“Man of the Century,” Andrei Bely will call him. The poet's debut took place in 1903, and the first collection, “Poems about a Beautiful Lady,” was published at the end of 1904. In this collection, the poet conveys the synthesis of eternal femininity, beauty with the realities of life, that is, the connection between the earthly and the Divine.
The girl sang in the church choir
About all those who are tired in a foreign land,
About all the ships that went to sea,
About everyone who has forgotten their joy.
So her voice sang, flying into the dome,
And a ray shone on a white shoulder,
And everyone looked and listened from the darkness,
How the white dress sang in the beam...

The poet Annensky called Blok “the champion of our youth.” Alexander Alexandrovich was not only a talented symbolist, but was also a symbol himself. This was “his era,” with violent passions, changeable, elusive, when colors prevailed, and not halftones and shades.

And every evening, at the appointed hour
Or am I just dreaming?
The girl's figure, captured by silks,
A window moves through a foggy window.
And slowly, walking between the drunks.
Always without companions, alone.
Breathing spirits and mists,
She sits by the window.
And they breathe ancient beliefs
Her elastic silks
And a hat with mourning feathers,
And in the rings there is a narrow hand.

Blok sees a very real earthly woman, whom he endows with those features that he considers signs of the century: this is an extraordinary plasticity of the image, purity of lines and the obligatory presence of beauty. Half-hints, glances; the poet seems to walk around love, conveying its magic and enchanting charm. Is this what they say about earthly things? No, this is almost a Deity, carried away into the beautiful distance, this is a symbol of unearthly beauty and life. This is how the image of the Stranger gradually transforms.

And chained by a strange intimacy,
I look behind the black veil,
And I see the enchanted shore
And the enchanted distance.

But Blok would not have been a great poet if he saw everything one-sidedly. He is interested in all the diversity of life. His cycle of poems dedicated to the city is noteworthy. The poet sees the suffering of people oppressed by work and poverty; their experiences and dreams are not alien to him.

No! Happiness is an idle concern.
After all, youth is long gone.
Work will pass our time.
I have a hammer, you have a needle.
Sit and sit and look out the window,
People are driven everywhere by labor,
And those for whom it is a little more difficult,
Those songs are long.

Blok's lyrics are almost intimate, he is close to the reader with his style of narration, most of his poems are written in the first person. This closeness is captivating, you begin to limitlessly trust a person who loves so selflessly and wants to help, if possible. The poet does not separate himself from his surroundings, he is an active participant in events or an attentive observer, missing nothing, seeing everything and experiencing the injustice that reigns in the world.

In the neighboring house the windows are zsolt.
In the evenings in the evenings
Thoughtful bolts creak,
People approach the gate.
And silently locked the gate,
And on the wall, and on the wall
motionless someone, black, someone
He counts people on high.
I hear everything from my top:
He calls with a copper voice
Bend your weary backs,
The people gathered below...

Blok is gradually outgrowing the framework of symbolism, before him is a huge world that he wants to see, understand and display in his poetry. This is how poems about Russia and its history appear. They sound proud of a country that managed to rise from oblivion and defend its statehood and independence. Blok feels like a poet of this huge country; he is happy with his participation in the great era of upheaval.

And eternal battle!
Rest only in our dreams
Through blood and dust...
The steppe mare flies, flies
And the feather grass crumples...
And there is no end! Miles and steep slopes flash by...
Stop it!
The frightened clouds are coming,
.Sunset in the blood! Sunset in the blood!
Blood flows from the heart!
Cry, heart, cry...
There is no peace, steppe mare
He's galloping!

Isn’t it this patriotism and pathos that Blok is close to us today? From his “distance” he teaches us to love and hate, to be tolerant and be content with what we have.

Rus' is surrounded by rivers
And surrounded by wilds,
With swamps and cranes
And with the dull gaze of a sorcerer

A romantic hero is a creative person who lives in his own personal world, which has nothing in common with the one in which ordinary people live. This characteristic also applies to the lyrical hero of Blok’s collection “Poems about a Beautiful Lady.” From the very beginning he feels extraordinary, marked by a special destiny and a special, unearthly nature:

I told you something unearthly,
I chained everything in the airy darkness.
In the boat there is an ax, in the dream there is a hero.
So I landed on the ground.

The romantic worldview divides reality into two: the dream world and the everyday world. This is what the world looks like in A. Blok’s early lyrics. The lyrical hero here lives in a kind of ideal world, filled with mystery, he is constantly immersed “in dreams and mists”, directed towards “other worlds”. At the same time, his soul is completely indifferent to what surrounds it in everyday reality:

The soul is silent. In the cold sky
All the same stars shine for her.
All around about gold or bread
Noisy people shout...
She is silent - and listens to the screams
And sees distant worlds.

The ideal of the romantics is the unity of being, the harmonious synthesis of all its forces and elements. In “Poems about a Beautiful Lady,” personal experience expresses the feeling of this eternal and universal existence, which alone can open a person’s way from the darkness of the “dead night” that surrounds him - to the light of the coming “dazzling day.”

I believe in the Sun of the Covenant,
I see dawns in the distance.
I'm waiting for the universal light
From the spring land.

The poet lives with a utopian hope for some kind of universal miracle, embodied in the image of “distant and alluring dawns.” The world of “Poems about a Beautiful Lady” is a world of harmony and beauty with utopian and illusory time and space, where in the “five good lines on earth” it is impossible and there is no need to recognize the lines Vasilyevsky Island, along which Lyubov Dmitrievna Mendeleeva walked (prose commentary on the poem “Five Hidden Bends...”). In this world, sunrises and sunsets, dusk and azure do not at all indicate any natural phenomena.

But this romantic illusory world also carries within itself the traits of undoubted arrogance. A. Blok not only believes in this world, he simply lives in it and cannot do otherwise. Therefore, the author’s position in the first volume is not only a monk, peacefully glorifying the ever-feminine face of Beauty, but also a knight, now and forever standing on guard. This knight strives for life embodiment and action corresponding to the ideal stored in the soul:

I enter dark temples,
I perform a poor ritual.
There I am waiting for the Beautiful Lady
In the flickering red lamps...
Oh Saint, how tender the candles are,
How pleasing are your features.
I can't hear neither sighs nor speeches,
But I believe: darling - You.

Among the names of the Beautiful Lady (Saint, Eternal Wife), the most concrete, most vital, warmest word stands out in the finale - “sweetheart”. Throughout the entire poetic system of the early A. Blok, a craving for vitality inevitably arises, for acquiring a sober and simple attitude towards reality.

The symptoms of this craving are moods of restlessness and anxiety, also characteristic of the romantic worldview:

Do you remember the troubled city,
Gray haze in the distance?
This false road
We walked together in silence.

This note sounds louder every year and soon becomes dominant. The very nature of this unclear mental anxiety changes. The life of a solitary soul, directed toward the “other,” turns out to intersect not only with “universal life,” but also with real story, with human life. “My things there are chattering in the strangeness of the century,” admits A. Blok in 1902.

The romantic world of A. Blok’s early lyrics is the seed from which will grow a tragic worldview and a powerful sense of history in Blok’s mature poetry.

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Russian poet of the Silver Age Alexander Alexandrovich Blok was born on November 28, 1880 in St. Petersburg, in the family of a professor of philosophy and law.

The boy was raised by his grandfather, the famous botanist A. N. Beketov.

At the age of 5, Blok begins to write poetry.

After high school in 1898, Alexander Blok entered St. Petersburg University at the Faculty of Law, but later transferred to the Faculty of History and Philology, from which he graduated in 1906 in the Slavic-Russian department.

During this period, he became close to the symbolists Dmitry Merezhkovsky, Zinaida Gippius, Valery Bryusov and Andrei Bely. The poet released his first cycle of poems, “From Dedications,” back in student time in the magazine "New Way".

At the same time, his first book of poems, “Poems about a Beautiful Lady,” was published, dedicated to Lyubov Dmitrievna, the daughter of the famous chemist Mendeleev, whom Blok married in 1903.

The second book of poems was published in the period 1904-1908, dedicated to the poet’s experiences and thoughts on the topic of revolutionary events that took place in the country and greatly influenced Blok.

The theme of Russia and worries about the fate of the people are reflected in his work - in the collections “Motherland”, “On the Kulikovo Field”, “Land in the Snow”, in the poems “Scythians”, “Retribution”.

In the summer of 1917, Blok began work on a manuscript, which he considered as part of the future report of the work of this commission; these materials were published in the form of a book in 1921 entitled “ Last days Imperial power."

Blok enthusiastically accepted the October Revolution of 1917 and immediately took an active civic position.

The new government widely used the name of the poet; in 1918-1920, Blok was appointed and elected to various positions in committees and commissions.

But he did not abandon literary creativity.

In January 1918, his poems “The Twelve” and “Scythians” were published, and then a number of poems, lyrical fragments “Neither Dreams nor Reality” and “Confession of a Pagan”, feuilletons “Russian Dandies”, “Fellow Citizens”, “Answer to the Question of red seal."

But the poet’s financial situation forced him to seek not only literary income, but also public service.

Since 1918, he collaborated with the Theater Department of the People's Commissariat for Education, in April 1919 he moved to the Bolshoi Drama Theater and at the same time was a member of the editorial board of the publishing house "World Literature", in 1920 he became chairman of the Petrograd branch of the Union of Poets.

In February 1921, at an evening in memory of Alexander Pushkin at the House of Writers, Blok gave his famous speech “On the Appointment of a Poet.”

The ever-increasing volume of work undermined the poet's strength - he developed serious cardiovascular disease and asthma.

In the spring of 1921, Blok asked for an exit visa to Finland for treatment, but the Politburo of the Central Committee of the RCP (b), at whose meeting this issue was discussed, refused him.

On August 7, 1921, the poet Alexander Alexandrovich Blok died in Petrograd, where he was buried at the Smolensk cemetery. In 1944, the poet’s ashes were reburied on the Literary Bridges of the Volkovsky Cemetery.

In 1980, in a house on Dekabristov Street, where last years the poet lived and died, the museum-apartment of Alexander Blok was opened.

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Alexander Blok - poet of the Silver Age.

In the history of the formation of true, real Russian culture, the “Silver Age” occupies one of the special places. Alexander Blok, in turn, is the brightest representative of this time.

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OH, I WANT TO LIVE CRAZY!

EVERYTHING EXISTS IS TO ETERMINATE,

THE IMPERSONAL IS TO HUMANIZE,

UNFORTUNATE – IMPLEMENT!

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BECAUSE I ABSORBED THE SPIRIT OF RUSSIAN HUMANISM WITH MY MOTHER’S MILK

Family of the rector of St. Petersburg University A.N. Beketov.

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First collection of poems

First volume

Cycle "Crossroads";

Cycle “Poems about a Beautiful Lady”

Third volume

"It's all about Russia"

Second volume

Cycle "Bubbles of the Earth";

Cycle "City"

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The block reveals the main meaning of the stages of the path he has traversed and the content of each of the books of the trilogy:

“...this is my path, now that it has been completed, I am firmly convinced that this is due and that all the poems together are a “trilogy of incarnation”

(from a moment of too bright light - through the necessary swampy forest - to despair, curses, “retribution* and ... - to the birth of a “social” man, an artist, courageously looking the world in the face..)".

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"Beautiful lady"

Dawn, star, sun, white color -?

Opening circles -?

Morning, spring -?

Winter, night - ?

Blue, purple world -?

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The story of earthly, very real love is transformed into a romantic-symbolic mystical-philosophical myth.

It has its own plot and its own plot.

The basis of the plot is the opposition of the “earthly” ( lyrical hero) “heavenly” (Beautiful Lady) and at the same time the desire for their union, “meeting”, as a result of which the transformation of the world, complete harmony, should occur.

However, the lyrical plot complicates and dramatizes the plot. From poem to poem there is a change in the hero’s mood: bright hopes - and doubts about them, expectation of love - and fear of its collapse, faith in the immutability of the Virgin’s appearance - and the assumption that it can be distorted (“But I’m afraid: you will change your appearance” ).

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“I enter dark temples...”

What is the emotional atmosphere of the poem?

By what means is it created?

What are the subject matter of the poem and its color scheme?

How does the lyrical hero of the poem appear?

Is the appearance of the Beautiful Lady drawn?

By what means is her image created?

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The name we proposed, SYMBOLISM, is the only one suitable for new school, only it conveys without distortion the creative spirit of modern art

Paris. Newspaper "Figaro"

Jean Moreas "Manifesto of Symbolism"

Human perception of the world is imperfect, therefore the reality depicted is erroneous

The secrets of the world can only be understood emotionally and intuitively

A reflection of this “highest truth” and at the same time a way to comprehend it is a hint symbol

From the history of symbolism

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Poetics of hints, shades. The concept of a symbol as an image. Symbol as a polysemantic allegory

silver Age- the era of modernism, embodied in Russian literature. This is a period when innovative ideas captured all spheres of art, including the art of words. Although it lasted only a quarter of a century (starting in 1898 and ending around 1922), its legacy constitutes the golden Ford of Russian poetry. Until now, the poems of that time have not lost their charm and originality, even against the backdrop of modern creativity. As we know, the works of futurists, imagists and symbolists became the basis of many famous songs. Therefore, in order to understand current cultural realities, you need to know the primary sources that we have listed in this article.

The Silver Age is one of the main, key periods of Russian poetry, covering the period late XIX- beginning of the 20th century. Disputes about who was the first to use this term are still going on. Some believe that the “Silver Age” belongs to Nikolai Avdeevich Otsup, a famous critic. Others are inclined to believe that the term was introduced thanks to the poet Sergei Makovsky. But there are also options regarding Nikolai Aleksandrovich Berdyaev, a famous Russian philosopher, Razumnikov Vasilyevich Ivanov, a Russian literary scholar, and the poet Vladimir Alekseevich Piast. But one thing is certain: the definition was invented by analogy with another, no less important period - the Golden Age of Russian literature.

As for the time frame of the period, they are arbitrary, since it is difficult to establish the exact dates of the birth of the Silver Age of poetry. The beginning is usually associated with the work of Alexander Alexandrovich Blok and his symbolism. The end is attributed to the date of execution of Nikolai Stepanovich Gumilyov and the death of the previously mentioned Blok. Although echoes of this period can be found in the works of other famous Russian poets - Boris Pasternak, Anna Akhmatova, Osip Mandelstam.

Symbolism, imagism, futurism and acmeism are the main trends of the Silver Age. All of them belong to such a movement in art as modernism.

The main philosophy of modernism was the idea of ​​positivism, that is, hope and faith in the new - in a new time, in new life, into becoming the newest/modern. People believed that they were born for something high, they had their own destiny, which they must realize. Now culture is aimed at eternal development, constant progress. But this whole philosophy collapsed with the advent of wars. It was they who forever changed the worldview and attitude of people.

Futurism

Futurism is one of the directions of modernism, which is an integral part of the Russian avant-garde. This term first appeared in the manifesto “A Slap in the Face of Public Taste,” written by members of the St. Petersburg group “Gilea.” Its members included Vladimir Mayakovsky, Vasily Kamensky, Velimir Khlebnikov and other authors, who were most often called “Budetlyans”.

Paris is considered the founder of futurism, but its founder was from Italy. However, it was in France in 1909 that the manifesto of Filippo Tommaso Marinetti was published, disguising the place of this movement in literature. Further, futurism “reached” other countries. Marinetti shaped views, ideas and thoughts. He was an eccentric millionaire, most interested in cars and women. However, after the accident, when the man lay for several hours next to the pulsating heart of the engine, he decided to glorify the beauty of the industrial city, the melody of a rumbling car, and the poetics of progress. Now the ideal for man was not the surrounding natural world, but rather the urban landscape, the noise and rumble of a bustling metropolis. The Italian also admired the exact sciences and came up with the idea of ​​composing poetry using formulas and graphs, created a new “ladder” size, etc. However, his poetry turned out to be something like another manifesto, a theoretical and lifeless rebellion against old ideologies. From an artistic point of view, the breakthrough in futurism was made not by its founder, but by a Russian admirer of his discovery, Vladimir Mayakovsky. In 1910, a new literary movement came to Russia. Here it is represented by the four most influential groups:

• Moscow group “Centrifuge” (Nikolai Aseev, Boris Pasternak, etc.);
• The previously mentioned St. Petersburg group “Gilea”;
• St. Petersburg group “Moscow Egofuturists” under the control of the publishing house “Petersburg Herald” (Igor Severyanin, Konstantin Olimpov, etc.);
• Moscow group “Moscow Ego-Futurists” under the control of the publishing house “Mezzanine of Art” (Boris Lavrenev, Vadim Shershenevich, etc.).

Since all these groups had a huge influence on futurism, it developed heterogeneously. Such branches as egofuturism and cubofuturism appeared.

Futurism influenced not only literature. He also had a huge influence on painting. Characteristic Such paintings represent a cult of progress and a protest against traditional artistic canons. This movement combines the features of Cubism and Expressionism. The first exhibition took place in 1912. Then in Paris they showed paintings that depicted various means of transportation (cars, airplanes, etc.). Futurist artists believed that technology would take a leading position in the future. The main innovative move was the attempt to depict movement in static conditions.

The main features of this movement in poetry are as follows:

• denial of everything old: the old way of life, the old literature, the old culture;
• orientation towards the new, the future, the cult of change;
• a feeling of imminent change;
• creation of new forms and images, countless and radical experiments:
• invention of new words, figures of speech, sizes.
• desemantization of speech.

Vladimir Mayakovsky

Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky (1893 - 1930) is a famous Russian poet. One of the greatest representatives of futurism. He began literary experiments in 1912. Thanks to the poet, such neologisms as “nate”, “holoshtanny”, “serpasty” and many others were introduced into the Russian language. Vladimir Vladimirovich also made a huge contribution to versification. His “ladder” helps to correctly place accents when reading. And the lyrical lines in the work “Lilichka! (Instead of a letter)” became the most poignant love confessions in the poetry of the 20th century. We discussed it in detail in a separate article.

To the most famous works The poet can include the following examples of futurism: the previously mentioned “”, “V.I. Lenin", "", poems "I take it out of my wide trousers", "Could you? (Listen!),” “Poems about the Soviet Passport,” “Left March,” “,” etc.

Mayakovsky's main themes include:

• the poet’s place in society and his purpose;
• patriotism;
• glorification of the socialist system;
• revolutionary theme;
• love feelings and loneliness;
• determination on the way to a dream.

After October 1917, the poet (with rare exceptions) is inspired only revolutionary ideas. He praises the power of change, Bolshevik ideology and the greatness of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin.

Igor Severyanin

Igor Severyanin (1887 - 1941) is a famous Russian poet. One of the representatives of egofuturism. First of all, he is known for his shocking poetry, which glorifies his own personality. The Creator was sure that he was the pure embodiment of genius, so he often behaved selfishly and arrogantly. But that was only in public. In normal Everyday life The northerner was no different from others, and after emigrating to Estonia he completely gave up modernist experiments and began to develop in line with classical poetry. His most famous works are the poems “!”, “Nightingales of the Monastery Garden”, “Classical Roses”, “Nocturne”, “A Girl Cried in the Park” and the collections “The Thundering Cup”, “Victoria regia”, “Zlatolira”. We discussed it in detail in another article.

The main themes of Igor Severyanin’s work:

• technical progress;
• own genius;
• the poet's place in society;
• love theme;
• satire and flagellation of social vices;
• policy.

He was the first poet in Russia who boldly called himself a futurist. But in 1912, Igor Severyanin founded a new, his own movement - egofuturism, which is characterized by the use of foreign words and the presence of a sense of “self-love.”

Alexey Kruchenykh

Alexey Eliseevich Kruchenykh (1886 - 1968) - Russian poet, journalist, artist. One of the representatives of Russian futurism. The creator became famous for bringing “zaum” to Russian poetry. “Zaumy” is an abstract speech, devoid of any meaning, which allows the author to use any words (strange combinations, neologisms, parts of words, etc.). Alexey Kruchenykh even releases his own “Declaration of an Abstruse Language.”

The poet’s most famous poem is “Dyr Bul Shchyl”, but there are other works: “Reinforced concrete weights - houses”, “Gone away”, “Tropical forest”, “In a gambling house”, “Winter”, “Death of an artist”, “Rus” and others.

The main themes of Khlebnikov’s work include:

• theme of love;
• theme of language;
• creation;
• satire;
• food theme.

Velimir Khlebnikov

Velimir Khlebnikov (1885 - 1922) is a famous Russian poet, one of the main figures of the avant-garde in Russia. He became famous, first of all, for being the founder of futurism in our country. Also, we should not forget that it was thanks to Khlebnikov that radical experiments began in the field of “creativity of the word” and the previously mentioned “brain”. Sometimes the poet was called “chairman globe" The main works are poems, poems, super stories, autobiographical materials and prose. Examples of futurism in poetry include:

• "Bird in a Cage";
• “Times are reeds”;
• "Out of the bag";
• "Grasshopper" and others.

To the poems:

• "Menagerie";
• "Forest melancholy";
• “Love comes like a terrible tornado,” etc.

Super stories:

• "Zangezi";
• "War in a Mousetrap."
• "Nikolai";
• “Great is the day” (Imitation of Gogol);
• "Cliff from the future."

Autobiographical materials:

• "Autobiographical note";
• “Answers to S. A. Wegnerov’s questionnaire.”

The main themes of V. Khlebnikov’s work:

• the theme of revolution and its glorification;
• theme of predestination, fate;
• connection of times;
• nature theme.

Imagism

Imagism is one of the movements of the Russian avant-garde, which also appeared and spread in the Silver Age. The concept comes from English word“image”, which translates as “image”. This direction is an offshoot of futurism.

Imagism first appeared in England. The main representatives were Ezra Pound and Percy Wyndham Lewis. Only in 1915 did this trend reach our country. But Russian imagism was significantly different from English. In fact, all that remains of it is its name. For the first time, the Russian public heard the works of Imagism on January 29, 1919 in the building of the All-Russian Union of Poets in Moscow. It provides that the image of the word rises above the design, the idea.

The term “imaginism” first appears in Russian literature in 1916. It was then that Vadim Shershenevich’s book “Green Street...” was published, in which the author declares the emergence of a new movement. More extensive than futurism.

Just like futurism, imagism influenced painting. The most popular artists are: Georgy Bogdanovich Yakulov (avant-garde artist), Sergey Timofeevich Konenkov (sculptor) and Boris Robertovich Erdman.

The main features of imagism:

• the primacy of the image;
• extensive use of metaphors;
• content of the work = development of the image + epithets;
• epithet = comparisons + metaphors + antithesis;
• poems perform, first of all, an aesthetic function;
• one work = one imaginative catalogue.

Sergey Yesenin

Sergei Aleksandrovich Yesenin (1895 - 1925) is a famous Russian poet, one of the most popular representatives of imagism, an outstanding creator of peasant lyrics. We described in an essay about his contribution to the culture of the Silver Age.

During his short life, he managed to become famous for his extraordinary creativity. Everyone read his heartfelt poems about love, nature, and the Russian village. But the poet was also known for being one of the founders of imagism. In 1919, he, together with other poets - V.G. Shershenevich and A.B. Mariengof - for the first time told the public about the principles of this movement. The main feature was that the poems of the Imagists can be read from bottom to top. However, the essence of the work does not change. But in 1922, Sergei Alexandrovich realized that this innovative creative association was very limited, and in 1924 he wrote a letter in which he announced the closure of the imagist group.

The poet’s main works (it should be noted that not all of them are written in the style of imagism):

• “Go you, Rus', my dear!”;
• "Letter to a Woman";
• "Hooligan";
• “You don’t love me, you don’t feel sorry for me...”;
• “I have one more fun left”;
• Poem "";

The main themes of Yesenin’s creativity:

• theme of the Motherland;
• nature theme;
• love lyrics;
• melancholy and spiritual crisis;
• nostalgia;
• rethinking the historical transformations of the 20th century

Anatoly Mariengof

Anatoly Borisovich Mariengof (1897 - 1962) - Russian imagist poet, playwright, prose writer. Together with S. Yesenin and V. Shershenevich, he founded a new direction of avant-gardeism - imagism. First of all, he became famous for his revolutionary literature, since most of his works praise this political phenomenon.

The main works of the poet include such books as:

• “A novel without lies”;
• “” (a film adaptation of this book was released in 1991);
• "The Shaved Man";
• "Immortal Trilogy";
• “Anatoly Mariengof about Sergei Yesenin”;
• "Without a fig leaf";
• "Showcase of the Heart."

To poems-examples of imagism:

• "Meeting";
• "Memory Jugs";
• "March of Revolutions";
• "Hands with a tie";
• "September" and many others.

Themes of Mariengof's works:

• revolution and its celebration;
• the theme of “Russianness”;
• bohemian life;
• socialist ideas;
• anti-clerical protest.

Together with Sergei Yesenin and other imagists, the poet participated in the creation of issues of the magazine “Hotel for Travelers in Beauty” and the book “Imagists”.

Symbolism

- a movement headed by an innovative image-symbol that replaced the artistic one. The term “symbolism” comes from the French “symbolisme” and the Greek “symbolon” ​​- symbol, sign.

France is considered to be the forefather of this trend. After all, it was there, in the 18th century, that the famous French poet Stéphane Mallarmé united with other poets to create a new literary movement. Then symbolism “migrated” to other European countries, and already to late XVIII century came to Russia.

First this concept appears in the works of the French poet Jean Moreas.

The main features of symbolism include:

• dual world - division into reality and the illusory world;
• musicality;
• psychologism;
• the presence of a symbol as the basis of meaning and idea;
• mystical images and motifs;
• reliance on philosophy;
• cult of individuality.

Alexander Blok

Alexander Alexandrovich Blok (1880 - 1921) is a famous Russian poet, one of the most important representatives of symbolism in Russian poetry.

The block belongs to the second stage of development of this movement in our country. He is a “junior symbolist” who embodied in his works the philosophical ideas of the thinker Vladimir Sergeevich Solovyov.

The main works of Alexander Blok include the following examples of Russian symbolism:

• "On the railway";
• "Factory";
• “Night, street, lantern, pharmacy...”;
• “I enter dark temples”;
• “The girl sang in the church choir”;
• “I’m scared to meet you”;
• “Oh, I want to live crazy”;
• poem "" and much more.

Themes of Blok's creativity:

• the theme of the poet and his place in the life of society;
• theme of sacrificial love, love-worship;
• the theme of the Motherland and understanding of its historical fate;
• beauty as the ideal and salvation of the world;
• theme of revolution;
• mystical and folklore motifs

Valery Bryusov

Valery Yakovlevich Bryusov (1873 - 1924) - Russian symbolist poet, translator. One of the most famous representatives of the Silver Age of Russian poetry. He stood at the origins of Russian symbolism along with A.A. Block. The creator’s success began with a scandal associated with the monostic poem “Oh, close your pale legs.” Then, after the publication of even more provocative works, Bryusov finds himself at the epicenter of fame. He is invited to various social and poetic evenings, and his name becomes a real brand in the art world.

Examples of symbolist poems:

• "Everything is over";
• "In past";
• "Napoleon";
• "Woman";
• "Shadows of the Past";
• "Mason";
• "A painful gift";
• "Clouds";
• "Images of Time".

The main themes in the works of Valery Yakovlevich Bryusov:

• mysticism and religion;
• problems of the individual and society;
• escape into a fictional world;
• the history of homeland.

Andrey Bely

Andrei Bely (1880 - 1934) - Russian poet, writer, critic. Just like Blok, Bely is considered one of the most famous representatives of symbolism in our country. It is worth noting that the creator supported the ideas of individualism and subjectivism. He believed that symbolism represents a certain worldview of a person, and not just a movement in art. He considered sign language to be the highest manifestation of speech. The poet was also of the opinion that all art is a kind of spirit, the mystical energy of higher powers.

He called his works symphonies, including “Dramatic”, “Northern”, “Symphonic” and “Return”. Famous poems include: “And water? The moment is clear...", "Ace (Azure is pale"), "Balmont", "Madman" and others.

The themes in the poet’s work are:

• theme of love or passion for a woman;
• the fight against bourgeois vulgarity;
• ethical and moral aspects of the revolution;
• mystical and religious motives;

Konstantin Balmont

Konstantin Dmitrievich Balmont (1867 - 1942) - Russian symbolist poet, literary critic and writer. He became famous for his “optimistic narcissism.” According to the famous Russian poet Anninsky, he raised the most important philosophical questions in his works. The poet’s main works are the collections “Under the Northern Sky”, “We Will Be Like the Sun” and “Burning Buildings” and the well-known poems “Butterfly”, “In the Blue Temple”, “There is not a day that I don’t think about You...”. These are very revealing examples of symbolism.

The main themes in Balmont’s work:

• the elevated place of the poet in society;
• individualism;
• infinity theme;
• questions of being and non-being;
• beauty and mystery of the surrounding world.

Vyacheslav Ivanov

Vyacheslav Ivanovich Ivanov (1866 - 1949) - poet, critic, playwright, translator. Although he long survived the heyday of symbolism, he still remained true to his aesthetic and literary principles. The Creator is known for his idea of ​​Dionysian symbolism (he was inspired by the ancient Greek god of fertility and wine, Dionysus). His poetry was dominated by ancient images and philosophical questions posed by ancient Greek philosophers like Epicurus.

Ivanov's main works:

• "Alexander Blok"
• "The ark";
• "News";
• "Scales";
• "Contemporaries";
• “Valley is a temple”;
• "The sky lives"

Creative themes:

• the secret of natural harmony;
• theme of love;
• theme of life and death;
• mythological motifs;
• the true nature of happiness.

Acmeism

Acmeism is the last movement that made up the poetry of the Silver Age. The term comes from the Greek word “acme”, which means the dawn of something, the peak.

As a literary manifestation, Acmeism was formed at the beginning of the 20th century. Beginning in 1900, young poets began to gather in the apartment of the poet Vyacheslav Ivanov in St. Petersburg. In 1906 - 1907, a small group separated from everyone else and formed a “circle of young people.” He was distinguished by his zeal to move away from symbolism and form something new. Also, the literary group “Workshop of Poets” made a great contribution to the development of Acmeism. It included such poets as Anna Akhmatova, Osip Mandelstam, Georgy Adamovich, Vladimir Narbut and others. “Workshop..” was headed by Nikolai Gumilyov and Sergei Gorodetsky. After 5-6 years, another part separated from this group, which began to call themselves Acmeists.

Acmeism was also reflected in painting. Views from artists such as Alexandra Benois (“The Marquise’s Bath” and “The Venetian Garden”), Konstantin Somov (“The Mocked Kiss”), Sergei Sudeikin and Leon Bakst (all of whom were included in art group the end of the 19th century “World of Arts”) were similar to the views of the Acmeist writers. In all the pictures we can see how modern world confronts the world of the past. Each canvas represents a kind of stylized decoration.

Main features of Acmeism:

• rejection of the ideas of symbolism, opposition to them;
• return to origins: connections with past poets and literary movements;
• the symbol is no longer a way of influencing/influencing the reader;
• the absence of everything mystical;
• connecting physiological wisdom with inner world person.
• Striving for simplicity and utmost clarity of image, theme, style.

Anna Akhmatova

Anna Andreevna Akhmatova (1889 - 1966) - Russian poetess, literary critic, translator. She is also a nominee for Nobel Prize in the field of literature. How talented poetess, the world recognized her in 1914. It was this year that the collection “Rosary Beads” was published. Further, her influence in bohemian circles only intensified, and the poem “” provided her with scandalous fame. In the Soviet Union, criticism did not favor her talent; mainly her fame went underground, into samizdat, but works from her pen were copied by hand and learned by heart. It was she who patronized Joseph Brodsky in the early stages of his work.

Significant creations include:

• “I learned to live simply and wisely”;
• “She clasped her hands over a dark veil”;
• “I asked the cuckoo...”;
• "The Gray-Eyed King";
• “I’m not asking for your love”;
• “And now you are heavy and dull” and others.

The themes of the poems can be called:

• the theme of marital and maternal love;
• the theme of true friendship;
• subject Stalin's repressions and the suffering of the people;
• theme of war;
• the poet's place in the world;
• reflection on the fate of Russia.

Basically, Anna Akhmatova’s lyrical works are written in the direction of Acmeism, but sometimes manifestations of symbolism are also observed, most often against the backdrop of some kind of action.

Nikolay Gumilyov

Nikolai Stepanovich Gumilev (1886 - 1921) - Russian poet, critic, prose writer and literary critic. At the beginning of the 20th century, he was part of the “Workshop of Poets” already known to you. It was thanks to this creator and his colleague Sergei Gorodetsky that Acmeism was founded. They led this pioneering division from general group. Gumilyov’s poems are clear and transparent, there is no pomposity or abstruseness in them, which is why they are still sung and played on stages and music tracks. He speaks simply, but beautifully and sublimely about complex feelings and thoughts. For his association with the White Guards, he was shot by the Bolsheviks.

The main works include:

• "Giraffe";
• "Lost Tram"
• “Remember more than once”;
• “From a bouquet of whole lilacs”;
• "Comfort";
• "The escape";
• “I laughed at myself”;
• "My Readers" and much more.

The main theme of Gumilyov's poetry is overcoming life's failures and obstacles. He also touched upon philosophical, love, and military themes. His view of art is interesting, because for him creativity is always a sacrifice, always a strain to which you surrender yourself without reserve.

Osip Mandelstam

Osip Emilievich Mandelstam (1891 - 1938) - famous poet, literary critic, translator and prose writer. He is the author of the original love lyrics, dedicated many poems to the city. His work is distinguished by a satirical and clearly oppositional orientation towards the government in force at that time. He was not afraid to touch on hot topics and ask uncomfortable questions. For his caustic and insulting “dedication” to Stalin, he was arrested and convicted. The mystery of his death in the labor camp remains unsolved to this day.

Examples of Acmeism can be found in his works:

• "Notre Dame"
• “We live without feeling the country beneath us”;
• "Insomnia. Homer. Tight sails...";
• "Silentium"
• "Self-portrait";
• “It’s a gentle evening. The twilight is important...";
• “You smile” and much more.

Themes in Mandelstam's works:

• the beauty of St. Petersburg;
• theme of love;
• the poet's place in public life;
• the theme of culture and freedom of creativity;
• political protest;
• poet and power.

Sergey Gorodetsky

Sergei Mitrofanovich Gorodetsky (1884 - 1967) - Russian Acmeist poet, translator. His work is characterized by the presence of folklore motifs; he was fond of folk epic and ancient Russian culture. After 1915 he became a peasant poet, describing the customs and life of the village. While working as a war correspondent, he created a cycle of poems dedicated to the Armenian genocide. After the revolution, he was mainly engaged in translations.

Significant works of the poet, which can be considered examples of Acmeism:

• "Armenia";
• "Birch";
• cycle "Spring";
• "Town";
• "Wolf";
• “My face is a hiding place of births”;
• “Do you remember, a blizzard came”;
• "Lilac";
• "Snow";
• "Series."

The main themes in the poems of Sergei Gorodetsky:

• the natural splendor of the Caucasus;
• theme of the poet and poetry;
• Armenian genocide;
• theme of revolution;
• theme of war;
• love and philosophical lyrics.

The work of Marina Tsvetaeva

Marina Ivanovna Tsvetaeva (1892 - 1941) - famous Russian poet, translator, prose writer. First of all, she is known for her love poems. She also tended to reflect on the ethical aspects of the revolution, and nostalgia for the old days was evident in her works. Perhaps this is why she was forced to leave the country of the Soviets, where her work was not valued. She knew other languages ​​brilliantly, and her popularity spread not only to our country. The poetess' talent is admired in Germany, France and the Czech Republic.

Tsvetaeva’s main works:

• “You’re coming, you look like me”;
• “I will conquer you from all lands, from all heavens..”;
• "Homesickness! For a long time…";
• “I like that you are not sick with me”;
• “I would like to live with you”;

The main themes in the poetess’s work:

• theme of the Motherland;
• theme of love, jealousy, separation;
• theme of home and childhood;
• theme of the poet and his significance;
• historical fate of the fatherland;
• spiritual kinship.

One amazing feature of Marina Tsvetaeva is that her poems do not belong to any literary movement. All of them are beyond any directions.

Creativity of Sofia Parnok

Sofia Yakovlevna Parnok (1885 - 1933) - Russian poetess, translator. She gained fame thanks to her scandalous friendship with the famous poetess Marina Tsvetaeva. The fact is that the communication between them was attributed to something more than a friendly relationship. Parnok was also awarded the nickname “Russian Sappho” for her statements about the right of women to unconventional love and equal rights with men.

Main works:

• "White Night";
• “In a barren land no grain can grow”;
• “Not yet spirit, almost not flesh”;
• “I love you in your space”;
• “How bright is the light today”;
• "Divination";
• “The lips were pursed too tightly.”

The main themes in the poetess’s work are love free from prejudice, spiritual connection between people, independence from public opinion.

Parnok does not belong to a specific direction. All her life she tried to find her special place in literature, not tied to a particular movement.

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Alexander Aleksandrovich Blok(16 (28) November 1880, St. Petersburg, Russian empire- August 7, 1921, Petrograd, RSFSR) - Russian poet, classic of Russian literature of the 20th century, one of greatest poets Russia.

Blok’s mother, Alexandra Andreevna, is the daughter of the rector of St. Petersburg University Andrei Beketov. Soon after Alexander's birth, the poet's mother left her husband, Warsaw lawyer Alexander Lvovich Blok (1852-1909), and in 1889 she remarried guards officer F. F. Kublitsky-Piottukh, while leaving her son the surname of her first husband. Nine-year-old Blok settled with his mother and stepfather in the Grenadier Barracks, located on the outskirts of St. Petersburg, on the banks of the Bolshaya Nevka. In the same year, Alexander Blok was sent to the Vvedensky gymnasium. In 1897, finding himself with his mother abroad, in the German resort town of Bad Nauheim, Blok experienced his first strong youthful love with Ksenia Sadovskaya. She left a deep mark on his work. In 1897, at a funeral in St. Petersburg, he met Vl. Soloviev.

In 1898 he graduated from high school and entered the law faculty of St. Petersburg University. Three years later he transferred to the Slavic-Russian department of the Faculty of History and Philology, which he graduated in 1906. At the university, Blok meets Sergei Gorodetsky and Alexei Remizov.

At this time, the poet’s second cousin, later the priest Sergei Mikhailovich Solovyov (junior), became one of the closest friends of the young Blok.

Blok wrote his first poems at the age of five. At the age of 10, Alexander Blok wrote two issues of the magazine “Ship”. From 1894 to 1897, he and his brothers wrote the handwritten journal “Vestnik”. Since childhood, Alexander Blok spent every summer on his grandfather’s Shakhmatovo estate near Moscow. 8 km away was the estate of Beketov’s friend, the great Russian chemist Dmitry Mendeleev Boblovo. At the age of 16, Blok became interested in theater. In St. Petersburg, Alexander Blok enrolled in a theater club. However, after his first success, he was no longer given roles in the theater.

In 1903, Blok married Lyubov Mendeleeva, daughter of D. I. Mendeleev, the heroine of his first book of poems, “Poems about a Beautiful Lady.” It is known that Alexander Blok had strong feelings for his wife, but periodically maintained connections with various women: at one time it was the actress Natalya Nikolaevna Volokhova, then the opera singer Andreeva-Delmas. Lyubov Dmitrievna also allowed herself hobbies. On this basis, Blok had a conflict with Andrei Bely, described in the play “Balaganchik”. Bely, who considered Mendeleeva the embodiment of a Beautiful Lady, was passionately in love with her, but she did not reciprocate his feelings. However, after the First World War, relations in the Blok family improved, and in recent years the poet was the faithful husband of Lyubov Dmitrievna.

In 1909, two difficult events occur in the Blok family: Lyubov Dmitrievna’s child dies and Blok’s father dies. To come to his senses, Blok and his wife go on vacation to Italy. For his Italian poetry, Blok was accepted into a society called the “Academy.” In addition to him, it included Valery Bryusov, Mikhail Kuzmin, Vyacheslav Ivanov, Innokenty Annensky.

In the summer of 1911, Blok again traveled abroad, this time to France. Alexander Alexandrovich gives a negative assessment of French morals.

The inherent quality of the French (and the Bretons, it seems, predominantly) is inescapable dirt, first of all physical, and then mental. It is better not to describe the first dirt; to put it briefly, a person in any way squeamish will not agree to settle in France.

In the summer of 1913, Blok again went to France (on the advice of doctors).

Biarritz is overrun by the French petty bourgeoisie, so that even my eyes are tired of looking at ugly men and women... And in general, I must say that I am very tired of France and want to return to a cultural country - Russia, where there are fewer fleas, almost no French women, there is food (bread and beef), drink (tea and water); beds (not 15 arshins wide), washbasins (there are basins from which you can never empty all the water, all the dirt remains at the bottom)…

In 1912, Blok wrote the drama “Rose and Cross”. K. Stanislavsky and V. Nemirovich-Danchenko liked the play, but the drama was never staged in the theater.

On July 7, 1916, Blok was called up to serve in the engineering unit of the All-Russian Zemstvo Union. The poet served in Belarus. By his own admission in a letter to his mother, during the war his main interests were “food and horses.”

February and October Revolution Blok met with mixed feelings. He refused to emigrate, believing that he should be with Russia in difficult times. At the beginning of May 1917, he was hired by the “Extraordinary Investigative Commission to investigate illegal actions in his position.” former ministers, chief managers and other senior officials both civil, military and naval departments" as editor. In August, Blok began working on a manuscript, which he considered as part of the future report of the Extraordinary Investigative Commission and which was published in the magazine “Byloe” (No. 15, 1919), and in the form of a book entitled “The Last Days of Imperial Power” ( Petrograd, 1921).

At the beginning of 1920, Franz Feliksovich Kublitsky-Piottukh died from pneumonia. Blok took his mother to live with him. But she and Blok’s wife did not get along with each other.

In January 1921, on the occasion of the 84th anniversary of Pushkin’s death, Blok delivered his famous speech “On the Appointment of a Poet” at the House of Writers.

Blok was one of the few artists in Petrograd who not only accepted Soviet power, but agreed to work for its benefit. The authorities began to widely use the poet’s name for their own purposes. During 1918-1920. Blok, often against his will, was appointed and elected to various positions in organizations, committees, and commissions. The constantly increasing volume of work undermined the poet's strength. Fatigue began to accumulate - Blok described his state of that period with the words “I was drunk.” This may also explain the poet’s creative silence - he wrote in a private letter in January 1919: “For almost a year now I have not belonged to myself, I have forgotten how to write poetry and think about poetry...”. Heavy workloads in Soviet institutions and living in hungry and cold revolutionary Petrograd completely undermined the poet’s health - Blok developed serious cardiovascular disease, asthma, mental disorders, and scurvy began in the winter of 1920.

In the spring of 1921, Alexander Blok, together with Fyodor Sologub, asked to be issued exit visas. The issue was considered by the Politburo of the Central Committee of the RCP(b). Exit was denied. Lunacharsky noted: “We literally, without releasing the poet and without giving him the necessary satisfactory conditions, tortured him.” A number of historians believed that V.I. Lenin and V.R. Menzhinsky played a particularly negative role in the fate of the poet, prohibiting the patient from leaving for treatment in a sanatorium in Finland, which, at the request of Maxim Gorky and Lunacharsky, was discussed at a meeting of the Politburo of the Central Committee RCP(b) July 12, 1921. The permission to leave, obtained by L. B. Kamenev and Lunacharsky at a subsequent meeting of the Politburo on July 23, 1921, was belated and could no longer save the poet.

Finding himself in a difficult financial situation, he was seriously ill and died on August 7, 1921 in his last Petrograd apartment from inflammation of the heart valves. A few days before his death, a rumor spread throughout St. Petersburg that the poet had gone crazy. Indeed, on the eve of his death, Blok raved for a long time, obsessed with a single thought: had all the copies of “The Twelve” been destroyed? However, the poet died in full consciousness, which refutes rumors about his insanity. Before his death, after receiving a negative response to a request to go abroad for treatment (dated July 12), the poet deliberately destroyed his notes and refused to take food and medicine.

The poet was buried at the Smolensk Orthodox cemetery in Petrograd. The Beketov and Kachalov families are also buried there, including the poet’s grandmother Ariadna Alexandrovna, with whom he was in correspondence. The funeral service was held on August 10 (July 28, Art. Art. - the day of celebration of the Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God) in the Church of the Resurrection of Christ. In 1944, Blok’s ashes were reburied on the Literary Bridge at the Volkovskoye Cemetery.