Extremely interesting techniques portrait characteristics in "Song". For early works Lermontov is characterized by a “costume” portrait. We find elements of such a portrait in “Song”. But here the task of creating color is subordinated to the task of creating an image.

Nevertheless, in the poem we have one “costume” portrait. This is Kiribeevich's description. He talks about himself, enthusiastically describing the details of his rich costume (silk sash, velvet hat trimmed with black sable). The attributes of this “costume”, with a purely decorative function, are both a steppe argamak and a sharp saber that burns like glass. But the fundamental novelty of this portrait is that this description is put into the mouth of the hero himself and makes it possible to show certain traits of his character (except for daring and youth - narcissism, boastfulness). In the battle scene, the author’s mention of the “scarlet hat” and the velvet fur coat, which Kiribeevich throws off his shoulders, serves the same purpose. The details of the costume, which Alena Dmitrevna mentions in her complaint, “lost their decorative function, they acquired dynamism, becoming an object of struggle.”

In Kiribeevich's speech we find a detailed description of the beautiful Alena Dmitrevna. The portrait seems to be playing again double role: given through the prism of perception of a young man in love, it simultaneously serves to characterize him, showing the strength of his passion. Therefore, there are unusually many metaphors and comparisons here. All epithets are color ones:

Walks smoothly - like a swan,

Looks sweet - like a darling,

Says a word - the nightingale sings,

Her rosy cheeks are burning

Like the dawn in God's sky;

Brown, golden braids,

Braided in bright ribbons,

They run along the shoulders, wriggle,

They kiss white breasts.

This description contrasts with the portrait of Alena Dmitrevna, who returned home:

... pale, bare-haired,

Unbraided brown braids

Covered with snow and frost;

They look cloudy, like crazy;

The lips whisper incomprehensible words.

Especially great importance acquire in Lermontov's poem the pose and gesture of the hero (see above).

Another characteristic is also characteristic. Portraits of Lermontov's heroes are complemented and enriched throughout the poem. Here and there we find a small touch - some epithet, comparison, attribute, even the nature of the movement (Kalashnikov’s slowness before the battle and Kiribeevich’s impetuous movements: he runs, catching up with Alena Dmitrevna, tightly grabs her hands, etc.) . The portrait of Ivan Vasilyevich is drawn with the words: “sharp eyes”, “black eyebrows”, usually frowning; angry, he looks at Kiribeevich “as if a hawk looked from the heights of heaven at a young blue-winged dove”; his attribute is a rod with a sharp tip, with which he pierces the floor “half a quarter”. Kiribeevich has “dark eyes”, “curly head”. In the fight scene we find a comparison:

He fell onto the cold snow,

On the cold snow, like a pine tree,

Like a pine tree in a damp forest

Under the resinous root, chopped;

this comparison depicts to us the harmony and grace of Kiribeevich and arouses our sympathy for him: this young man, with all his negative qualities ah, a deeply feeling, passionate, courageous nature, not to mention external attractiveness. In the portrait of Kalashnikov, “falcon eyes”, “mighty shoulders”, “curly beard”, which he strokes, are noted. One must think that the “copper cross with holy relics from Kyiv” is not accidental in this zealot of antiquity and nepotism.

In his work, Lermontov masterfully uses the wealth of artistic means and techniques that folk poetry has developed. We have seen that the composition of the “Songs” has much in common with the epic. However, Lermontov in many ways follows both lyrical and historical songs, the poetics and style of which are radically different from the poetics and style of the epic. "One of the main techniques artistic expression folk lyrics (including all types of it, including wedding and funeral lamentations), writes prof. V. Ya. Propp, “consists in metaphoricity____The language of the epic is almost completely devoid of metaphoricality.” V. Ya. Propp considers metaphor as one of the types of allegory, as a replacement for one visual image others for the purpose of poeticizing it. A comparison comes close to a metaphor, where “the original image is preserved, but becomes closer to another by similarity.”

We have already talked about comparing the oprichnik with a pine tree in the scene of his death. This comparison is here combined with the technique of retardation and with the magnificently expressive epithet “cold snow”. Retardation is used here surprisingly skillfully: the image of a pine tree is repeated (which then develops: “in a damp forest under a resinous root, chopped down”) and the same epithet - “cold snow.” The role of the epithet here is extremely interesting.

Kiribeevich does not feel the cold: he is dead. The narrator (author - guslars) mentions “cold snow”. We can say a priori that snow is cold; it is his constant quality. It is, however, mentioned, and stands out for its retardation. This is how the epithet gets emotional burden And symbolic meaning: coldness, aloofness, even hidden hostility of the surrounding world, nature towards the fellow, just full of strength, and now lying on the cold snow, not feeling this cold.

We find typical folk comparisons in the description of Alena Dmitrevna in Kiribeevich’s speeches (see above).

In the “Song” we also find negative comparisons characteristic of the epic:

The red sun does not shine in the sky,

The blue clouds do not admire him:

Then he sits at a meal wearing a golden crown,

The formidable Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich is sitting.

There is also a metaphor here: “the blue clouds do not admire him.” Other metaphors: “The stars rejoice that it is brighter for them to walk in the sky”; “The blizzard is driving them away singing,” etc. We also find an expanded metaphor:

...The scarlet dawn rises;

She scattered her golden curls,

Washed with powdery snow;

Like a beauty looking in the mirror,

He looks into the clear sky and smiles.

A significant number of metaphors relate to nature. Lermontov’s nature seems to be humanized. This is anthropomorphism in the depiction of nature, characteristic of folk poetry, noted Prof. M. P. Shtokmar.

Lermontov masterfully uses the epithet. Some of Lermontov's epithets are constant epithets of folk poetry (damp earth, red girls, golden treasury); the majority are “epithets close in combination to folk songs, similar in content": "red beauty" (red maiden - in folk poetry); “white stone Kremlin wall” (white stone chamber), etc. As in the epic, the epithet here is one of the main means of creating a visual image. Therefore (as in the epic) epithets that determine the color or material of the object are of great importance: silk veil, yacht ring, pearl necklace, light brown, golden braids, resinous root (pine), black eyebrows, etc. Along with this, we find and the emotional epithets “miserable ashes” and “orphan bones” that are not typical for the epic. We find these epithets in Kiribeevich’s speech. They fulfill their function by making the oprichnik’s speech individual and perfectly in harmony with the properties of his nature (see above about metaphors and comparisons in Kiribeevich’s speeches). In the same time emotional coloring author's epithets are also often given (see above about the epithet “cold snow”); Among them we also find metaphorical ones (“obedient clouds”, “the mournful hums - the bell howls”, etc.).

I would like to draw attention to the place in the “Song” where it is described how Kalashnikov closes the shop. For this purpose, he uses a “German lock with a spring.” Such a castle is news for the guslar storyteller. Definitions appear: not a simple lock, but a “German” (that is, foreign, outlandish), with a spring. This detailed description indicates the wealth of a merchant who has such curiosities, and at the same time reminds of the guslar storytellers. For us, this detail also has another meaning: it shows us how organically Lermontov could perceive the point of view of the narrator, literally reincarnate into him.

Very often Lermontov's epithets appear in combination with each other. Already in the beginning of the “Song” we find a mention of “sweet wine from overseas.” We find a similar phenomenon in folk poetry. “Often constant epithets are combined with more mobile ones, and this proximity makes constant epithets semantically full-fledged.” In fact, “Overseas wine” is now stable combination, simply pointing to high quality guilt. A more “mobile” epithet attached to this combination seems to break this last one. The permanent epithet now acts as usual definition, equal in rights with the new, acquiring its original meaning. “Sweet wine, overseas” is already a sweet wine brought from overseas.

An amazingly beautiful combination of color epithets. The “Songs” palette knows only “clear, definite tones: white, black, blue, red, scarlet, completely in the spirit of folk poetry, which does not like halftones and half-shades.” The red color of the sun is combined with the blue color of the clouds; dawn scarlet over Moscow golden-headed, above the Kremlin wall white stone rises from behind blue mountains, accelerates gray clouds. Color epithets can be combined with those denoting material: oak table covered with a white tablecloth; the epithet “white stone” (wall) immediately means both material and color (such epithets are also used in folk poetry). Two epithets are often combined to denote the material: “... half a quarter of the oak floor / He pierced the iron end” (2: 31); "how will I lock you up iron castle, / Behind the oak door bound..." (2:36).

This combination, creating the sensation of the material, in the first case makes us hear the sound of a blow and see how a sharp iron pierces the wood; in the second case, it gives a clear idea of ​​the impenetrability and inaccessibility of the doors of the closet where Kalashnikov is going to put his wife.

These vivid visual pictures in Lermontov are sometimes preceded by an image of the phenomenon from its sound side:

Now he hears a door slammed in the hallway,

Then he hears hurried steps;

He turned around and looked - the power of the godfather! -

A young wife stands in front of him,

She herself is pale, bare-haired...

...and I heard the snow crunching,

I looked back and the man was running.

As in folk poetry, in Lermontov’s “Song” the desire for parallelism is clearly felt. The latter is emphasized by the anaphoric repetition of conjunctions and verbs:

I'm not afraid of fierce death,

I'm not afraid of people's rumors,

And I am afraid of your disfavor;

An old man will pass by and cross himself,

The good fellow will pass - he will become poised,

If a girl passes by, she will become sad,

And the guslar players will pass by and sing a song.

"The law of symmetry is one of the laws folk art... We can talk about the symmetry of speech as one of the artistic techniques of folk verse.” This artistic technique in Lermontov often aims to emphasize, highlight some thought, word, quality (in last example- highlighting the guslars from all the others passing by Kalashnikov’s grave, which is emphasized by the conjunction “a”; in the first case, the sentence “I’m afraid of your disfavor” is also highlighted through the negation of the opposite).

We find parallelisms of different nature in Lermontov: from complete morphological identity (as in the above examples) to incomplete and approximate. Triple repetitions are common.

Tautological repetitions and the use of synonymous groups of words serve the same purpose of emphasis and clarification:

Where are you, wife, where have you been, staggering around?

In what courtyard, on the square...

Researchers paid attention to the characteristic syntactic feature"Songs" - predominance coordinating connections and complex sentences. This feature, as well as the folklore system of using conjunctions, gives the story extraordinary smoothness and regularity, and at the same time simplicity. The feeling of smoothness and slowness is also created by detailed descriptions.

V. Istomin points out Lermontov’s use of idioms (“I’m not myself”, “it’s been a bad day for him”, “the power of the godfather”, “for what, about what”, etc.) and descriptive expressions (“you gave the answer in good conscience”, “didn’t wet his mustache”, etc.), which makes the speech of the “Song” even closer to the folk colloquial. At the same time, abundance interrogative sentences gives the “Song” an emotional character.

In the poem one can distinguish purely folk lexical and morphological features. Their great amount. Only occasionally come across individual words, not typical for popular speech (Church Slavonicisms: mouth, eyes, meal, golden). A large number of diminutive nouns (little head, swan, darling). There are also adjectives with a diminutive suffix, which, while giving an emotional connotation to the word, at the same time indicates highest degree qualities (alone - completely alone; dark - very dark).

There are many colloquial words; dialectisms can be found, but their dialectal nature is manifested only in their morphological features. We will not find a single word that entirely belongs to the dialect - cf. scared, throws off, said, order (in the sense of ordering); yours; in the heavens, to the blasphemers; able, smaller, older; noniche, for now; ali (union). There are a lot of prefix formations, especially in verbs (including with double consoles): listened enough, brought it up, burst into tears, became dignified, etc. Participles in - teach - learn: playing, accelerating, feasting, etc.

Let us note the most characteristic morphological features. In verbs:

1) in the infinitive - t instead of - you(bring up) and vice versa (roll, abhor - in reflexive verbs with constant stress);

2) endings - ut, - ut in 3rd person plural present and future tense for verbs of II conjugation (walk, divide);

3) - xia instead of - sj they agreed on verbs such as pull up;

4) kiss instead of kiss;

In adjectives:

1) old pronominal endings - god's, tesov's;

2) short (but not truncated) forms: young wife, broad chest;

3) sharp saber (extension V before initial O).

In pronouns - contracted forms in the form, case singular: yours, yours.

All these features are specific to folk speech.

Question about the rhythm of the verse “Song” - topic special research. We will touch on this issue only in the most general terms.

The verse of the “Songs” is a folk verse, significantly different from the verse of works written literature. Folk poetic speech has a different accent system than literary and colloquial speech. Here there are not 2.8, but 3.8 syllables per stress. This is an extremely significant difference. In this regard, proclitics and enclitics become of great importance, increasing the number unstressed syllables. Various parts of speech can act as proclitics and enclitics (“stolne-Kyiv-grad”, “Vladimir-prince”, “walked-walked”, “white-flammable-stone”). For the same reason, the old forms of adjectives with a pronominal ending are preserved and new forms created by analogy (princely), are used a large number of suffix formations, unimpacted particles; verbs with infinitive are common - you instead of - sh, the reflexive particle appears in the form - xia, and not - sya, etc. We saw all this in Lermontov.

Examples of Lermontov proclitics and enclitics:

on a wide chest,

in a golden crown,

keen eyes,

On sky; without a trace,

three days, three nights,

I'll share now

In folk verse, the most stable is the end of the verse. Last accent- constant. The order of stresses becomes more and more disturbed as we move away from the constant.

The length of the verse is from 7 to 14 syllables (the bulk is from 9 to 13 syllables). The clauses are mainly dactylic (87.9%), followed by peonic (pulls), female (red and finish), hyperpaeonic (boyars and princes) - 3 cases. All these clauses are found in folk poetry, with dactylic ones clearly predominant.

The rhythmic pattern of the “Song” is sharply disrupted by the first lines of the ending choruses (“Ay guys, sing”...). They are a hexameter trochee and sharply contrast with the slow, smooth speech of the “Song”. This contrast is due to the function of these refrains (see above). The final verses (exodus) are built on the model of the raeshnik (rhyming, sharp fluctuations in the length of lines, threefold “glory”).

Rhyme in “Song” appears sporadically. Here we encounter another principle of organizing poetic speech: a coincidence not of sound, but of morphological (stressed vowels do not coincide, the suffixes and endings that follow them coincide):

We ran around and played,

went to bed early;

Lays out silk goods,

With gentle speech he lures guests,

Counts gold and silver;

The cloudy eyes look like crazy,

The lips whisper incomprehensible words.

Parallelism in morphological identity naturally develops into rhyme:

Whoever beats someone, the king will reward him;

And whoever is beaten, God will forgive him;

I order the ax to be sharpened and sharpened,

I'll order the executioner to dress up,

IN big bell I'll order you to call...

One must think that the transition from morphological coincidence to sound in the examples given is not accidental. The first example is the aphoristic conclusion of the heralds’ “cry”; the rhyme further emphasizes its “closing” function; the second example is the irony of Ivan the Terrible, who solemnly staged the execution of a merchant, giving it the character of “royal mercy”; the deliberately bravura tone of the description, contrasting with the gloomy content, enhances the evil mockery; this bravura tone, in turn, is enhanced by tautological repetitions (of which the first is an internal rhyme) and the rhyming of homogeneous verbal forms.

Internal rhyme appears sporadically (as in folk poetry). She strengthens the parallels: “a dashing fighter, a young merchant”, “not a joke, not to make people laugh.”

The folk verse of the “Song” once again shows how deeply Lermontov penetrated into the treasury of folk poetry, how, in the words of Gogol, he “sounded enough” in folk speech. The verse of the “Song” puts this work in a completely exceptional position in Russian literature and forces us to talk not about stylization or imitation, but about the creative mastery of the folk poetic method.

We made an attempt to look at the "Song" from different sides and highlight those issues of poetics and style that seemed significant and interesting to us. Let's summarize some results.

1. The appearance of the “Song” is not accidental, but is due to the state of Russian literature and science in the 20-30s, as well as the creative interests and moments of the biography of Lermontov himself.

2. “Song” is the result of Lermontov’s creative assimilation of the folk poetic method. At the same time, this is not a compilation or stylization, but a deeply original work.

3. In “Song,” Lermontov, dissatisfied with modernity, turns to the historical past in search of despotism, which is echoed by Lermontov’s discrediting of the unbridled, willful, selfish hero. (“The Song” is polemically directed against Slavophile theories.) It affirms the point of view of the people as the supreme judge of individuals and events.

4. These ideas are carried out using a variety of artistic means, in some cases borrowed from folk poetry. But Lermontov always brings into them something of his own, qualitatively new, which folk poetry did not know.

5. The psychologism of the “Song” is extremely important, which draws a sharp line between it and works of folk poetry. It also manifested itself in the gradual psychological preparation events, and in the interpretation of the images of heroes. Lermontov creates types that bear the features of their era and social affiliation, but at the same time are uniquely individual. The character of the heroes is revealed not in one aspect, but completely and comprehensively.

Pre-graduation work by V.E. (1958). - Note comp.

Lermontov's work, which preserves all the basic attributes of the song-epic manner, is a rare example of the author's organic penetration into the spirit and structure of oral folk poetry. It opens with a chorus (“Oh you goy thou art”) and a beginning (“The red sun does not shine in the sky”), followed by a narration of the event, and ends with the outcome (“Hey, you daring guys”). It contains ancient forms of folk vocabulary: colloquial words(“yours”, “movo”, “burst into tears”, “opposite”, “get scared”, “voiced”)); diminutives and affectionate suffixes(“sash”, “little head”, “orphan”, “children”)); participles with a suffix of “yuchi” (“singing”, “playing”); short form adjectives male nominative case singular ending in “oh” instead of “y” (“gray eagle”); reflexive verbs ending in “sya” (“how they got together, got ready”); prepositions “with”, “in” (“with the squad”, “with relatives”, “in dark night") ; particles “here” and “already” (“Here, both silently disperse”; “You, my brothers”); interjection “ay” (“Ay, guys, sing”); union “al” - “ali” (“Are you harboring a dishonest thought”? “Are you jealous of our glory?”), etc.

In tradition orally- folk art Lermontov uses constant epithets (“red sun”, “blue clouds”, “sharp saber”). Imitating oral and poetic creativity, Lermontov achieves amazing picturesqueness in comparisons of man with nature: “She walks smoothly - like a swan; Looks sweet - like a darling; When he says a word, the nightingale sings.”

The image of the dawn - the background of the events taking place - imparts extraordinary beauty to the poem. In the second chapter, the dawn is ending: “Behind the Kremlin, a foggy dawn is burning.” In the third chapter, “The scarlet dawn rises.” The phrase in “Song...” is constructed in a clearly folk spirit: in the manner of composition, using the conjunctions “and”, “a”, “yes”. With rare skill, Lermontov also uses other traditional types of oral poetic syntax: ellipses (“If you fall in love, celebrate the wedding; if you don’t fall in love, don’t be angry”); negative parallelisms (“The red sun does not shine in the sky, the blue clouds do not admire it: Then the formidable Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich sits at a meal in a golden crown”); phrasal parallels (“I went out to a terrible battle, last Stand", "And he hit the merchant Kalashnikov for the first time, And hit him in the middle of the chest").

In “Song...” a large role is given to such artistic techniques, like repetitions (“they cry”, “bitterly”, “feast to feast”), a game of synonyms (“And they chanted and commanded”, “sharpen-sharpen”, “dress-dress”), repetitions of words, expressions (“ to the cold snow, To the cold snow, like a pine tree, like a pine tree in a damp forest"), prepositions “for” (for an iron lock, for an oak door), “about” (“We composed a song about you, we are about your beloved guardsman"), particles “not” (“Isn’t your brocade caftan frayed? Isn’t your sable hat wrinkled?”), etc.

Traditions of folk poetry in the poem by M. Yu. Lermontov “Song about Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich, a young guardsman and swashbuckling merchant Kalashnikov"

Pages:

These lines allegorically convey the situation at the royal feast. The month symbolizes Ivan Vasilyevich himself, the stars - his surroundings. If the king is having fun, then those close to him should also be having fun, otherwise they cannot avoid the royal disfavor. “The king asks about the cause of sadness,” writes Belinsky, “and his questions are the pearls of our folk poetry, fullest expression spirit and forms of Russian life of that time. The same is the answer, or, better to say, the answers of the guardsman, because, in the spirit of the Russian national poetry, he answers almost verse to verse.”

To create vivid paintings and images, Lermontov uses the artistic means of folk poetry. The author appeals to images created over many centuries in human consciousness, using numerous constant epithets (“a daring fighter”, “a good fellow”, “a beautiful maiden”, “a red sun”, “a strong mind”) and constant comparisons (“Walks smoothly - like a swan”, “Looks sweetly like a darling” , “When the nightingale says a word, it sings”). Hyperboles also serve for greater imagery (“The king hit the ground with a stick, // And half a quarter of the oak floor // He broke through with an iron window...”) and techniques of negative parallelism (“The red sun does not shine in the sky, // Not blue clouds admire him. // Then he sits at a meal in a golden crown, // the formidable Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich sits...").

The creation of pictures of nature is helped by the use of the technique of personification (“Clouds are running into the sky, // The blizzard is driving them singing,” “Playfully along the plank roofs, // Dispersing the gray clouds, // The scarlet dawn is rising; // Scattering golden curls, // Washing crumbly snow, // Like a beauty, looking in a mirror, // Looking into the clear sky, smiling..."). This allows the author to draw parallels between natural phenomena and what happens between people. So, for example, the clouds rolling into the sky at the beginning of the second chapter foreshadow something bad for Kalashnikov. Taking over folk tradition, Lermontov compares the tsar’s gaze with the gaze of a hawk, Kiribeevich with a blue-winged dove, Alena Dmitrievna with a swan, and Kalashnikov with a falcon.

The syntax of Lermontov's poem also stylizes it as a folk song. Verbal repetitions moving from line to line add a special melody to the “Song about... Merchant Kalashnikov”:

He fell onto the cold snow,

On the cold snow, like a pine tree,

Like a pine tree in a damp forest...

Techniques of syntactic parallelism are used (“The strong hands give up, // The lively eyes darken...”), anaphora (“I did not disgrace another man’s wife, // I did not rob the dark night, // I did not hide from the heavenly light...”), inversions (characteristic is the position of the adjective after the word being defined: “Moscow fighters”, “wonderful marvel”, “German castle”).

In his poem, Lermontov pays much attention to numerical symbolism, characteristic of folklore. So, most often, the number “3” is mentioned: “three days and three nights” the boyar and the noblewoman treated the guslars, the tsar performs three actions before Ki-ribeevich notices his dissatisfaction (“The tsar frowned his black eyebrows // And pointed at him watchful eyes...” (1), “The king hit the ground with a stick...” (2), “The king uttered a terrible word...” (3)), “they cursed a loud cry three times” before If someone decides to fight with a young guardsman, Kalashnikov makes three bows (“to the terrible king,” “ to the white Kremlin yes to the holy churches" and "to all the Russian people"), they finally buried the daring merchant "between three roads."

Lermontov's entire poem is permeated with traditional motifs of folk poetry. The main ones are the feast motif and the duel motif, without which the picture of history, recreated with the greatest accuracy by the author, would be incomplete.

An undoubted influence on Lermontov’s “Song...” was made by a historical song - the ballad “Mastryuk Temryukovich”, published in folklore collection"Ancients Russian poems, collected by Kirsha Danilov." Perhaps it is precisely thanks to this ballad in Lermontov’s poem that the image of the tsar, in addition to negative qualities (cruelty, mercilessness), also has positive ones (kindness to Kiribeevich, mercy to the Kalashnikov family).

All the heroes of the poem seem to have come out of folk songs and fairy tales: Kiribeevich is a villain who encroaches on the honor of Alena Dmitrievna, Alena Dmitrievna herself is a fairy-tale beauty, Kalashnikov is a Russian hero who speaks out in defense of the honor of his wife.

Traditional epithets, comparisons, numerous cases of syntactic repetitions and parallelisms, inversions, detailed speeches of the heroes - these and other features of the poetics of “Songs about ... the merchant Kalashnikov” reproduce the features of ancient literature. “...Our poet entered the kingdom of the people as its complete ruler and, imbued with its spirit, merging with it, he showed only his kinship with it, and not identity,” wrote Belinsky. Indeed, the introduction of elements of folk poetry into the poem did not at all prevent it from becoming brightly individual a work of art, but only emphasized the originality and richness of the author’s poetry.

Pages:(the essay is divided into pages)

1. Artistic media images of heroes.
2. A hero from the people and the royal approach.
3. The meaning of the image of Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich.

The very title “Songs about Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich, the young guardsman and the daring merchant Kalashnikov” by M. Yu. Lermontov brings it closer to oral folk art. Why? The answer must be sought in the first lines of the poem:

Oh, you are, Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich!
We composed our song about you,
About your favorite guardsman
Yes, about a brave merchant, about Kalashnikov;
We put it together in the old fashion,
We sang it to the sound of the guslar
And they chanted and gave orders.

So, the poem is written in the form of a drinking song, which in Rus' was performed at feasts in the royal palace or in houses noble boyars. To give his work a folk flavor, Lermontov used words and expressions characteristic of oral folk art: “in holy Rus', our mother,” “wonderful wonder,” “daring,” “burst into tears.” The corresponding mood is also created by refrains and repetitions, which are often found in works of oral folk art, both poetic and prose (in particular, fairy tales). Every now and then the guslars, performing a song at the feast of the boyar Matvey Romodanovsky, repeat: Ay, guys, sing - just build the gusli!

Hey guys, drink up - understand the matter!
Amuse the good boyar
And his white-faced noblewoman!

These words are a kind of chorus of “Songs...”. Lermontov often uses synonymous words to emphasize the significance of the statement: “you can’t find, you can’t find such a beauty”, “they ran around, started playing,” “daring Moscow fighters came together, gathered together,” “to walk around for a holiday, to have fun.” This technique is very common in works of oral folk art. In addition, Lermontov used comparisons characteristic of the folklore tradition:

...Walks smoothly - like a swan;
Looks sweet - like a darling;
Says a word - the nightingale sings;
Her rosy cheeks are burning,
Like the dawn in God's sky...

Kalashnikov force younger brothers they compare it with the wind that drives obedient clouds or with an eagle calling eaglets to a feast, the dawn over Moscow - with a beauty washed with snow.

And the plot of “Song...”, in essence, also makes the poem similar to oral folk art. The heroes of Russian epics fight “for mother truth,” just like Stepan Kalashnikov. Certainly, epic heroes most often had to fight with monsters and foreign invaders, and the opponent of the “daring merchant” was just “a servant of the king, the terrible king.” But it is interesting to note that Kalashnikov, before a fist fight on the Moscow River, calls Kiribeevich “Busurmai’s son,” but since ancient times the enemies of the Russian land were called infidels. It would be wrong to call this “affectionate” nickname that Kalashnikov gives to his opponent just an angry attack from an offended husband who went into battle to maintain the honor of his wife. To understand why Kalashnikov called his enemy that way, you need to figure out who Kiribeevich is?

Kiribeevich - Tsar's guardsman; that's what they called it royal guard, which Ivan Vasilyevich the Terrible used in the fight against people he disliked in 1565-1572. The only law for the guardsmen was the will of the tsar (and their own, the main thing is that it does not contradict the tsar’s orders). Not knowing the limits of lawlessness, the oprichniki earned the strong hatred of the people. The word “oprichnik” has become synonymous with the words “robber”, “rapist”, “villain”. It is no coincidence that in “Song...” it is the guardsman who appears as negative character and tries to seduce someone else's wife. N.M. Karamzin in “The History of the Russian State” described the time of the oprichnina as follows: “The oprichnik, or the pitch-man,” as they began to call them, as if they were monsters of pitch darkness, “could safely oppress, rob a neighbor, and in case of a complaint, he would charge him a fine for dishonor... To say an uncivil word to a complete idiot meant to insult the king himself...”

But let's return to Lermontov's work. What else do we know about Kiribeevich? Let us re-read those lines where the king reproaches his “faithful servant” for his strange absent-mindedness at the feast:

It’s indecent for you, Kiribeevich,
To abhor the royal joy;
And you’re from the Skuratov family,
And your family was raised by Malyutina!..

G. L. Skuratov-Belsky, nicknamed Malyuta, was one of Ivan the Terrible’s most faithful associates, an active participant in numerous bloody massacres. And Kiribeevich, the hero of Lermontov’s poem, is a relative of this monster, and besides, he grew up in Malyuta’s family! Now the meaning of Kalashnikov’s words, which called Kiribeevich “Busurman’s son,” becomes clear. For Stepan Paramonovich and for the entire Russian people, the oprichnik is the same conqueror, an invader who came to plunder and ruin the Russian land. If for Kiribeevich the law is the royal will and his own whims, then Stepan Kalashnikov goes into battle not only for the honor of his wife, he defends “mother truth” supreme law conscience and justice, given not by the king, but by God. Kalashnikov does not seek justice from the tsar, realizing that he would be more willing to side with his “faithful servant.” The “daring merchant” honestly answers the king, not caring about how this truth may threaten him: “... I killed him of my own free will.” It is interesting to note that Stepan Paramonovich asks to protect the formidable king from his loved ones - his wife, children and brothers. Saying goodbye to his brothers, in the best Russian traditions, he asks them to bow to his wife and parents' house, and also pray for his soul, “a sinful soul.” Probably because Stepan Kalashnikov tried to live according to his conscience and died for a just cause, Russian people remember him when passing by his grave at the crossroads of three roads:

An old man will pass by and cross himself,
The good fellow will pass - he will become poised,
If a girl passes by, she will become sad,
And the guslar players will pass by and sing a song.

But what about Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich? After all, his name comes first in the title of the poem! Of course, the image of the king from the “Song...” is far from real historical portrait Ivan the Terrible. The author completely absolves the king of any responsibility for misbehavior his “faithful servant”:

Oh, you goy, Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich!
Your crafty servant has deceived you,
I didn't tell you the true truth,
I didn't tell you that the beauty
Married in the Church of God,
Married to a young merchant
According to our Christian law.

However, Ivan Vasilyevich does not make a fair and wise ruler, the dream of which is reflected in many works of oral folk art. And this also connects the “Song...” with folklore - let us remember Ilya Muromets, whom Prince Vladimir did not appreciate on his merits.

The angry tsar executes the merchant Kalashnikov for killing his “faithful servant” Kiribeevich in a fist fight, at the same time promising to “grant” the widow and children of Stepan Paramonovich from his treasury, and to allow his brothers to “trade freely, duty-free.” But all the promised royal favors are lost in the background tragic death Stepan Kalashnikov. That is why the “daring merchant” is so dear to the people, that for the sake of highest value, which he considers justice, this man did not regret own life. These are true folk heroes, who always stood “for the Russian land,” “for Mother Truth,” and “for the Orthodox faith.”

All along creative path M. Yu. Lermontov addressed the genre romantic poem. One of these Poems is “Song about Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich, the young guardsman and the daring merchant Kalashnikov.”

Highly appreciating folk poetry, the poet wrote: “If I want to delve into folk poetry, then, most likely, I will not look for it anywhere else than in Russian songs.” He was fascinated by the character and mood of the Russian epic, which prompted the poet to think about creating a work that would express Russian life during a significant period of Moscow history - the reign of Ivan the Terrible. The poem is close to folk poetry: the narration is told on behalf of the guslars, keepers of legends and people's memory. The poet addresses outdated forms words: “curly beard”, “on a wide chest”; to colloquial expressions: “the language of a faithful servant”; to traditional appeals: “My lord, my red sun.” Personification is the author’s main technique (“washes itself with crumbly snow,” “scarlet dawn smokes,” “sweeps golden curls”). The poem is replete with constant epithets (“good fellow”, “daring fighter”, “red sun”), constant comparisons (“walks smoothly - like a swan”). As in the folk song, M. Yu. Lermontov uses hooks:

He fell onto the cold snow,

On the cold snow, like a pine tree,

Like a pine tree in a damp forest...;

Anaphoras:

I did not disgrace someone else's wife,

I did not rob in the dark night,

Didn't hide from the heavenly light...

The title of the poem contains the theme of the work. Hence the heroes of “The Song...” - powerful, bright and original personalities, each of whom is a bearer of romantic passion.

Kiribeevich is a “daring fighter”, “a wild fellow” and is close to the heroes of the epic epic and folk songs. But from the same popular point of view, Kiribeevich is a “robber” who stole the family happiness of the merchant Kalashnikov. The atmosphere of permissiveness turned him into an insensitive egoist, royal love and protection, and besides, oprichnina was far from God and Christian commandments.

Feeling self-esteem attracts us to the “young merchant”, “stately fellow” Kalashnikov. Belinsky said about him that this is “... one of those same natures that will not tolerate insults and will give in.” After all, he came out “not to joke,” but to fight to the death. Raising his hand against the Tsar’s beloved oprichnik and openly speaking about it, Stepan Paramonovich stands up against state system. He defends the human dignity of the Russian people. Kalashnikov is aware of personal and social dignity; he is courageous, honest, and just. In a duel, unlike Kiribeevich, he thinks not only about himself, but defends his love, family, and the honor of his wife. Moral victory Kalashnikov won without even engaging in battle with Kiribeevich. The fact that this victory has national significance is evidenced by the final picture of the “nameless grave,” which evokes sympathy among the people.

V. G. Belinsky was the first to appreciate the “Song...”, writing: “The Song...” represents a fact about the blood relationship of the poet’s spirit with the spirit of the people and testifies to one of richest elements his poetry, hinting at the greatness of his talent,” “Lermontov’s poem is a courageous, mature creation and as artistic as it is folk.”