UNSPEAKABLE. Excerpt
What is our earthly language compared to wondrous nature?
With what careless and easy freedom
She scattered beauty everywhere
And diversity agreed with unity!
But where, what brush painted it?
Barely one of her features
With effort you will be able to catch inspiration...
But is it possible to transfer living things to the dead?
Who could recreate a creation in words?
Is the inexpressible subject to expression?..
Holy sacraments, only the heart knows you.
Is it not often at a majestic hour
Evening land of transformation -
When the troubled soul is full
By the prophecy of a great vision
And carried away into the boundless, -
A painful feeling lingers in my chest,
We want to keep the beautiful in flight,
We want to give a name to the unnamed -
And art is silent and exhausted?
What is visible to the eye is this flame of clouds,
Flying across the quiet sky,
This trembling of shining waters,
These pictures of the shores
In the fire of a magnificent sunset -
These are such striking features -
They are easily caught by the winged thought,
And there are words for their brilliant beauty.
But what is fused with this brilliant beauty -
This is so vague, disturbing us,
This one listened to by one soul
Enchanting voice
This is for a distant aspiration,
This past hello
(Like a sudden blow
From the meadow of the homeland, where there was once a flower,
Holy youth, where hope lived),
This memory whispered to the soul
About sweet joyful and sorrowful times of old,
This shrine descending from on high,
This presence of the creator in creation -
What is their language?.. The soul flies with grief,
Everything immensity is crowded into a single sigh,
And only silence speaks clearly.
1819
Task 1. Determine the artistic means of expression that the poet uses to create an image of nature (“wonderful nature”, “majestic hour”, “brilliant beauty”):
epithet
metaphor
comparison
Task 2. Identify the artistic means of expression used to create the image (“flame of the clouds”, “trembling of waters”, “In the fire of sunset”):
A) personification
B) metaphor
B) epithet
D) comparison
Answer ___________________________________
Task 3. To which literary movement does “THE UNSPEAKABLE” belong?
Answer ___________________________________
Task 4. Which of the genre-thematic varieties of lyrics does “UNPRESSABLE” belong to?
Landscape
Political
Freedom-loving
Nostalgic
SEA. Elegy
I stand enchanted over your abyss.
You are alive; you breathe; confused love,
You are filled with anxious thoughts.
Silent sea, azure sea,
Reveal to me your deep secret.
What moves your vast bosom?
What is your tense chest breathing?
Or pulls you from earthly bondage
Distant, bright sky to yourself?..
Mysterious, sweet, full of life,
You are pure in his pure presence:
You flow with its luminous azure,
You burn with evening and morning light,
You caress his golden clouds
And you joyfully sparkle with its stars.
When the dark clouds gather,
To take away the clear sky from you -
You fight, you howl, you raise waves,
You tear and torment the hostile darkness...
And the darkness disappears, and the clouds go away,
But, full of his past anxiety,
You raise frightened waves for a long time,
And the sweet shine of the returned skies
It doesn’t give you back silence at all;
Deceiving your immobility appearance:
You hide confusion in the dead abyss,
You, admiring the sky, tremble for it.
1822
Task 1. Determine the artistic means of expression that the poet uses in “The Sea” to create an image of nature (“azure sea”, “immense bosom”, “dark clouds”):
epithet
metaphor
comparison
Answer ___________________________________
Task 2. Identify the artistic means of expression used to create the image (“you breathe”, “Silent sea”, “clouds are leaving”):
A) personification
B) metaphor
B) epithet
D) comparison
Answer ___________________________________
Task 3. What literary movement does “The Sea” belong to?
Answer ___________________________________
Task 4. Which of the genre-thematic varieties of lyrics does “The Sea” belong to?
Landscape
Political
Freedom-loving
Nostalgic
Answer: _______________________________.
Task 5.
Determine the poetic meter:
Answer: _______________________________.
Task 6. Indicate the number of stops:
Answer: _______________________________.
Task 7. What philosophical question does Zhukovsky reflect on in his poems?
(write essays of at least 50 words)
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Excerpt
What is our earthly language compared to wondrous nature?
With what careless and easy freedom
She scattered beauty everywhere
And diversity agreed with unity!
But where, what brush painted it?
Barely one of her features
With effort you will be able to catch inspiration...
But is it possible to transfer living things to the dead?
Who could recreate a creation in words?
Is the inexpressible subject to expression?..
Holy sacraments, only the heart knows you.
Is it not often at a majestic hour
Evening land of transformation,
When the troubled soul is full
By the prophecy of a great vision
And carried away into the boundless, -
A painful feeling lingers in my chest,
We want to keep the beautiful in flight,
We want to give a name to the unnamed -
And art is silent and exhausted?
What is visible to the eye is this flame of clouds,
Flying across the quiet sky,
This trembling of shining waters,
These pictures of the shores
In the fire of a magnificent sunset -
These are such striking features -
They are easily caught by the winged thought,
And there are words for their brilliant beauty.
But what is fused with this brilliant beauty -
This is so vague, disturbing us,
This one listened to by one soul
Enchanting voice
This is for a distant aspiration,
This past hello
(Like a sudden blow
From the meadow of the homeland, where there was once a flower,
Holy youth, where hope lived),
This memory whispered to the soul
About sweet joyful and sorrowful times of old,
This shrine descending from on high,
This presence of the creator in creation -
What is their language?.. My soul flies,
Everything immensity is crowded into a single sigh,
And only silence speaks clearly.
Analysis of the poem “Inexpressible” by Zhukovsky
In the summer of 1819, Vasily Andreevich Zhukovsky, in his correspondence with Anna Sontag, mentioned that it was difficult for him to return to his poetry. However, it was around this time that one of his most famous creations appeared, the elegy “The Unspeakable.” The first to hear the work was Vasily Perovsky, who expressed his admiration for the poem.
Note. At this time, Vasily Zhukovsky was an educator at court and mentor of Alexander II. Due to his activities, which required skillful reasoning and explanations from the poet, Vasily Andreevich showed himself in philosophical lyrics.
There is an opinion that the history of the appearance of this elegy is intertwined with Zhukovsky’s message to the empress “A Detailed Report on the Moon.” The poet admitted that the “Report…” was written to order and without inspiration. Perhaps this became the reason for Vasily Zhukovsky’s reflection on his work, which was reflected in “The Inexpressible”.
Genre
The work is written in the genre of elegy. The author discusses the essence of the universe. In the poet's smooth and measured reasoning, sad motives are felt. The poem is written in iambic tetrameter and hexameter using all types of rhyme: parallel, circular and cross. The work presents feminine and masculine rhyming.
Subject
Gradually, in his lines, the poet moves on to thoughts about art. Zhukovsky is sure that, even with inspiration, it is difficult to convey all the charms and uniqueness of nature. It is impossible to convey everything in words, but you have a chance to know it if you learn to see with your heart.
Zhukovsky says that it is possible to describe the appearance in words, but he is unable to express the feelings that are experienced during intercourse with nature, if only because each soul perceives it in its own way.
Composition
Formally, the composition is presented as a complete text, not divided into stanzas. The work was created in the form of a lyrical monologue. The meaning of the poem is divided into 2 parts:
- the first part - the hero talks about the holiness of the world around him;
- the second part is thinking about art.
Means of expression
Trying to reveal the image of nature, Vasily Zhukovsky used the following means of expression:
- metaphors - “but is it possible to convey something alive into the dead”, “she scattered beauty everywhere”, “holy sacraments, only the heart knows you”;
- epithets - “troubled soul”, “painful feeling”, “wonderful nature”, “quiet sky”;
- comparison - “this greeting from the past (like a breath that suddenly arrived from the meadow of the homeland)”;
- paronomasia - “Is the inexpressible subject to expression?”
The elegy “The Inexpressible” is one of the most famous works of V.A. Zhukovsky. Here the poet raises one of the pressing problems in art - the impossibility of expressing one’s thoughts and feelings in known ways. Subsequently, many creators turned to this theme of “inexpressibility,” for example, A.S. Pushkin, F.I. Tyutchev, N.S. Gumilev. They all agreed with Zhukovsky that not everything can be conveyed in words - sometimes silence speaks more eloquently.
In the central period of his work, Zhukovsky thinks about issues of art, reflects on the eternal theme - the poet and poetry. At this time, he acts as an educator at court and is a mentor to Alexander II. An activity that requires the ability to skillfully reason and explain calls on the poet to turn to philosophical lyrics. So, in August 1819, he created one of his most polemical poems, “The Inexpressible.” The history of the creation of the elegy goes back to the message to the empress “A Detailed Report on the Moon,” where the author admits that “only the shadow of it [the moon] alone” was able to depict in poetry. Presumably, the “Report...” was created in June 1819 by order of Maria Feodorovna. Zhukovsky did not hide the fact that he did not feel particularly inspired while writing the commissioned poem. Perhaps it was this incident that made him think about his creative method, serving as an impetus for composing the elegy “The Inexpressible.”
Genre and size
The meter of “The Ineffable” is iambic hexameter, which is periodically replaced by iambic tetrameter in the second half of the work, which adds dynamism. In addition, iambic makes the poem more insistent, conveying the author’s extreme interest in the questions being asked. This meter helps the poet encourage the reader to think with him and help him find answers.
The genre of the poem “Unspeakable” is elegy, which means “complaint” in Greek. This is one of the most popular genres in the era of romanticism. As a rule, the author talks about his experiences, his sadness. What makes the poet sad? His creation belongs to philosophical lyrics, since here V.A. Zhukovsky raises a problem that is of great concern to him, related to the visual abilities of art.
Literary direction
Creativity V.A. Zhukovsky turns to two cultural directions: in the early period - sentimentalism, in the mature and late period - romanticism. The elegy bears the imprint of both directions. Let us consider the signs of sentimentalism in Zhukovsky’s poem “The Inexpressible.”
- Firstly, there is great attention to the sensory impression, because this is what Zhukovsky strives to express in words.
- Secondly, the features of sentimentalism are manifested in unconditional admiration for nature. The poet admits that man is not given the power to compete with her in creating something more beautiful. Only the shadow of all the splendor of the world can be reflected in a word.
The very philosophical nature of the elegy and its ideological component belong to romanticism.
The main characters and their characteristics
In the elegy “The Inexpressible,” the lyrical hero and nature are opposed to each other. The author is in confusion and despair: he is searching for the best way to convey to another what he is experiencing. The hero is filled with inspiration, his thought asks to come out, but there is no suitable form to display it, because it is inexpressible, it cannot be “given a name.” This haunts the narrator.
V.A. Zhukovsky makes a very successful attempt to describe the state of inspiration of his character. He calls this state a “painful feeling”, “Prophecy of a great vision” - all this worries the lyrical hero and makes him experience an internal conflict.
Nature is presented as majestic and unsurpassed, she “agreed diversity with unity!” and evokes only delight and admiration for its power.
Themes
- Human and nature. Nature is harmonious and beautiful. From time immemorial, man has been trying only to comprehend it, to give everything a name, according to the biblical worldview. Over the course of his entire history of several thousand years, man has found names for many things, but not for everything. Human language becomes dead in front of the real beauties of living nature, which is why the author becomes mute in a fit of inspiration.
- Art. A very dramatic view of creativity is presented in the elegy “The Unspeakable.” Zhukovsky sees art as powerless: it is “silent” before the splendor of nature. The poet presents his main instrument - the word - to the dead: “But is it possible to convey the living into the dead?” According to Zhukovsky, all, even the greatest, works of art pale before the true beauty of nature.
Meaning
Different eras had their own ideas about art. For example, antiquity strove to imitate nature, and it was precisely this method of art that it considered true. During the Renaissance, art was practically equal to reality, because then artists could already convey on their canvases all the features of space and the scale of the depicted objects. Man then was like a creator.
The era of romanticism represents a completely different attitude towards art. Authors are faced with the impossibility of conveying what they feel. This is precisely the main idea of the poem “The Unspeakable.” The word is dead and pale; it is unable to convey either the beauty of nature or fully express the feeling experienced by a person. “Is the inexpressible subject to expression?..” - this is the main question Zhukovsky asks. Is it possible to solve the problem of the inability to verbally explain something that cannot be expressed? Yes, but only by silence, because only it “speaks clearly.”
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Elegy THE SEA (1822) Silent sea, azure sea, I stand enchanted over your abyss. You are alive; you breathe; You are filled with confused love, Anxious thoughts. Silent sea, azure sea, Reveal to me your deep secret: What moves your vast bosom? What is your tense chest breathing? Or is the distant bright sky pulling you from earthly captivity to itself?.. Mysterious, sweet, full of life, You are purely in his pure presence: You flow with his luminous azure, You burn with evening and morning light, You caress his golden clouds And joyfully sparkle with his stars. When dark clouds gather to take away the clear sky from you - You fight, you howl, you raise waves, You tear and torment the hostile darkness... And the darkness disappears, and the clouds go away, But, full of your past anxiety, You heave for a long time the waves are frightened, And the sweet shine of the returned heavens does not return silence to you at all; The appearance of your immobility is deceiving: You hide confusion in the calm abyss, You, admiring the sky, tremble for it. Elegy (plaintive song) is a lyrical poem that conveys deeply personal experiences of a person, imbued with a mood of sadness and meditation (in-depth reflection). Favorite genre of romantics. The sea is the primary source of life, the image of the mother, a symbol of cessation, rebirth and the subconscious (Tresidder). Spontaneity, unpredictability, danger, strength, beauty, greatness. Favorite image of romantics. (illustrative series) Water: lakes are two-way mirrors separating the natural and supernatural worlds. What is the meaning of repeating “sea”? (melody, elegance) Find epithets that characterize the sea and give them an interpretation. Silent - silent? silent? - personification. The sacred is the cult of muteness, the vow of silence. Azure – light blue, the color of the sky. How does the hyperbole characterize the sea as bottomlessness? The Abyss is danger, mystery, mysticism, the primordial abyss of chaos. How does the fact that LG is fascinated by it characterize the sea? The sea has power over man, and its power is beyond the limits of rationality, it is supernatural power, the power of the subconscious over consciousness. What tropes does the author use in lines 2 and 3? For what purpose? Epithets, personifications. The sea is not just likened to a person, it is alive and valuable in itself, it is spiritualized because it thinks and loves. How do you understand the essence of the questions that LG asks the sea? He is interested in the mystery of the sea, what motivates him, namely the laws of nature, the laws of the universe. The answer is given in the form of a rhetorical question with an ellipsis. Why this syntax? Doubt. So what moves the sea? Craving for the sky. Why does the sea need the sky? It is filled with his life, his purity. What characteristics does the image of the sky receive? What does the sea become thanks to the sky? Epithets and metaphors of light, fire, gold. Why does the sea suffer without the sky and is afraid of losing it? It is pure only “in its pure presence.” However, elegy is a philosophical genre and cannot be taken literally. The allegorical spatial vertical earth - sea - sky takes us to the philosophical level of understanding poetry. Earth - earthly life, flesh; the sea is the soul of a person, his subconscious; heaven is spiritual, ideal life. What moves the human soul towards the ideal, spiritual world, why is it not enough for a person to live an earthly life here and now? What should we call this law? In nature this can be called the “law of reflection”, and in human life the “law of similarity” (God created in the image and likeness, but the likeness was lost, the goal of human life is to restore the likeness). In human nature there is a striving for perfection, for an ideal, not just a striving, but a love for an ideal (confused love, the end of the elegy). The striving for an ideal is the main romantic idea. THE UNSPEAKABLE (1819) (Excerpt) What is our earthly language compared to wondrous nature? With what careless and easy freedom She scattered beauty everywhere and agreed with diversity with unity! But where, what brush painted it? Barely one of her features With effort it will be possible to catch inspiration... But is it possible to convey the living into the dead? Who could recreate a creation in words? Is the inexpressible subject to expression?.. Holy sacraments, only the heart knows you. Isn’t it often in the majestic hour of the Evening land of transfiguration, When the confused soul is full of the Prophecy of a great vision And carried away into the boundless, - A painful feeling burrows in the chest, We want to hold the beautiful in flight, We want to give a name to the unnamed - And art is exhausted and silent? What is visible to the eyes - this flame of clouds, Flying across the quiet sky, This trembling of shining waters, These pictures of the shores In the fire of a magnificent sunset - These are so bright features - The winged thought easily catches them, And there are words for their brilliant beauty. But what is fused with this brilliant beauty - the Poet continues in this verse to talk about nature, the universe. What motifs and images characteristic of romanticism are found in this poem? The excerpt genre is incompleteness as a principle. There are things about which everything cannot be said. The genre confirms the title. Unspeakable. The bridge between thought, idea, image and word is not always strong or strong. “A thought expressed is a lie” Tyutchev. Language is imperfect. There is a contrast in the first line and question: language is a wondrous nature. It is nature that is inexpressible. Why? How does the poet describe nature? She is beautiful and harmonious. Beauty and harmony are individual and complex phenomena, they are difficult to describe. How do you understand the questions the poet asks? Is creativity and art capable of conveying (expressing) the beauty of nature? The main question is that the syntax is similar to the previous verse. Answer: it is impossible to know with the mind. Just feel it with your heart. Heart knowledge is a special knowledge of the world. Why is the evening described as a time for creativity? The time is borderline, close to unconscious dreams, when the heart is stronger than the mind, then prophecy is possible. Then another space opens up - “limitless”, mysterious, ideal. Name the characteristic features of a romantic landscape. This landscape can be described. What cannot be expressed? This is so vague, exciting us, This enchanting voice listened to by one soul, This to a distant aspiration, This past greeting (Like a breath that suddenly arrived From the meadow of the homeland, where there was once a flower, Holy youth, where hope lived), This memory whispered to the soul About the sweet joyful and sorrowful of antiquity, This shrine descending from on high, This presence of the creator in creation - What is their language? Distant, uncertain, immaterial, holy, divine, God. Silence is also a language.
“The Unspeakable” (Excerpt) Vasily Zhukovsky
What is our earthly language compared to wondrous nature?
With what careless and easy freedom
She scattered beauty everywhere
And diversity agreed with unity!
But where, what brush painted it?
Barely one of her features
With effort you will be able to catch inspiration...
But is it possible to transfer living things to the dead?
Who could recreate a creation in words?
Is the inexpressible subject to expression?..
Holy sacraments, only the heart knows you.
Is it not often at a majestic hour
Evening land of transformation,
When the troubled soul is full
By the prophecy of a great vision
And carried away into the boundless, -
A painful feeling lingers in my chest,
We want to keep the beautiful in flight,
We want to give a name to the unnamed -
And art is exhausted and silent?
What is visible to the eye is this flame of clouds,
Flying across the quiet sky,
This trembling of shining waters,
These pictures of the shores
In the fire of a magnificent sunset -
These are such striking features -
They are easily caught by the winged thought,
And there are words for their brilliant beauty.
But what is fused with this brilliant beauty -
This is so vague, disturbing us,
This one listened to by one soul
Enchanting voice
This is for a distant aspiration,
This past hello
(Like a sudden blow
From the meadow of the homeland, where there was once a flower,
Holy youth, where hope lived),
This memory whispered to the soul
About sweet joyful and sorrowful times of old,
This shrine descending from on high,
This presence of the creator in creation -
What is their language?.. Grief? the soul flies
All the immensities are crowded into a single sigh,
And only silence speaks clearly.
Analysis of Zhukovsky’s poem “The Inexpressible”
Vasily Zhukovsky is rightfully considered one of the founders of Russian romanticism. It was thanks to him that this primordially European literary movement, which has a special charm and simplicity, appeared in Russian literature. In the spirit of romanticism, Zhukovsky created many works, one of which is the elegy “The Inexpressible,” written in the summer of 1819.
Previously, the poet had repeatedly resorted to the genre of elegy, believing that it was most accurately suitable for expressing the most intimate thoughts. The poet in his literary works often indulged in philosophical reasoning, with the help of which he tried to get to the essence of the universe. But even this brilliant poet, who was given the opportunity to become a teacher and reader at the imperial court, honestly admitted that sometimes he was unable to find the right words to talk about what exactly he saw.
Such imperfection of the Russian language is the main leitmotif of the poem “Inexpressible,” in which the poet asks the question: “What is our earthly language compared to wondrous nature?” . The author never ceases to be amazed at “with what careless and easy freedom she scattered beauty everywhere,” but there are no words in the world to tell others about this.
Moreover, Zhukovsky is convinced that people see only a small part of the luxury and beauty that the world around them gives them. Some individual features and images that do not allow us to obtain a complete picture of the universe, still force especially poetic natures to compose poems and praise the little that they managed to see and comprehend. “Barely one of its features can be caught with inspiration,” the poet notes, regretting that nature itself has not been able to give people the opportunity to notice how beautiful and perfect it is in its purity. “Holy sacraments, only the heart knows you,” the poet notes, emphasizing that the soul of every person is wide open and ready to let in the charm of fields and forests, rivers and lakes. But this does not mean at all that the mind is ready to respond to emotional impulses and transform them into words worthy of what is seen. More often, the opposite happens, and a person who once admired “the flames of clouds flying across the quiet sky” now passes by this beautiful phenomenon without even raising his head. He has his own problems and hardships, his heart is silent, and his mind is busy solving pressing problems. Therefore, the soul is filled with sorrow and vanity, and not with the sublime feelings that the world around us gives each of us, without demanding anything in return.
Unfortunately, a person is designed in such a way that he begins to appreciate what he had only after he loses it. Zhukovsky attributes his own youth to such irrevocable losses, which was spent not in bustling St. Petersburg, but in a quiet rural estate in the Tula province, where the poet was born and raised. This is how he discovered the wonderful world of his native nature, learned to draw inspiration from it and feel the beauty that meadows and fields, green groves and snow-covered plains are so generous with. The poet was able not only to remember and preserve these sensations in his heart, but also to carry them throughout his life, catching the “breath from the meadows of his homeland” even among the bustle of the city. But even with such a sensitive and open heart, as well as a huge literary gift, the poet still admits that he is not ready to take on the mission of conveying to people everything that they experience at the sight of a lonely birch tree or warm summer rain. “Everything that is immense is crowded into a single sigh, and only silence speaks clearly,” Zhukovsky is convinced, believing that there are no words that would allow him to express his feelings.
