At the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Russian poetry, like Western poetry, is also experiencing rapid development. It is dominated by avant-garde and modernist tendencies. The modernist period of the development of Russian poetry in the late 19th - early 20th centuries. called " the silver age", The Russian poetic renaissance.
The ideological basis for the development of new Russian poetry was the flourishing of religious and philosophical thought that took place in Russia at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. The new philosophy appears as a critical reaction to the positivism of the second half of the 19th century. with his rational attitude to life as a fact of being exclusively material. New Russian philosophy, on the contrary, was idealistic, appealed to the irrational sides of human existence and tried to synthesize the experience of science, philosophy and religion. Its main representatives are M. Fedorov, N. Berdyaev, P. Florensky, N. Lossky, S. Frank and others, among whom the outstanding Russian thinker and poet Vladimir Sergeevich Soloviev did not have the most direct influence on the formation of the ideological basis of Russian poetic modernism. His philosophical ideas and artistic images are at the origins of Russian poetic symbolism.
During the "Silver Age" in Russian poetry four generations of poets clearly showed themselves: balmontivske (which was born in the 60s and early 70s of the XIX century), Blokovskoe (about 1880), Gumilev (about 1886) and generations of the 90s, represented by the names of G. Ivanov, G. Adamovich, M. Tsvetaeva, R. Ivnev, S. Yesenin, V. Mayakovsky, M. Otsup, V. Shershenevich and many others. A significant number of Russian writers were forced to emigrate abroad (K. Balmont, I. Bunin, A. Kuprin, D. Merezhkovsky, 3. Gippius, Sasha Cherny and many others). The defeat of Russian culture and poetry of the "Silver Age" was finally completed in the fall of 1922 by the forced expulsion from Soviet Russia abroad of 160 famous scientists, writers, philosophers, journalists, public figures, which marked the beginning of the formation of a powerful emigration branch of Russian literature and culture.
Russian poetry of the "Silver Age" became a kind of summing up of the results of the two-hundred-year development of new Russian poetry. She picked up and continued the best traditions of the previous historical stages in the development of Russian poetry and at the same time turned to a significant reassessment of the values \u200b\u200bof artistic and cultural priorities that directed its development.
In the history of the development of Russian poetry of the "Silver Age", three directions most clearly manifested themselves: symbolism, acmeism, futurism. A separate place in Russian poetic modernism of the early XX centuries. occupied by the so-called "new peasant" poets, as well as poets whose work does not clearly correlate with a particular artistic direction.
Symbolism. The first of the new trends appeared symbolism, which marked the beginning of the "Silver Age" of Russian poetry. Symbolism (Greek suthoen - conventional sign, omen) - literary direction late XIX - early XX century, the main feature of which is that a specific artistic image turns into an ambiguous symbol. Symbolism is born in France and how the literary movement was formed begins its history in 1880, when Stephen Mallarmé begins literary salon (the so-called "Tuesdays" of Mallarmé), in which young poets take part. Program symbolist actions took place in 1886, when Sonnets to Wagner was printed during
tens of poets (Verlaine, Mallarmé, Pl, Dujardin, etc.), "Treatise on the Word" by R. Gil and an article by J. Moreas "Literary Manifesto. Symbolism ".
Outstanding writers outside France also associate their work with symbolism. In the 1880s, the Belgian Symbolists began their activity - the poet Emile Verhaarn and the playwright Maurice Maeterlinck. At the turn of the century, prominent Austrian artists associated with Symbolism, Hugo von Hofmannsthal and Rainer Maria Rilke, performed. The Polish poet Boleslav Lesmyana also belonged to the Symbolists; individual works of the German playwright Gerhart Hauptmann, the English writer Oscar Wilde, and the late Henrik Ibsen correlate with the artistic principles of Symbolism. IN ukrainian poetry Symbolism entered with the works of M. Voronoi, O. Oles, P. Kar-Mansky, V. Pachevsky, M. Yatskiv and others. Such outstanding Ukrainian poets as M. Rylsky and Tychina, whose "Solar clarinets" constitute the pinnacle of Ukrainian symbolism, have gone through the school of symbolism.
Symbolism contrasted its aesthetic principles and poetics with realism and naturalism, directions which it strongly denied. Symbolists are not interested in recreating real reality, the concrete and objective world, in a simple depiction of the facts of everyday life, as naturalists did. It was in their isolation from reality that the Symbolist artists saw their superiority over representatives of other trends. The symbol is the foundation of the whole direction. The symbol helps the artist to find "correspondences" between phenomena, between the real and the mysterious worlds.
The starting point of Russian Symbolism was the activity of two literary circles that arose almost simultaneously in Moscow and St. Petersburg on the basis of a common interest in the philosophy of Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, as well as the work of European Symbolists. In the late 90s of the XIX century. both groups of Symbolists united, thus creating a single literary direction of Symbolism. At the same time, the Scorpion publishing house (1899-1916) appeared in Moscow, around which Russian Symbolists were grouped. It is customary to divide Russian Symbolists into senior and junior (according to the time of their entry into literature and some difference in theoretical positions). The older Symbolists who came to literature in the 1890s include Dmitry Merezhkovsky (their main ideologist), Valery Bryusov, Konstantin Balmont, Fyodor Sologub and others. The senior Symbolists derived the ideological basis of their views mainly from the attitudes of French Symbolism, which they mainly focused on, although they did not completely reject the achievements of Russian idealist thought. The younger Symbolists entered literature at the beginning of the 20th century. (Andrey Bely, Alexander Blok, Vyacheslav Ivanov and others), were more oriented towards the philosophical search for Russian idealistic thought and the tradition of national poetry, calling the poetry of V. Zhukovsky, F. Tyutchev and A. Fet their forerunners.
The Symbolist poets compared their activities with theurgy (priesthood), and they often tried to give their poems the signs of a ritual-magical text similar to incantations. The content of symbolic images is primarily designed to excite in the listener's imagination a complex play of associations associated with the corresponding emotional mood and devoid of a clearly defined subject basis. The Symbolists attached particular importance to the sound of the verse, its melody and sound writing, as well as a rare poetic vocabulary. They compared the sound writing of verse to music, and this latter was associated for them with the pinnacle of art and the optimal means for expressing a certain symbolic content. Symbolism played an extremely important role in the development of Russian poetry in the "Silver Age". He, firstly, returned to poetry the significance and the authority that it had lost in the literature of realism, oriented towards prose, and, secondly, laid the traditions on which (perceiving or starting from them) other directions of development of Russian poetry at the beginning XX century and before, acmeism and futurism.
Acmeism, a modernist trend in Russian poetry of the 1910s, united Nikolai Gumilyov, Anna Akhmatova, Osip Mandelstam, Sergei Gorodetsky, Georgy Ivanov, Mikhail Zenkevich, Grigory Narbut and “sympathizers” Mikhail Kuzmin, Boris Sadovskiy and other artists. Quite often, Acmeists call their trend “adamism” (from the first man, the forefather of Adam, whose image in this case was associated with the expression of a natural and immediate “initial” clear view of life - as opposed to symbolism abstracted from reality. Gumilev defined adamism as “courageously firm and a clear view of life. ”During the course, M. Kuzmin's term“ clarism ”was also used, with which the poet calls“ wonderful clarity ”as one of the basic principles of new poetry.
At first, the movement arose in the form of a free association of several poets, dissociating themselves from symbolism, more precisely, from Vyacheslav Ivanov's Poetic Academy, in protest against his devastating criticism of Gumilev's poem The Prodigal Son (1911). Young poets created a union called the "Poets 'Workshop" (existed in 1911-1914, then resumed its activity in 1920-1922), which embraced a wide poetic circle (before the "Poets' Workshop" included A. Blok).
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"Poems about the Beautiful Lady" - early
morning dawn - those dreams and fogs,
with which the soul struggles to get
the right to live
Loneliness, haze, silence - a closed book
Being ... everything is there ... captivates 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 boy. Just look at the photograph taken in 1904. What a universal sadness in your eyes! Anna Akhmatova called Alexander Blok “the tragic tenor of the era”.
The first collection of A. Blok contains poems containing often opposite views of the world.
Vladimir Soloviev had a great influence on the poet and his work. The idea of \u200b\u200ba double world, the feminine principle, did not leave Blok.
The early lyric works reflected the poet's desire to comprehend the world. The world is ruled by the feminine principle, it is eternal, incorruptible. According to Blok, a person in a state of love breaks through to the higher spheres of being. The poet's love is a constant expectation.
The first collection contains admiration and service of fate to the eternal Beautiful Lady and the expectation of love. But over time, there comes a realization of the impossibility of meeting the harmonization of the world that dominates the universe. There is a gap between the poet and the Lady, which the poet is going through very hard. The bright dream is replaced by hopelessness, incomprehensibility. Symbols such as blizzard, whirlwind, blizzard appear. The flickering light of the lantern symbolizes the local world, white countries, dawns, azure - other places that leave the early lyrics of A. Blok. Bloody, red, purple tones appear. The city appears before the eyes of the reader in a mystical guise. The hero's knightly armor is replaced by a harlequin costume. Instead of a bowing monk - a laughing jester, a fantastic, ghostly vision: "A black man was running around the city ..." Blok has an ordinary everyday life intertwined with mystical, unreal.
But, despite the contradictory thoughts, the main motives, views of A. Blok's early poems were 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 world soul.
The collection “Poems about the Beautiful Lady” has three sections, internally connected with each other; 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 poems directly addressed to the Beautiful Lady. The title was given out similar to the poem by V. Solovyov “Poor friend! The way has worn you out ... ":
Death and Time reign on earth, -
Do not call them masters;
Everything, whirling, disappears into the darkness,
Only the sun of love is motionless.
and the very concept of "immobility" Blok puts a deep philosophical meaning, and in his poetic allegory it has many shades. The most undoubted of them expresses the idea of \u200b\u200bconstancy, fidelity, knightly service, expressing the most important thing, “secret and unspeakable”.
Oh, Saint, how sweet the candles are,
How gratifying are Your features!
I don't hear any sighs or speech,
But I believe: Sweetheart - You.
"Immobility" is a poetic prologue to all of Blok's 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 reality, the real, earthly story of A. Blok's love for L. D. Mendeleeva. In “Stillness” a theme sacred to Blok arises: 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 Fair Lady is dramatic from beginning to end. The plot movement of the first book is based on the original and constantly growing drama, which lies in the very nature of the heroes, and above all in the character of the Beautiful Lady. Her appearance is changeable, she is incomprehensible. This motive became apparent immediately, in the second poem of the collection "I Foresee You ...":
But I am 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 “prophesied” -
Daring to arouse suspicion
Changing the usual features at the end -
but also the future inevitable path of the lyrical hero:
Oh, how I will fall - both sad and low,
Not having overcome deadly dreams!
The poem ends with a couplet, which expresses the tragic contradictions of Blok's hero:
How clear is the horizon!
And radiance is near.
But I am afraid: you will change your appearance.
The poem "I kept them in the chapel of John ..." was written the next 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 now the vaults were lit with an evening ray.
She gave me the Royal Answer.
In the second section of the collection, which Blok called "Crossroads", the tonality and rhythm change sharply, Blok's Petersburg and his City appear. In Immobility, attention is drawn to the poet's extraordinary fusion with the natural world. This merger is similar to the worldview of I. Bunin.
In "Crossroads" a sharp turn in the lyrics of Blok was reflected.
The section “Crossroads” opens with a meaningful and frankly daring poem “Deception”, far from the effulgence of the first part of the collection. Instead of pink dawns, the factory fumes, a red color catches the eye: a red dwarf, a red cap, a red sun: “Red slingshots are being set up along the streets. Soldiers are spanking ... "
The following poems increasingly develop the theme of deception, the theme of a city where vice and death are concentrated. The red tones are intensified even more: the bloody sun, the red city limits, the red janitor, the drunken red water. In the poem "City in the red limits ...", dedicated to to the best friend To Evgeny Ivanov, who also experienced painful love-hatred for the city of Peter, Blok exaggerates the colors to such an extent that we are no longer facing a city, but a “gray-stone body” with a “dead face”, a bell with a “bloody tongue”.
The poems of this section “Everyone was shouting at the round tables ...”, “The light in the window was staggering ...”, “I went out into the night ...” anticipate Blok, the poet “ Scary world”. Here the tragic themes of the booth, harlequin, duality appear.
Not believing in rapture
With darkness - one -
At the brooding 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 synonyms of the historical border - the end of the 19th and the beginning of the new 20th century.
In one of his last letters, Blok said prophetic words for him, which can be attributed equally 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 “Ecclesias.” This is a frank story about the inevitability of a catastrophe. The epigraph to the poem is taken from the Bible by Blok.
Everything is confused by wild fear.
People and animals crowded in a heap.
And in vain they close the doors
Dosel looking out the window.
The poem “Got up in the radiance ...” is a story about the tragic death of a woman.
Mommy doesn't hurt pink kids
Mom lay down on the rails herself.
To a kind person, a fat neighbor,
Thank you, thank you. 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 the elegy "When I am gone to rest from time ..." does not allow you to forget this magical image. 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 "Dali are blind, the days are without anger ..." This poem in its tonality resembles a poem from the cycle "Prayers", placed by Blok at the end of the first section of "Immobility" - "Watching at the entrance to the tower ..." It picks up the last lines "Prayers":
Silently tie our hands together
Let's fly off into the azure.
Now these lines contain the motive of an eternal battle, Blok's uneasiness:
What are moments of powerlessness?
Time is light smoke ...
We'll spread our wings again
Let's fly off again!
And again, in a thoughtless shift
Breaking through the firmament
Let's meet a new whirlwind of visions
Let's meet life and death!
My discovery of the "Silver Age" of Russian poetry
K. Balmont, N. Gumilev, A. Akhmatova (Sample text of the composition)
The beautiful name "Silver Age" made me turn to Russian poetry of the late 19th - early 20th centuries. This wonderful world amazes with its uniqueness and originality. It is not easy for a person brought up on the verses 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 himself. The first poet who opened to me the unique world of the "Silver Age" was K. Balmont. 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; musical signs can be put on Balmont's poems, as on notes.
I was dreaming of catching shadows leaving
Fading shadows of a faded day
I climbed the tower, and the steps trembled,
And the steps trembled under my foot.
A dream, shadows, a dying day, an attempt to catch what is gone, 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 behind and wait for the future. In my opinion, reading Balmont, one is convinced of the correctness of the old truth that a person is a whole world that is interesting in itself. In the poems of this wonderful poet, all attention is focused on his own soul, which does not seek contact with others. His poems convey the diverse shades of sensations, experiences, moods of the lyric hero.
I hate humanity
I'm running from him, hurrying.
My united fatherland -
My desolate soul.
In my opinion, the challenge and bravado resounding in these words of the poet cannot hide his extreme loneliness. One gets the impression that Balmont is creating a legend about himself. He was often reproached for egocentrism, in an enthusiastic attitude towards himself, towards his uniqueness and exclusivity. "Laws are not for me, since I am a genius," wrote Balmont. But I think that this arrogance of a loner is only a pose, a role that the poet himself chose and which he played not always brilliantly and convincingly. After all, a cold, haughty egoist who ascended above the crowd could never write such deeply human, suffering lines:
I'm struck to death by my mind
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 die myself like smoke.
Balmont's poetry is still alive. She excites with her emotionality, spirituality, joy of being.
Romanticism of perception of the world is characteristic of another remarkable poet of the "Silver Age" - N. Gumilyov. Unlike Balmont, Gumilev strives in every possible way to hide his intimate world behind colorful exotic paintings, behind the "mask of a conquistador". It is very difficult, and most likely simply impossible to tell more or less fully about the poet's poems. After all, each of his poems opens up some new facet of views, moods, vision 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 captains lead the swift-wings -
Discoverers of new lands
For whom hurricanes are not afraid
Who tasted the Malstroms and the stranded.
Whose is not the dust of lost charters -
The chest is soaked with the salt of the sea,
Who's a needle on a torn card
Celebrates his daring path.
But now the energetic, elastic rhythm of the verse is suddenly replaced by sad elegiac lines:
Another unnecessary day
Magnificent and unnecessary!
Come caressing shadow
And dress your vague soul
With your pearl robe.
The poem "Evening" is imbued with a mood of calm sadness, regret that only in a dream appears to the poet "the promised country - long-mourned happiness." But when I think about Gumilev, the mysterious Lake Chad, on which "an exquisite giraffe roams", comes to mind first of all. 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've been inhaling 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 palms, about the smell of incredible herbs ...
You cry? Listen ... far away on Lake Chad
An exquisite giraffe wanders.
In my opinion, this poem contains a sharp rejection of the gray, monotonous, meager feelings and events of the 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 there are no exotic paintings, refinement of language, sophistication of style in it. Despite the open ordinariness and the utmost simplicity of the language, her poems amaze with the inner strength of feelings and the immediacy of emotions. At the thought of Akhmatova's poetry, the word "love" immediately comes. Meetings and partings, tenderness and selflessness, joy bursting from the heart and quiet sadness - I met all these various shades of love feelings on the pages of Akhmatov's books. True, the love of a poetess is rarely happy. She brings with her sadness, homelessness, tragedy. But let us turn to Akhmatova's poems, which tell much better about love.
You can't confuse real tenderness
With nothing and she is quiet.
You wrap it up carefully in vain
My shoulders and chest are in fur.
And in vain are obedient words
You talk about first love.
How do I know these stubborn
Your unfulfilled glances!
The burning dream of a truly high love, not distorted by anything, a heightened sense of falsehood, disappointment in a loved one found their expression in this small poem. Akhmatova's love lyrics are perceived as a huge novel in which human destinies are intertwined, reflecting all the various nuances of intimate relationships. But most often these are stories about “mysterious encounters”, “unspeakable speeches”, about someone “who did not come”, about something not embodied. The poem "Fisherman" develops the theme of premonition, expectation of love. The first, still a childish feeling, dominates the girl, "that he goes to the city to sell kamsa."
Cheeks are pale, hands 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 in tune with the feelings and experiences of people whose lives are illuminated by love, giving both 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 magic sounds, feelings and thoughts" reigns.
The 19th century, which became a period of extraordinary rise of national culture and grandiose achievements in all spheres of art, was replaced by a complex 20th century full of dramatic events and turning points. The golden age of social and artistic life was replaced by the so-called silver one, which gave rise to the rapid development of Russian literature, poetry and prose in new bright trends, and later became the starting point of its fall.
In this article, we will focus on the poetry of the Silver Age, consider it and tell about the main directions, such as symbolism, acmeism and futurism, each of which was distinguished by a special music of verse and a vivid expression of the feelings and feelings of the lyric hero.
Poetry of the Silver Age. A turning point in Russian culture and art
It is believed that the beginning of the Silver Age of Russian literature falls on the 80-90s. XIX century. At this time, the works of many remarkable poets appeared: V. Bryusov, K. Ryleev, K. Balmont, I. Annensky - and writers: L. N. Tolstoy, F. M. Dostoevsky, M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin. The country is going through hard times. During the reign of Alexander I, at first there was a strong patriotic upsurge during the war of 1812, and then, in connection with a sharp change in the previously liberal policy of the tsar, society experienced a painful loss of illusions and heavy moral losses.
The poetry of the Silver Age reaches its peak by 1915. Public life and the political situation are characterized by a deep crisis, a restless, boiling atmosphere. Mass demonstrations are growing, life is being politicized, and at the same time personal identity is being strengthened. Society is making strenuous efforts to find a new ideal of power and social order. And poets and writers keep pace with the times, mastering new art forms and proposing bold ideas. The human personality begins to be realized as a unity of many principles: natural and social, biological and moral. During the years of the February, October revolutions and the Civil War, the poetry of the Silver Age is in crisis.
A. Blok's speech "On the appointment of a poet" (February 11, 1921), delivered by him at a meeting on the occasion of the 84th anniversary of the death of A. Pushkin, becomes the final chord of the Silver Age.
Characteristics of the literature of the XIX - early XX centuries.
Let's look at the features of the poetry of the Silver Age. First, one of the main features of the literature of that time was a huge interest in eternal topics: the search for the meaning of the life of an individual and all mankind as a whole, the mysteries of the national character, the history of the country, the mutual influence of the mundane and spiritual, human interaction and nature. Literature at the end of the 19th century becomes more and more philosophical: the authors reveal the themes of war, revolution, personal tragedy of a person who has lost peace and inner harmony... In the works of writers and poets, a new, bold, extraordinary, decisive and often unpredictable hero is born, persistently overcoming all adversity and hardships. In most works, close attention is paid precisely to how the subject, through the prism of his consciousness, perceives tragic social events. Secondly, an intensive search for original art forms, as well as means of expressing feelings and emotions, has become a feature of poetry and prose. Poetic form and rhyme played a particularly important role. Many authors abandoned the classical presentation of the text and invented new techniques, for example, V. Mayakovsky created his famous "ladder". Often, to achieve a special effect, authors used speech and linguistic anomalies, fragmentation, illogisms, and even allowed
Third, the poets of the Silver Age of Russian poetry freely experimented with the artistic possibilities of the word. In an effort to express complex, often contradictory, "volatile" emotional impulses, the writers began to treat the word in a new way, trying to convey the subtlest shades of meaning in their poems. Standard, stereotyped definitions of clear objective objects: love, evil, family values, morality - began to be replaced by abstract psychological descriptions. Precise concepts have given way to hints and innuendos. Such instability, fluidity of verbal meaning was achieved through the brightest metaphors, which often began to be built not on the obvious similarity of objects or phenomena, but on non-obvious signs.
Fourth, the poetry of the Silver Age is characterized by new ways of conveying the thoughts and feelings of the lyric hero. The poems of many authors began to be created using images, motives of different cultures, as well as hidden and explicit quotations. For example, many word painters included scenes from Greek, Roman, and later Slavic myths and legends in their creations. In the works of M. Tsvetaeva and V. Bryusov, mythology is used to build universal psychological models that make it possible to comprehend the human personality, in particular, its spiritual component. Each poet of the Silver Age is distinctly individual. You can easily understand which of them belongs to certain verses. But they all tried to make their works more tangible, lively, full of colors, so that any reader could feel every word and line.
The main directions of poetry of the Silver Age. Symbolism
Writers and poets, opposing themselves to realism, announced the creation of a new, contemporary art - modernism. There are three main poetry of the Silver Age: symbolism, acmeism, futurism. Each of them had its own striking features. Symbolism originally arose in France as a protest against the everyday display of reality and dissatisfaction with bourgeois life. The founders of this trend, including J. Morsas, believed that only with the help of a special hint - a symbol, one could comprehend the secrets of the universe. In Russia, symbolism appeared in the early 1890s. The founder of this trend was D. S. Merezhkovsky, who proclaimed in his book three main postulates of the new art: symbolization, mystical content and "expansion of artistic impressionability."
Senior and junior symbolists
The first Symbolists, later called elders, were V. Ya. Bryusov, KD Balmont, FK Sologub, ZN Gippius, NM Minsky, and other poets. Their work was often characterized by a sharp denial of the surrounding reality. They portrayed real life as boring, ugly and meaningless, trying to convey the subtlest shades of their feelings.
The period from 1901 to 1904 marks the beginning of a new milestone in Russian poetry. The symbolists' poems are saturated with a revolutionary spirit and a presentiment of future changes. The younger Symbolists: A. Blok, V. Ivanov, A. Bely - do not deny the world, but utopianly await its transformation, singing divine beauty, love and femininity, which will surely change reality. It was with the appearance of the younger Symbolists in the literary arena that the concept of a symbol entered literature. Poets understand it as a multidimensional word reflecting the world of "heaven", spiritual essence and at the same time "earthly kingdom".
Symbolism during the Revolution
Poetry of the Russian Silver Age in 1905-1907 is undergoing changes. Most of the Symbolists, focusing on the socio-political events taking place in the country, reconsider their views on peace and beauty. The latter is now understood as the chaos of the struggle. Poets create images of a new world that is replacing the dying one. V. Ya. Bryusov creates the poem "The Coming Huns", A. Blok - "The Barca of Life", "Rose from the darkness of the cellars ..." and others.
The symbolism is also changing. Now she turns not to the ancient heritage, but to Russian folklore, as well as Slavic mythology. After the revolution, there is a demarcation of the Symbolists, who want to protect art from the revolutionary elements and, on the contrary, who are actively interested in social struggle. After 1907, the disputes of the Symbolists exhaust themselves, and imitation of the art of the past comes to replace. And since 1910, Russian symbolism has been going through a crisis, clearly displaying its internal contradiction.
Acmeism in Russian poetry
In 1911, N. S. Gumilyov organized a literary group - "Workshop of Poets". It included the poets O. Mandelstam, G. Ivanov and G. Adamovich. This new direction did not reject the surrounding reality, but accepted reality as it is, affirming its value. "Guild of Poets" began to publish its own magazine "Hyperborey", as well as print works in "Apollo". Acmeism, originating as literary school to find a way out of the crisis of symbolism, he united poets very different in ideological and artistic attitudes.
Features of Russian futurism
The Silver Age in Russian poetry gave rise to another interesting trend called "futurism" (from Latin futurum, that is, "future"). The search for new artistic forms in the works of the brothers N. and D. Burlyukov, N. S. Goncharova, N. Kulbin, M. V. Matyushin became a prerequisite for the emergence of this trend in Russia.
In 1910, a futuristic collection called "The Trap of Judges" was published, which collected the works of such outstanding poets as V.V. Kamensky, V.V. Khlebnikov, the Burliuk brothers, E. Guro. These authors formed the core of the so-called cubo-futurists. Later V. Mayakovsky joined them. In December 1912, an almanac was published - "A Slap in the Face to Public Taste". The poems of the cubo-futurists "Booze Lesiniy", "Dead Moon", "Roaring Parnassus", "Gag" became the subject of numerous disputes. At first, they were perceived as a way to irritate the reader's habits, but upon closer reading, a keen desire to show a new vision of the world and special social involvement was revealed. Anti-aesthetics turned into rejection of soulless, fake beauty, the rudeness of expressions was transformed into the voice of the crowd.
Egofuturists
In addition to cubo-futurism, several other currents emerged, including ego-futurism, headed by I. Severyanin. He was joined by such poets as V. I. Gnezdov, I. V. Ignatyev, K. Olimpov and others. They created the publishing house "Petersburg Glashatay", published magazines and almanacs with original titles: "Skysokops", "Eagles over the Abyss" , "Zasakhare Kry", etc. Their poems were distinguished by extravagance and were often composed of words they themselves created. In addition to ego-futurists, there were two more groups: "Centrifuge" (B. L. Pasternak, N. N. Aseev, S. P. Bobrov) and "Mezzanine of poetry" (R. Ivnev, S. M. Tretyakov, V. G. Sherenevich).
Instead of a conclusion
The Silver Age of Russian poetry was short-lived, but it united a galaxy of the brightest, talented poets. Many of them have tragic biographies, because by the will of fate they had to live and create in such a fateful time for the country, a turning point of revolutions and chaos of the post-revolutionary years, civil war, collapse of hopes and revival. Many poets died after tragic events (V. Khlebnikov, A. Blok), many emigrated (K. Balmont, Z. Gippius, I. Severyanin, M. Tsvetaeva), some took their own lives, were shot or perished in the Stalinist camps. But they all managed to make a huge contribution to Russian culture and enrich it with their expressive, colorful, original works.
The emergence of new trends, trends, styles in art and literature is always associated with an understanding of the place and role of man in the world, in the Universe, with a change in man's self-consciousness. One of these breaks occurred at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries. Artists of that time advocated a new vision of reality, were looking for original artistic means... The outstanding Russian philosopher N.A. Berdyaev called this short but surprisingly bright period the Silver Age. This definition primarily refers to Russian poetry of the early 20th century. The Golden Age is the age of Pushkin and Russian classics. It became the basis for revealing the talents of the Silver Age poets. In Anna Akhmatova's "Poem without a Hero" we find the lines:
And the silver month is bright
Floated over the Silver Age.
Chronologically, the Silver Age lasted one and a half to two decades, but in terms of saturation it can be safely called a century. It turned out to be possible thanks to the creative interaction of people of rare talents. The artistic picture of the Silver Age is multi-layered and contradictory. Various artistic trends, creative schools, individual non-traditional styles have arisen and intertwined. The art of the Silver Age paradoxically united the old and the new, the outgoing and the emerging, turning into a harmony of opposites, forming a culture of a special kind. In that turbulent time, there was a unique overlap of the realistic traditions of the outgoing golden age and new artistic trends. A. Blok wrote: "The sun of naive realism has gone down." It was a time of religious quest, fantasy and mysticism. The synthesis of the arts was recognized as the highest aesthetic ideal. Symbolist and futuristic poetry, music aspiring to philosophy, decorative painting, new synthetic ballet, decadent theater, and the "modern" architectural style arose. Poets M. Kuzmin and B. Pasternak composed music. Composers Scriabin, Rebikov, Stanchinsky practiced some in philosophy, some in poetry and even prose. The development of art took place at an accelerated pace, with great "intensity", giving rise to hundreds of new ideas.
Already by the end of the 19th century, the symbolist poets, who later began to be called “senior” symbolists, loudly declared themselves - Z. Gippius, D. Merezhkovsky, K. Balmont, F. Sologub, N. Minsky. Later, a group of poets “young symbols” arose - A. Bely, A. Blok, Vyach. Ivanov. A group of poets-acmeists was formed - N. Gumilyov, O. Mandelstam, S. Gorodetsky, A. Akhmatova and others. Poetic futurism appears (A. Kruchenykh, V. Khlebnikov, V. Mayakovsky). But for all the pes- grotto and variety of manifestations in the works of artists of that time, similar tendencies were observed. Common origins were at the heart of the change. The remnants of the feudal system collapsed, there was a "ferment of minds" in the pre-revolutionary era. This created completely new environment for the development of culture.
In poetry, music, painting of the Silver Age, one of the main themes was the theme of freedom of the human spirit in the face of Eternity. The artists strove to unravel the eternal mystery of the universe. Some approached this from a religious standpoint, others admired the beauty of the world created by God. Many artists perceived death as another being, as a happy deliverance from the torment of a suffering human soul. The cult of love was unusually strong, intoxication with the sensual beauty of the world, the elements of nature, the joy of life. The concept of "love" was deeply painful. Poets wrote about love for God, for Russia. In the poetry of A. Blok, Vl. Solovyov, V. Bryusov, Scythian chariots rush, pagan Rus is reflected in N. Roerich's canvases, Petrushka dances in I. Stravinsky's ballets, a Russian fairy tale is recreated (Alyonushka by V. Vasnetsov, Leshy by M. Vrubel).
At the beginning of the 20th century, Valery Bryusov became a generally recognized theorist and leader of Russian Symbolism. He was a poet, prose writer, literary critic, scientist, encyclopedic educated person... The beginning of Bryusov's creative activity was the publication of three collections "Russian Symbolists". He admired the poetry of the French Symbolists, which was reflected in the collections Masterpieces, This Is Me, The Third Guard, The City and the World.
Bryusov showed great interest in other cultures, to ancient history, to antiquity, created universal images. In his poems, the Assyrian king appears as living
Assargadon, Roman legions pass and great commander Alexander the Great showing medieval Venice, Dante and more. Bryusov was in charge of the large Symbolist magazine Libra. Although Bryusov was considered a recognized master of symbolism, the principles of writing this direction more influenced the early poems, such as "Creativity", "Young poet".
Idealistic thinking soon gave way to earthly, objectively significant topics. Bryusov was the first to see and predict the coming of the cruel industrial age. He praised human thought, new discoveries, was interested in aviation, predicted space flights. For her amazing performance, Tsvetaeva called Bryusov a "hero of labor". In the poem "Work", he formulated his life goals:
I want to discover the secrets
Life is wise and simple.
All paths are extraordinary
The path of labor is like a different path.
Bryusov remained in Russia until the end of his life, in 1920 he founded the Institute of Literature and Art. Bryusov translated the works of Dante, Petrarch, Armenian poets.
Constantin Balmont was widely known as a poet, enjoyed immense popularity for the last ten years XIX century, was the idol of youth. Balmont's work lasted more than 50 years and fully reflected the state of transition at the turn of the century, the ferment of the minds of that time, the desire to withdraw into a special, fictional world. At the beginning creative path Balmont wrote many political poems in which he created a cruel image of Tsar Nicholas II. They were secretly passed from hand to hand like leaflets.
Already in the first collection “Under the Northern Sky”, the poet's poems acquire a graceful form and musicality.
The theme of the sun runs through all the poet's work. The image of the life-giving sun for him is a symbol of life, living nature, an organic connection with which he always felt:
I came to this world to see the Sun
And a blue horizon.
I came to this world to see the Sun.
And the heights of the mountains.
I came to this world to see the Sea
And the lush color of the valleys.
I made worlds. In one gaze
I am the master ...
In the poem "Verbalism" Balmont brilliantly notes the special state of Russian nature:
There is a tired tenderness in Russian nature,
The silent pain of a hidden sadness
The hopelessness of grief, the voicelessness, the vastness,
Cold heights, far away.
The very title of the poem speaks of the absence of action, of the immersion of the human soul in a state of wise contemplation. The poet conveys various shades of sadness, which, growing, sheds tears:
And my heart forgave, but my heart froze,
And cries, and cries, and cries involuntarily.
The poets of the Silver Age were able to impart capacity and depth to the content of poems, which reflected the flow of feelings and emotions, the complex life of the soul, with bright strokes.