argued that with the help of a symbol, you can explore the world around you. Of course, throughout the history of the world, all writers and artists have used symbolism. But modernists looked at this phenomenon differently. A symbol for them is an indication of what is beyond human understanding. The Symbolists believed that reason and rationalism could never help in comprehending the beautiful world of art. They began to focus their attention on the mystical component of their own works.
Signs:
- The main theme of their work is religion.
- The main characters of their works are now martyrs or prophets.
- Symbolism refuses a concrete representation of reality and content. It is rather a representation of the objective world with the help of symbols.
- Symbolist poets kept their distance and did not interfere in the social and political life of society.
- Their main motto was the phrase: "We attract the elect", that is, they deliberately repelled readers so as not to be a mass cultural phenomenon.
The main symbolists include such writers as:
- Bryusov,
- Balmont,
- Merezhkovsky,
- Gippius.
The aesthetics of symbolism is the aesthetics of allusion. The author does not depict the world of things, does not express his opinion, he only writes about his associations that he has with this or that subject. That is why the Symbolists valued music so much. S. Baudelaire considered symbolism as the only possible way to display reality.
Acmeism
Acmeism is the most mysterious phenomenon of the Silver Age. It originates in 1911. But some researchers and philologists sometimes claim that there was no acmeism at all and that it is a kind of continuation of symbolism. But there are still differences in these directions. Acmeism became a new, more recent trend and appeared at a time when symbolism began to outlive itself and a split was brewing in its midst. Young poets, who initially wanted to classify themselves as symbolists, were disappointed by this event and decided to create a new grouping. In 1911, Gumilyov organized the "Poets Workshop" when he felt that he had enough experience and strength to teach others. Gorodetsky joins him. Together, they want to attach to themselves as many "motley" poets as possible. As a result, this happened: Khlebnikov, Klyuev and Burliuk visited the “Workshop”, such writers as Mandelstam and Akhmatova came out from under the wing of Gumilyov. Young poets needed a professional environment, and they got it when they joined the "Tsekha" community.
Acmeism - beautiful word, which translates as "top" or "point". What are the main differences between symbolism and acmeism?
- First of all, it consists in the fact that the works of acmeist poets were simpler and did not carry such a deep sacred meaning as those of the symbolists. The theme of religion was not so intrusive, the theme of mysticism also faded into the background. More precisely, the acmeists wrote about the earthly, but they suggested not to forget that the unreal side also exists.
- If symbolism carried the idea of an incomprehensible mystery, then acmeism is more of a riddle that you should think about, and you will definitely find the answer.
But the acmeists were in a hurry, and the movement did not last as long as its participants wanted. Already in the first years, a manifesto of acmeism was written, which, for all its richness, did not particularly correspond to reality. The work of the poets of the "Workshop" did not always carry all the ideas of the manifesto, and critics were very unhappy with this fact. And in 1914 the war began, and acmeism was soon forgotten, without having time to blossom.
Futurism
Futurism was not an integral aesthetic school and included various trends: cubo-futurism, ego-futurism, poetry mezzanine, etc. Its name comes from English word"future", which means "future". David Davidovich Burliuk - one of the main representatives, the "father of futurism", as he liked to call himself, hated borrowing from the language and called the futurists "budetlyans".
Signs and features:
- Futurists, unlike other trends, focused on different types culture. The poet has formed a new role, he simultaneously became a destroyer and a creator.
- Futurism, as an avant-garde phenomenon, sought to shock the public. Marcel Duchamp, who brought a urinal to the exhibition and called it his own creation, depicting his signature on it, was the first to manage to make such a scandalous attack on the creative intelligentsia.
- Some philologists argue that acmeism and futurism are not separate movements, but only a reaction to what representatives of symbolism did in their time. Indeed, in the poems of many symbolists, for example, in Blok or Balmont, one can find lines that sound very avant-garde.
- If the Symbolists considered music to be the main art, then the Futurists, first of all, were guided by painting. No wonder many of the poets were originally artists, for example, D. Burliuk and his brother, Mayakovsky and Khlebnikov. After all, the art of futurism is the art of depiction, the words were depicted on posters or propaganda sheets so that the public could see and remember the main message of the poets.
- The Futurists proposed to finally forget traditional art. "Throw Pushkin off the ship of modernity" is their main motto. Marinetti also called for "daily spitting on the altar of art."
- Futurists paid more attention not to symbolism, but specifically to the word. They tried to modify it, sometimes not in the most understandable and aesthetic way, in order to offend the reader. They were interested historical basis words, its phonetics. This was necessary in order for the words to literally “stick out” from the text.
The origins of Futurism were greatly influenced by the activities of the Italian Futurists, in particular by the manifesto of Filippo Tomaso Marinetti, which was written in 1910.
In 1910, a group of the Burliukov brothers, Velimir Khlebnikov and the poetess Elena Guro gathered, who, unfortunately, lived a very long time. short life, but gave big hopes like a creator. They appoint the house of David Burliuk as a place for creativity and create a collection of "Judges' Garden". They printed it on the cheapest paper (wallpaper) and came to the famous "Wednesdays" to V. Ivanov. The whole evening they sat rather quietly, but they left earlier, after stuffing the same collections into the pockets of other people's coats. It was from this unusual incident, in fact, that Russian futurism began.
In 1912, "A Slap in the Face of Public Taste" was created, which shocked readers. Half of this collection consisted of poems by V. Khlebnikov, whose work was greatly appreciated by the futurists.
Futurists called for the creation of new forms in art. The main motives of their work were:
- exaltation of one's own "I",
- fanatical worship of war and destruction,
- contempt for the bourgeoisie and weak human effeminacy.
It was important for them to attract as much attention as possible to themselves, and for this the futurists were ready for anything. They dressed in strange clothes, painted symbols on their faces, hung posters and walked around the city like this, chanting own works. People reacted differently, someone looked admiringly, surprised at the courage of the aliens, and someone could pounce with their fists.
Imagism
Some features of this trend are very similar to futurism. The term first appeared among the English poets T. Eliot, W. Lewis, T. Hume, E. Pound and R. Aldington. They decided that poetry needed more imagery (“image” in English means “image”). They sought to create a new poetic language in which there is no place for clichéd phrases. Russian poets first learned about Imagism from Zinaida Vengerova, at that time one of the most famous literary critics. In 1915, her article "The English Futurists" was published, and then the young poets thought that they could borrow the name from the British, but at the same time create their own trend. Then the former futurist Vladimir Shershnevich in 1916 wrote the "Green Book", in which he first uses the term "Imagism" and states that the image should stand above the content of the work.
Then, in 1919, the "Declaration" of the Imagist Order was published in the Sirena magazine. It indicated the basic rules and philosophical concepts of this movement.
Imagism, like the Surrealist movement in France, was the most organized movement in existence. Its members often literary evenings and meetings, published a large number of collections. They published their own magazine, which was called "Hotel for travelers in the beautiful." But, despite such solidarity, the Imagist poets had completely different views on creativity. For example, the poetry of Anatoly Mariengof or Vladimir Shernevich was characterized by decadent moods, personal feelings, and pessimism. And at the same time, Sergei Yesenin was in their circle, for whom the theme of the homeland becomes a key one in his work. In part, it was the image of a simpleton peasant boy, which he himself invented in order to become more popular. After the revolution, Yesenin will completely abandon him, but the very fact of how heterogeneous the poets of this trend were, and how they approached the creation of their works, is important here.
It was this difference that eventually led to the split of Imagism into two different groups, and later the movement broke up altogether. In their circle at that time, various kinds of polemics and disputes began to arise more often. The poets contradicted each other, expressing their thoughts, and could not find a compromise that would smooth out the conflict.
egofuturism
A kind of futuristic current. Its name carries the main idea ("Egofuturism" is translated as "I am the future"). Its history began in 1911, but this trend did not last long. Igor Severyanin became the poet who decided to independently come up with his own trend and embody his idea with the help of creativity. In St. Petersburg, he opens the "Ego" circle, from which ego-futurism began. In his collection Prologue. Egofuturism. Poetry grandos. Apotheotic notebook of the third volume” the name of the movement was heard for the first time.
Severyanin himself did not draw up any manifestos and did not write a creative program for his own movement, he wrote about him like this:
Unlike the Marinetti school, I added to this word [futurism] the prefix "ego" and in brackets "universal" ... The slogans of my ego-futurism were: 1. The soul is the only truth. 2. Self-affirmation of personality. 3. Searching for the new without rejecting the old. 4. Meaningful neologisms. 5. Bold images, epithets, assonances and dissonances. 6. The fight against "stereotypes" and "screensavers". 7. Variety of meters.
In 1912, in the same St. Petersburg, the "Academy of Egopoetry" was created, to which the young and completely inexperienced G. Ivanov, Grail-Arelsky (S. Petrov) and K. Olympov joined. The leader was still Severyanin. Actually, of all the poets named above, he became the only one whose work is still not forgotten and is actively studied by philologists.
When the very young Ivan Ignatiev joined the current of egofuturism, the “Intuitive Association of Egofuturists” was created, which included P. Shirokov, V. Gnedov and D. Kryuchkov. This is how they characterized the movement of ego-futurism in their manifesto: "The incessant striving of every Egoist to achieve the possibilities of the Future in the Present through the development of egoism."
Many works of ego-futurists were not for reading, but for exclusively visual perception text, about which the authors themselves warned in the notes to the poems.
Representatives
Anna Andreevna Akhmatova (1889-1966)
A poetess, translator and literary critic, her early work is usually attributed to the current of acmeism. She was one of Gumilyov's students, whom she later married. In 1966 she was nominated for Nobel Prize. The main tragedy of her life, of course, was the revolution. Repression took from her the most dear people: the first husband of Nikolai Gumilyov, who was shot in 1921, after their divorce, the son of Lev Gumilyov, who spent more than 10 years in prison, and, finally, the third husband of Nikolai Punin, who was arrested three times and died in the camp in 1953. Akhmatova put all the pain of these terrible losses into the poem "Requiem", which became the most significant work in her work.
The main motives of her poems are connected with love, which manifests itself in everything. Love for the motherland, for the family. Surprisingly, despite the temptation to join the emigration, Akhmatova decides to stay in the outraged country. To save her. And many contemporaries recall that the light in the windows of her house in Petrograd inspired hope for the best in their souls.
Nikolai Stepanovich Gumilyov (1886-1921)
Founder of the school of acmeism, prose writer, translator and literary critic. Gumilyov has always been distinguished by his fearlessness. He was not ashamed to show that he was not good at something, and this always led him to victory, even in the most hopeless situations. Very often, his figure looked rather comical, but this had a positive effect on his work. The reader could always put himself in his place and feel a certain similarity. Poetic art for Gumilyov is, first of all, a craft. He sang in his work of artists and poets who worked hard to develop their skills, because they did not believe in the triumph of a born genius. His poems are often autobiographical.
But there is a period of absolutely new poetics, when Gumilyov finds his own special style. The poem "The Lost Tram" is an emblem reminiscent of the work of C. Baudelaire. Everything earthly in the space of the poem becomes metaphysical. During this period, Gumilyov defeats himself. During the revolution, while in London, he nevertheless decides to return to Russia and, unfortunately, this decision becomes fatal for his life.
Marina Ivanovna Tsvetaeva (1892-1941)
Tsvetaeva really did not like the use of feminitives in her address, therefore, let's say about her this way: a poet of the Silver Age, a prose writer, a translator. She was the author who cannot be attributed to a specific course of the Silver Age. She was born into a prosperous family, and childhood was the happiest period in her life. But parting with a carefree youth becomes a real tragedy. And we can notice the echoes of these experiences in all the mature poems of Tsvetaeva. Her 1910 collection, The Red-Bound Book, just describes all those beautiful, inspiring impressions of a little girl. She writes with love about children's books, music, going to the skating rink.
In life, Tsvetaeva could be called a maximalist. She always went all the way to the end. In love, she gave all of herself to the person for whom she had feelings. And then I hated it just as much. When Marina Ivanovna realized that childhood time was gone forever, she was disappointed. With the help of the main sign of her poems - a dash, she seemed to oppose two worlds. In her late poetry there is an extreme despair, God no longer exists for her, and the words about the world have too cruel a connotation.
Sergei Mitrofanovich Gorodetsky (1884-1967)
Russian poet, prose writer, playwright, critic, publicist, artist. He began to engage in creativity after rapprochement with A.A. Block. In his first experiments, he was guided by him and Andrei Bely. But, on the other hand, the young poet became close to the ordinary peasant people during his trip to the Pskov province. There he hears many songs, jokes, epics and absorbs folklore, which later will be fully reflected in his work. He is enthusiastically received in the "tower" of Vyacheslav Ivanov, and Gorodetsky for some time becomes the main guest on the famous "Wednesdays".
But later the poet began to pay too much attention to religion, and this caused a negative reaction from the symbolists. In 1911, Gorodetsky broke off relations with them and, having enlisted the support of Gumilyov, became one of the organizers of the "Workshop of Poets". In his poems, Gorodetsky called for the development of the ability to contemplate, but he tried to show this idea without excessive philosophy. Throughout his life, he did not stop working and improving his poetic language.
Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky (1893-1930)
One of the most significant poets of the 20th century, who distinguished himself in the field of cinema, drama, screenwriting. He was also an artist and magazine editor. He was a representative of futurism. Mayakovsky was a rather complex figure. His works were forcibly forced to read, and therefore the intelligentsia developed a strong dislike for everything that the poet did.
He was born in countryside, in Georgia, and this fact radically influenced his future fate. He put more effort into getting noticed, and this was reflected in his work and in the way he knew how to present it. After imprisonment, Mayakovsky retires from political life and devotes himself entirely to art. Enters the Art Academy, where he meets D. Burliuk, and this fateful meeting forever determined the nature of his occupation. Mayakovsky was a poet-orator who tried to convey new truths to the public. Not everyone understood his work, but he did not stop confessing his love to the reader and turning his ideas to him.
Osip Emilievich Mandelstam (1908-1916)
Russian poet, prose writer and translator, essayist, critic, literary critic. He belonged to the current of acmeism. Mandelstam becomes a mature writer quite early. But still, researchers are more interested in the later period of his work. It is surprising that he was not perceived as a poet for a long time, his works seemed to many empty imitations. But, having joined the "Workshop of Poets", he finally finds like-minded people.
Often Mandelstam relies on references to other works of classical poetry. Moreover, he does it quite subtly, so that only the well-read and smart man could understand the true meaning. His poems seem a little dull to readers, since he did not like excessive exaltation. Reflections on God and the eternal is a frequent motif of his works, which is closely intertwined with the motif of loneliness. The author said about the process of creativity: "The poetic word is a bundle, and the meaning sticks out of it in different directions." It is these meanings that we can consider in each line of his poems.
Sergei Alexandrovich Yesenin (1895-1925)
Russian poet, representative of the new peasant poetry and lyrics, and in a later period of creativity - Imagism. A poet who knew how to frame his work and surround his own figure with a veil of secrecy. That is why literary critics are still arguing about his personality. But one fact that all the poet's contemporaries spoke about is absolutely clear - he was an extraordinary person and creator. His early work is striking in its poetic maturity. But behind this lies a certain deception, when Yesenin collected the last collection of his poems, he realized that it was necessary to include in it the works that he wrote, being an experienced poet. It turns out that he himself substituted the necessary verses in his biography.
The appearance of Yesenin in the poetic circle became a real holiday, as if they were waiting for him. Therefore, he created for himself the image of a simple guy who can talk about life in the village. He was specifically interested in folklore in order to write folk poems. But by 1917 he was tired of this image and scandalously refuses it. Having entered the circle of imagists, he begins to play the role of a Moscow hooligan, and the motives of his work change dramatically.
Velimir Khlebnikov (1885-1922)
Russian poet and prose writer, one of the largest figures in the Russian avant-garde. He was one of the founders of Russian futurism; reformer of poetic language, experimenter in the field of word creation and zaumi, "chairman the globe". The most interesting poet of his era. He was the main figure of Cubo-Futurism.
Despite the external image of a calm and quiet person, he was very ambitious. He tried to change the world with his poetry. Khlebnikov really wanted people to stop seeing boundaries. “Out of space and out of time” is the main motto of his life. He was trying to create a language that could bring us all together. Each of his works was an attempt to create such a language. Also, in his work, one can trace some kind of mathematics, apparently, this was influenced by the fact that he studied at the Faculty of Mathematics at Kazan University. Despite the external complexity of his poems, each one can be read between the lines and understand what exactly the poet wanted to say. Difficulties in his works are always present intentionally, so that the reader each time solves a kind of riddle while reading it.
Anatoly Borisovich Mariengof (1897-1962)
Russian poet-imaginist, art theorist, prose writer and playwright, memoirist. He wrote poetry from childhood, as he was a well-read child and was fond of Russian classics. After the appearance of the symbolists on the literary arena, he falls in love with the work of A.A. Blok. In his early works, Mariengof tried to imitate him.
But his real and full-fledged literary career began from the moment he met Yesenin. They were very friendly, their biographies literally intertwined with each other, they rented an apartment together, created together, and shared all their sorrows. After meeting Shershnevich and Ivnev, they decide to create a group of Imagists in 1919. It was a period of unprecedented creative activity in the life of Mariengof. The publication of the novels "Cynics" and "The Shaved Man" was accompanied by high-profile scandals that caused the writer a lot of inconvenience. His personality was persecuted in the USSR, his works were banned for a long time and were read only abroad. The novel "Cynics" aroused great interest among Brodsky, who wrote that this book is the best work of Russian literature.
Igor Severyanin (1887-1941)
Real name - Igor Vasilyevich Lotarev. Russian poet, representative of egofuturism. Charming and bright, even V.V. himself envied his popularity. Mayakovsky.
He was made famous by Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, or, more precisely, his review of the poem, which begins with the words "Put the corkscrew into the elasticity of the cork ...". That morning at Yasnaya Polyana, everyday readings aloud were held, and when Severyanin's poem was sounded, those present noticeably perked up and began to praise the young poet. Tolstoy was amazed at this reaction and said the words that were later replicated in all the newspapers: "Around the gallows, murders, funerals, and they have a corkscrew in a traffic jam." After that, the personality and work of Severyanin were on everyone's lips. But it was hard for him to find allies in the literary environment, he rushed between different groups and movements, and as a result decided to create his own - egofuturism. Then he proclaims the greatness of his own "I" in his work and speaks of himself as a poet who changed the course of Russian literary history.
Sofia Yakovlevna Parnok (1885-1933)
Russian translator and poet. Many called her Russian Sappho, because she was the first to speak freely about same-sex love in the Soviet space. In every line of her poems, one feels a great and reverent love for women. She was not shy about talking about her inclinations, which manifested themselves quite early. In 1914, at the evening at Adelaide Gertsyk, the poetess met Marina Tsvetaeva, and at that moment both women realized that they were in love with each other. Since then, all further work of Parnok was filled with love for Tsvetaeva. Each meeting or joint trip gave both a surge of inspiration, they wrote poems to each other in which they talked about their feelings.
Unfortunately, they were visited by thoughts that sooner or later they would have to leave. Their relationship ended with the last bitter messages in verse after one major quarrel. Despite relationships with other women, Sofia Parnok believed that it was Tsvetaeva who left a deep mark on her life and work.
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