On May 26, 1828 (June 6, new style), on the day of his twenty-ninth birthday, Pushkin wrote a poem filled with such bitterness that his contemporaries would call it a “cry of despair.”
This poem “A vain gift, an accidental gift...” was a challenge. A challenge thrown into the sky. Metropolitan Philaret of Moscow responded to this challenge. And today, centuries later, what these two people wrote about, in my opinion, is very important for us.
“Life, why were you given to me?”
It has long been noticed that despondency likes to visit us precisely on our birthdays. But the feeling described by Pushkin can hardly be called ordinary despondency. Rather, despair, and let no one be confused by the restrained severity of the verse itself:
A vain gift, a random gift,
Life, why were you given to me?
Or why fate is a secret
Are you sentenced to death?
Who makes me a hostile power
From nothingness he called,
Filled my soul with passion,
Has your mind been agitated by doubt?..
There is no goal in front of me:
The heart is empty, the mind is idle,
And it makes me sad
The monotonous noise of life.
What preceded the writing of these bitter lines?
In May 1827, Pushkin finally received permission to live in St. Petersburg. But already on January 24, 1828 he admitted: “The noise and bustle of St. Petersburg are becoming completely alien to me.”
He wrote little at that time. That writes? Here next, chronologically: a poetic dedication to a certain poet and fiction writer V.S. Filimonov, here is an elegant appeal to the English artist J. Dow - the portrait of Pushkin he painted, which is mentioned in the verse, is, alas, unknown. But Anna Olenina let slip a word, carelessly saying “you” to the poet, and the next Sunday he brings her a flying eight-line poem “You and you.”
Among these elegant trinkets, the poem "Remembrance", dated May 19, 1828, is striking. It is striking that before us is a completely different Pushkin, saddened and annoyed by the search for the meaning of life.
When “the hours of languid vigil languish in silence./ In the inaction of the night, the serpents of heartfelt remorse burn alive within me,”
Dreams are boiling in the mind,
Suppressed by melancholy,
An excess of heavy thoughts crowds in,
The memory is silent
In front of me
Its long
Develops a scroll.
And reading with disgust
My life
I tremble and curse
And I complain bitterly
And I shed bitter tears,
But I don’t wash away the sad lines.
What a subtle and accurate description of feelings! However, these lines are not the whole poem. Realizing that following confessions so intimate that they resemble his personal prayer, his deeply personal repentance, Pushkin does not publish the second stanza of the verse. But it is she who sheds light on how he perceived himself in those days in relation to fate, to his life given by God:
I see in idleness
In frantic feasts,
In the madness of disastrous freedom,
In captivity, in poverty,
In persecution, in the steppes
My lost years!
I hear friends again
Treacherous hello,
At the games of Bacchus and Cypris,
And it hurts my heart again
Cold light
Irresistible grievances...
Not just a complaint, humanly understandable and therefore close to us, ordinary people. Not just an account of the grievances brought upon life - “captivity, poverty, persecution” and even exile. Here is a tough, sober assessment not of others, but of oneself. Pay attention to the line “the madness of disastrous freedom...” - how accurate the insight is. And further:
And there is no joy for me -
And quietly in front of me
Two young ghosts arise,
Two lovely shadows -
Two given by fate
An angel to me in the days of yore!
But both with wings
And with a flaming sword,
And they guard... and they both take revenge on me,
And they both tell me
Dead tongue
About the secrets of eternity and the grave...
In the grip of despair
An explanation is needed here. If you have been paying attention, you have probably noticed: any prayer of repentance contains an appeal to God. Any.
That is why the great prayer of repentance, the Fiftieth Psalm of King David, begins with the words of an appeal to God: “Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your great mercy and according to the multitude of Your compassions, cleanse my iniquity...” It is based on the awareness of a simple thing: a person without help God is unable to cope with his sins, with his despair on his own. And Pushkin of the year 28 perceives his guardian angels as guardians, moreover, as avengers. And by this, in the opinion of any deeply religious person, he cuts himself off from God - because the power of God is perceived by the poet as hostile. But a person left alone with his sin and unable (or unwilling) for some reason to cry out to the Lord (remember, as the psalmist said, “from the depths, I cry to You, Lord..."), will never break out of vicious circle self-analysis. He is doomed to despair.
And Pushkin, according to Nicholas I, " the smartest person Russia", he comes to this despair. Exactly a week after "Memories" he will evaluate his destiny this way: "a gift in vain..."
"Not in vain, not by chance"
Despair, formulated by Pushkin with such captivating beauty, the very fact of this beauty and completeness of form claimed to become the truth.
The poet's despair could become a temptation for people who have known only hasty bitterness in search of the meaning of life. And therefore, despair, honed in its beauty and perfection, ceased to be personal matter poet. Elizaveta Mikhailovna Khitrovo, nee Golenishcheva-Kutuzova, the daughter of a field marshal, who sincerely loved Pushkin, understood all this with a sensitive and ardent heart.
This was an amazing lady! Sixteen years older than Pushkin, she fell in love with him like a girl and at first wrote him love letters, which, as they say, he threw into the fire without reading. Then Elizaveta Mikhailovna was still able to make friends with the poet, introduced Goncharova into the world, and had enormous connections...
Eliza, as she was called in the world, took the poem “A Vain Gift...” as quickly as possible to Moscow, to Metropolitan Philaret (Drozdov) of Moscow. And the bishop, putting matters aside, answers Pushkin:
Not in vain, not by chance
Life was given to me from God;
Not without the secret will of God
And she was sentenced to death.
I myself am capricious in power
Evil called out from the dark abysses;
He filled his soul with passion,
The mind was agitated with doubt.
Remember me, forgotten by me!
Shine through the darkness of thoughts,
And it will be created by you
The heart is pure, the mind is bright.
Some critics of the bishop blame him for the simplicity of the verse - they say that he answered somehow unpretentiously. But read carefully - what a sense of tact towards someone who calls the power of the Creator hostile. Not an angry rebuke, but a gentle reproach.
As for simplicity, yes, it exists, but this simplicity is the top of everything. This is the simplicity of prayer. And the verse itself, please note, ends exactly like a prayer.
Humility and the Muse
Pushkin will also come to this simplicity in the most complex, at first glance, questions of existence and death - shortly before his death, he will translate the prayer of Ephraim the Syrian into verse. He will love this simplicity, he will be imbued with it.
On January 19, 1930, Alexander Sergeevich writes “Stanzas,” dedicating them to Metropolitan Filaret of Moscow (by the way, Filaret is the great-great-great-grandfather of our contemporary TV presenter Nikolai Drozdov).
Pushkin's poems to the bishop are still underestimated, although everyone notes their amazing harmony. Before us is the divine beauty of humility:
During fun times
Or idle boredom,
It used to be that I was my lyre
Entrusted pampered sounds
Madness, laziness and passions.
But even then the strings of evil
Involuntarily I interrupted the ringing,
When your voice is majestic
I was suddenly struck.
I shed streams of unexpected tears,
And the wounds of my conscience
Your fragrant speeches
The clean oil was refreshing.
And now from a spiritual height
You stretch out your hand to me,
And the strength of meek and loving
You tame your wild dreams.
Your soul is warmed by your fire
Rejected the darkness of earthly vanities,
And listens to Philaret's harp
The poet is in holy horror.
Look what Pushkin does in the last stanza! Alexander Sergeevich slightly intensifies the feeling described, it is as if he is unable to restrain his muse from pranks - not insolence, but pranks: humility does not make us slaves! - and the smile of the living Pushkin flies to us through the centuries.
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“A vain gift, an accidental gift...” Pushkin
Analysis of the work - theme, idea, genre, plot, composition, characters, issues and other issues are discussed in this article.
History of creation
Under the poem “A vain gift, an accidental gift...” is the date May 26, 1828. This is the day when Pushkin turned 29 years old. 1828 - difficult period in the life of Pushkin. In June of the same year, a commission began its work, which was supposed to make a verdict on the “Gabriiliad” (1821). Pushkin himself long ago abandoned his youthful views and sought harmony in his relationship with God. Perhaps it was the poem “The Gift...” and Metropolitan Philaret’s subsequent response to it that became a turning point in Pushkin’s worldview.
Literary direction, genre
The lyrical hero of the poem is a romantic. He despises vain and random life, doesn’t value her at all. He is filled with passions and doubts, his existence is aimless. One can only imagine what it will lead to romantic hero longing and search for vivid impressions.
And yet, this is not a poem by a romantic poet, reveling in melancholy, longing, and passions. This is a philosophical discussion about the meaning of life, closest in genre to elegy. Realism is read in the questions of the poem. If they are rhetorical, this is the lament of a romantic. And if they are not rhetorical, then these are questions of a person who has come to his senses, who has already crossed the line of youth and is entering the time of maturity. These are questions of a crisis age, allowing, having found answers to them, to continue the path of life.
Theme, main idea and composition
The poem consists of three stanzas. The first and second are questions about the meaning of life: why it was given, why it will be cut short (condemned to execution), who gave it to the lyrical hero and why it is so imperfect (with passions and doubts). The third stanza is a kind of bitter conclusion: life lyrical hero aimless. After the colon, it is explained what this means: an empty (without love) heart and an idle (inactive) mind. This state of the lyrical hero makes life monotonous and dull, dreary.
The theme of the poem is a person’s reasoning about the meaning of life.
The main idea: a person must find the purpose and meaning of life, otherwise it will be unhappy, full of despondency and disappointment.
Meter and rhyme
The poem is written in trochaic tetrameter. The first stress in each line falls on keyword, almost always monosyllabic: gift, life, who, mind, soul, goals, heart. The rhyme is cross, female rhyme alternates with male rhyme.
Paths and images
Life in the work is metaphorically called a gift, a gift. But epithets devalue this gift in the eyes of the lyrical hero: gift vain, random. This image of a useless life is further deepened with the help of epithets: takes away life secret fate gives life hostile power. Mystery and hostility are characteristics of a certain higher power, in whose hands are fate and power. The word God is not pronounced by the lyrical hero. Yes, he is not sure that this is God, because the hostile force filled his soul with passion, and agitated his mind with doubt. The third stanza describes the consequences of the vices of the lyrical hero. Spiritual passions led to emptiness of the heart, and doubts of the mind to idleness. The hero plunges into the abyss of despondency, which is caused by an empty life, metaphorically called “the monotonous noise of life.”
Answer from Metropolitan Philaret
The poem marked the beginning of Pushkin’s poetic correspondence with Metropolitan Philaret, who was not indifferent to the fate of the Russian genius.
There is not a single question in Filaret's poem. It was written by a believer who has no doubt about his purpose and destiny. Using the framework of Pushkin’s poem, the Metropolitan gave answers to all questions.
Life is not in vain and not random gift given to us by God, according to His secret will, and taken away by Him. Everything bad in a person’s life comes from himself:
I myself am capricious in power
Evil called out from the dark abysses,
I filled my soul with passion,
The mind was agitated with doubt.
The Metropolitan minimally changes the last two lines of Pushkin, changing to me on myself. Last stanza- this is not a conclusion, like Pushkin’s, this is a way out, a prayer: “Remember me, Forgotten by me.” This is a request to create in the praying “a pure heart, a right mind.” Filaret simply changes Pushkin’s epithets, quoting almost verbatim Orthodox prayer: “Create in me a clean heart, O Lord, and renew a right Spirit in my womb.”
Pushkin responded to the Metropolitan with a new poem, “In Hours of Fun or Idle Boredom,” from which it is clear that he accepted the Metropolitan’s spiritual guidance. Dejection and melancholy in his poetry were replaced by bright motives.
CandyA Pupil (232), closed 4 years ago
GALINA Higher intelligence(746930) 4 years ago
This poem was written on May 26, 1828, the poet’s birthday.
old style.
In terms of genre, it is close to philosophical elegy.
The content of the poem reflects a state of painful duality
lyrical hero in search of the highest meaning of life.
It is no coincidence that he is thinking about the meaning of life; he is oppressed by the terrible thought of
that his existence may be pointless.
A vain gift, a random gift,
Life, why were you given to me?
Or why fate is a secret
Are you sentenced to death?
St-e transfers what has developed into Christian tradition picture of
dual material-spiritual nature of human essence,
the eternal opposition of these principles in man.
Therefore, we see that, be that as it may, the hero perceives life as a gift,
The whole poem begins with this word. The first line proves
the need for change, rethinking, transformation. The hero clearly realizes the value of the gift, but does not find it true meaning; terrible doubt reigns
over it; it is unclear to him whether this gift is in vain, that is, given to him for some purpose, but to no avail; or is it an accident, nonsense, a mistake? The first line asks two seemingly mutually exclusive questions: “Why were you given to me? " and "Why was fate secretly condemned to execution? “These questions and torment confirm the excitement in the hero’s soul, his desire to find his image, to change something. He does not agree with the possibility of living, but he also does not agree with his condemnation.
A thirst for knowledge awakens in the soul God's secret, the mystery of life, the idea contained in the God-given right to live. “Life, why were you given to me? “It’s worth shifting the emphasis to the word “me.” Thus, an extreme degree of interest is presented to the reader. In the desire to achieve a sign from above, an answer, there is even some despair; when reading the first stanza aloud, one gets the impression that the questions are thrown into nowhere, into the air, but it is in the air that the hero wants to find the answer, he turns to all living things and the heavens themselves.
The second stanza is more specific, it seems to decipher the misunderstanding expressed earlier:
Who makes me a hostile power
From nothingness he called,
Filled my soul with passion,
Has your mind been agitated by doubt?
The question is rather not “Who...”. and for what? “After all, the hero knows from whom a person receives this sacred gift, but for what purpose, will he be able to find a use for it? Some strange feeling overcomes the hero, an unknown storm dominates his soul. “By hostile power” - the motif of hostility appears in the second stanza, which means that there are two worlds at war with each other. Thanks to alliteration, in the second quatrain an image of power appears - God's power, some kind of spiritual power, a voice that can burst in, excite, call out, as if something is pulling the hero upward from “insignificance.” higher to rethinking, reincarnation, and then, perhaps, to transformation.
The goal is not clear, the meaning has not been found, but the soul is filled with passion, fire is now hidden in it, the mind is agitated by doubt.
At this stage, the hero stands still, life for him is languor, it is dry and monotonous, smothers him and fetters him. "For what? " - he asks this question,
his mind is idle, but not lost, his heart is empty, but is about to be filled with a boiling wave of spiritual thought, as it was already in the “Prophet”.
The reaction to this poem was a poetic response to Pushkin by Metropolitan Philaret, containing an objection to the poet. He says that life was not given by God in vain or by chance, and it was not without his will that he was condemned to execution.
After reading the metropolitan’s message, Pushkin in 1830 wrote the poem “In hours of fun or idle boredom...”. as if leading his hero on the path of finding purpose and meaning in life.
Home > Wiki-textbook > Literature > 7th grade > Pushkin “A vain gift, an accidental gift”: reflections on purpose
Analysis of Pushkin’s poem “A Vain Gift, an Accidental Gift”
Lyrics himself famous poet Russia is quite unique despite its philosophical meaning, it almost always carries within itself exclusively personal character. Pushkin's lyrics are autobiographical, and this is its uniqueness and originality, since at the same time it personifies the image of a person of that time: his problems, his reasoning and experiences.
In his poems, Alexander Sergeevich incredibly interweaves the motives of his life and the problems of his generation. And yet the foundation of his work, as the basis of all Russian classical literature, This eternal questions being the main values in a person’s life and the meaning of his existence.
Analysis of the poem “A vain gift, an accidental gift...”
Pushkin’s poem “A vain gift, an accidental gift...” is permeated with the poet’s deep emotional experiences. He turns to fate itself, to the very basis of life with the eternal question: why was life given to man?
Why a person is born, why he finds himself in certain conditions and circumstances, why he is given exactly such a fate. It is obvious that the poet is acutely concerned about this issue; in heartbreaking words he speaks about life as a gift, but for him this gift is still vain and accidental...
In this short poem it is revealed to us mental organization Alexander Pushkin, his tireless desire for self-improvement, for the desire to know himself and finally understand. He desires to understand the wisdom of life, so he passionately inquires about the purpose of man and how he can be understood or known.
Pushkin's lyrics are characterized by a real spiritual thirst: he longs to live and love, he longs to know everything that fate has prepared for him, but still he constantly finds himself at a crossroads, both internal and external.
The theme of fate and human destiny in the poet’s lyrics
After all, it is known that Alexander Sergeevich was a unique person, and like every true poet, he saw not only with his eyes, but also with his soul, and wanted other people to be able to see what he saw. Therefore, in addition to the simple human purpose, he also talks about the special purpose of the poet.
The theme of the poem “A vain gift, an accidental gift...” Pushkin continues in his famous work“The Prophet”, where the theme of life’s purpose and fate is already more significantly revealed. And in “A Vain Gift, an Accidental Gift...” he talks philosophically about the value of life and its fateful course.
And in his lyrics one can feel desperate melancholy, and even heartache, which Pushkin cannot keep within himself; he needs to embody it in a poem. We see with what persistence the poet asks fate about the reason for his devastation and heartache.
And at the same time he longs to know why he was given this particular life, why he goes through so many trials. Much is contained in the initial lines of the poem, which are the title... A random gift, a wasted gift...
After all, if a person does not know why life was given to him, why he has such a destiny, this gift can become truly in vain, useless for the spiritual development of a person.
“A vain gift, an accidental gift...” A. Pushkin
“A vain gift, an accidental gift...” Alexander Pushkin
A vain gift, a random gift,
Life, why were you given to me?
Or why fate is a secret
Are you sentenced to death?
Who makes me a hostile power
From nothingness he called,
Filled my soul with passion
Has your mind been agitated by doubt?
There is no goal in front of me:
The heart is empty, the mind is idle,
And it makes me sad
The monotonous noise of life.
Analysis of Pushkin’s poem “A vain gift, an accidental gift...”
The poem “A vain gift, an accidental gift...” Pushkin wrote on the twenty-sixth of May 1828 - at not the best time for himself. It would seem that exile to the south and to Mikhailovskoye is a thing of the past, Decembrist uprising and those who followed him tragic events. In May 1829, Pushkin received the long-awaited permission to settle in St. Petersburg. But he quickly got bored with the capital. Her noise and bustle turned out to be alien to Alexander Sergeevich. That period cannot be called a creative upsurge. Pushkin's pen often produced only elegant trinkets. Two poems stand out: “Memories” and “A Vain Gift, an Accidental Gift...”. In the second work, a lyrical hero appears before the readers, overcome by despair. A deep feeling of disappointment in life came over him. He is trying to find the meaning of existence, to answer the eternal philosophical questions. The conclusion is disappointing, which is reflected in the final quatrain - there is no goal, the heart is empty, the mind is idle. The poem is anti-God in nature. According to the lyrical hero, it was the Lord who “called him out of insignificance” and “excited his mind with doubt.” He blames the Creator for all the troubles that have happened.
Pushkin received an answer to the thoughts expressed in the text under consideration. The author was Metropolitan Philaret of Moscow and Kolomna. He wrote the poem “Not in vain, not by chance...”. In it one of the main people in Russian Orthodox Church He said that life is given by God for a reason, that man himself evokes evil from the dark abysses, fills the “soul with passion” and excites the “mind with doubt.” The Metropolitan’s essay is an unobtrusive, non-hostile, maximally tactful appeal to Alexander Sergeevich to reconsider his philosophical and religious views, change life position. Two years later, Pushkin dedicated the poem “In hours of fun or idle boredom...” to the Metropolitan. According to the lyrical hero, Filaret is capable of “meek and loving power” to tame wild dreams. The finale is noteworthy:
Your soul is burning with your fire
Rejected the darkness of earthly vanities,
And listens to the seraph's harp
The poet is in holy horror.
Alexander Sergeevich understood what the Metropolitan wanted to say with the poem “Not in vain, not by chance...” and appreciated his point of view. The poet saw in Filaret not just a church minister, albeit a high-ranking one, but a real messenger of the Lord on earth.
“A vain gift, an accidental gift. ", analysis of Pushkin's poem
History of creation
Under the poem “A vain gift, an accidental gift. "The date is May 26, 1828. This is the day when Pushkin turned 29 years old. 1828 was a difficult period in Pushkin’s life. In June of the same year, a commission began its work, which was supposed to render a verdict on the Gabrieliad (1821). Pushkin himself long ago abandoned his youthful views and sought harmony in his relationship with God. Perhaps it was the poem “Gift. “and Metropolitan Philaret’s subsequent response to it became a turning point in Pushkin’s worldview.
Literary direction, genre
The lyrical hero of the poem is a romantic. He despises a vain and random life and does not value it at all. He is filled with passions and doubts, his existence is aimless. One can only guess what the romantic hero’s longing and search for vivid impressions will lead to.
And yet, this is not a poem by a romantic poet, reveling in melancholy, longing, and passions. This is a philosophical discussion about the meaning of life, closest in genre to elegy. Realism is read in the questions of the poem. If they are rhetorical, these are the laments of a romantic. And if they are not rhetorical, then these are questions of a person who has come to his senses, who has already crossed the line of youth and is entering the time of maturity. These are questions of a crisis age, allowing, having found answers to them, to continue the path of life.
Theme, main idea and composition
The poem consists of three stanzas. The first and second are questions about the meaning of life: why it was given, why it will be cut short (condemned to execution), who gave it to the lyrical hero and why it is so imperfect (with passions and doubts). The third stanza is a kind of bitter conclusion: the life of the lyrical hero is aimless. After the colon, it is explained what this means: an empty (without love) heart and an idle (inactive) mind. This state of the lyrical hero makes life monotonous and dull, dreary.
The theme of the poem is a person’s reasoning about the meaning of life.
The main idea: a person must find the purpose and meaning of life, otherwise it will be unhappy, full of despondency and disappointment.
Meter and rhyme
The poem is written in trochaic tetrameter. The first emphasis in each line falls on the key word, almost always monosyllabic: gift, life, who, mind, soul, goals, heart. The rhyme is cross, female rhyme alternates with male rhyme.
Paths and images
Life in the work is metaphorically called a gift, a gift. But epithets devalue this gift in the eyes of the lyrical hero: gift vain. random. This image of a useless life is further deepened with the help of epithets: takes away life secret fate gives life hostile power. Mystery and hostility are characteristics of some higher power, in whose hands fate and power are. The word God is not pronounced by the lyrical hero. Yes, he is not sure that this is God, because the hostile force filled his soul with passion, and agitated his mind with doubt. The third stanza describes the consequences of the vices of the lyrical hero. Spiritual passions led to emptiness of the heart, and doubts of the mind to idleness. The hero plunges into the abyss of despondency, which is caused by an empty life, metaphorically called “the monotonous noise of life.”
Answer from Metropolitan Philaret
The poem marked the beginning of Pushkin’s poetic correspondence with Metropolitan Philaret, who was not indifferent to the fate of the Russian genius.
There is not a single question in Filaret's poem. It was written by a believer who has no doubt about his purpose and destiny. Using the framework of Pushkin’s poem, the Metropolitan gave answers to all questions.
Life is not a vain and not an accidental gift, given to us by God, according to His secret will, and taken away by Him. Everything bad in a person’s life comes from himself:
I myself am capricious in power
Evil called out from the dark abysses,
I filled my soul with passion,
The mind was agitated with doubt.
The Metropolitan minimally changes the last two lines of Pushkin, changing to me on myself. The last stanza is not a conclusion, like Pushkin’s, it is a way out, a prayer: “Remember me, Forgotten by me.” This is a request to create in the praying “a pure heart, a right mind.” Filaret simply changes Pushkin’s epithets, quoting almost verbatim the Orthodox prayer: “Create in me a pure heart, O Lord, and renew a right Spirit in my womb.”
Pushkin responded to the Metropolitan with a new poem, “In Hours of Fun or Idle Boredom,” from which it is clear that he accepted the Metropolitan’s spiritual guidance. Dejection and melancholy in his poetry were replaced by bright motives.
About Pushkin's poem A vain gift, an accidental gift
"A vain gift, an accidental gift,
Life, why were you given to me?
Or why fate is a secret
Are you sentenced to death?
Who makes me a hostile power
From nothingness he called,
Filled my soul with passion,
The mind was agitated with doubt.
There is no goal in front of me:
The heart is empty, the mind is idle,
And it makes me sad
The monotonous noise of life."
You read this poem by Pushkin and involuntarily begin to empathize with him, so strongly did he reflect his own state of mind. What caused this depressive state poet, and why did he decide that his life was “condemned to execution”?
Pushkin wrote this poem on May 26, 1828, on his birthday. What could have happened to Pushkin at that time that forced him to write these poems, permeated with melancholy and despondency?
Looking through the poet’s life, one can come to the conclusion that the reason for this state of the poet was his blasphemous poem “Gabrieliad”. The poem was written in 1821 in Chisinau and, of course, was intended only for a narrow circle of friends and in no case for distribution. But, as they say, there is nothing secret that would not become apparent.
Copies of the poem multiplied and by 1825 had become widely known. In 1828, the poem reached the highest hierarch of the Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Seraphim of St. Petersburg. He introduced the poem to the king, the latter ordered to find out the author of the poem. A special commission was appointed to investigate this case, chaired by Count P.A. Tolstoy.
The poet was summoned for questioning. Pushkin was seriously frightened and decided to deny his authorship. IN explanatory note he wrote: “I saw the Gabrieliad for the first time at the Lyceum in the 15th or 16th year and rewrote it; I don’t remember where I took her, but I haven’t seen her since.”
The Tsar ordered to interrogate the poet again, but this time Pushkin continued to deny his authorship: “The manuscript circulated among the officers of the Hussar Regiment,” he wrote in his own defense, “but I can’t remember from which of them exactly I got it.” I probably burned my list in 1920. I dare to add that in none of my writings, even those of which I most repent, are there any traces of a spirit of unbelief or blasphemy against religion. All the more regrettable for me is the opinion that ascribes to me a work so pitiful and shameful.”
Pushkin denied it as best he could. He knew that insulting the church was punishable by best case scenario, link in remote places Siberia and had a presentiment of this. This state of his at that time was reflected in another of his poems, “Premonition”:
"The clouds are over me again
They gathered in silence;
Rock envious of misfortune
Threatens me again.
Will I retain contempt for fate?
Shall I carry her towards her?
Inflexibility and patience
Of my proud youth?
Tired of a stormy life,
I wait indifferently for the storm:
Maybe still saved
I will find a pier again.
But, anticipating separation,
The inevitable, menacing hour,
Squeeze your hand, my angel
I'm in a hurry for the last time."
In his heart, he may have hoped that it would carry through, but it didn’t. The Tsar demanded that the commission continue the search for the author of the Gabrieliad. He wrote:
“G. Tolstoy to call Pushkin to himself and tell him in my name that, knowing Pushkin personally, I believe his word. But I wish that he would help the government discover who could have composed such an abomination and offended Pushkin by releasing it under his name.”
The king was cunning! He knew that Pushkin could lie to the commission, but he wouldn’t dare lie to the emperor. And so it happened. Pushkin made a decision: to write a personal letter to the Tsar and acknowledge in it his authorship of the Gabrieliad. Come what may. The protocol of Pushkin’s third interrogation said: “. after contented silence and reflection, he asked (Pushkin - NIK): whether he would be allowed to write directly to the Emperor, and, having received a satisfactory answer to this, he immediately wrote a letter to His Majesty, and, having sealed it, handed it to Count Tolstoy. The commission decided, without opening this letter, to present it to His Majesty.” Here is the text of Pushkin’s letter to the Tsar:
“Being questioned by the Government, I did not consider myself obliged to admit to a prank that was as shameful as it was criminal. - But now, asked directly on behalf of my Sovereign, I declare that Gavriliada was composed by me in 1817. Submitting myself to the mercy and generosity of the Tsar, I am Your Imperial Majesty, loyal subject Alexander Pushkin. October 2, 1828. St. Petersburg."
Why did Pushkin write to the Tsar that he composed “Gavriliad” in 1817, and not in 1821, as it actually was? Most likely, he expected that he would get a discount on his youth. Still, there is less demand for a seventeen-year-old youth than for an already mature twenty-two-year-old man.
The outstanding philologist and Pushkin scholar B. Tomashevsky denies that this letter belongs to Pushkin, but most likely, Pushkin actually recognized the authorship, because the investigation was immediately terminated by the resolution of Nicholas I: “I know the matter in detail and it is completely over.”
Apparently, Tsar Nicholas 1 appreciated Pushkin’s sincere confession, forgave him and ordered the “Gabriiliad” case to be stopped. Pushkin's fame was already thundering throughout Russia, and therefore the tsar did not dare to exile Pushkin to Siberia. But the poet was under supervision until the end of his life.
Pushkin's friend Vyazemsky said that in later years In his life, Pushkin did not even tolerate the mention of Gavriliad in his presence, it was so unpleasant for him. “I would like to destroy many things,” he wrote, “as unworthy even of my talent, whatever it may be. Others gravitate like a reproach on my conscience.”
This, most likely, was the reason for Pushkin’s decadent mood, which was expressed in the poem “A Vain Gift, an Accidental Gift.”
Later this poem fell into the hands of Metropolitan Philaret of Moscow. Filaret was very smart, educated, well versed in poetry and literature, and wrote poetry himself. As proof, I will cite one of his poems:
"When there is no strength to bear the cross,
When the melancholy cannot be overcome,
We raise our eyes to heaven,
Saying prayer day and night,
So that the Lord may have mercy.
But if after grief
Happiness will smile on us again,
Do we thank you with tenderness,
With all my heart, with all my thoughts
We God's grace and love!"
Filaret, having read Pushkin’s verse, responded to it with his own. He writes, as if for Pushkin:
"Not in vain, not by chance
Life was given to me by God,
Not without the secret will of God
And she was sentenced to death.
I myself am capricious in power
Evil has called out from the dark abysses,
He filled his soul with passion,
The mind was agitated with doubt.
Remember me, Forgotten by me!
Shine through the darkness of thoughts -
And it will be created by You
A pure heart, a bright mind."
Pushkin was not left indifferent by this unexpectedly addressed voice of the famous and respected saint. He writes a message to the Metropolitan, in which there is a genuine feeling of gratitude and tenderness:
"In hours of fun or idle boredom,
It used to be that I was my lyre
Entrusted pampered sounds
Madness, laziness and passions.
But even then the strings of evil
Involuntarily I interrupted the ringing,
When your voice is majestic
I was suddenly struck.
I shed streams of unexpected tears,
And the wounds of my conscience
Your fragrant speeches
The clean oil was refreshing.
And now from a spiritual height
You stretch out your hand to me,
And the strength of meek and loving
You tame your wild dreams.
Your soul is burning with your fire
Rejected the darkness of earthly vanities,
And listens to Seraphim's harp
The poet is in holy horror."
The original text of the last stanza, changed at the request of the censor, was as follows:
Your soul is warmed by your fire
Rejected the darkness of earthly vanities,
And listens to Philaret's harp
The poet is in holy horror.
This is the story of Pushkin’s poem “A Gift in Vain. »
“Following the thoughts of a great man is the most entertaining science,” said Pushkin.
Following the thoughts of the great Pushkin is not only entertaining, but also useful. “By reading only Pushkin’s works,” Belinsky said, “you can perfectly educate a person within yourself.”
A.S. Pushkin, "Ruslan and Lyudmila"
Yura, what happened to you?
He decided to examine me, he remembered the sorcerer Chernomor, you’re rolling a cart against Andropov. Did you have a fight with your wife?)
It’s clear that the words were written about Chernomor, but who is this Chernomor, what or who does he represent on the planet?
Your Chernomor was impotent. He really wanted Lyudmila. but I couldn't. He had everything, he could do everything, but he couldn’t do this.
Wow, look at the root. So in global politics. The world rulers from behind the scenes want to rule the entire planet autocratically, but they have begun to lack brainpower. So, Russia has a chance to make the process of governing peoples fair and to do everything according to conscience, that is, without violating the Providence of God.
But I want to continue the unfinished conversation about Pushkin and his poem “Ruslan and Lyudmila”.
The forty-seventh issue of “Arguments and Facts” for 1991 (circulation of about 25 million copies) came out with a “sensational” statement on the first page:
“Pushkin - Russian prophet”
IN a short note under the heading “Only for AiF readers” it is reported:
“A world sensation awaits us. The Taganrog newspaper “Mig” began publishing “philosophical tables” - mathematical models development of humanity, according to local experts, Peruvian the great Pushkin. The publication of the material was prepared on the basis of the archive, which Pushkin handed over for storage to his friend, the ataman of the Don Army D. Kuteynikov, in 1829, bequeathing to open them on January 27, 1979. By various reasons this has not been done to date.
According to the custodian of the archive, a descendant of the Kuteynikov family, I. Rybkin, Pushkin’s model of the Cosmos is not only not inferior to the Buddhist, Arab and Christian, but even surpasses them.
Pushkin duplicated his entire archive - “The Golden Chain”, “encoding” it in works of art meaning scientific works. So, after transferring the archive to Kuteynikov, he wrote a miraculous prologue to the poem “Ruslan and Lyudmila,” which in essence is the testament of the great poet. Every word here is allegorical.”
We are not familiar with the Taganrog archive, although we have no doubt that through Pushkin’s symbolism, the peoples of Russia, in particular, and Humanity as a whole come into contact with new knowledge that can change the entire society. The depressurization of this Knowledge is already underway in accordance with the “law of time” and much of what the poet predicted is coming true.
Second century interest in creative heritage A.S. Pushkin does not weaken and every reader, encountering one or another work of the poet, tries to understand the reason for their special attractiveness. In other words, everyone is looking for them hidden meaning. Why? Yes, because often it is not obvious at the level of the so-called plot; it is closed by a certain system of symbols, either developed by Pushkin himself, or given to him from Above. It was this circumstance that caused open irritation among many of the poet’s contemporaries and even aroused open hostility towards him. Over time, it grew in Russia and abroad a whole army professional “Pushkinists” who tried to hide this side of our poet’s work.
To understand the peculiarities of Pushkin's symbolism, we will have to return to Ancient Greece, in the 6th century BC. e. and at the same time answer the question: why did Aesop, the Phrygian slave, use characters from the animal world in his allegorical and moral stories? Most likely we are dealing here with a very ancient tradition, the origins of which should perhaps be sought in “totemism” or, as they now say, in “stable stereotypes of perception of the surrounding reality.”
“Traditional fable symbolism helps the reader understand, or rather recognize, the “characters” of animal characters. V. Trediakovsky also noted that the fabulist depicts “a sensitive semblance of quietness and simplicity in the Lamb; loyalty and friendship in the Dog; on the contrary, impudence, theft, cruelty in the Wolf, Leo, and Tiger. This is a dumb language that all nations understand."
If we consider the fable as one of the most ancient literary genres, then the question involuntarily arises: why none of the professional “Pushkin scholars” paid attention to one strange circumstance: trying your talent in everyone literary genres(story, tale, novel, poem, play, epigram), Pushkin did not write a single fable? Or he wrote it, but somehow differently, i.e. so that A.S. Pushkin’s “fables” were not recognized as fables?
To answer this question correctly, you should always remember that Pushkin never copied anyone; he was an innovator, but not so much of the literary genres themselves as of their content. The novelty of the content, in contrast to the novelty of the form, is not so striking; to appreciate it requires the ability to see " general progress of things". It is almost elusive, but everyone perceives it in their own way thanks to the system of symbols formed by the author in the creative process.
Art in general is symbolic. But some artists, through their system of symbols (perhaps without even realizing it), “raise a person from his knees,” others lower him, sometimes even onto all fours. To understand what we are talking about, you need to take a short excursion into the area human psyche, especially in those areas that are considered to be “self-evident”, or, in other words, which are not usually discussed in the circles of professional psychologists.
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Listen to Pushkin's poem A vain gift, an accidental gift
Topics of adjacent essays
Picture for the essay analysis of the poem A gift in vain A random gift
Under the poem “A vain gift, an accidental gift...” is the date May 26, 1828. This is the day when Pushkin turned 29 years old. 1828 was a difficult period in Pushkin’s life. In June of the same year, a commission began its work, which was supposed to make a verdict on the “Gabriiliad” (1821). Pushkin himself long ago abandoned his youthful views and sought harmony in his relationship with God. Perhaps it was the poem “The Gift...” and Metropolitan Philaret’s subsequent response to it that became a turning point in Pushkin’s worldview.
Literary direction, genre
The lyrical hero of the poem is a romantic. He despises a vain and random life and does not value it at all. He is filled with passions and doubts, his existence is aimless. One can only guess what the romantic hero’s longing and search for vivid impressions will lead to.
And yet, this is not a poem by a romantic poet, reveling in melancholy, longing, and passions. This is a philosophical discussion about the meaning of life, closest in genre to elegy. Realism is read in the questions of the poem. If they are rhetorical, these are the laments of a romantic. And if they are not rhetorical, then these are questions of a person who has come to his senses, who has already crossed the line of youth and is entering the time of maturity. These are questions of a crisis age, allowing, having found answers to them, to continue the path of life.
Theme, main idea and composition
The poem consists of three stanzas. The first and second are questions about the meaning of life: why it was given, why it will be cut short (condemned to execution), who gave it to the lyrical hero and why it is so imperfect (with passions and doubts). The third stanza is a kind of bitter conclusion: the life of the lyrical hero is aimless. After the colon, it is explained what this means: an empty (without love) heart and an idle (inactive) mind. This state of the lyrical hero makes life monotonous and dull, dreary.
The theme of the poem is a person’s reasoning about the meaning of life.
The main idea: a person must find the purpose and meaning of life, otherwise it will be unhappy, full of despondency and disappointment.
Meter and rhyme
The poem is written in trochaic tetrameter. The first emphasis in each line falls on the key word, almost always monosyllabic: gift, life, who, mind, soul, goals, heart. The rhyme is cross, female rhyme alternates with male rhyme.
Paths and images
Life in the work is metaphorically called a gift, a gift. But epithets devalue this gift in the eyes of the lyrical hero: gift vain, random. This image of a useless life is further deepened with the help of epithets: takes away life secret fate gives life hostile power. Mystery and hostility are characteristics of some higher power, in whose hands fate and power are. The word God is not pronounced by the lyrical hero. Yes, he is not sure that this is God, because the hostile force filled his soul with passion, and agitated his mind with doubt. The third stanza describes the consequences of the vices of the lyrical hero. Spiritual passions led to emptiness of the heart, and doubts of the mind to idleness. The hero plunges into the abyss of despondency, which is caused by an empty life, metaphorically called “the monotonous noise of life.”
Answer from Metropolitan Philaret
The poem marked the beginning of Pushkin’s poetic correspondence with Metropolitan Philaret, who was not indifferent to the fate of the Russian genius.
There is not a single question in Filaret's poem. It was written by a believer who has no doubt about his purpose and destiny. Using the framework of Pushkin’s poem, the Metropolitan gave answers to all questions.
Life is not a vain and not an accidental gift, given to us by God, according to His secret will, and taken away by Him. Everything bad in a person’s life comes from himself:
I myself am capricious in power
Evil called out from the dark abysses,
I filled my soul with passion,
The mind was agitated with doubt.
The Metropolitan minimally changes the last two lines of Pushkin, changing to me on myself. The last stanza is not a conclusion, like Pushkin’s, it is a way out, a prayer: “Remember me, Forgotten by me.” This is a request to create in the praying “a pure heart, a right mind.” Filaret simply changes Pushkin’s epithets, quoting almost verbatim the Orthodox prayer: “Create in me a pure heart, O Lord, and renew a right Spirit in my womb.”
Pushkin responded to the Metropolitan with a new poem, “In Hours of Fun or Idle Boredom,” from which it is clear that he accepted the Metropolitan’s spiritual guidance. Dejection and melancholy in his poetry were replaced by bright motives.
- “The Captain’s Daughter”, a summary of the chapters of Pushkin’s story
- “The luminary of the day has gone out,” analysis of Pushkin’s poem
- “I remember a wonderful moment...”, analysis of Pushkin’s poem
