Apollo Nikolaevich Maikov
Autumn leaves are circling in the wind,
Autumn leaves cry out in alarm:
“Everything is dying, everything is dying! You are black and naked
O our dear forest, your end has come!”
Their royal forest does not hear the alarm.
Under the dark azure of harsh skies
He was swaddled by mighty dreams,
And the strength for a new spring matures in him.
Apollo Maykov is rightfully considered one of the founders of the lyrical movement in Russian poetry. He is the author of several hundred poems that glorify the beauty of his native nature and its pristine purity. This is not surprising, because from early childhood Maikov was interested in painting. However, I soon realized that the Russian language has many more colors and shades than the palette, so words can express what you see most fully and figuratively.
A distinctive feature of Maykov’s work is that he was one of the first to widely use the technique of animating inanimate objects. An example of this is the poem “Autumn leaves are circling in the wind...”, written in 1863. The author tried to imagine how nature feels as it prepares for the coming winter, and ultimately came to the conclusion that for leaves, autumn is the saddest time of the year, causing them to panic. Turning to the forest, they repeat in every way: “You are black and naked.” And they warn with horror about the upcoming end of the world. However, if for leaves autumn really is death in its usual sense, then for the trees themselves getting rid of foliage is just another round of life that must be passed through. Therefore, “their royal forest does not hear the alarm,” which already has enough troubles before the onset of winter. He is preparing for renewal, and “strength is ripening within him for a new spring.”
Maikov deliberately does not draw a parallel between trees and people, who also “shed their leaves” from time to time, radically changing their own lives. However, such a comparison suggests itself, since the author, using the example of an ordinary forest, shows how changeable nature is in general. This applies to all living things on earth, which take their final form only after death, which is what happens with leaves. As for a person, as long as he is alive, there is an opportunity to correct and change something, improve and bring it to perfection.
Thus, Apollo Maykov seems to invite all of us to follow the example of trees, which, for the sake of revival in spring and autumn, get rid of what prevents them from developing and moving forward. Every person in life has the same limiting factors that prevent him from realizing his potential. And if you eliminate them, then you can achieve everything that any person dreams of. But first you will still have to sacrifice something, even if it can cause pain, panic and fear.
Great ones about poetry:
Poetry is like painting: some works will captivate you more if you look at them closely, and others if you move further away.
Small cutesy poems irritate the nerves more than the creaking of unoiled wheels.
The most valuable thing in life and in poetry is what has gone wrong.
Marina Tsvetaeva
Of all the arts, poetry is the most susceptible to the temptation to replace its own peculiar beauty with stolen splendors.
Humboldt V.
Poems are successful if they are created with spiritual clarity.
The writing of poetry is closer to worship than is usually believed.
If only you knew from what rubbish poems grow without shame... Like a dandelion on a fence, like burdocks and quinoa.
A. A. Akhmatova
Poetry is not only in verses: it is poured out everywhere, it is all around us. Look at these trees, at this sky - beauty and life emanate from everywhere, and where there is beauty and life, there is poetry.
I. S. Turgenev
For many people, writing poetry is a growing pain of the mind.
G. Lichtenberg
A beautiful verse is like a bow drawn through the sonorous fibers of our being. The poet makes our thoughts sing within us, not our own. By telling us about the woman he loves, he delightfully awakens in our souls our love and our sorrow. He's a magician. By understanding him, we become poets like him.
Where graceful poetry flows, there is no room for vanity.
Murasaki Shikibu
I turn to Russian versification. I think that over time we will turn to blank verse. There are too few rhymes in the Russian language. One calls the other. The flame inevitably drags the stone behind it. It is through feeling that art certainly emerges. Who is not tired of love and blood, difficult and wonderful, faithful and hypocritical, and so on.
Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin
-...Are your poems good, tell me yourself?
- Monstrous! – Ivan suddenly said boldly and frankly.
- Do not write anymore! – the newcomer asked pleadingly.
- I promise and swear! - Ivan said solemnly...
Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov. "Master and Margarita"
We all write poetry; poets differ from others only in that they write in their words.
John Fowles. "The French Lieutenant's Mistress"
Every poem is a veil stretched over the edges of a few words. These words shine like stars, and because of them the poem exists.
Alexander Alexandrovich Blok
Ancient poets, unlike modern ones, rarely wrote more than a dozen poems during their long lives. This is understandable: they were all excellent magicians and did not like to waste themselves on trifles. Therefore, behind every poetic work of those times there is certainly hidden an entire Universe, filled with miracles - often dangerous for those who carelessly awaken the dozing lines.
Max Fry. "Chatty Dead"
I gave one of my clumsy hippopotamuses this heavenly tail:...
Mayakovsky! Your poems do not warm, do not excite, do not infect!
- My poems are not a stove, not a sea, and not a plague!
Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky
Poems are our inner music, clothed in words, permeated with thin strings of meanings and dreams, and therefore, drive away the critics. They are just pathetic sippers of poetry. What can a critic say about the depths of your soul? Don't let his vulgar groping hands in there. Let poetry seem to him like an absurd moo, a chaotic pile-up of words. For us, this is a song of freedom from a boring mind, a glorious song sounding on the snow-white slopes of our amazing soul.
Boris Krieger. "A Thousand Lives"
Poems are the thrill of the heart, the excitement of the soul and tears. And tears are nothing more than pure poetry that has rejected the word.
“Autumn leaves are circling in the wind...” Apollo Maykov
Autumn leaves are circling in the wind,
Autumn leaves cry out in alarm:
“Everything is dying, everything is dying! You are black and naked
O our dear forest, your end has come!”Their royal forest does not hear the alarm.
Under the dark azure of harsh skies
He was swaddled by mighty dreams,
And the strength for a new spring matures in him.
Analysis of Maykov’s poem “Autumn leaves are circling in the wind...”
Apollo Maykov is rightfully considered one of the founders of the lyrical movement in Russian poetry. He is the author of several hundred poems that glorify the beauty of his native nature and its pristine purity. This is not surprising, because from early childhood Maikov was interested in painting. However, I soon realized that the Russian language has many more colors and shades than the palette, so words can express what you see most fully and figuratively.
A distinctive feature of Maykov’s work is that he was one of the first to widely use the technique of animating inanimate objects. An example of this is the poem “Autumn leaves are circling in the wind...”, written in 1863. The author tried to imagine what nature feels as it prepares for the coming winter, and ultimately came to the conclusion that for leaves, autumn is the saddest time of the year, causing them to panic. Turning to the forest, they repeat in every way: “You are black and naked.” And they warn with horror about the upcoming end of the world. However, if for leaves autumn really is death in its usual sense, then for the trees themselves, getting rid of foliage is just another round of life that must be passed through. Therefore, “their royal forest does not hear the alarm,” which already has enough troubles before the onset of winter. He is preparing for renewal, and “strength is ripening within him for a new spring.”
Maikov deliberately does not draw a parallel between trees and people, who also “shed their leaves” from time to time, radically changing their own lives. However, such a comparison suggests itself, since the author, using the example of an ordinary forest, shows how changeable nature is in general. This applies to all living things on earth, which take their final form only after death, which is what happens with leaves. As for a person, as long as he is alive, there is an opportunity to correct and change something, improve and bring it to perfection.
Thus, Apollo Makov seems to suggest that we all take an example from trees, which, for the sake of revival in spring and autumn, get rid of what prevents them from developing and moving forward. Every person in life has the same limiting factors that prevent him from realizing his potential. And if you eliminate them, then you can achieve everything that any person dreams of. But first you will still have to sacrifice something, even if it can cause pain, panic and fear.
