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Lecture
CreationK.N. BatyushkovA
K.N. Batyushkov is one of the most talented poets of the first quarter of the 19th century, in whose work romanticism began to take shape very successfully, although this process was not completed.
The first period of creativity (1802-1812) is the time of the creation of “light poetry”. Batyushkov was also its theoretician. “Light poetry” turned out to be the link that connected the middle genres of classicism with pre-romanticism. The article "It's about mild influence poetry into language" was written in 1816, but the author generalized in it the experience of creativity different poets, including your own. He separated “light poetry” from the “important genres” - epic, tragedy, solemn ode and similar genres of classicism. The poet included “small genera” of poetry in “light poetry” and called them “erotic”. He connected the need for intimate lyrics, conveying in an elegant form (“polite”, “noble” and “beautiful”) a person’s personal experiences with the social needs of the enlightened age. The theoretical premises revealed in the article on “light poetry” were significantly enriched by the poet’s artistic practice.
His " light poetry"" sociable " (the poet used this characteristic word for him). Creativity for him is inspired literary communication with loved ones. Hence the main genres for him are the message and dedication close to him; the recipients are N.I. Gnedich, V.A. Zhukovsky , P.A. Vyazemsky, A.I. Turgenev (brother of the Decembrist), I.M. Muravyov-Apostol, V.L. Uvarov, P.I. Shalikov, often poems dedicated to women with conventional names - Felisa, Malvina, Lisa, Masha. The poet loves to talk with friends and loved ones in poetry and in his fables, for which the poet also had a great penchant. The stamp of improvisations and impromptu lies on small genres - inscriptions, epigrams. , various poetic jokes of the Elegy, appearing already at the beginning. creative path poet, will become the leading genre in his future work.
Batyushkov is characterized by a high idea of friendship, a pre-romantic cult of “kinship of souls”, “spiritual sympathy”, “sensitive friendship”.
Six poetic messages of Batyushkov to Gnedich were created in the period from 1805 to 1811; they largely clarify the originality of his work at the first stage. The conventions of the genre did not at all deprive Batyushkov’s message of autobiography. The poet conveyed his moods, dreams, and philosophical conclusions in verse. Central to the messages is the lyrical “I” of the author himself. In the first messages, the lyrical “I” is by no means a disappointed person with a chilled heart. On the contrary, this is a personality performing in an atmosphere of jokes, games, carelessness and dreams. In accordance with the aesthetics of pre-romanticism, the lyrical “I” of the messages is immersed in the world of chimeras, the poet is “happy with dreams,” his dream “goldens everything in the world,” “dream is our shield.” The poet is like a “madman”, like a child, loving fairy tales. And yet his dream is not those romantic dreams full of mysterious miracles and scary riddles, sad ghosts or prophetic visions in which romantics will plunge. The dream world of the lyrical subject Batyushkov is playful. The poet's voice is not the voice of a prophet, but... a "chatterbox."
“Light poetry” created a charming image of “red” youth, “blooming like a rose,” like a May day, like “laughing fields” and “cheerful meadows.” The world of youth is subject to the "goddess of beauty", Chloe, Lilete, Lisa, Zaphne, Delia, and attractive female image constantly appears next to the lyrical “I”. As a rule, this is not an individualized image (only individual moments of individualization are outlined in the image of the actress Semenova, to whom a special poem is dedicated), but a generalized image of the “ideal of beauty”: “And golden curls, // And blue eyes...”; “And the curls are loose // Flying over the shoulders...”. The ideal maiden in Batyushkova’s artistic world is always a faithful friend, the embodiment of earthly beauty and the charms of youth. This ideal, constantly present in the poet’s imagination, is artistically embodied in the elegy “Tavrida” (1815): “Ruddy and fresh, like a field rose, // You share labor, worries and dinner with me...”.
In the poetic messages, the motif of native shelter, revealing the individual appearance of Batyushkov and a characteristic feature of Russian pre-romanticism, was artistically realized. Both in his letters and in his poems the call of the soul to his native penates or laras, to the “hospitable shadow of his father’s shelter” is repeated. And this poetic image contrasts with the romantic restlessness and vagrancy later expressed in poetry. Batyushkov loves “home chests”, his father’s house.
Art world Batyushkova is colored with bright, precious colors (“gold”, “silver”, “beaded”); all nature, and man, and his heart are in motion, in an impulse, feelings overwhelm the soul. The lyrical subject of Batyushkov’s “light poetry” 1802-1812. - A predominantly enthusiastic person, although at times his enthusiasm gives way to melancholy. The poet conveyed the emotion of delight in visible, plastically expressive images-emblems and poetic allegories. He was looking for "emblems of virtue." In “light poetry”, four emblem images are especially highlighted and repeated many times: roses, wings, bowls and canoes, which reveal the essence of his poetic worldview.
Images of flowers, especially roses, are Batyushkov’s favorite; they give his poems a festive feel; his image of a rose is leitmotivic and multifunctional. She is an exponent of the idea of beauty; fragrant, pink, young flower associated with ancient times- childhood human race: roses - Cupid - Eros - Cypris - Anacreon, singer of love and pleasures - this is the line of associations. But the image of a rose also gains semantic extension; it moves into the realm of comparisons: a beloved, generally young woman is compared with a rose as a standard of beauty.
Also, other emblem images - wings, bowls - reflected the cult of graceful pleasure, the needs of an individual aware of his right to happiness.
The conventional language of Batyushkov's poetry incorporates the names of writers, who also become signs, signals of certain ethical and aesthetic predilections: Sappho - love and poetry, Tass - greatness, Guys - the grace of love interests, and the name of Cervantes's hero Don Quixote (as in Batyushkov) - a sign of the subordination of real actions to lifeless and funny daydreaming.
Batyushkov’s “light poetry” included a fable element. Not only Gnedich, but also Krylov was a friend of the poet. Images close to Krylov’s fables and his satirical stories, especially “Kaiba,” appear in Batyushkov’s messages and in his other genres. In poetic messages, images of animals do not always create an allegorical scene. Usually they are only artistic detail, a fable-type comparison designed to express the discrepancy between what should and what is: “Whoever is used to being a wolf will never forget how to walk and bark like a wolf forever.”
The first period of Batyushkov’s creativity is the formation of pre-romanticism, when the poet retains connections with classicism (“average” genres and “average” style). His “social” pre-romanticism in his favorite genre of letters to friends was marked, first of all, by the bright dreaminess and playfulness of a young soul yearning for earthly happiness.
Second period of creativity.Participation in events in the Fatherlandnnew war of 1812. Becoming historical thinking Batyushkova.
1812-1813 and the spring of 1814 stand out as an independent period of the poet’s work, who experienced a real turning point, a complete rejection of Epicureanism youth; At this time, the formation of Batyushkov’s historical thinking took place. Batyushkov poet romanticism
Taking part in events Patriotic War, he connected his historical mission as an eyewitness, witness to outstanding achievements, with his writing. His letters of those years, especially to N.I. Gnedich, P.A. Vyazemsky, E.G. Pushkina, D.P. Severin, at the same time passed the move historical events And inner world a man of that time, a citizen, a patriot, a very receptive, sensitive personality.
In the letters of the second half of 1812 there is confusion, anxiety for family and friends, indignation against the “vandals” of the French, strengthening of patriotic and civic sentiments. Batyushkov’s sense of history is formed and developed in the code of the Patriotic War. He is increasingly aware of himself not just as a spectator of events (“everything happens before my eyes”), but as an active participant in them: “So, my dear friend, we crossed the Rhine, we are in France. This is how it happened...”; "We entered Paris<...>amazing city." I see historical meaning what is happening: “Here it’s a day, it’s an era.”
The letters and poems include the idea of the relativity of values in the light of history - and a central philosophical question, born in the vicissitudes of time: “What is eternal, pure, immaculate?” And just as in his letters he declared that historical vicissitudes “surpass any concept” and everything seems as irrational as a dream, so in poetry the reflective poet does not find an answer to questions about the meaning of history. And yet the desire to understand its laws does not leave him.
The third period of creativity.Romantic rejection of reality. Poetics of elegies.
Third period creative development Batyushkova - from mid-1814 to 1821. The poet’s pre-romantic artistic world was changing, enriched with purely romantic elements and trends. At a new stage of spiritual development, a new understanding of man, of the values of life appears, and interest in history intensifies. “Graceful Epicureanism” no longer satisfies him; he criticizes the ideas of the “Epicurean school.” For him, not just human sensitivity, but the philosophical, ethical, as well as social, civic position of a person is becoming increasingly important.
The lyrical “I” of his poems and his lyrical heroes not only dream and feel complete happiness, but are immersed in reflections about life. Batyushkov’s philosophical interests and activities were reflected in the genre of elegies, which have now become central place in his poetry. The elegies contain the poet’s lyrical reflection on human life, on historical existence.
Batyushkov’s romantic rejection of reality intensified. The poet saw a strange antinomy: “the suffering of all mankind throughout the enlightened world.”
The poet's programmatic poem, in which he proclaimed new ideological and artistic guidelines, “To Dashkov” (1813), reveals his patriotic and civic consciousness. He refuses to sing love, joy, carelessness, happiness and peace among the graves of friends “lost on the field of glory”; let talent and lyre perish, if friendship and suffering homeland are forgotten:
While with the wounded hero,
Who knows the path to glory,
I won't place my breasts three times.
In front of the enemies in close formation, -
My friend, until then I will
All are alien to muses and harites,
Wreaths, with the hand of love retinue,
And noisy joy in wine!
Batyushkov's pre-romanticism received civic content. The elegiac message "To Dashkov" was followed by original historical elegies. They reveal the first trends of romantic historicism.
In his historical elegies ("Crossing of Russian troops across the Niemen on January 1, 1813", "Crossing the Rhine", adjoined by "Shadow of a Friend", the elegy "On the ruins of a castle in Sweden" is written in the same stylistic tonality of the "northern elegies") There are elements that anticipate the historicism of the civil romanticism of the Decembrists. The poet praises the heroic military feat. Moreover, it is not only outstanding historical figures that occupy his imagination - the “elder leader” (Kutuzov) and the “young tsar” (Alexander I), but above all unknown heroes: “warriors”, “warriors”, “heroes”, “regiments” , "Slavs".
The poetics of the elegies indicate a significant evolution of Batyushkov’s style. In the elegy “The Crossing of Russian Troops across the Neman on January 1, 1813,” a spectacular picture is created, which is based on a combination of contrasts: the darkness of the night is contrasted with burning bonfires, casting a crimson glow on the sky. Other contrasts are also expressive: the desolation of the foreground of the picture (an empty shore covered with corpses is drawn) and the movement of regiments in the distance, a forest of spears, raised banners; a dying fugitive with “dead legs” and powerful, armed warriors; the young king "And the old leader in front of him, shining with gray hair // And with beauty that was abused in old age." The aesthetic ideal of the poet has changed significantly: the author admires not the beauty of Lisa, like a rose, but the courageous and “abusive” beauty of the hero-warrior - old man Kutuzov.
The best elegies associated with the Russian “Ossianic style” include “The Shadow of a Friend.” True, in Batyushkov’s work only echoes of this style are noticeable, expressed in the paintings he created of the harsh North, as well as in memories of ancient skalds, “wild” and brave warriors of Scandinavia, and Scandinavian myths (“On the ruins of a castle in Sweden”). In the elegy “Shadow of a Friend,” the poet does not so much follow literary tradition, how much it conveys a deeply personal experience: longing for a friend who died in the war. The elegiac idea of the inevitability of the loss of a dear and dear person, the transience of life ("Or was it all a dream, a dream...") was suffered through the poet himself.
"Southern Elegies" by Batyushkov - "Elegy from Tibullus. Free translation", "Tavrida", "Dying Tass", adjoining them is the ballad "Hesiod and Omir - Rivals". Antiquity for Batyushkov is, first of all, the flavor of the place, expressed in the names: “Pheakia”, “eastern shores”, “Tavrida”, “ Ancient Greece", "Tiber", "Capitol", "Rome", in the exoticism of the south: "Under the sweet sky of the midday country", "azure seas", "the coffers are full of fragrant herbs", "...priceless carpets are spread among laurels and flowers and purple"; flows peaceful life people and animals: “a white ox roamed freely through the meadows,” “milk poured into vessels in a plentiful stream // Flowing from the breasts of feeding sheep...” - “sacred places.” The external attributes of life, the picturesque appearance of antiquity are very significant for the poet, but still the historicism of his elegies is by no means reduced to exotic picturesqueness. The poet feels the movement of time. He preserves in his translations the signs of the worldview and psychology of ancient man (worship of the gods, sacrifices, fear of fate), but still those elements of antiquity that are associated with modernity are especially important for him.
The romantic principles in the elegy “Dying Tass” are strong. The epigraph in Italian from Tasso's tragedy "Torrismondo" proclaimed the unreliability of glory: after triumph, sadness, complaints, and tearful songs remain; Both friendship and love are classified as unreliable goods. Batyushkov made the famous Italian poet with the lyrical hero of the elegy tragic fate- Torquato Tasso. Tasso's passion, like Dante's, belongs to the first trends of romanticism in Russia. Batyushkov’s image combines two principles - greatness and tragedy. In the personality of the great poet, whose work passed through the centuries, like the work of Tibullus, Batyushkov discovered the embodiment of the most important and eternal, according to the poet, historical pattern: the undervaluation of genius by his contemporaries, the tragedy of his fate; his gift receives "late payment."
The historical elegy affirmed the moral idea of the need for human gratitude (“memory of the heart”) to the great martyred people who gave their genius to others. At the same time, there is a noticeable moralizing in the elegy - history, in the person of Tassa, is giving a lesson to posterity.
Batyushkov's creativity - the pinnacle of Russian pre-romanticism.
Batyushkova’s lyrics have survived their time and have not lost their charm to this day. Its aesthetic value lies in the pathos of “community”, in the poetic experience of youth and happiness, the fullness of life and the spiritual inspiration of a dream. But the poet’s historical elegies also retain poetic appeal both for their humane moral tendency and for the vivid painting of lyrical-historical pictures.
Literatio
1. Batyushkov K.N. Essays (any edition)
2. Fridman N.V. Poetry of Batyushkov. - M., 1971.
3. Grigoryan K.N. Batyushkov // K.N. Grigoryan. Pushkin's elegy: national origins, predecessors, evolution. - L., 1999.
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Batyushkov is considered the immediate predecessor of Pushkin, and it is no coincidence - combining the literary discoveries of classicism and sentimentalism, he was one of the founders of the new, “modern” Russian poetry. Batyushkov was the last Russian poet whose work is clearly divided into lyrical genres. The poems of the first period of the poet’s literary activity are imbued with Epicureanism: the man in his lyrics passionately loves earthly life; The main themes in Batyushkov's poetry are friendship and love. Having abandoned the moralism and mannerisms of sentimentalism, he finds new ways of expressing feelings and emotions in verse, extremely vivid and vital: Slender figure, entwined around A crown of yellow hops, And flaming cheeks Roses are bright crimson, And the lips in which it melts Purple grapes - Everything in the frantic seduces! Fire and poison pour into the heart! ("The Bacchante", 1815)
Solitude, friendship, love, the peaceful joys of life, poetic dream, admiration of “feelings” and “heart”, denial of “cold reason” - these are the themes that emerged in Batyushkov’s early elegiac poems. At the same time, the theme of nature appears, animated, as if participating in the poet’s joys: There are cheerful meadows, transparent streams, a sweet garden, branchy willows, oaks, maples, under your shade - coolness. Will I really not taste the coolness anymore?
("Advice to Friends", 1805)
The year 1812 evoked military themes in Batyushkov. This is where his attraction to ode comes from. He used the odic form in the Poem “Crossing the Rhine,” but the ode was no longer revived in its solemn form; These poems turn into elegiac reflections, in which the breadth of the topic remains from the ode (a historical run and pictures of the past at the beginning) and the obligatory ending.
In response to the events of the Patriotic War of 1812, Batyushkov created examples of civil poetry, the patriotic spirit of which is combined with a description of the deeply individual experiences of the author:
... while on the field of honor For the ancient city of my fathers I will not sacrifice myself for revenge Both life and love for the homeland; While with the wounded hero, Who knows the path to glory, I won't place my breasts three times In front of the enemies in close formation - My friend, until then I will All are alien to muses and harites, Wreaths, with the hand of love retinue, And noisy joy in wine! (“To Dashkov”, 1813)
Batyushkov also combines random works of a very different nature, sometimes fables that are not typical for his work, fragments of translated poems, romances, fairy tales, epigrams. The first two sections are essential. As for Batyushkov’s “epistles,” they are almost all written in the same way as his “Penates”: these are friendly messages of a humorous nature. Although similar messages provoked imitation, they did not receive further development; The messages of the poets who wrote after Batyushkov belong for the most part to other types of messages and quite soon die out altogether in poetry. A more viable genre was the elegy. If you carefully look at the composition of the elegies section in Batyushkov’s “Experiments,” you will immediately see the diversity of the works included in it. Here, each new elegy is in some way different from the previous one. It is clear that the poems included in the elegies department are already outgrowing the boundaries of a solid genre.
Batyushkov became the head of the so-called “light poetry”, dating back to the tradition of anacreontics of the 18th century, the most outstanding representatives of which were G.R. Derzhavin and V.V. Kapnist (“sample in a syllable,” as Batyushkov called it). The chanting of the joys of earthly life - friendship, love - was combined in Batyushkov’s intimate friendly messages with the affirmation of the poet’s inner freedom, his independence from the “slavery and chains” of the feudal-absolutist social system, whose stepson he acutely felt himself to be. The programmatic work of this kind was the message “My Penates” (1811-12, published 1814); according to Pushkin, it “...breathes with some kind of rapture of luxury, youth and pleasure - the syllable trembles and flows - the harmony is charming.” An example of “light poetry” is the poem “The Bacchante” (published in 1817).
In terms of poetic mastery, Batyushkov’s models were the works of ancient and Italian poets. He translated the elegies of Tibullus, poems by T. Tasso, E. Parni and others. One of Batyushkov’s most famous works, the elegy “The Dying Tass” (1817), is dedicated to the tragic fate of the poet - a topic that persistently attracted Batyushkov’s attention.
In the post-war period, Batyushkov’s poetry gravitated towards romanticism:
Do you remember how many tears I shed as a baby! Alas! since then the prey of evil fate, I learned all the sorrows, all the poverty of existence. The abysses dug by fortune They opened up beneath me, and the thunder did not stop! From one place to another, persecuted from country to country, I searched in vain for refuge on earth: Her irresistible finger is everywhere! ("Dying Tass", 1817)
The originality of Batyushkov's romanticism. Belinsky about his poetry.
Konstantin Nik. Batyushkov entered the history of literature of the 19th century as one of the founders of romanticism. His lyrics were based on “Light Poetry”, which in his mind was associated with the development of small genre forms, put forward by romanticism to the forefront of Russian poetry.
Born 1787 in Vologda. He belonged to an old but impoverished noble family.
All of Batyushkov’s work can be divided into 4 periods:
1802-08 – student
1809 – 12 – original work
1812 – 1816 – spiritual and poetic crisis
1816-23 – attempts to overcome it, access to new frontiers of creativity
So, at first, young Batyushkov’s general life and aesthetic ideas are combined with sharply expressed literary tastes. The poet is on the side of those who value “light poetry” and minor genres. Poetic reference points are French educational philosophy and ancient authors, which Batyushkov studied during his student years. In 1806, B.’s poem “Dream” was published in “Lover of Literature”. B. interprets it as a path to spiritual freedom, because the vanity of life is the lot of fools.
Love, youth, fun - these are the true values of true sages like Anacreon. The poet continues this line in the work of the second period, the period when his “little philosophy”, or the philosophy of the “Little Man”, takes shape. It contained the conviction that sensual and spiritual earthly pleasures are available to a person with a virtuous soul, that personal happiness is available to a lonely person in dreams, in solitude from environment. Enjoying the gifts of life (Epicureanism) and hedonism (the desire for good, understood as pleasure) become Batyushkov’s dreams. The awareness of the gap between dream and reality forces the poet, like all romantics, to isolate his personal inner world, making it a kind of center of the Universe. The poet himself felt that his imagination could not come true in life, so he was characterized by skepticism. The combination of aesthetically sublime pleasure and the skeptical consciousness of its fictional nature gives exceptional originality to Batyushkov’s lyrics.
“Little philosophy” and “light poetry” in Batyushkov’s mind are not only a worldview, but also a language. The poet suggests giving up the use outdated forms in favor of clear meaning. In his portrayal of the hero, like Zhukovsky, Batyushkov tends to focus on the inner world, but his hero is more defined, conveyed through visible signs - facial expressions, gestures, movement, posture.
In all the lyrics of the years 9–11, an image of sensual youth (“Bacchante”) appears, vigorously displaying passion, but passion not as a thoughtless triumph of nature, but something elegant, graceful, chaste. The enjoyment of love is transformed into the enjoyment of life and its natural joys. The result of this period can be considered the poem “My Penates”. The poet immerses the reader in home environment, involves him in an intimate conversation about what is near and dear to him. It is not for nothing that he chooses the genre of the message. In “Penates” Batyushkov combines the dream of beauty and poetry with everyday life. The dream descended to earth and found shelter in a hut. The portrait of the poet, which is drawn in “My Penates” and other poems, is not identical to the exact biography of Batyushkov himself. His lyrical hero- an unusually passionate young conqueror of hearts, an eternally careless and lazy philosopher, enjoying the company of friends while waiting for his beloved. Batyushkov himself was no different from any of the above. However, this does not take away the psychological truthfulness of his hero. The poetic portrait created by Batyushkov is infinitely charming and cheerful. However, soon everything changes. The year 1612 comes, Batyushkov sees the devastation of Moscow, the barbarity and vandalism of France, whose ideals he worshiped. There was nothing to believe in, nothing to base a dream on. In the face of historical catastrophe, the poet refuses to sing of love and joy. The world seemed chaotic to the poet; there was no unifying idea in it. And Batyushkov rushed to look for the positive foundations of his worldview. Rethinking historical realities, he comes to a new type of elegy - elegiac melancholy receives historical motivation. And tragedy becomes the poet’s distinctive worldview. The poet explains the disappointment in reality by the course of history itself, regardless of the social structure. In the elegy “On the Ruins of a Castle in Sweden,” Batyushkov thinks about the vicissitudes of existence, asks why the best die, and life turns into a “dead dream.” The author's innovation lies in the fact that disappointment receives a historical motivation, thanks to which the elegy becomes a meditation on the philosophical and historical theme of the vicissitudes of a ruthless fate. The result of sad reflections on the fate of man is “To a Friend,” addressed to Vyazemsky. Earthly life is not eternal pleasures, but eternal losses. In search of a way out, Batyushkov comes to religion and begins to think about earthly existence like being prepared for otherworldly bliss.
Interest in ancient literature, the desire for perfection of form, harmony of parts, plasticity. Based on these characteristics, Belinsky is ready to call him a classic, because Zhukovsky’s romanticism is vague and vague. He does not accept modern reality, which does not satisfy the poet’s ethical or aesthetic ideals. He affirms the personality and its inner beginning as the highest value, calls for independence and freedom from lies and pettiness of the world. Early romanticism developed into a movement that became one of the varieties of the romantic movement as a whole - elegiac or dreamy romanticism. B's poetry, like Zhukovsky's, reflected early stage social and historical turning point that began in Russia. It is characterized by great inconsistency, internal struggle progressive and regressive tendencies.
Belinsky argued that the originality of the romantic form is determined by the original idea: 1. the idea of freedom, 2. free personality, 3. man in his dignity, independent of class rank. The understanding of freedom corresponds to the nature of a romantic protest against the existing reality; they do not accept the world around them. Contrasting the “dream” world with the real one, the romantic strives to embody this world in images. Therefore, the romantic image, reflecting the elements of reality, becomes the embodiment of the elements of the romantic world created by the poet’s imagination, his dreams and ideal. The lyrics take on the character of a poetic confession, a creative diary.
In the poem “To Friends,” which is a dedication to “Experiments,” Batyushkov asks to accept a list of his poems in which one can find feelings and history.
Main role in romantic creativity takes emotional coloring words, the objective meaning of the word is weakened.
B uses romantic epithets: sweet dreams, terrible moment, dear homeland, sad experience.
The article “Something about the poet and poetry” - Batyushkov begins with a romantic definition of poetry as “a combination of imagination, sensuality, dreaming.” He views poetry as the poet’s subjective response to current phenomena. The source of poetry is man.
The second article B “Speech on the influence of light poetry on the language” - such poetry benefits the language and education. The struggle for the high perfection of poetry constitutes the civil service of the poet. Social struggle not conducive to the success of literature.
B was right in his desire to raise the value Russian light poetry - simple human feelings, earthly joys, personal freedom, independence from court bonds (“My Penates”).
He influenced Pushkin's poetry. He was his teacher in poetry, as can be seen in the Lyceum poems. Everything that was essential in his (and also Derzhavin’s and Zhukovsky’s) poetry was transformed into Pushkin’s poetry, reworked by its original element. For the first time, before Pushkin, Batyushkov gave an anthological syllable in which he showed all the possibilities of the Russian language. After this, Pushkin should not have been too big step go ahead and start writing such anthological poems. The perfection of Pushkin's anthological verse is a perfection for which he owes much to Batyushkov. Batyushkov's influence on Pushkin is especially noticeable in a verse that is so artistic and artistic: without Batyushkov as his predecessor, Pushkin would hardly have been able to develop such a verse for himself. Batyushkov contributed a lot to ensuring that Pushkin appeared as he really appeared. He handed him the almost finished verse.
K.N. Batyushkov 1787–1855
Konstantin Nikolaevich Batyushkov entered Russian history literature of the 19th century V. as one of the founders of romanticism. His lyrics were based on “light poetry,” which in his mind was associated with the development of small genre forms (elegy, message), brought to the forefront of Russian poetry by romanticism, and the improvement literary language. All these products included in volume 2 of the collection “Experiments in Poems and Prose” (1817). In 1816 he wrote “A Speech on the Influence of Light Poetry on Language.”
Batyushkov is the immediate predecessor of Pushkin. Poet of early Russian romanticism (pre-romantic). Connecting lit. discoveries of classicism and sentimentalism, he became one of the founders of the new Russian. let's modernize poetry.
B. was born into an old noble family. His mother Alexandra Grigorievna died of souls. illness when he was 8 years old. Home raised and educated by his grandfather Lev Andreevich Batyushkov. He studied in private boarding schools, spoke fluent French and Italian. and Lat.
In 1802-1807 served as an official in the Ministry of Education. In his youth, he thoroughly studied ancient poetry (Virgil, Horace), the philosophy of the French Enlightenment (Voltaire, Diderot, d'Alamabert), and the literature of the Italian Renaissance.
His cousin, writer M.N., had a huge influence on the formation of Batyushkov’s cultural interests. Muravyov, who served as Comrade Minister of Public Education. Years later, after the death of his mentor, Batyushkov, in a letter of 1814 to V.A. Zhukovsky will write: “I owe him everything”
In his uncle’s house, he meets the largest writers and cultural figures of Russia: G.R. Derzhavin, V.V. Kapnist, I.A. Krylov, A.E. Izmailov, V.A. Ozerov, N.A. Lvov, A.N. Olenin. Under their direct influence, Batyushkov’s humanistic ideas are formed, interest in creativity is awakened, literary taste is formed, and spiritual self-improvement becomes a lifelong program. He has a need to find his own independent path in literature, to have his own position, independent of the opinion of the majority. It was at this time that Batyushkov’s formation began as a personality capable of irreconcilable opposition to society.
Periodization of Batyushkov’s creativity:
- according to Korovin:
1802–1808 – student period;
1809–1812 – the beginning of original creativity;
1812–1816 – spiritual and poetic crisis;
1816–1823 (the poet almost stopped writing poetry in 1821) - attempts to overcome the crisis and reach new frontiers of creativity; tragic end of creative development.
II) Moscow. Anoshkin-Petrov school
1802-1912 – creation of “light poetry”
1812-1813, spring 1814 - abandonment of Epicureanism, becoming historical. thinking, interest in history. and personality. B. interprets it pre-romantically.
ser. 1814 – 1821 – change in the pre-romantic world, enrichment of the pre-romantic world. trends.
Creative the path began in 1805. Batyushkov takes part in meetings of the “Free Society of Lovers of Literature, Sciences and Arts”, attends the circle of A.N. Venison. At this time, his interest in ancient and Western European philosophy further strengthened. He is read by Epicurus, Lucretius, Montaigne.
Batyushkov made his debut in print with the satire “Message to My Poems” (1805), and on initial stage satire became the leading genre of the poet's work. But in some works the motifs of pre-romanticism are already appearing. He was attracted by the “light poetry” of antiquity. peace, love. lyrics of Anacreon and Sappho, Horace and Tibulus. He also became interested in the “light poetry” of the French poets Tricourt and Parni.
In 1807, Batyushkov dramatically changed his life: he enrolled in civil uprising and goes on a campaign to Prussia. In May 1807, in one of the battles, a bullet hit the spinal cord, which later became the cause of great physical suffering for the poet. But Batyushkov retired only in 1809.
After that, he led a camping lifestyle. This manifested itself in constant mental unsettlement, in acute attacks of “the blues”, “wanderlust”; he did not live in one place for more than six months.
The satire “Vision on the Shores of Lethe”, published in 1809, opened the mature stage of Batyushkov’s work. The author assessed modern authors: none of his contemporaries stood the test in Lethe (“the river of oblivion of poetry”). Batyushkov called I.A. Krylov the only poet worthy of immortality. “The Vision...” was published only in 1814, but became known immediately after it was written and was distributed in many copies.
Due to illness, the poet did not go to active army during the Patriotic War of 1812, but experienced all the “horrors of war.” " Horrible actions vandals or French in Moscow and its environs,” the poet writes, “actions, unprecedented in history itself, completely upset my little philosophy and quarreled me with humanity.” He expressed his moods and feelings in the poem “To Dashkov” (1813). What he saw forced Batyushkov to rethink his work, and he abandoned the previous themes of his works.
Impressions of battles and everyday life army life Batyushkov reflected in the poems “Prisoner”, “On the ruins of a castle in Sweden”, “Crossing the Rhine” and in the essays “Memories of places, battles and travels”, “Travel to Sirey Castle”. Readers were surprised by the accuracy of the depiction of war and the feelings of a Russian soldier.
In the period from 1810 to 1812, Batyushkov became close to N.M. Karamzin, V.A. Zhukovsky, P.A. Vyazemsky and other famous writers of that time. He becomes a representative of “light poetry”, glorifying love, friendship, joy of life, personal freedom. But the poet’s rapture of life and youth is combined with a premonition of a crisis. Contradictions were the main feature of Batyushkov's poems. (
In 1814-1817, Batyushkov is deservedly considered the first poet of Russia. But it was during this period that he experienced an ideological and psychological crisis. The poet abandons satire and rethinks the content of “light poetry.” Philosophical and religious reflections, motives of tragic love, and the artist’s eternal discord with reality appear in his poems. Hopelessness becomes the main theme of many of his poems (My genius, Separation, To a friend, Awakening, Taurida).
In 1817, Batyushkov’s collection “Experiments in Poems and Prose” was published. The first, prose volume contained translations, philosophical articles, discussions about literature, studies about writers of the past, and the first art history essay in Russian literature. In the second volume, the poems were combined according to genre criteria: “Elegies”, “Epistle”, “Mixture”.
In B.'s poetry language followed. Karamzin's reforms, the goal of which is to bring books closer together. language colloquial, “refine” the language. as a means of expressing internal peace chka, expand the vocabulary. coloring sl.
The main motive of poetry: glorification of love and life. The poetry of K.N. Batyushkov attracts with its lyrical penetration, the author’s romantic aspiration to the ideal, euphony, musicality, and the “golden strings” of the verse. Despite the tragedy of his personal fate, Batyushkov’s poems contain a lot of light and spiritual harmony.
Batyushkov’s innovation lies in the fact that the feeling of disappointment receives historical motivation, thanks to which the elegy becomes a meditation on the philosophical and historical theme of the bleak vicissitudes of a merciless fate.("On the ruins of a castle in Sweden")
The result of sad reflections on the fate of man was the poem “To a Friend,” one of the poet’s best. It is addressed to Prince P.A. Vyazemsky. In it, Batyushkov says goodbye to his youth.
That. Lyrics 1817-1821 – anthological. verse: elegy of the dying TASS, gazebo of the muses, new edition of the dream message “To Nikita” and “To Turgenev”.
Belinsky highly appreciated the significance of Batyushkov’s creativity. He noted the sign of thinness. images and plasticity, both chapters. distinguishes especially
Batyushkov's creativity is the pinnacle of Russian pre-romanticism.
Batyushkova’s lyrics have survived their time and have not lost their charm to this day. Its aesthetic value lies in the pathos of “community”, in the poetic experience of youth and happiness, the fullness of life and the spiritual inspiration of a dream. But the poet’s historical elegies also retain poetic appeal both for their humane moral tendency and for the vivid painting of lyrical-historical pictures.
Periodization according to Korovin:
- The first period of creativity (1802-1812) is the time of the creation of “light poetry”. Batyushkov was also its theoretician. “Light poetry” turned out to be the link that connected the middle genres of classicism with pre-romanticism. The article “A Speech on the Influence of Light Poetry on Language” was written in 1816, but the author summarized the experience of the work of various poets, including his own. He separated “light poetry” from the “important genres” - epic, tragedy, solemn ode and similar genres of classicism. The poet included “small genera” of poetry in “light poetry” and called them “erotic.” He connected the need for intimate lyrics, conveying in an elegant form (“politely”, “noble” and “beautifully”) a person’s personal experiences with the social needs of the enlightened age. The theoretical premises revealed in the article about “light poetry” were significantly enriched by the poet’s artistic practice.
His “light poetry” is “social” (the poet used this characteristic word for him). For him, creativity is inspired literary communication with loved ones. Hence the main genres for him are the message and dedication close to him; the recipients turn out to be N.I. Gnedich, V.A. Zhukovsky, P.A. Vyazemsky, A.I. Turgenev (brother of the Decembrist), I.M. Muravyov-Apostol, V.L. Pushkin, S.S. Uvarov, P.I. Shalikov, just friends, often poems are dedicated to women with conventional names - Felisa, Malvina, Lisa, Masha. The poet loves to talk in poetry with friends and loved ones. The dialogic principle is also significant in his fables, for which the poet also had a great penchant. The imprint of improvisations and impromptu lies on small genres - inscriptions, epigrams, various poetic jokes. Elegies, having appeared at the beginning of the poet’s career, would become the leading genre in his further work.
Batyushkov is characterized by a high idea of friendship, a pre-romantic cult of “kinship of souls”, “spiritual sympathy”, “sensitive friendship”.
Six poetic messages of Batyushkov to Gnedich were created in the period from 1805 to 1811; they largely clarify the originality of his work at the first stage. The conventions of the genre did not at all deprive Batyushkov’s message of autobiography. The poet conveyed his moods, dreams, and philosophical conclusions in verse.
- Second period of creativity. Participation in the events of the Patriotic War of 1812. The formation of Batyushkov’s historical thinking.
1812-1813 and the spring of 1814 stand out as an independent period of the poet’s work, who experienced a genuine turning point, a complete rejection of the epicureanism of his youth; At this time, the formation of Batyushkov’s historical thinking took place.
Participating in the events of the Patriotic War, he connected his historical mission as an eyewitness, witness to outstanding achievements, with his writing. His letters of those years, especially to N.I. Gnedich, P.A. Vyazemsky, E.G. Pushkina, D.P. Severin, at the same time they conveyed the course of historical events and the inner world of a man of that time, a citizen, a patriot, a very receptive, sensitive person.
In the letters of the second half of 1812 there is confusion, anxiety for family and friends, indignation against the “vandals” of the French, strengthening of patriotic and civic sentiments. Batyushkov’s sense of history is formed and developed in the code of the Patriotic War. He is increasingly aware of himself not just as a spectator of events (“everything happens before my eyes”), but as an active participant in them: “So, my dear friend, we have crossed the Rhine, we are in France. This is how it happened..."; "We entered Paris<...>amazing city." The historical significance of what is happening is clear: “Here every day is an era.”
The letters and poems include the idea of the relativity of values in the light of history - and a central philosophical question arises, borne out in the vicissitudes of time: “What is eternal, pure, immaculate?” And just as in his letters he declared that historical vicissitudes “surpass any concept” and everything seems as irrational as a dream, so in poetry the reflective poet does not find an answer to questions about the meaning of history. And yet the desire to understand its laws does not leave him. - The third period of Batyushkov’s creative development was from mid-1814 to 1821. The poet’s pre-romantic artistic world was modified, enriched with purely romantic elements and trends. The lyrical “I” of his poems and his lyrical heroes not only dream and feel complete happiness, but are immersed in reflections about life. Batyushkov's philosophical interests and activities were reflected in the genre of elegies, which now occupied a central place in his poetry. The elegies contain the poet’s lyrical reflection on human life, on historical existence. Batyushkov's pre-romanticism received civic content. The elegiac message “To Dashkov” was followed by original historical elegies. They reveal the first trends of romantic historicism. The romantic principles in the elegy “Dying Tass” are strong.
The first period of creativity. “Little Philosophy” by Batyushkov. Zhukovsky paved the way for Russian culture to romanticism. Batyushkov was one of the first to decide to take this road. He was four years younger than Zhukovsky, born in 1787 in Vologda, into a noble family. His family was connected by kinship ties with the capital's nobility: Batyushkov's uncle was the wonderful Russian politician and sentimentalist poet Mikhail Nikitich Muravyov. After graduating from a number of private boarding schools (one of them taught Italian, which had a huge impact on poetic style Batyushkova) future poet served in the Ministry of Education.
St. Petersburg at the beginning of the 19th century is not only the administrative capital huge empire, but also the center of Russian culture. All the most significant cultural events happen here; The best painters, musicians, poets are looking in St. Petersburg not only for fame, but also for a circle of friends. One of the main successes of the young Batyushkov was his close acquaintance with the poet and translator Nikolai Gnedich, which influenced the formation of his artistic ideals. And they decided quite quickly. This perfect forms ancient greek culture, melodious Italian speech, the grace of French “light poetry” late XVIII century. You are already familiar with Batyushkov’s poem “Awakening” - an example of “light poetry”.
His creative “little philosophy” was formed very early: man was born for a quiet, solitary life, for love, peace, happiness, and art. These artistic ideals and this “little philosophy” were far from romantic ideas.
But the more closed, intimate and classical the conventional poetic world in which the lyrical hero of Batyushkov’s poetry resided appeared, the more formidable and majestic he was real world, in which Batyushkov himself lived.
After all, 1805-1815 for Russia was the era of the wars with Napoleon, the main one of which was the Patriotic War. Batyushkov, as a young officer, did not remain aloof from great historical events. In 1807 he joined the St. Petersburg militia and fought in East Prussia, was wounded near Heilsberg. In 1813, after the end of the victorious Patriotic War, Batyushkov again entered the active army, fought at Teplitz, Leipzig, in France. Lived for a long time in occupied Paris; traveled: was in England, Sweden...
The wars of 1812 and 1813-1815 split Batyushkov’s work into pre-war and post-war periods. Scary reality broke the dam with which Batyushkov fenced off his small poetic world from turbulent history. Naturally, the reasons for this were very diverse: the loss of close friends, and a tragic breakup with his beloved... But for us, readers, the main thing is not life reasons, but the poetic consequences of these causes.
At the turning point: the messages “My Penates” (1811-1812) and “K D<ашко>wu" (1813). How drastic, how profound the changes have occurred in Batyushkov’s poetic world are illustrated by two poems. They are close in time of creation, belong to the same genre, but are extremely distant in meaning.
At the turn of 1811-1812, shortly before the Patriotic War, Batyushkov wrote his most significant poem early period, the period of the triumph of “little philosophy” - “My Penates. Message to F<уковскому>and B<яземскому>" However, the word “significant” does not fit well here. Batyushkov’s goal is to sing privacy, extremely far from the great problems of history. That's why he chooses the genre of a friendly message - a poetic letter to a close friend. In such a letter, intimate, conversational intonations, even sometimes “chatter,” are appropriate, but overly serious political or overly philosophical topics are inappropriate. The main thing is that the poetic message is permeated with feeling mutual trust the author and his addressee.
The message “My Penates” is written in iambic trimeter - the fast, fluent rhythm of the verse is not accidental:
Fatherly penates,
O my nurturers!
You are not rich in gold,
Ho love yours
Holes and dark cells,
Where are you for housewarming?
Humbly here and there
Placed it in the corners...
This hut is wretched
Standing in front of the window
Table shabby and tripod
With torn cloth.
In the corner, witness to glory
And the vanity of the world,
Hanging half rusty
The sword of our great-grandfathers is dull...
Skudel!., but it’s more dear to me,
Than a velvet bed
And vases of the rich!..
The rhythmic pattern of the poem not only creates the effect of conversationality and looseness. What’s more important is that the moving rhythm fully corresponds to the overall idea of the message: omnipotent time encroaches on a person’s life, rapidly carrying it away towards death. It is impossible to stop the passage of time. But you can overtake time, rush towards quiet joys and peaceful pleasures:
While he's running after us
The god of time is gray
And the meadow with flowers is destroyed
With a merciless scythe,
My friend! hurry up for happiness
Let's fly on the journey of life;
Let's get drunk with voluptuousness
And we will get ahead of death.
Everything that symbolizes this “evil” time, everything that binds a person to it - wealth, honor, service - is completely rejected in the message. Everything that symbolizes " a little happiness", everything that frees a person from attachment to fast-flowing time - love, idleness, wine, poetry - is glorified in the message. The chamber world itself, into which the poet has retired and into which he calls his beloved, his friends, “Lazy philosophers, / Enemies of court bonds,” is extremely conventional. Likewise, Zhukovsky was indifferent to where exactly and when exactly the events of his ballads took place.
And in 1813, having survived the shocks of the “thunderstorm of the twelfth year,” Batyushkov wrote a tragically majestic message “K D<ашко>woo." It is permeated with a feeling of sorrow, horror and, most importantly, a clear feeling that there is not and cannot be a place in the world where it is conceivable to hide “from bad weather”:
My friend! I saw a sea of evil
And the sky of vengeful punishment;
Enemies of frantic deeds,
War and disastrous fires...
And you, my friend, my comrade,
Tell me to sing love and joy,
Carelessness, happiness and peace
And noisy youth over the cup!..
In the last lines of the above quote, Batyushkov seems to be arguing with himself, with his pre-war views, naive ideals of “little philosophy”.
After the war. "Experiments in verse and prose." New crisis. Changes in the worldview - the anxious worldview of a romantic who yearns for the serene classics - eventually led Batyushkov to serious changes in his views. After a severe mental crisis in 1815, he turned to religion, trying to find solace in faith. Reflections about the formidable will of Providence, about the all-executing and merciful God visited the poet constantly. Having survived the horrors of war, he looked at life with despair. Something significant, something vital, broke in him. It was as if the consciousness, tuned to “little philosophy,” could not accommodate new, grandiose and sometimes catastrophic ideas about fate.
And at the same time, the external circumstances of Batyushkov’s life turned out to be as good as possible. In 1817, he was admitted to the Free Society of Lovers of Literature, Science and the Arts and gave an induction speech that immediately became famous: “A speech on the influence of light poetry on the language.” In 1817, a collection of Batyushkov’s main works was published in two parts - “Experiments in verse and prose.” This book summed up what he had done in literature, and he had every reason to hope that a new rise awaited him ahead. IN next year Batyushkov received an appointment to the diplomatic service and precisely to the country that he considered his spiritual homeland - Italy. Since 1819 he lives in Rome, then in Naples. The life-giving sun, the blissful sound of his beloved Italian speech... But a formidable story again and again invades the fate of Batyushkov, who strived only for modest silence, for poetic serenity, and life balance.
In 1820, a series of small European national liberation uprisings began: the Greeks, Italians, and Spaniards sought to throw off the burden of foreign power. And where there is a high romantic struggle for freedom, human blood, mutual hatred, and the struggle of petty passions are inevitable. Blooming Italy and happy Naples became centers of revolutionary upheavals. This made a depressing impression on Batyushkov.
As a result, the poet took an indefinite leave of absence “for treatment” and went on a journey through Europe. In Dresden, after a meeting with Zhukovsky, Batyushkov wrote a poem in which the thought that literally haunted him during these years was extremely clearly expressed: “Zhukovsky, time will swallow everything up.” He fled from this thought, tried to hide, hide, wrote “Imitations of the Ancients,” as if he wanted to find in ancient harmony an antidote to disharmonious reality. But nothing helped. Before returning home to Russia, Batyushkov destroyed everything he wrote in Italy. And this emotional act (remember it when you get acquainted with Gogol’s biography) testified to an inexorably approaching mental illness.
The poet spent 1822 traveling around the south of Russia - the Caucasus and Crimea. But attacks of mental illness overtook him more and more often, and poetic insights happened less and less. In 1821, Batyushkov created perhaps the bitterest, most terrible and most memorable of his poems.
You know what you said
Saying goodbye to life, gray-haired Melchizedek?
A man will be born a slave,
He will go to his grave as a slave,
And death will hardly tell him
Why did he walk through the valley of wonderful tears,
He suffered, cried, endured, disappeared.
Soon after this, Batyushkov’s consciousness finally fades away. In 1824 it ends intelligent life, he dies for creativity, for communication with loved ones. And a new one begins - in a haze of madness. From 1834 he settled in his native Vologda, where he died 20 years later, in 1855.
