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3.1 Contradiction at the level of the composition of the whole poem
The creative concept of the work, the nature of the reality displayed, the individual author’s worldview, the peculiarities of the artistic thinking of the author of the text, as well as a conscious or unconscious attitude to language, its potential, and norms determine the principles of selection of linguistic units and the organization of the speech structure of a literary work. The use of linguistic means in the text: phonetic, grammatical, lexical - completely depends on the will of the author, his individual style. This generates and motivates the diversity and originality of the use of vocabulary and grammatical forms in the works of writers, even those close in time, method, literary and artistic direction. The same factor explains the desire of linguistic scientists to identify the main, dominant means of the speech structure of an individual work of art, forming the uniqueness of its stylistic organization. According to L.A. Novikova, “modern analysis of the language of fiction is characterized by a determinant approach, a search for leading, dominant speech means that make it possible to identify the main, “key” words, semantic text fields, etc. organizing the integral unity of the literary text in its aesthetic perception” (Novikov, 1988b, p. 31).
The search for leading, dominant speech means of a literary text becomes possible on the basis of an analysis of its structural, semantic and communicative organization. This logic for identifying text dominants is due to the fact that “a preliminary examination of the text from the point of view of ideological content and composition helps to reveal the specifics of its linguistic structure, determined by the dominant, and “suggest” the main direction, the leading lines of analysis of the speech structure of the work. What is more important here is not a continuous analysis of the language, which can distract from the main thing, but a selective analysis of speech dominants, drawing out the main ideological and aesthetic contours of the text and its figurative structure” (Novikov, 1988b, p. 30).
Each literary text is characterized by certain features of its compositional and stylistic structure. The specificity of the organization and interaction of the visual means of the text, as it were, forms its “face”, revealing the leading, dominant feature. “A work of art is always the result of a complex struggle between various formative elements, always a kind of compromise. Elements: These do not simply coexist and do not simply “match” each other. Depending on the general character of the style, one or another element has the significance of an organizing dominant, dominating over the others and subordinating them to itself” (Eikhenbaum, 1969, p. 332).
Often expressing the most significant aspects of a work, dominants determine the development of the text, pointing to the source of its “self-propulsion” and development. “The dominant is that component of the work that sets in motion and determines the relationships of all other components” (Mukarzhovsky, 1967, p. 411). The analysis of language undertaken by the researcher must capture the writer’s creative thought in its main, defining form; he must strive for its adequate interpretation. The legitimacy of such a selective and at the same time synthesizing approach to the language of a literary work is confirmed by the statements of the writers themselves, reflecting on poetic creativity. This is what A.A. wrote, for example, in his notebooks for 1906. Blok: “Every poem is a veil, stretched on the edges of several words. These words shine like stars. Because of them the poem exists." Such words are key in the text. “Threads” of its various levels stretch to them. They, in turn, determine the ideological and aesthetic charge and the structural and semantic framework of the literary text.
The concept of dominant was introduced into scientific circulation by psychophysiologist L.A. Ukhtomsky, who argued that it is the principle of dominance that is the physiological basis of attention and objective thinking. Subsequently, the idea of the universality of the principle of dominance, which began to be used in the analysis of literary and artistic works, turned out to be promising. It is no coincidence that the analysis of literary and artistic text and the study of the psychology of art using the principle of dominance were carried out by the famous psychologist L.S. Vygotsky. He, in particular, argued the following: “Every story, picture, poem is, of course, a complex whole, composed of completely different elements, organized to varying degrees, in different hierarchies of subordination and connection, and in this complex whole there is always some dominant and the dominant moment, which determines the construction of the rest of the story, the meaning and name of each of its parts” (Vygotsky, 1965, p. 206).
The concept of dominant has become one of the most productive concepts for research in philological science, which is confirmed by its active use in literary criticism and text linguistics. This concept was actively used and theoretically substantiated by representatives of Russian formalism (V.B. Shklovsky, R.O. Yakobson, B.M. Eikhenbaum, B.V. Tomashevsky, J. Mukarzhovsky), who associated the concept of the dominant of a literary text primarily with form. So, B.M. Eikhenbaum argued that any element of the material can emerge as a formative dominant and thereby as a plot and constructive basis (Eikhenbaum, 1969a). R.O. Jacobson noted: “The concept of dominant was especially fruitful - it was one of the most defining, developed concepts of Russian formalism. The dominant can be defined as the focusing component of a work of art; it controls, defines and transforms individual components. The dominant ensures the integrity of the structure. The dominant specifies the work of art” (Jacobson, 1976, p. 59).
The dominant feature of Igor Severyanin’s work is the tropic figure of contradiction, which has different semantic types, is based on different logical relationships and performs various semantic functions; this was written in more detail in Chapter 2. The tropic figure of contradiction: “works” also at the level of composition, being a constructive component of one a poem or an entire collection of poems.
Composition, contradictions - a structure of interconnected figures of contradiction that permeate the structure of the entire poem or a significant part of it and carry as a leitmotif the main idea of the work, that is, an integral “field of contradictions.” Further, using the example of the analysis of several poems by Igor Severyanin, the compositional role of the tropic figure of contradiction will be revealed, but before that we will dwell in a little more detail on the concept of dominant, which plays an important role in the organization of a separate poem or an entire collection of poems.
The poem "Miss Lisle," written in 1911, provides a compassionate portrayal of a "moth," a "tiny sinner" forced to please an abusive society:
Cute cat, baby! Get up on your tiptoes quickly
Stretch out your alomon-flowers hotly.
IN dirty good reputation get dirty
Name luminous genius in the shade!.
Sweet girl! Tiny sinner!
You are even more piquant from human slop.
I believe you are exhausted. We need to get away
You have to be smiling, quiet and dumb.
All my comrades (as you accidentally call
You are mine fans And kindly enemies.)
Somehow they grin and look desperately
Like a moth above the clouds.
Isn't it skeptics believe. that night butterfly
Loves compassionately young eagle!
Honest dishonesty! White Arab!
Splash pure dirt into a glorious halo. (p. 46)
Let's consider the central verbal image of this poem pure dirt. supported in the text by others ( honest dishonesty, white Arab girl). Its zero stage will apparently be a combination of the type dirty (dirty) dirt. and the meaning of the tropic figure of contradiction itself is perceived as the purity of a “moth” surrounded by hypocritical light.
If combined dirty mud(at the zero level of the figure) the agreement of the participle seme (s) with the archiseme of the noun (S) is presented. s ∧ S (cf. dirt- “that which gets dirty”), then in the figure of contradiction pure dirt Before us is a typical case of semantic discrepancy characteristic of tropes. Here the seme of the adjective negates the archseme of the noun. In the complex image S, where the formal contradiction of words is removed, these semes are polar: (cf. clean- “having no dirt”). A semantically intense, mobile verbal image appears, requiring its active creative perception. The essence of such experienced meaning is in a constant, “sliding” transition from one pole to another, in their distinction and interaction, simultaneous retention in the field of vision, in the mobility of the components of the image and itself, with the absorption of the contradiction removed in the text, the resolution of the contradiction by repulsion of the contextual meaning of the noun from the original one: pure dirt- purity that cleanses dirt, or dirt that turns into purity, etc.
In the poem, three images clearly appear in their development and mutual assessments (light (society) - Miss Lisle - lyrical hero), revealing the deployment of contradiction as a technique - an expression of the author's modality and the very idea of the work. The polyphony and diversity of subjective assessments leads in the author’s structure to a tangible awareness of the true value of words: Miss Lil’s “dirt” is pure, and the “purity” of a hypocritical society is dirty. Therefore, the poet is not afraid of a “dirty reputation”, but wants it, longs for the discovery of the “naked truth”:
IN dirty good reputation get dirty
Name luminous genius in the shadows!
Thus, the tropic figure of contradiction not only enhances the impression, but also enriches artistic thought, being a form of poetic image, and is a system-forming device; for this poem. In this poem there are several pairs of tropic figures of contradiction that create a contrast, a contradiction in the image system of this poem: Miss Lil ( moth, honest dishonest, white Arab) and the people around her, society ( comrades- fans and kindly enemies). The image of Miss Lilly is created by stringing, grading definitions (epithets)-contradictions, while the tropic figures of the contradiction belong to different grammatical and logical-semantic types, such as phrases pure filth, white Arab, honest dishonest refer to quality contradictions that are based on different logical relationships, namely contrariness ( pure dirt), complementarity ( white arab), contradictory ( honest dishonest).
Trying to remain a “pure poet”, to be outside of social cataclysms, I. Severyanin was nevertheless forced to formulate his own attitude to the events taking place in Russia. In the bravura intonations of the poem “Champagne Polonaise” (1912), the poet affirms his perception of reality - he accepts life in all its opposite and contradictory manifestations.
. I praise Christ rapturously And Antichrist
A soul burned with the delight of a throat!
The Dove and the Hawk! Reichstag and Bastille!
Cocotte and schemanik! Impetuousness and sleep!
To the champagne lily! Champagne to the lily!
In the seas Disharmony- lighthouse Unison. (p. 31)
The composition of this poem is completely built on contradiction. Words with opposite meanings in this poem are in the semantic relationship of conjunction (connection), that is, a kind of addition of opposites. Lexical units Christ And Antichrist, dove and hawk, Reichstag And Bastille, cocotte to schemanik, impetuosity And dream. V. which are based on disjunctive concepts are not linguistic antonyms; only contextual, associative analysis makes it possible to identify opposite semes in their content. These words are not antonyms in their primary function, nor are they included in the same thematic group at the system level or in the same antonymic pair at the norm level. However, in a poetic context, they form expressive series of oppositions of a secondary order: as a result of the transposition (transfer) of signs, a situational opposition of words arises. Associative analysis reveals in these words semes that are on the periphery of their meaning and are opposite in each pair: Christ- sacred, and Antichrist- sinful; dove- meekness, tenderness, dependence, and hawk- strength, power; Reichstag- a symbol of power (parliament), and Bastille- symbol of imprisonment, lack of freedom (prison); cocotte - publicity, sin, debauchery, and schemanik- solitude, asceticism, holiness; impetuosity- movement, activity, and dream- static, calm. Several unique paradigms are formed in the poem: dove, Bastille are opposed to the hawk, the Reichstag; impetuosity, cocotte - sleep, schemanik. - between the elements of which complex connections and relationships are observed. The main dominant of this poem is its pragmatic meaning, expressing the feelings of the lyrical hero - enthusiastically. The author accepts both the positive and the negative and praises it. While remaining a “pure poet,” I. Severyanin does not penetrate deeply into the essence of what is happening in the surrounding reality.
But already in his later poem “Finite Nothing” (1918), his views on the surrounding reality changed:
Go crazy - solve the problem:
Freedom this or mutiny?
Everything seemed to promise good luck, -
And now where is the luck?
The scope of azure theories.
AND practice is darker than graves.
What breadth was in the gaze!
Like a stem growing up! Like a stem rotted
How to know: backwardness whether Europe?
The excellence of Russians?
Is it Russian nature? slaves!
A complete nightmare. Complete fog.
Exhausted by contradictions.
We don't understand anything.
We all dream about some kind of meetings -
But with whom, why and for what purpose?
We are ghosts dualism
Brought into such fright,
That even a solar prism
There is a disease that threatens us.
Coming Antichrist? Not Christ is it?
Il both together. Before who?
First the darkness. Not light whether after?
Or will we plunge into nothing. (p. 229)
In this poem, it is not individual words that form an antonymic pair that are contrasted, but... a whole series of relatively opposite words that make up a single whole and correspond to a single image. All these various contradictory pairs have a symbolic meaning, which means multi-tiered semantics: “up” - “down”, “good” - “bad”, “life” - “death”, “positive” - “negative”. The composition of this poem is such that the initial representations of various contradictory pairs with multi-tiered semantics are explained by the poet himself - exhausted by contradictions. This very “exhaustion” in the contradiction of life is the dominant around which the entire composition of the poem is organized and reflects the poetic vision, the poetic model of the world of I. Severyanin.
In this poem, the tropic figure of contradiction is presented as linguistic ( theory - practice, Christ - Antichrist, light - darkness, first - after), and speech antonyms ( space - grave, azure - gloomy, grew - rotten, Europe - Russians). In the contextual tropic figure of a contradiction, lexical unit A, which is in relation to a contradiction with unit B, “highlights” and actualizes peripheral, contextual semantic features in it.
A literary text contains a semantic charge, the power of which is not limited by place and time, because the content of a literary text is not closed and is relatively infinite. This is evidenced by the fact that great works of art remain relevant for a long time and are interpreted and perceived differently at different times.
The following poem is indicative, which also uses the technique of contradiction in composition. This is the poem “Poetry of New Strokes” (1920):
Let's drink to our people loved ones -
Hated. - Balmont once told me.
Lilac blossoms, fragrant,
Tomya, and tenderness, and drunk.
Which joy! Sadness which
Today in my heart!
Then I I'm burning. it's sweet I'm going out.
Answering everyone inappropriately.
Oh how unbearably passionate
Me the aroma is tormenting.
I'm in a frenzy! I'm in pain
I breathe in my nostrils all day long
Those depriving me of my will
Flowers under the name - Lilac!
How ghostly. How proteinaceous.
Sick white night darkness.
Darling! You - hateful!
You enemy friend! You friendly enemy!(p. 287)
The state of the lyrical hero (delight, frenzy, pain, sadness) is created by the deployment of an internally contradictory image of “love - suffering”, “beauty - sadness”, “ghostly - real”, which demonstrates the dialectical nature of the lyrical hero’s worldview - everything is dual. Beauty evokes both joy and sadness, passion is desirable, but also unbearable, deprives the hero of his will, leads him to illness, causes a contradictory attitude towards his beloved ( enemy friend - friendly enemy. she is both friend and enemy, she is the friend of his enemies ( enemy friend) and the enemy of his friends ( friendly enemy).
Let us give two more examples of poems that are very indicative from the point of view of the tropic figure of contradiction. This poem is "The Poetry of Life's Strangeness" (1916):
Meet. so that to be separated.
Fall in love. so that fall out of love.
I want burst out laughing
AND burst into tears- and not live!
They swear. so that break vows.
They dream. so that curse dreams.
ABOUT, sorrow to those who understand
All pleasures Vanity.
IN village I want capitals.
IN capital I want wilderness.
And everywhere human faces
Without a human soul.
How often beauty is ugly.
And there is there is beauty in ugliness.
How often baseness is noble.
AND evil innocents mouth.
So how? don't burst out laughing
Don't burst into tears. how to live,
When is it possible to separate?
When is it possible to fall out of love? (p. 266)
The poem presents 15 tropic figures of contradiction, having different logical bases, performing different semantic functions and, as a result, forming various semantic types. Let's look at some of them in more detail. Based on couples separate / meet, fall in love / fall out of love lies linguistic antonymy, defined by the language system. The logical basis is formed by the opposite opposition; the extreme members of this antonymic paradigm will be meet/break up, separate- an intermediate term that carries the additional meaning of “to part not for long" This tropic figure is formed by predicates and is a contradiction of existence. Pair fall in/fall out of love has similar semantic relationships, but its logical basis is formed by complementary opposition, fall out of love / fall in love are its extreme members. There are contradictions in the tropofigure not to live = to laugh and cry there is a combination of opposite signs of action. Laugh/cry are contextual antonyms, linguistic antonyms are a pair laugh/cry. This poem presents several oxymorons beauty is ugly, in ugliness there is beauty, the pleasure of vanity(Vanity is “grief”, that is, “pleasure from grief”), where the combination of opposite principles occurs.
The poem “The Poetry of Your Contrasts” (1921), built on a whole field of contradictions, is marked by figurative compositional tension from the first to the last line:
You are so clear and at the same time foggy.
You are so true and at the same time deceptive.
And there are no roads to you.
Mouth clean. - words sinners you want them.
Sobbing. you're desperate you want to laugh.
Dissolute appearance strict.
You can't be taken until you give in.
You don’t take it - you’ll indulge in celibacy.
What should I do with you?
You are so proud So not selfish.
You - without a trace. but in peace golden trumpet.
I am drawn to you with prayer. (p. 244)
The theme of the contradictory image of the beloved in the perception of the lyrical hero is revealed in this poem as a developing figurative compositional system of contradictions. Despite such a contradictory image of the beloved, the end of the poem shows the removal of all contradictions I am drawn to you with prayer.
In this paragraph, using specific examples - poems by Igor Severyanin, it was shown that contradiction can also act as a compositional (constructive) device at the level of a whole poem.
POETRY OF LIFE'S WEIRDness
They meet to separate.
Falling in love only to fall out of love.
I want to laugh
And burst into tears - and not live!
They swear in order to break their vows.
They dream to curse dreams.
Oh, sorrow to those who understand
All pleasures are in vain.
The village wants a capital.
In the capital you want wilderness.
And there are human faces everywhere
Without a human soul.
How often beauty is ugly
And there is beauty in ugliness.
How often is baseness noble?
And innocent lips are evil.
So how can you not laugh?
Don't burst into tears, how can you live?
When is it possible to separate?
When is it possible to fall out of love?
I remembered this poem by Igor Severyanin, urging you to think about the duality of existence. In every good there is a drop of evil, and in every evil there is a drop of good. This is not Chinese wisdom, this is the observation of those whose thoughts have been preserved in eternity. Agree, after all, each of you probably wanted to escape from everyday life, hide from everything familiar, find yourself, find what your soul strives for. Sometimes unable to accept the inevitability and irreversibility of events and actions. But how few are there who are not afraid of the greatness of life, who are accustomed to looking truth and death in the eyes, who accepted the test as deliverance and emerged victorious! After all, perhaps there is no need to run away from vanity and one-dimensionality. Sometimes you just have to accept the world as it is. And then, who knows, suddenly those facets of the world that were previously invisible will open up.
Igor Severyanin - Poetry of the strangeness of life: Verse
They meet to separate...
Falling in love only to fall out of love...
I want to laugh
And burst into tears - and not live!
They swear in order to break their vows...
They dream to curse dreams...
Oh, sorrow to those who understand
All pleasures are in vain.
The village wants a capital...
In the capital you want wilderness...
And there are human faces everywhere
Without a human soul...
How often beauty is ugly
And there is beauty in ugliness...
How often is baseness noble?
And innocent lips are evil.
So how can you not laugh?
Don't burst into tears, how can you live?
When is it possible to separate?
When is it possible to fall out of love?!
Text of the book "Complete collection of poems - Igor Severyanin"
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Listen to Northerner's poem Poetry of the strangeness of life
Topics of adjacent essays
Picture for the essay analysis of the poem Poetry of the strangeness of life
JUSTIFICATION OF THE TOPIC.
The topic of this essay is still relevant today. This is perhaps the reason why I chose this topic. The conclusions I came to can be used at school when studying the work of Igor Severyanin.
PURPOSE OF THE WORK.
The purpose of this work is to find, isolate and analyze utopian motifs in the works of Igor Severyanin.
OBJECTIVES OF THE WORK.
1. Give a brief description of the ideas of the poet’s senior contemporaries V. Solovyov and D.S. Merezhkovsky about Creativity, God and the Poet - the central images of Igor Severyanin’s work.
2. Analyze and give a line-by-line commentary on Igor Severyanin’s utopian epic “The Solar Savage.”
3. Analyze and give a comparative analysis of the central poetic images of other poetic works of Igor Severyanin.
MATERIAL.
1. Utopian epic "Sunny Savage"
2. Poetic works.
1. Poets.
"Poetry to Government"
"Poetry of Despair"
2. Sextines and elegies.
"Sextina XII"
"Elegy of Exile"
3. Poems.
"Are you people?"
"Their culture."
"How do they live?"
"The Dawn of Life."
"Their way of life."
"Those who live the dream."
"Culture! Culture!"
"Retribution".
"Cocktail"
METHOD OF WORK.
Analysis and line-by-line commenting.
INTRODUCTION
Utopia- fictional society as the embodiment of production
freely constructed and often static
someone's social ideal.
Epic - extensive narrative in poetry or
in prosaic form about any events,
reflecting all aspects of life.
Poetry - the definition of verse that Igor proposed to introduce
Northerner.
Sextina - one of the poetic forms, whose author
is Igor Severyanin.
Elegy - a poetic work that expresses
sadness or philosophical thoughts.
FOR IGORYSEVERYANIN THE CONCEPT
"UTOPIA" HAS A CONNECTION WITH THE CONCEPT OF "BO-
HA" AND "MAN". ATTACHED TO THE ABSTRACT-
THERE ARE DIAGRAMS THAT EXPLAIN THIS.
ANALYSIS OF THE UTOPIAN EPIC “SOLAR SAVAGE” AND OTHER CENTRAL POETIC IMAGES OF IGOR SEVERYANIN’S WORKS.
ANALYSIS OF THE FIRST CHAPTER.
In the very first lines of the epic we find the poet’s desire for nature and natural beauty
I imprisoned myself in a monastery
Above the lake, in the green monastery...
Already in the fifth line the first utopian motive in this work is noticeable
Sacred dream - holy altar...
The sixth line is interesting
Monastery of wallless nature...
I have a new dream to pray for the old,
Your sins, forget the mistakes of the years...
I think that the Northerner refuses to renounce some values that we are accustomed to count among the eternal values - we are talking about the renunciation of Love - further on in the texts we will find this more than once, the renunciation of Success and Glory is also noticeable.
The poet admits his imperfections, admits that he was wrong in previous years (...forget years of mistakes...).
Below we read the lines that confirm this
I burned the tried and tested ship of love
And the flag of success was torn into pieces...
This means that all these actions are voluntary, and the act of imprisonment itself was also voluntary.
But why does the poet refuse Success and Glory - is there any meaning in this?
I spilled a hundred years of wine,
Given to me by the hand of sovereign glory...
That is, in these lines the poet hints to us that his work is a natural continuation of the literature of the past, XIX century. The poem was written in 1924, that is, it continues the literary traditions of approximately 1824, and at that time Pushkin was working and if you read carefully, you can find some similarities if you wish.
The chain of vices has forged a link
And I crumpled the beginning chapters of the novel...
In this context "…chain…" symbolizes the rejection of vices and their fettering, which would interfere with their further development.
The question arises what kind of novel we are talking about: the poet was at that time working on an autobiographical novel in verse, “The Bells of the Cathedral of the Senses.”
Below we read:
I made the impossible possible...
Most likely, the poet is right, but a very high conceit and his craving for the idea of a superman are noticeable here.
The Russian religious philosopher and poet who gravitated towards mysticism - Vladimir Solovyov - wrote about this: “Man naturally wants to be better, and he gravitates towards a superman. If he wants, then he can, if he can, then he must...”
Below we read:
Forgive me for the past, Lord
Organize the rest of your life worry-free...
Here the poet renounces his past, but in a different form, in the form of forgiveness - he asks God for forgiveness, but there is also a request - a request to arrange the rest of his life worry-free.
In the middle of nowhere, paper inked...
This means in nature - it is here that we find the second component of Igor Severyanin’s utopia - Nature, but Nature not separately, but together with the signs of civilization.
Without books, without language, a deceitful mug...
Before that it was "...middle of paper...", but here "...without books..." - Interestingly, there is some self-contradiction here.
I buried myself alive
In a foreign, forest, lake village...
Here we again find the desire for nature and again learn that it is voluntary.
In the poem “Cocktail,” which was written in 1909, we find lines that show the poet’s desire for nature.
This desire was most clearly reflected in “The Sunny Savage” - it took the poet 15 years to understand his desire for nature and natural beauty.
The motive of voluntary exile, which is at the beginning of the epic, “Elegy of Exile” - a poem that was written in October 1918:
In my voluntary exile
It's hard for me to imagine What somewhere,
There is a world where they live and dream
They laugh and sing loudly...
Here the poet asks a question that remains unanswered:
Is there any culture left?
Its searches and elections?
Here the first motive of the man - the beast arises and the author asks the question about the essence of man:
And aren't the mimosas crushed?
A foot of brutal people?
A SIMILAR QUESTION WILL ARISE SEVERAL MORE TIMES DURING THE EPIC.
ANALYSIS OF CHAPTER TWO.
The beginning of the second chapter consists of the following lines:
No, it’s not myself that I buried
Vices, delusions and mistakes
As a reward, the spirit gained wings
Mouth of the holy purity of a smile
That is, the poet claims that he is not dead, that he has not withdrawn into himself, that he has not retired from his creative work, but again reminds us that he has abandoned his past - this is the sixth mention, and the chapter is only just the second, and theirs in this There are only ten works in the work, plus a finale, just a finale, not an epilogue.
But then we learn that abandoning all this, according to the poet, makes sense only because the human spirit after this undergoes some changes, which, in our opinion, are very significant - this wings and purity of a smile.
We will find similar sentiments in Igor Severyanin’s poem “Retribution”, but here the poet still doubts the Winged abilities of his soul - spirit:
There was a spirit winged
Winglessbody
Earthly chambers
Reluctantly
Acquired
Bird wings
Overcame
Self-powerlessness
Overcome everything!
No, it was:
Wingsflesh,
The soul is wingless.
The poem “The Dawn of Life” expresses the same sentiments:
Since the beginning of my life I have dreamed of light,
Worldwide happiness and eternal day!
I was so ardent, so brave, so cheerful,
My eyes lit up with fire...
These moods are similar to those we found at the beginning of the epic, but the ending of this poem is similar to the ending of “Sunny Savage”
At the end of life - everything in life is clear!
The sunset of life is the sunset of everything!
That is, at the beginning of the epic, we found a rapid takeoff, which, in my opinion, had a completely natural consequence - a result, which was expressed in the absence of a result as such.
(At the end of life - everything in life is clear!
The sunset of life is the sunset of everything!)
But in this case, I must note that this is just my subjective opinion, which in no way can claim to be the only true and correct opinion - many may disagree with me.
Below we find lines from which it becomes clear that the poet is alienating himself from society:
Earth with her - such an urgent lie
Her children have an ongoing dispute
Alien to those who have gone into the nature of God...
Here we find, and not for the first time, the poet’s desire for nature and nature, but already for deified nature, that is, the desire for the nature of God.
Next we find the poet’s philosophical reflections about truth and lies, but in these reflections the poet comes to a slightly strange and, in our opinion, not very understandable and clear conclusion - he decides that lies and truth are absent on Earth, as such, regardless of different, that is, separately and, therefore, each of these concepts has the features of the other ( “ False truths and this truth of lies” ), that is, according to the poet, each of these concepts includes the features of the other, that is, lies are characterized by some features of truth, and truth - features of lies, that is, in this case, Igor Severyanin decided that even truth is not so truthful, and sometimes it is clear that it is false, while a lie can be truthful and sometimes true.
Below, the poet asks a question about the purpose of man and decides for himself that man is by his nature, and by his thoughts, and by his thoughts, deeds, and deeds, an animal, that is, an ordinary beast.
(similar sentiments are expressed in the poem
Igor Severyanin “Culture! Culture”, a quote from which I considered it necessary to quote a little later when analyzing the ninth chapter)
Below we will once again find the poet’s refusal of his past life, which was expressed in burying within himself no longer the vice, but only its traces:
Buried traces of vice...
And below we read:
I was reborn in the world of beauty
For the feat of the poet and prophet...
That is, the poet likens himself to a prophet and, becoming one, finally defeats the vice in himself.
ANALYSIS OF THE THIRD CHAPTER.
This chapter begins with lines - memories of a past life and another rejection of it. Next we find very interesting lines that have become an aphorism:
Only a dead man has no contradictions
Live kaleidoscope of contradictions
And if he is alive, and also a poet,
He is sometimes superhuman.
In my opinion, the poet in these lines defines the poet, poetry and expressed their essence and purpose.
And because he is a superman,
He sees a person's flaws
And thinks to accommodate the dreamed century
Within the current century...
In these lines, Northerner equates the poet to a superman and writes about his third utopian dream to fit the dreamed century within the existing century, here the poet reminds us of the poet’s exclusive right - the right to see a person’s shortcomings. But the poet doubts his abilities, and in my opinion, two quotes from Vladimir Solovyov are needed here. Yielding to current concepts, the poet calls the content of poetry dreams, but at the same time it is clear that these dreams are more important than any reality and the poet’s sympathy for the wild forces of nature, mercilessly destroying not only the actions of human hands, but the people themselves are quite characteristic.
Here we will find the poet’s desire to turn utopia into reality
I think about the unthinkable - about
That people will stop hostility and quarrels
And they will build a house over the river
Looking out onto the serene expanses
That people will destroy cities,
Like the abscesses of a culture they don’t need,
They will give up idle labor -
The work of a mechanical figure...
and the main components of the poet's utopia - serenity and anxiety - the poet calls us to return to nature. Soloviev wrote about this: The poet’s deep and conscious conviction in the real animation of nature saves him from the split between thought and feeling. - all this is typical for the poetry of Igor Severyanin.
Next we find other components of Igor Severyanin’s utopia - this is GOD, to which the poet equates HOME and INSPIRATION. For the poet, the last word of this chapter “SODDOM” is associated with selfish lies and cities that are no less deceitful and selfish.
ANALYSIS OF CHAPTER FOUR.
This chapter is related to science and scientists. Here we find the poet’s negative attitude towards them. Addressing the heap, he writes:
You are a deeply respected beast
Scientist beast! You're just a two-legged beast!
You are trained by science, You -
Majestic earthly illness
That is, the poet does not recognize science and all its discoveries - unnecessary in his opinion. He asks the scientist
Can you not die, old man,
Replace October with blooming May?
So why are you, wretched beast, great?
And why do we respect animals?
But this question, like many others, remains unanswered.
In this same chapter, the motif of war appears for the first time in the poem, and if we say in the words of Vladimir Solovyov, then the poet wants to show us all the horror of war.
ANALYSIS OF CHAPTER FIFTH.
In the fifth chapter, the poet continues to develop the theme of science and writes about two types of scientists, and if we assume that one of these types is bad and the second is good, then from the very beginning we will be wrong - we will be mistaken.
Discord between scientists and scientists
One tries to benefit his brother - the beast
Another, a scoundrel who lived to see his gray hairs
Invents hypocrite guns...
In the same chapter, he strikes at patriotism, rejecting it and equating this very human-animal patriotism with the simple desire for profit, which, in the poet’s opinion, should be called profit.
The northerner condemns the war and its propaganda - by promoting war, a person encourages and makes murder legal. By doing this, a person only harms himself:
A temple is built in the name of Mars
Fierce, bitter souls...
The poet condemns science, and we realize that he does not agree with it, since it does not counteract war, but on the contrary, it develops and contributes to the start of new wars and to some extent increases their number. Scolding the war, the poet writes about terrible bombs:
Do you remember exploding suitcases...
This is the motive of the First World War, the poet’s attitude towards which, to put it mildly, was not very good.
All this allows us to conclude:
Science is nonsense
Try it on hardware...
We understand - the poet is right, this is reflected in the lines below:
Do you remember the suffocating gas, all the harm,
All the horror created by science.
I reject the university
With his universal boredom...
ANALYSIS OF CHAPTER SIX.
The Northerner writes that science is useless only because it is opposed to nature.
The poet writes that medicine, which was created by science, cannot bring any real benefit to a person and, therefore, it is not worth extending life with the help of medicine, and any person, according to the poet, should live exactly as long as God has given him:
I hear, beast, I hear your question:
” But isn’t science useful enough?”
Ah, there are no medicines more healing than icy dews
And simplest remedies are better! I understood
Expertise in the herbs of the Solar Savage
Soul, nature treating spirit and body.
What about the air? and the sun? and the dawn?
Resin of forests without edge, without limit?
And you, life-giving water
Of the icy spring, there, from under the turf,
Doctor of pain without a trace?
Wonderful! Wonderful! You are miraculous!
Medicines of the cities, all the miracles
The surgeon is zero, nothing before Nature.
May her dew heal you!
Don’t mutilate your souls with your Science!
There are cases when you are lancet
Will save you from death: what a joy
Life extension? You live wonderfully. No -
So, that means you don’t need to live at all...
And if necessary, well, without a knife
Professors you will remain in the world...
Live, live without valuing yourself
Like wise men and little children!
In this chapter, a characteristic feature of Igor Severyanin’s utopia—paradise—still appears:
And don’t bother yourself
Scientific dry rubbish,
And remember that heaven is available to you
And this paradise is the earth with its gray!
We must not forget that lilac was Igor Severyanin’s favorite plant, and he could not write about it in his epic:
Lilac - a simple tree, Lilac
Ingenuous as you are, the soul of a poet,
She is on an ordinary spring day
Everything is more fragrant than the university!
(The image of lilacs is very often found in the works of Igor Severyanin, he wrote:
Bring me a laughing bouquet
It will have something that is not in the siren
Or:
Streams of lilac float
Oh the languid delirium of lilacs
My spring lilac
Lilac of my spring
We can give a sufficient number of such examples)
In this chapter, the poet openly calls people beasts, but here we can trace his attitude towards higher school:
“ He's full of ideas” , - they will tell me. Full of ideas?!
Vanity? Murder? Glory to fornication?
I don't consider animals to be people
The poet below makes an interesting discovery that is related to scientists, he writes:
Until the war ends
The lever and main engine of culture!
Bipeds! Understand that it is purulent
All your disgusting bloody adventure...
While the generally accepted and generally accepted opinion proves that war is only harmful to culture and cannot in any way be its main engine.
ANALYSIS OF CHAPTER SEVEN.
In the seventh chapter, the poet writes about science as one of the means of coming to power:
I was talking about the highest of schools
Only because the lecture school
It seems to me that I could“ throne”
Cto gather people fit for the throne
Northerner writes that people, those people who are in power, will promise not to kill or use violence, but if they do this, this does not mean that they will always follow their promises, but will use them as a mere cover:
Which by their development
Would rise high above the crowd,
Raising the banner:” We will not kill the earthly
Here on earth, by no one's earthly hand” .
Below the poet’s thoughts reappear, which he calls “ a relic of the barbarian era” about war and the role of man:
All disputes are not resolved by war,
Like a relic of a barbarian era,
And the Man whose thought and speech are strong,
Whose heart responds to sighs...
And again the poet writes about the horror of war, about its uselessness and uselessness in the process of history.
In contrast to war - a destructive force, he puts man - a creative force. The poet considers this the highest meaning of life, but at the same time
time he realizes that others will not understand him, and he ends this chapter with the following lines:
I speak transparently. Listen, believe
My melancholy and indescribable pain.
And if you laugh, laugh, beast,
And vegetate in your beastly lot...
(We can find moods that are similar to the poet’s feelings in this chapter in other poems by Igor Severyanin.
For example, in the poem “Are You People?” the poet writes:
Life is burning out... the world is dying
Heaven punishes sinful people.
God collects and selects
Right from wrong, God is a miracle worker
There is grumbling everywhere, screaming everywhere,
There's growling everywhere - are you people??
But in response there is silence
People are like tigers, people are like lions!
That is, here the poet directly compares man with individual representatives of the animal world.
All on top of each other: from the north, from the south:
Boyfriend and girlfriend - all against everyone!
There is crime in the heart, sin in the thoughts...
You'll have plenty! God will judge you
God will surprise you: the scream of an eagle
He will awaken the dead, he will gather sinners
It will force you to believe: death is dead!
In another poem, Igor Severyanin writes about the goals and life of animal-like creatures called people, although the poet does not agree with this, in his opinion, not entirely deserved name - Man. This poem has a title that is expressed in the form of a question - it is called “What do they live for.” The poet writes:
They live by politics, strife and war
Dresses and cards, gluttony and drinking
Intrigues and gossip are contagious and purulent,
Insolence, anger, envy, debauchery and whining
Here he also writes about the other, second part of society, which, in the author’s opinion, opposes the first, or at least should do so:
Poets and thinkers, artists are not known,
They are afraid, despise them and call them drones
that is, the poet concludes:
And they confidently think that they are living usefully...
But the poet reserves the right to disagree with this.
We will find similar sentiments in the poem “Their Way of Life,” where there are the following lines:
How do these same people live?
What do they walk on on a pair of legs?
They drink and eat, eat and drink -
And in this life they find meaning.
Cheat, profit, rob,
Corrupt, humiliate, hurt
What other passion do they have?
After all, this is enough for them!
He immediately writes that these “two-legged” live in fornication and cannot understand the power of poetry:
And these are the ones on a pair of legs
So called people
“ They live for themselves” ... And the name Blok
For them, mired in vile fornication -
A meaningless, absurd syllable.
We can find similar sentiments in “Poems about Man”:
In countless humanity
Very rare - Human
The poet calls all thoughts, all reflections of Man:
The legacy of the same monkeys...
Igor Severyanin writes that human society has undergone irreversible changes - something artificial has appeared in it, initially alien to it, and in addition, feelings have changed:
Yes, in metallic spontaneity
All mechanical passions...)
ANALYSIS OF CHAPTER EIGHT.
In the first lines the poet asks:
Who wants wars -“ the top” or the people?
Rulers or citizens of a state?
and answers:
Oh, everyone wants: after all, since the soldier is coming
Blood is shed and seeks in the slaughter“ glory”
He goes under duress - he, a soldier
He doesn’t want not to go - he wants to go
And if he wants, he is covered in blood
And he discredits the title of a person...
The northerner writes that those in power will incite wars and for this, in the poet’s opinion, they should be killed, and this will be the responsibility of society:
And here he is - a beast just like the king,
Like the president, like everyone else“ People” …
The role of the beast is gratifying to man,
Mired in cruelty and fornication.
The government that dared war
To declare to another, worthy of execution,
And the citizens, merged into a wave,
We could not listen to him without fear,
He was immediately arrested
What an obviously crazy board...
There is no this - and, therefore, the world is wrong,
Burning with a thirst for self-destruction.
Below the poet writes that:
The most shameful nickname“ hero”
Glorified by inglorious beasts.
A howl of delight buzzes around the killers,
They pray for their health in the temple.
And their breasts are crowned with orders,
And, if the enemy, in the heat of self-defense,
Wounds the beast, the beast's wife
The baby is dressed, warm, well-fed, -
At the expense of the treasury, - for the exploits of the male,
Killed a lot of other males...
O face called face!
If only you understood these lines...
As we can see, the poet believes that war is useless and in this he agrees with Vladimir Solovyov, who believed that war is harmful and useless.
In this chapter there are two worlds: the higher world - the one that is at war, and the lower world - the one that suffers from the war of the higher world.
The poet does not highlight the causes of the war in this chapter, as such, and does not explain its meaning - this serves as proof that the Northerner believed in the meaninglessness of the war and in the absence of the slightest common sense in it.
Throughout the epic, the motives of hopelessness and despair are strong. We can find this in the poem, which is called “Poetry of Despair”. Namely:
I don't know anything, I don't believe in anything
I no longer see the bright sides of life.
I approach my neighbor cautiously, as if I were approaching an animal.
I don't need anything. Boring. I'm tired.
Someone is cutting someone, someone is strangling someone.
Everywhere there is only profit, fraud and lies.
Oh, don't look! oh, my ears wouldn't hear!
Lermontov! Weren't you right?“ What is good about this world?
Thought, even thought is corrupt. Even love is selfish.
There is no realizable dream. Everything is tinsel, everything is dust.
I don’t see happiness in life, I don’t see meaning in life.
I feel terrible. I comprehend fear.
In the poem “VILLA MON REPOS” Severyanin writes:
The meat is full of meat, the meat is full of asparagus,
The meat was full of fish and filled with wine.
And, spread out with meat, in a half-meat carriage
Suddenly it rolled towards the meat in a hat with a large feather.
The meat caressed the meat, and gave itself to the meat,
And he created meat according to earthly instructions.
The meat was sick, rotten and turned into mass
The stinking putrefaction characteristic of meat.
In the poem “Those who kill the dream,” he contrasts the poet with society, characterizes people, writes about the dangers of war and its benefits
for science:
I am neither with these nor with those
Equally aside
Because this is the time
When I have no one to be with...
People are pitiful: they are hostile
They are allotted half a century
They poison, and God is with you,
Annoying man!
Is it really conquest?
All inventions are yours
All discoveries and all knowledge -
For the exhaustion of Love?
In a fever of arms
The one who is young, like the one who is gray,
Looking for a reason to fight
And the neighbor is threatened by the neighbor.
Enlightenment Science,
Encouraging war
I think my grandson will vomit
More than one bitter phrase.
And servile indifference
To the winning verse,
Passion for terry nonsense
And a prayer for nonsense?
Below I give a quote, which, in my opinion, should be of particular interest, since here we can find a portrait of a typical representative of the human race - a person who greatly appreciates and loves art, speaks beautifully and has a lot of other virtues that are simply “necessary” and “important,” according to the poet, in his contemporary society, which he “loved” so much and which valued him so much and always understood and was ready to help the “king of poets”:
Dreamy toadstools,
Lisping suckers, -
Little boys have their hair cut into brackets
False light leads you into darkness.
The muse is crucified on the cross.
This poem ends with lines about what a poet should do in difficult times:
I am neither with these nor with those
Because I have no one to be with.
The Northerner complements the portrait of a man in the poem “Hobbled Dancers”:
And they dance, and they dance, but not for an hour, but for years,
Forgetting about shrines, about art and love
Forgetting about the beauties of despised nature,
Where poets hide - human nightingales.
that is, here too the poet does not miss the opportunity to oppose himself to society.
From the previous chapters we realized that the poet does not have a very good attitude towards love. Similar feelings are reflected in the poem “Sextine XII”:
Passion without love is only lust,
not passion.
Love without passion is simply lovelessness...
The poet believes that humanity is mired in depravity, stupidity and vulgarity to such an extent that it is given over to such annoying cinema that it is no longer worthy to be called humanity:
Cinema and lemonade
Here the gates to bodies open,
And Vulgarity rejoices:“ That's how it should be” .
And Stupidity does its work...
ANALYSIS OF CHAPTER NINE.
The poet begins this chapter with thoughts about death and asks a question
Without war, doesn’t a beast kill another beast?
In the same chapter, he writes about people as about animals, but about animals that, in his opinion, cannot have a soul.
In this chapter, Igor Severyanin quotes Tyutchev, namely those words of his that man is a thinking reed, but then Severyanin writes that
The old man could have chosen a better name
And from this we conclude that Severyanin does not entirely agree with Tyutchev.
The reed symbolizes something good, something that cannot and is not able to kill, while a person easily takes such a step as killing his own kind, but then the poet writes about two human breeds, he asks this question to himself, but does not see it no answer.
We will find sentiments similar to the eighth and ninth chapters in the poem "" Culture! Culture!”, but this poem was written in 1926, that is, after the writing of “The Sunny Savage”, namely:
“ Culture! Culture!” boastdvfew animals,
Those who dared to be called people
And in the world language of world artillery
They instill their cultural feelings in each other,
Deprived of bodily wings and spiritual wings
They dream about the first ones, as they are more understandable to them
With whose help you can kill your blood brothers,
Doom the unfortunate relatives to tears of blood
Their whole glorious life is in the name of creating offspring,
What a majestic, sacred purpose
As if the earth doesn't have enough treachery yet,
And rudeness and malice, enough for a hundred lands.
Culture! Culture! – and, above all,
Inn menagerie!, brothel public house
How boring these moonlights and sunlights are,
Hiding something of their own for us
From these idle, silent poets,
Stigmatizing culture as we understand it.
THOUGHTS THAT ARE REFLECTED
THIS POEM IS CHARACTERISTIC OF THE WORK OF IGOR SEVERYANIN.
ANALYSIS OF CHAPTER TEN.
This chapter is the last in the epic and is entirely devoted to love, which the author equates to the love of animals:
Earthly love! You are the love of animals!
You are brutal love, earthly love
Why is your pinkness gray??
You are lustful, carnal, meaty...
From which it follows that, in his opinion, normal love does not exist and cannot exist, since, in the poet’s memory, love is a simple human lie:
You are built solely on lies.
Who needs a tunic, you've had enough of a jacket...
Freak! You are darkening life
And that’s why you don’t love at all...
And that means that it does not bring happiness into life and that is why it should not be called, but even considered love, and here the author tells us the characteristic features of love, like feelings - these are: betrayal, deception, deceit, self-interest, callousness and heartlessness, and the lot of a lover (according to the author) is a complete absence of happiness, which, in the author’s memory, is expressed in tossing, howling and groaning:
Treason, and deceit, and deceit,
Self-interest, soullessness, heartlessness, lust -
This is your appearance, and someone is drunk with you,
His destiny is to rush about, howl and groan...
The chapter ends with the lines that humanity is mired in lawlessness, and laws have become necessary.
ANALYSIS OF THE FINALE.
The epic ends with the finale.
At the very beginning of the finale, the poet asks the question:
But should I in my forest monastery
Sending curses and judgments to the world?
That is, the poet asked the question: " Why was the poem written, was it necessary to do it, and if necessary, then why, what does it contain, what is its meaning?”
And below we will find another of the components of his utopia - INSPIRATION:
My brotherly home, and in the house there is inspiration...
The northerner writes that all-creative impulses were sent down to him from above:
The Divinity of Free Labor
The gift of creativity given to me by Heaven...
Thanks to Science I'm thundering
Among people praying to art
Blessing to every stem
And glory to human feeling...
And before that, the poet mercilessly smashed human feelings and, suddenly, such a sharp change in feelings.
Blessed is the sinful earth
Living sacredly in your dreams
Blessed are the grain fields
And humanity is blessed...
The poet blesses nature - the sinful earth and grain fields, but this land is still sacred in his dreams, which means in reality everything is far from being so and everything is far from sacred, but here, as if in contrast to nature, its grain fields, the poet blesses Humanity, that is, Humanity a civilization that opposes Nature, fighting with it for its existence in this very nature and together with it, and from this it follows that Humanity or Human civilization cannot exist without nature, and nature without man loses all meaning and becomes useless, and that means the confrontation between Man and Nature is a natural consequence of the existence of these two phenomena taken separately.
Arts, and Science, and Love -
Everything, everything that I branded in my poem,
Blessed forever and ever -
Let there be vindication for all...
In these lines, the poet blesses the Arts and states: no matter how they are scolded, their true meaning will still be understood.
Once the human form is Christ
Accepted, saving the world - people are not beasts...
The northerner concludes that if Human Civilization gave history one such person as Christ, then it is already justified - people are not animals.
Below, man is considered a being close to God, and the poet writes:
Live the deified man
Prepare for a great fate!
ABOUT! There will be a century - I know there will be a century! -
When your sins are gone...
The final lines contain the whole meaning of the epic:
There are no guilty people - all people in the world are right.
CONCLUSIONS.
In the process of working on this essay, I came to a number of conclusions. Here are the main ones:
- in the utopian epic “Sunny Savage”, the Northerner creates his own social structure of society, according to which God is at the head of everything, then come the Poet and the Prophet, but one should not forget that the functions of the Prophet can be taken on by the Poet, below are “Humans” and Animal People , divided into “ordinary” and “scientists”, and the question of which of them is more dangerous remains open.
- The Northerner comes to the conclusion that the Poet can symbolize himself with the Prophet and the Superman, and these two concepts are connected and one follows from the other.
- The poet concludes that Nature has a connection with Utopia, God, Home and Inspiration, with Utopia being sacred. All this, according to the Northerner, is opposed by civilization, the integral features of which are Lies, City, Culture, Sodom and Love. It is worth noting that the poet’s attitude towards Culture and Love is, to put it mildly, negative.
This means that Northerner’s poem is dedicated to such important issues as Culture, Man, Love, Nature and others, but the poet’s opinion does not pretend to be the only true and correct one and cannot be considered and be so, since others may not agree with him.
DIAGRAMS THAT PROVIDE ADDITIONAL COMMUNICATION INFORMATION
MAIN POETIC CONSTANT IMAGES IN IGO'S WORK
RYA NORTHERN.
SCHEME ONE.
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SCHEME TWO.
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SCHEME THREE.
The poet Igor Severyanin is better known as a shocking ego-futurist and a bold word-maker, but few know his later poems, which are distinguished by their classical simplicity of form and clarity of thought. He breaks up with “stylistic frills and no-frills poem” and begins to write in a new way, paying more attention to the meaning, rather than the external side of the work.
If it is of particular interest to lovers of futurism and word creation, then his works from the time of Estonian emigration will appeal to those who, figuratively speaking, appreciate the candy, not the wrapper. The author himself wrote this about the poetic metamorphosis that took place:
Not for fun, not for glory
I write in Onegin's stanza
Unpretentious chapters
Where is the spirit of poetry alive?
In search of the spirit of poetry, the futurist became a classic, one of those whom he once “threw off the ship of modernity.” His colleagues did not condemn him, but, on the contrary, welcomed the change. For example, Marina Tsvetaeva spoke about his creative evening, where he appeared before the public in a new role: “He more than remained a poet, he became one ». Be that as it may, the poet seems to have found himself in Estonia: he got married, started a family, made a huge contribution to the translation of Estonian poetry into Russian, performed a lot and wrote very significant collections. His talent did not fade away in a foreign land, but blossomed even brighter.
Verse size
In this work, the author experiments, so he chooses atypical means of expressing his thoughts. The size of the poem “What do they live for?” it resembles not Onegin’s stanza, but Nekrasov’s poetry, or rather the poetic meter (trimeter amphibrach) in the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus',” distinguished by freedom of expression and flexibility of verse.
Subjects
One of the most popular poems of the period of maturity by Igor Severyanin is an angry denunciation of the philistine way of thinking under the title « What do they live for? » . The poet, with his characteristic causticity and vehemence, throws accusations of primitivism of consciousness, stinginess of heart and depravity of soul into the faces of the philistines. These people are covering up spiritual poverty
...politics, strife and wars, outfits and cards, gluttony and drinking, intrigue and gossip, contagious and festering, impudence, anger, envy, debauchery and whining.
They do anything to avoid doing really important things, just to avoid the sober thoughts and strong feelings that art awakens in us. The unfortunate “beggars” do not understand that it is impossible to live in all this vulgarity, that such a life is a routine vegetation in a beautiful and multifaceted world, that they exist without a higher goal. People are satisfied, but not happy - a typical state of modern consumer society.
Issues
The topicality of the poem lies in the fact that it describes our common misfortune: satiety of the body and hunger of the spirit. The main problem in the poem “How do they live?” designated by the author as “poets and thinkers, artists are not known, they are feared, despised and called drones.” People have forgotten how to think, admire and dream, because, in fact, these are useless activities: there is no profit, and time flies. The people only need bread (gluttony, drink, clothes) and spectacle (wars, intrigues, discord, gossip). Spiritual life does not exist for them, because thinkers, artists and poets are forgotten. The inhabitants remain inertia, in stagnation, because they do not see the beauty of the world, they reject it and are afraid. As Oscar Wilde said, all the most beautiful things are useless. This means that art in this kingdom of utility and banal consumer calculation is persecuted and misunderstood, like an honest minstrel at the court of a power-hungry tyrant.
Main idea
The only thing that really captivates such people is making offspring. Quite a rude and harsh remark addressed to a decent consumer. The unfortunate truth is that apart from sex, obscene entertainment and aggressive demagoguery, the “people” who “gobble” don’t like anything. A monstrously narrow circle of interests is limited to sensual pleasure. The poet wants to convey to us an omen: if society continues to “develop” in the same spirit, what awaits us is the writer who came up with his famous dystopia just 9 years (1932) after Severyanin wrote “How do they live?” (1923). In 1921, our compatriot Yevgeny Zamyatin wrote a novel in the dystopian genre. , where he also prophesied to people the quick burial of all their ideals and goals under a thick sticky layer of internal slavery, which gives rise to individual slavery on a state scale. Artists all over the world sounded the alarm in those years to warn humanity not to allow such a terrible future.
Some researchers argue that Northerner’s poetic philippics were inspired by the situation of his compatriots, because he, like many artists, was disillusioned with the revolution. In the poem “What do they live for?” the creators are called "drones". A drone is a male bee that lives only at the expense of others. Such an offensive stigma is not accidental. In the aggressive rhetoric of Soviet polemicists, a free artist was certainly assessed as a lazy person, a burden and a parasite (later even an article of the Criminal Code appeared, which provided for real punishment for parasitism, which the poet Joseph Brodsky would receive in due time).
The word “drone” in relation to the creator was familiar and understandable to a person of that era, just as something like the phrase “double standards” or the word “counter-sanctions” is clear to us. This reference to the terminology of the USSR gives reason to believe that Severyanin was referring to Soviet society. In the twenties, reaction was already setting in in the Soviet Union, invariably following the revolution, so many artists, poets and thinkers were already affected by the first repressive measures. It became clear that the new government fears and despises honest and unbiased creators.
The northerner once warmly welcomed the change in the system, but later felt deceived, because the regime did not soften, but, on the contrary, began to devour its singers, regulate art and suppress free creative impulse. Perhaps it was precisely the resentment and anger at the treacherous lies of the 1917 revolution that inspired the poet to write the angry poem “How Do They Live?”
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