The War of 1812 changed the views of the leading part of the nobles in relation to serfdom and the autocratic power of Russia. Pushkin’s moral development was influenced by the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, which was conceived as an educational institution for noble children and which was supposed to prepare future officials, loyal subjects of the tsarist government. But it turned out the other way around. The Lyceum became a stronghold of free thought.
A huge influence on the freedom-loving ideas of the lyceum students was exerted by the lyceum professor Alexander Petrovich Kunitsyn, who taught logic, ethics, psychology and legal sciences, and believed that power must be limited, and not only social power, but also parental power, otherwise it turns into tyranny.
Under the influence of the philosophy of Rousseau and Kant, lectures by Kunitsyn, communication with lyceum students, against the backdrop of the mood that was in the air after the Patriotic War, an ode was born that forever ruined Pushkin’s relationship with the emperor, and served as the reason for his expulsion from the capital. This - .
It was created immediately after graduating from the Lyceum, in 1917, when Pushkin was staying in the apartment of the Turgenev brothers on Fontanka, whose windows overlooked the Mikhailovsky Castle. The same castle where Tsar Pavel Petrovich was killed. Perhaps this view from the window inspired the young but already famous poet to create such a free-thinking work.
When on the gloomy Neva
The midnight star sparkles
And a carefree chapter
A restful sleep is burdensome,
The pensive singer looks
On menacingly sleeping in the midst of the fog
Desert monument to the tyrant,
A palace abandoned to oblivion
Before Pushkin, odes were written glorifying and praising those in power. Pushkin's ode serves the opposite purpose. She condemns absolute monarchy. The main idea of this work is a protest against autocracy.
Only there above the royal head
The suffering of the peoples did not end,
Where is the Holy Liberty strong?
Powerful combination of laws;
In this work, the poet openly and emotionally expresses his feelings and attitude towards autocracy. It is not surprising, therefore, that during Pushkin’s lifetime the ode was not published, but it very quickly spread through the lists, and nevertheless ended up on the emperor’s desk.
Tyrants of the world! tremble!
And you, take courage and listen,
Arise, fallen slaves!
Analyzing the ode “Liberty”, we see that it is divided into 3 parts. In the first part, the poet outlines the purpose of the work:
I want to sing Freedom to the world,
Smite vice on thrones.
In the second part, the poet expresses his opinion about the law, which is “higher than the crown and the throne.” The poet develops his thought using significant examples of the Russian Tsar Paul and the French kings.
The third part of the ode is a conclusion with an appeal to those in power:
Bow your heads first
Under the safe canopy of the Law,
And they will become eternal guardians of the throne
Freedom and peace for the people.
The poem is a lyrical monologue written in iambic tetrameter. The rhyme is unstressed, with mixed stanzas. All this gives the work dynamism and clarity of rhythm.
In the ode “Liberty,” for all the severity of the composition, there are many expressive epithets: “weak queen,” “pampered lyre,” weak tears,” “noble trace.” These and other epithets help the poet convey his main idea - the law is above all.
Oda A.S. Pushkin echoes Radishchev’s ode of the same name, but he puts the people above autocracy. Although both works affirm the ideals of freedom and humanity. This work was evaluated by A.I. Herzen, who wrote that “Pushkin’s Song continued the past era, filled the present with courageous sounds and sent its voice to the distant future.”
All works by A.S. Pushkin’s works perfectly convey the palette of feelings that the brilliant poet experienced throughout his life. Freedom-loving poetry always came first for him, especially in his early work. Even during his youth at the Lyceum, Pushkin noted to himself that every person has the right to freedom. However, the ruling political circles create conditions for the people that will certainly burden and make their existence unbearable.
Freethinking
Pushkin’s ode “Liberty” entered precisely the early period of the work of this great poet. At that time, he was too naive and could not even guess that censorship existed. Pushkin expressed his thoughts too openly and thought that he had every right to do so.
Pushkin’s work “Liberty” was written by him immediately after graduating from the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum in 1817. By that time, he no longer doubted his destiny in fiction and most of all dreamed of universal freedom, which he often sang in his poems.
Already in the first lines of Pushkin’s ode “Liberty,” one hears a call and readiness to sacrifice everything he has, even his talent, for the sake of freedom. The poetic lines sound like a spell: “Come, tear off my crown...” In this work there is a predetermination of his fate as a citizen and as a poet. He is convinced: since the Lord has gifted him with extraordinary literary talent, then there is no need to waste it on all sorts of trifles. Pushkin considers his goal necessary, noble and calls: “Tyrants of the world! Tremble!... arise, fallen slaves!”
Ode “Liberty” Pushkin: analysis
But be that as it may, the still very young Pushkin understands that it will be very difficult to achieve changes for the better in the world. He regrets that “the disastrous disgrace of laws” reigns all around and all classes of society have to put up with them. And if high-ranking authorities take all this for granted, then for the poor serfs, corvee and serfdom are all the same as shackles.
Pushkin defines two main forces of society in the 19th century: glory and slavery. The valiant Russian people were able to glorify their homeland with great victories and exploits. However, the other side of this coin was slavery and terrible beggary.
The poet is interested in what modern society will look like when it becomes truly free? For this, he turns to the archives of the history of the Zaporozhye Sich, where a lot was said about equality and freedom. It was then that Pushkin matured to his revolutionary ode. “Liberty” is a poem that is the result of the perception of the existing system that he hates.
Condemnation of autocracy
In his reasoning about the purpose of man, Pushkin comes to the conclusion that state power should not be inherited, it should be given to the one who is most worthy of it. Therefore, Pushkin becomes an opponent of autocracy; he sees both great darkness and silent submission of the people. The poet notes that not only contemporaries, but also ordinary people of Europe, where lawlessness was also happening, were “shamefully silent.” He predicts reward for the rulers and unfailing life according to the law.
Pushkin’s work “Liberty” was never published during his lifetime, only then Herzen published it in the second book of the collection “Polar Star” from 1856.
Faith in the best
Continuing this topic, it must be said that the poet to some extent understood the impossibility of changing the autocratic system. And then he himself admitted that he never called for bloodshed and revolution. But at the same time, he never abandoned his dreams of a bright future for the people. Pushkin believed, like a child, that the world would change someday anyway and his priorities would be justice, equality and freedom.
This work, of course, did not remain without attention and reaction from the government, and therefore in 1820 Pushkin was sent to Southern exile, away from the capital.
Ode “Liberty”, Pushkin: genre
The ode also influenced the socialist revolution of 1917 to some extent. The theme of protest against the absolute monarchy found a response in Bolshevik circles. After all, her lines: “Automatic villain, I hate you, your throne!” - were still very relevant a hundred years later.
Pushkin’s ode “Liberty” is written in the form of a lyrical monologue with highly colored vocabulary. All this creates dynamic text and a clear rhythm. The poet's thoughts and feelings can be traced through the strict composition. Various artistic means in the form of epithets: “noble trace”, “fatal passion”, “unjust Power”, etc., and personifications: “The Law is silent” help to make the text brighter and more colorful. Verbs and gerunds are repeated more often than other parts of speech: “run, break, take courage, listen, rise.”
Pushkin has the talent to quite easily convey very important issues and problems to the masses.
Pushkin's ode "Liberty" is divided into three parts. In the first, he turns to his muse. Then he expresses his dissatisfaction with the ruling authorities. And he ends it all with an appeal to the king.
In his ode, Pushkin talks about slavery and how autocrats are indifferent to their slaves. The poet opposes serfdom. Slavery for him is the personification of a formidable genius, and fame is like a fatal passion. He is trying to prove to the rulers that they are not in power because of their ambitions and desires; their patronage is accompanied by the law. The poet somewhat humiliates the powerful kings, believing that they have not done anything good for the people. He says about the army that although the army may seem ruthless and daring at first glance, there is fear in their eyes.
At the very end of the ode, the poet calls on the kings to respect the will of the people and act first of all according to the law, without trampling on it.
Pushkin’s views were fully and clearly expressed in his ode “Liberty,” written shortly after leaving the Lyceum, in the same 1817.
The very name of the ode indicates that Pushkin took Radishchev’s poem of the same name as a model. In a version of one line of “Monument”, Pushkin emphasizes the connection between his ode and Radishchev’s ode.
Pushkin, like Radishchev, glorifies liberty and political freedom. Both of them point to historical examples of the triumph of liberty (Radishchev - to the English revolution of the 17th century, Pushkin - to the French revolution of 1789). Following Radishchev, Pushkin believes that an equal law for everyone is the key to ensuring political freedom in the country.
But Radishchev’s ode is a call for a popular revolution, for the overthrow of the tsarist power in general, and Pushkin’s ode is directed only against “tyrants” who place themselves above the law. Pushkin expressed in his ode the views of the early Decembrists, under whose influence he was.
However, the power of Pushkin's verse and the poet's artistic skill gave the ode a more revolutionary meaning. It was perceived by progressive youth as a call for revolution. For example, the famous Russian surgeon Pirogov, recalling the days of his youth, tells the following fact. One of his fellow students, once talking about Pushkin’s political views, reflected in the ode “Liberty,” said: “In our opinion, it’s not like that; a revolution is a revolution, like the French one, with a guillotine.” Then another angrily exclaimed: “Which of you dares to talk about Pushkin like that? Listen! - and read the poems:
Autocratic villain!
I hate you, your throne,
Your death, the death of children
I see it with cruel joy.
They read on your forehead
Seal of the curse of the nations,
You are the horror of the world, the shame of nature,
You are a reproach to God on earth.
The final lines of the second stanza sounded no less revolutionary to readers:
Tyrants of the world! tremble!
And you, take courage and listen,
Arise, fallen slaves!
Pushkin, following the example of Radishchev, put his poem in the form of an ode. The ode begins with an appeal to the formidable muse for kings - the proud singer of freedom, and the theme is immediately indicated: “I want to sing freedom to the world, to defeat vice on the thrones.” What follows is a statement of the main position: for the good of nations, a combination of powerful laws with holy liberty is necessary. This position is then illustrated with historical examples (Louis XVI, Paul I). The ode ends, as usual, with an appeal to the king to learn a lesson from what was said.
The harmony of the composition helps to follow the movement of the poet’s thoughts and feelings. In accordance with the content of the ode, the verbal means of its expression are also found.
The poet’s speech, upbeat, excited, reflects his various feelings: a fiery desire for freedom (I stanza), indignation against tyrants (II stanza), the grief of a citizen at the sight of reigning lawlessness (III stanza), etc. The poet finds accurate and at the same time figurative words to express thoughts and feelings that excite him. Thus, he calls the muse of the political ode “the thunderstorm of kings,” “the proud singer of freedom,” who inspires “brave hymns.”
The ode “Liberty” had a great revolutionaryizing influence on Pushkin’s contemporaries; it served the Decembrists in their revolutionary agitation.
One should not think that the most important Pushkin is Pushkin, newly published.
The newly discovered poems by Pushkin are interesting.
And the newly proposed ways of reading old poems narrow the poet, change his reading destiny, and take something away from us.
I'm talking about the ode "Liberty", which is also called "Freedom".
The note you are reading is still a preface.
Before I begin the article, I must justify myself. I will try to defend myself using methods that are alien to me, because I want to be understandable by those people who are now interpreting Pushkin in a new way.
Therefore, first of all, I remind them that for Pushkin the name of Napoleon was associated not only with the name of Peter, but also with the name of Robespierre.
I will say in advance that by the end of his life Pushkin was associated with three more names - Peter, Razin, Pugachev.
Now we will talk about the ode “Liberty”.
In his memoirs, F. F. Wigel describes the creation of this poem as follows:
“Of the people who were older than him, Pushkin visited the Turgenev brothers most often. They lived on the Fontanka, right opposite the Mikhailovsky Castle, which is now Engineering, and highly intelligent young freethinkers often gathered with them, that is, with the youngest, Nicholas. One of them, looking out the open window at the empty palace then abandoned to oblivion, jokingly suggested that Pushkin write poetry about it. On his mother's side, he was descended from an Arab, General Hannibal, and with the flexibility of his limbs and the speed of his movements he was somewhat like blacks and the humanoid inhabitants of Africa. With this agility, he suddenly jumped onto a large long table that stood in front of the window, stretched out on it, grabbed a pen and paper and began to write with a laugh. The poems were good, but not excellent... Having finished, he showed them, and, I don’t know why, called them an ode to “Freedom.” This impromptu was soon forgotten, and I doubt that it passed around much. Pushkin did not write anything else in the liberal spirit even then” (“Memoirs of Vigel”, vol. III, M., 1866, p. 84).
The ode was written down by Pushkin during interrogation, and in his white autograph he put the date 1817 on it.
The eighth stanza of this ode is especially famous:
Autocratic villain!((A.S. Pushkin, Complete Works in six volumes, 3rd ed., State Publishing House "Fiction", M. - L., 1935, vol. I, p. 292.))
I hate you, your throne,
Your death, the death of children
I see it with cruel joy.
They read on your forehead
Seal of the curse of the nations,
You are the horror of the world, the shame of nature,
You are a reproach to God on earth.
This stanza has always been perceived as an appeal to the Russian emperor.
At one of the meetings of the Pushkin Commission of the Society of Lovers of Russian Literature, student Ilya Feinberg-Samoilov (this was in March 1929) read a report that the usual understanding of the stanza is incorrect, and provided a number of evidence.
The seventh stanza says:
The law is silent - the people are silent,
The criminal ax will fall...
And behold - the villainous purple
He lies on the bound Gauls.
Pushkin made a note to this stanza:
“Napoleonic porphyry, notes for V.L. Pushkin, my uncle (native).”
In addition, in the draft of the ode “On the Death of Napoleon,” Pushkin called the deceased emperor a villain and the monster of the universe.
True, in the ode “Napoleon” Pushkin discarded all these characteristics given in the draft, taking a different interpretation for the image of Napoleon.
The position of stanza eight is between the stanza about the death of Louis and the stanza beginning with the words:
When on the gloomy Neva
The midnight star sparkles, -
Feinberg's report was heard and approved by M. A. Tsyavlovsky; It was not published, nor was it discussed.
In Pushkin's one-volume book, now published under the editorship of B.V. Tomashevsky, this idea, argued in 1929, has already turned - seven years later - into a Pushkinian axiom.
B.V. Tomashevsky added a note to the stanza: “The attitude towards Napoleon as an “autocratic villain” is characteristic of the era after the war of 1812.”
The same was done in the Academy publication.
Pushkin called Napoleon a great man and said:
May he be overshadowed by shame(("Napoleon", 1821))
The cowardly one who today
The madmen will be outraged by reproach
His debunked shadow!
For Pushkin, these lines did not express a new attitude towards Napoleon, but an old one.
He gave a note to the stanza in a letter to Vyazemsky:
“This stanza has no meaning now, but it was written at the beginning of 1821; however, this is my last liberal nonsense, I have repented...” (1823).
Desert sower of freedom,
I left early, before the star;
With a clean and innocent hand
Into the enslaved reins
Threw a life-giving seed -
But I only lost time
Good thoughts and works...
Graze, peaceful peoples!
Why do the herds need the gifts of freedom?
I quote this verse because it again mentions freedom.
Pushkin seems to return to his old ode, renouncing it, and at the same time connects his positive attitude towards Napoleon with his old poems.
Now, it seems, I have outlined all the reasons that some Pushkinists have laid as the basis for a new interpretation of the poem, rejecting the centuries-old tradition.
With a new interpretation of the poem, Pushkin turned out to be a typical defender of a constitutional monarchy.
We should not modernize Pushkin, but before rethinking his poems, we must carefully look at what the hundred-year tradition of perception, going back to the times of Pushkin himself, is based on.
The poem was written in the era of the Holy Alliance, during the era of the Bourbon restoration, therefore the third stanza of the ode:
Alas! wherever I look -
Scourges everywhere, glands everywhere,
Laws are a disastrous shame,
Captivity weak tears;
There is unjust power everywhere
In the thick darkness of prejudice
Vossela - a formidable genius of slavery
And glory is a fatal passion... -
it is most correct to perceive it as an image of post-revolutionary Europe.
It is unlikely that Pushkin, Chaadaev’s friend, thought that there was no difference between Napoleon and the Bourbons.
The ode “Liberty” was written either in 1817 or 1819.
The first date was indicated by Pushkin himself, but data from correspondence between A. I. Turgenev and P. A. Vyazemsky point to 1819.
Pushkin had reason to make his ode look younger: this reduced his guilt; it turned out to be written by an 18-year-old boy.
In any case, by the time the ode was written, Napoleon did not have any throne, and there was nothing to hate his throne for.
In addition, Napoleon had only one son, who died only in 1832.
Thus, the hero of the eighth stanza has characteristics that directly contradict the image of Napoleon.
The whole ode speaks of autocracy, and Russian autocracy at that.
Let's take Pushkin's poem from 1822.
How long has decrepit Europe been raging?((Pushkin, vol. I, p. 414.))
Germany was seething with new hope,
Austria was tottering, Naples was rebelling,
Beyond the Pyrenees it has long been the fate of the people
Freedom already rules,
And autocracy only sheltered the north?
Here it is absolutely clear and understandable what kind of autocracy Pushkin is talking about.
Caesar here is the Russian Tsar, standing at the head of the Holy Alliance; this is the tyrant of the world whom Pushkin curses.
The ode gives a synthetic portrait of Paul and Alexander, and Alexander is larger than Paul.
“The reign of Paul proves one thing: that Caligulas can be born even in enlightened times. Russian defenders of autocracy disagree and take Madame de Staël’s glorious joke as the basis of our constitution: En Russle le gouvernement est un despotisme mitige par la strangulation. (Government in Russia is despotism limited by a noose) (Pushkin, vol. VI, p. 24).
The children who die under the autocratic villain are the children of the Romanovs.
Paul's daughters died in 1795, 1801, and 1803.
Alexander's daughters died in 1800 and 1808.
The fact that the poem was written in 1817 is generally unlikely to me. It sounds like a later one.
Here I must add one more circumstance, important for dating.
On December 28, 1818, Alexander’s sister and lover, Ekaterina Pavlovna, died. News of this was received in Russia on January 11.
This was Alexander's great grief.
The image of Caligula is associated not only with Paul, but also with Alexander, because Caligula was the murderer of his father and the husband of his sister.
We find mention of the poems on “Liberty” in Karamzin’s letter dated April 19, 1820. At this time, the death of Ekaterina Pavlovna was very fresh, and it seems to me that the poem was written at the beginning of 1819 and Pushkin’s “cruel joy” has the exact address.
Pushkin knew all this perfectly well. In 1824, he recorded his imaginary conversation with Alexander I.
I present a recording of this conversation and draw your attention to the fact that it talks about some Pushkin-like accusations that are directed against the personal truth and honor of the tsar.
Here's the conversation:
“If I were a king, I would call Alexander Pushkin and tell him: “Alexander Sergeevich, you write poetry beautifully.” Alexander Pushkin would have bowed to me with some modest confusion, and I would have continued: “I read your ode Freedom. It is written a little confusingly, slightlythought out,” and I: “But there are three very good stanzas here... “I noticed [you] tried to denigrate me in the eyes of the people by spreading absurd slander. I see that you may have unfounded opinions; that you did not respect personal truth and honor even in the king.” “Oh, Your Majesty, why mention this children’s ode?” (Pushkin, vol. VI, p. 369).
Here Pushkin, through the mouth of Alexander, speaks about the “confusion” of the ode, and “confusion” is an accusation, and a political accusation.
Alexander accuses Pushkin of violating “personal truth and honor in the tsar.”
Pushkin knew the price of his “inconsistency,” he was cunning with his uncle and was frank in an imaginary conversation with Alexander I.
Pushkin does not make excuses and refers only to “Ruslan and Lyudmila.”
I apologize in advance to Pushkinists if I have incorrectly placed quotation marks and straight brackets in my quotations, the theory of which is now so well developed, but it seems to me beyond doubt that the traditional perception of “Liberty” is correct, and several generations were not mistaken when they put into them what was rejected B.V. Tomashevsky interpretation.
The ode “Liberty” is politically directed directly against Paul and Alexander, it was written in such a way that it was possible to justify oneself and refer to confusion.
What to do with the note about your uncle?
The note about Napoleonic porphyry was made in order to give a censored version through a frivolous gossip and confuse the meaning of the next stanza, which represents the emotional center of the entire work.
The stanza is equipped with features that allow it to be attributed to Napoleon. It is staged this way, but it is interpreted by the next stanza, and this was done by the poet consciously.
In the ode “Liberty,” the beginning of the ode is built almost from abstract political concepts.
The middle of the ode gives a specific description and, by contrast, becomes the center of the entire poem.
The confusion in the stanza arises due to the fact that the landscape background is placed after it, and not before it, and the transition to Russia is not emphasized.
On the contrary, the ironic note talking about the uncle emphasizes the harmlessness of the previous stanza.
Pushkin's note diverts the meaning of the poetic passage from its direct political sound, without at the same time canceling it.
The ironic meaning of the note, I think, is clear to everyone.
Obviously, here we need to talk about Pushkin’s notes in general, because the whole dispute cannot be resolved by a simple comparison of drafts and variants.
Take Eugene Onegin.
In the first chapter there are two themes: a theme about the hero of the poem and a theme about the fate of a poet who dreams of a change in fate.
There are no deviations from the main theme, but a fugue of both themes.
The urgency of the main biographical theme is weakened by the notes.
In Pushkin's Chapter I of Eugene Onegin, there is a theme about the poet's desire to flee his country in order to take part in the revolutionary struggle for the liberation of Greece.
This topic is hidden in notes. The main plot with all its details is a parody.
Biplane is at the very core of the work.
This circumlocution is made from verses and notes.
In stanza two, Pushkin writes:
I once walked there too:
But the north is bad for me.
And then he adds a note: “Written in Bessarabia.”
The eighth stanza includes a mention of the exiled Ovid Nazon, and it is indicated that he was exiled to Moldavia. The note given here enriches the reader with unnecessary details about Ovid and has the parodic nature of a scholarly note. It reduces the coincidence of the second and eighth stanzas, or rather, it emphasizes this coincidence and at the same time takes it in a different direction.
The notes go further, reinterpreting the text and lowering "Eugene Onegin". The theme of the ball includes the theme of legs; The theme of separation includes the theme of the sea. The whole digression ends with a stanza in which the last two lines rhyme round out the theme of women's legs.
At the end of the chapter, Pushkin moves on to a direct conversation with the reader.
In the stanza about St. Petersburg there is a place about Eugene Onegin, who leaned on granite. Pushkin’s drawing shows us exactly the place: he stands in front of the Peter and Paul Fortress, Pushkin stands next to him; The epigram that has been preserved from Pushkin once again emphasizes the Peter and Paul Fortress. The stanza is conspired by two quotes describing the same places in St. Petersburg. Quoted by Muravyov:
Show favor to the goddess
He sees an enthusiastic drink,
Who spends the night sleepless,
Leaning on granite.
This is false evidence, the granite is reinterpreted in the note, and the stanzas go their own way.
In St. Petersburg, the sentries call to each other. Pushkin thinks about Torquato Tasso. Then in the next stanza he moves on to the Adriatic wolves. Byron (Albion's lyre) is mentioned. And it ends with a transition to the future tense. The topic appears - Italy.
In it my lips will find
The language of Petrarch and love.
In the fiftieth stanza, Pushkin switches to confession:
Will the hour of my freedom come?((Pushkin, vol. III, p. 273.))
It's time, it's time! - I appeal to her;
I'm wandering over the sea, waiting for the weather,
Manyu sailed the ships.
Under the robe of storms, arguing with the waves,
Along the free crossroads of the sea
When will I start free running?
It's time to leave the boring beach
Elements that are hostile to me,
And among the midday swells,
Under my African sky,
Sigh about gloomy Russia,
Where I suffered, where I loved,
Where did I bury my heart...
There are two asides to this completely frank stanza. These are the last two lines, bringing everything into the usual poetic commonplace, and a note about Africa.
For the verse “Wandering over the sea, waiting for the weather” there is a note: “Written in Odessa.” It translates intention into a picture. Pushkin seemed to have seen and written.
A huge note is given about Africa, with a biography of the Hannibals. It gives a false address. In itself it is interesting, but it diverts the theme of escape, gives another motive, longing for some kind of second homeland, which is already politically harmless.
Here the piece is built on fluctuations in meaning: the poet either finishes his main idea, then hides it again.
Pushkin's descriptions are always simple, direct, and consist, as it were, of one direct naming of a thing. At the same time they are wide.
Connected with this is Pushkin’s constant repulsion from the descriptive prose of his day.
Of course, Pushkin, as a brilliant writer, has other methods of perceiving reality.
In Eugene Onegin there are passages of a completely new perception of things - for example: half-asleep Onegin is driving home. Petersburg is listed as a theme for paintings; it is prepared for an illustrated edition; the engravings seem to have been ordered in Paris.
While the construction goes like this: “The merchant gets up, the peddler walks,” and suddenly it becomes more complicated. After a completely general phrase: “I woke up in the morning with a pleasant noise,” comes the simplest phrase: “The shutters are open,” and after it a different attitude to the thing: “The chimney smoke rises in a blue column.”
This is the perception that the impressionists will fight for.
Normal smoke is brown. Winter, morning, sunlit - blue.
Here Pushkin needed a colorful perception. This is an element of the maturation of a new life relationship, a new vision of things.
But if we talk about the entire system of the novel, then things are described in Balzac, but things are named in Pushkin.
Nouns are carried in verse.
Pushkin's versatility is a deep property of his poetry and prose.
The absence of complex imagery, on which Pushkin insists, the direct naming of an object is the basis of his poetics because imagery is achieved by a complex relationship of semantic planes.
Pushkin’s work is an ode, that is, the genre in the use of which the author follows in the “noble footsteps” (“Open for me the noble footsteps...”) of Radishchev, who in Russia “was the first to prophesy freedom” (an image from his ode), and in addition, all those poets who previously responded to the call of an unusual muse - not Queen Cythera (Cythera is an island in Greece where the cult of the goddess of love and beauty Aphrodite was widespread), but “Freedom of the proud singer”. The lyrical hero of the poem calls on her in the first stanza:
Run, hide from sight,
Cytheras are a weak queen!
Where are you, where are you, thunderstorm of kings,
Freedom's proud singer? —
Come, tear off the wreath from me,
Break the pampered lyre...
I want to sing freedom to the world...
He is attracted to this poem by “proud”, “brave” motives that elevate the poet. The second stanza recalls the “sublime Gaul” - the French author P.D.E. Lebrun (1729-1807), ten years since his death, but whose contribution to the struggle against norms that hampered social and spiritual development is an inspiring example for the youth of the 1810s:
Reveal to me the noble trail
That exalted Gaul,
Who herself in the midst of glorious troubles
You inspired bold hymns.
The mention of hymns is not accidental, since Lebrun wrote odes glorifying the activities of educators and republican ideals. It is this feature of the genre that is important for Pushkin. His ode "Liberty" continues the tradition of writing solemn, upbeat stanzas that explore important socio-political or moral issues (defining the ode as a genre of lyric poetry). However, the subject, like Radishchev’s, is so unusual that, as the latter wrote, the poem “for its title alone” cannot be accepted by champions of power (“Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow,” chapter “Tver”). The celebration of freedom in both poets takes on a political connotation.
The source of discussions about the life-giving “spirit of freedom” (Radishchev) was the ideology of the Enlightenment (the Age of Enlightenment is the activity of thinkers, scientists, writers of the 17th-18th centuries, who sought to dispel the darkness of ignorance—for Radishchev, “thick darkness”—which interfered with the rational structure of society and achieving personal happiness), widespread in England and France, which became relevant at the end of the 18th century. and for Russia. It was generally accepted (Catherine II corresponded with Voltaire, one of the most famous French educators), did not lead to rebellious sentiments, on the contrary, it required a reasonable approach to finding ways to achieve prosperity, taking into account the interests of all layers, and respecting the natural right to freedom of every person. However, the lyrical hero of Radishchev’s ode realized that in Russia it was impossible to erect a “temple of the Law” that protects this right; the social disasters that have befallen people for centuries require vengeance (they also have a “vengeful right”). In order for history to develop along the path prescribed by nature itself, it is necessary to throw off the shackles of social bondage. The contradiction between the requirement to observe the “Never Unchangeable” law of individual freedom and the recognition of the “right of the avenged” people, liberated from centuries-old dependence by violent means, was resolved by Radishchev in favor of the latter. Harmony in a bloody, dark, brutal society turned out to be unattainable, reason gave way to feelings - and among them, in the first place was admiration for the courage of the fighters for social justice: they, overcoming obstacles, paved the way to the “Dear Fatherland” - the kingdom of freedom, illuminated by radiance, splendor (“brilliant day”), the light of the ideal. When it opens to people:
Then all the forces of the authorities will add up
It will dissipate in an instant.
O day, most chosen of all days!
For Pushkin's lyrical hero, both the educational spirit of historical generalizations and rebellious pathos were important. He is Radishchev’s heir, continuing his work fifteen years after his death, that “young man hungry for glory” who “with feeling” turns to history, from whom it evokes a lively emotional response; Radishchev expected and foresaw the appearance of such a poet:
May my cold ashes fall
Majesty, that today I sang;
Yes, a young man hungry for glory,
The dilapidated one will come to my grave,
So that I can speak with feeling...
In twelve stanzas (stanza - from the Greek “turn”; a combination of lines, the main features of which - lyrical, rhyme-forming, compositional - are periodically repeated in the poem) of Pushkin’s ode “Liberty”, historical examples are given to prove his main idea. Over the three “tyrants of the world” a “terrible voice of Clea” was heard (Clio is the muse of history in Greek mythology, images of their stanzas 2, 10). Contemporaries well remember the “sound of recent storms” (stanza 6) both in France and in Russia. The first to appear is the image of Louis XVI, “the martyr of glorious mistakes,” who “laid down the royal head” on the “bloody scaffold” during the Great French Revolution (stanzas 6, 7) in 1793:
I call you as a witness,
O martyr of glorious mistakes,
For the ancestors in the noise of recent storms
Laying down the royal head.
Louis ascends to death
In view of the silent offspring,
The head of the debunked
To the bloody scaffold...
The revolution did not lead to liberation, the Gauls (here the French) remained “fettered” (stanza 7), and the “Auto-powerful villain” reigned over them - Napoleon I, who seized power after a coup d'etat in 1799, and five years later became emperor. The angry reproaches of the lyrical hero are addressed to him, for whom he, in this context (the image of Napoleon in Pushkin’s lyrics undergoes changes; in the poem “To the Sea”, 1824, the soul of the lyrical hero is struck by the thought of the greatness of his personality) is a terrible criminal whose actions deserve denunciation , hatred, terrible retribution:
Autocratic villain!
I hate you, your throne,
Your death, the death of children
I see it with cruel joy.
They read on your forehead
Seal of the curse of the nations,
You are the horror of the world, the shame of nature,
You are a reproach to God on earth.
(“Liberty”, stanza 8)
In Russia, the last atrocity against the tsarist power was the murder of Paul I in 1801, the death of the “crowned villain” at the hands of “hidden murderers” who inflicted “blows” on him in his palace above the “gloomy Neva”: (stanzas 9-11) :
The unfaithful sentry is silent,
The drawbridge is silently lowered,
The gates are open in the darkness of the night
The hired hand of betrayal...
Oh shame! oh, the horror of our days!
Like beasts, the Janissaries invaded!..
Inglorious blows will fall...
The crowned villain died.
Three historical examples recreate the most significant political events of the last thirty years - the time that has passed since the writing of Radishchev’s ode. Pushkin's lyrical hero complements the evidence of his predecessor, their concepts are similar, their thoughts continue each other. Like Radishchev, the villains are also tyrants, kings who usurped power (from the Latin “illegal seizure, appropriation of someone else’s rights”), who placed themselves above the law, and at the same time those who encroach on their lives. Both masters and slaves must not forget that the eternal law is above all (“But the eternal law is above you” - stanza 5). The revolution is a “glorious,” majestic, but erroneous path to achieving equality (the executed Louis XVI is “the martyr of glorious mistakes,” stanza 6). Murder is a terrible, shameful act (“Oh shame! Oh the horror of our days!” - stanza 11), similar to the arbitrariness of the Janissaries (“How, the animals invaded the Janissaries!..” - stanza 11), daring and significant only outwardly, in reality but inglorious, evil, showing that those who are trying to change the world order have “fear in their hearts” (stanza 10):
He sees - in ribbons and stars,
Drunk with wine and anger,
Hidden killers are coming,
There is insolence on their faces, fear in their hearts.
Analogies from the past help prove the enduring nature of the requirements of legality in human society. The murder in the Mikhailovsky Palace (for Paul I in St. Petersburg, according to the design of V.I. Bazhenov, a palace was built in the form of a castle, surrounded by a moat with water; construction in 1797-1800 was led by V.F. Brenna) is reminiscent of the massacre of the Roman emperor Caligula, well-known desire to deify one’s personality (<1241>; killed by palace guards). Whatever the person who finds himself on the throne, killing him is a crime. Not only people, but nature itself (Napoleon - “the shame of nature,” stanza 8) does not accept cruelty. In the view of the lyrical hero Pushkin, the ax raised above the head of the “crowned villain” is also “villainous”, “criminal”. He “sees vividly” the last hour of both Caligula (stanza 10), and the “martyr” Louis XVI, and the Russian Tsar Paul I, betrayed by his subjects, and does not hide his sympathy for those who heard the “terrible voice” of history (the significance of the epithet is emphasized by the repetition: “ And Kpii hears a terrible voice/Behind these terrible walls...” - stanza 10).
However, it is impossible to tolerate the shame of autocracy, it is impossible not to desire the approach of its “destruction” (“the seal of the curse” on the tyrant’s brow is depicted with the help of hyperboles in the image of Napoleon). The way out of this contradiction on a substantive level is the expectation that the time will come when “Citizens over equal heads” will erect a solid shield of law (stanza 4). But the meaning of the poem “Liberty” is not limited to this educational requirement. The rebellious nature of Pushkin's ode was keenly perceived by his contemporaries, who read it in lists (the poem was not published). One of them was donated by the author of the book. E.I. Golitsyna, which became the reason for expressing a subjective assessment of her own poem:
A simple student of nature,
That's how I used to sing
A beautiful dream of freedom
And he breathed it sweetly.
(“Prince Golitsina, sending her an ode to “Liberty”, 1818)
It is obvious that for the poet, in addition to displaying beautiful speculative aspirations, the freedom-loving spirit of creativity is important. To see how such an ephemeral (from the Greek “one-day, fleeting”; illusory, intangible) property is expressed, one must turn to the characteristics of the lyrical hero. The first part of the poem not only sets out his position, but also reveals the peculiarities of his attitude to reality. Chasing away youthful hobbies, childish effeminacy (“Run... tear off my wreath, / break the effeminate lyre...” - stanza 1), he expresses a passionate desire to sing of freedom as a political demand, the fulfillment of which is prevented by tyrants, “unjust power” ( stanzas 2-3). Maximalism is noticeable in his ideas about the world (“Alas! wherever I look - / Everywhere are whips, everywhere are glands, / Laws are a disastrous shame, / Captivity is weak tears; / Everywhere is unrighteous power...” - stanza 3). It is not an indicator of romantic disappointment; on the contrary, the lyrical hero of the ode is confident that it is possible to create a civil society, this is a matter of the near future. To do this, he is ready to part with calmness, carefreeness, pleasures, turning to social activities. The poet does not abandon his destiny, remaining a “thoughtful singer” reflecting on the contrasts of the world (“gloomy Neva” - “midnight star” - stanza 9; earlier: tyrants - slaves, slavery - glory, stanzas 2-3), but his devotion civil ideals are expressed openly and directly, filled with socio-historical specifics.
The creative impulse draws the lyrical hero to depict the “mistakes” of the past so “vividly” (stanzas 6, 10) that they become convincing evidence of the correctness of the enlighteners who exalt the law. However, at the same time, in the context of the poem, the highest value is freedom, which animates the poet’s muse. The ode “Liberty” begins with an appeal to a proud, bold dream about it, ending with the statement that the main condition for peace in society will be “the freedom of the people.” For the lyrical hero it is important to express a personal attitude to what is happening (“I want to sing,” “wherever I look,” “ is yoursthroneII hate"). This introduces psychological specificity into the image, against the background of which the poet’s appeals to the kings appear not as speculative edifications, but as angry accusations and a harbinger of upheaval. The “singer” is outside the hierarchy, in his perception history is a single, continuous process, and the artist’s imagination resurrects Roman emperors, Turkish warriors, the murdered French king, the Russian emperor, whose death was consigned to oblivion, turning them into participants in the ode to a global tragedy unfolding before the reader . The exhortations uttered by the author are close to prophecies, but at the same time he remains a private person, a “thoughtful singer.” Freedom for him is the opportunity to remain faithful to his convictions, expressing them in calls to overcome social limitations:
Tyrants of the world! tremble!
And you, take courage and listen,
Arise, fallen slaves!
…
Lords! you have a crown and a throne
The law gives, not nature,
You stand above the people,
But the eternal law is above you.
And woe, woe to the tribes,
Where he slumbers carelessly...
…
And study today, O kings...
…
Bow your heads first
Under the safe canopy of the law...
In Pushkin's poem, which we are analyzing, freedom is glorified as the greatest gift that allows a person to embody a social and personal ideal. The poet's innovation lies in the fact that the reader is convinced of his correctness by his intonation and tone of speech. The socio-historical conclusion becomes not only the result of rational judgments, but a consequence of experience. In the image of a lyrical hero, the main characteristic is feeling. Love for freedom, indignation at short-sightedness and lust for power, an attempt to instill courage in those who are tired of the spectacle of centuries-old slavery, are expressed in emotional images, psychologically reliable and addressed to a real, earthly person suffering from the same problems. Equally specific and precise is the confidential tone found by the young poet in addressing his contemporary, for whom the greats of this world are only “witnesses”, “monuments”, and “our days” (stanzas 6, 9, 11) should become an era when the aspirations of their predecessors will be realized :
Freedom and peace for the people.
Thus, the analysis of the verse “Liberty” by Pushkin made it possible to clarify why the author of the ode “Liberty,” like his predecessor, could be regarded by the authorities as a “rebel” deserving of exile to Siberia. “A rebel worse than Pugachev” was called by Catherine II A.N. Radishchev, having become acquainted with his “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow.” Even at the end of the 1810s, Pushkin was perceived by his contemporaries as a political opponent of the court, expressing his opposition in poems and sharp epigrams on nobles and Emperor Alexander I, a “nomadic despot”, misleading with assurances that he was ready to give “everything to the people.” rights of people" ("Fairy Tales", 1818). Pushkin, a recent lyceum student and aspiring poet, is under police surveillance. In the spring of 1820, a decision was made to expel him from the capitals. Thanks to the efforts of influential acquaintances, the exile to Siberia or Solovki was replaced by a transfer to Yekaterinoslav, but the poet spent the next six years away from the centers of cultural life and from friends and literary colleagues. The reason for the repression was the freedom-loving sentiments that determined the specifics of his early lyrics. Their expression is typical for works of various genre characteristics - messages, elegies, epigrams. The messages are especially noticeable because they build the image of a generation called to realize dreams of liberation.
Pushkin belonged to the generation that is called the Decembrist. His lyceum friends, I.I. Pushchin and V.K. Kuchelbecker, participated in the uprising on Senate Square, prepared emotionally, including by the freedom-loving lyrics of young Pushkin. The ode “Liberty” was found in papers seized from the Decembrists during a search. The poet himself was in exile in Mikhailovskoye during the uprising on December 14, 1825; an accident saved him from staying in St. Petersburg (according to legend, a hare ran in front of the carriage that secretly took him to the capital, which was a bad omen that forced him to turn back). Pushkin was not a member of the Decembrist societies, but for him there was no doubt that his convictions had to be confirmed by deeds (in a conversation with Emperor Nicholas I, who called him out of exile, the poet openly admitted that if he had been in the capital, he would definitely have participated in the uprising ). The lyrical hero of Pushkin’s poems called the worldview of his generation “fiery” (“To Denis Davydova,” 1819), considering its dominant ability to “breathe sweetly” (“Prince Golitsyna,” 1818), to burn (“To Chaadaev,” 1818) and freedom , “sacrificing only her” (“KN.Ya. Pluskova”, 1818). What seemed important to him was the unity of aspirations of the young nobles, who were ready to really sacrifice “everything”—the future, their lives—in order for the “echo of the Russian people” to respond to their appeals:
Only by learning to glorify freedom,
Sacrificing poetry only to her,
I was not born to amuse kings
My shy muse.
…
Love and secret freedom
Instilled in the heart a simple hymn
There was an echo of the Russian people.
(“To N.Ya. Pluskova”, 1818)
The ode “Liberty” outlines both the ideological foundations and the emotional mood of the representative of this proud, brave, noble generation, who abandons the charms of youth for the ideal of “holy liberty” (“Liberty”, stanza 4). In a poem addressed to a like-minded person, the celebration of the struggle to achieve the public good as the newfound meaning of life becomes the central motive (“To Chaadaev”, 1818).
In the embodiment of the author’s artistic goal, as the analysis of Pushkin’s ode “Liberty” showed, the main role was played not by the content aspects that are important for the epic narrative of events and characters, but by the specific features of poetry, thanks to which it becomes possible to express the mood, experience, feeling. In conclusion, we will try to analyze the meter and rhymes in “Liberty”, looking for an explanation of how the poet manages to give dynamism to the development of the lyrical plot over the course of twelve stanzas, and to highlight key statements. Pushkin's ode differs from the traditional work of this genre. In “Liberty” by A. N. Radishchev, which became a reminiscent source for Pushkin’s images, an odic stanza was preserved, consisting of ten lines of iambic in different feet with a variety of rhymes. In Pushkin, the number of lines in a line is reduced to eight, and such a minimal change turns out to be important, since thanks to it, dynamics appear. Poetic speech is perceived as an oratorical monologue, where the meaning of appeals, exclamations, appeals, and warnings increases depending on their location. From the desire to highlight the ode both among his own works (“Where are you, where are you, thunderstorm of kings, / Proud singer of freedom? - / Come, tear off the wreath from me, / Break the effeminate lyre...” - stanza 1), and in the world literature (“Open a noble trail for me...” - stanza 2), the lyrical hero comes to understand the need to generalize historical patterns. Their consideration continues, introducing a new shade, an assessment of reality, unacceptable for him by the dominance of unjust forces. Social laws that doom the people to bondage, slavery (stanza 3), the blinding of rulers who have forgotten that they are equal with all citizens (stanza 4), and trampling on the power of the law (stanza 5) are not hidden from him. He sees his task in reminding tyrants of the fragility of earthly institutions, in instilling courage and hope in the “fallen”, and most importantly, in a call to pay tribute to the divine, sacred human right to a free life.
Violation of the world law outrages the “singer”, “burdens him”, forces him to turn his gaze from the “midnight star” to the signs of earthly “dark” reality. In stanzas 6-11, his lyrical gift is subordinated to the civic goal - to convince the reader, using examples from the past, that:
...crown and throne
The law gives...
And woe, woe to the tribes,
Where he slumbers carelessly,
Where is it for the people, or for the kings?
It is possible to rule by law!
(Versa 5-6)
The rhyme scheme is such that attention is drawn to the final line in the stanza. Thanks to this feature, the meaning of the statements that complete the stanza is highlighted (within the text, to create a similar impression, meaningful - semantic, from the Greek “relating to the meaning of the word”, as well as intonation means, including exclamations, are used). Let's see how the rhymes are arranged in the eight lines of Pushkin's ode. Let us denote the masculine rhyme ending with a stressed syllable as “a”, and the feminine rhyme as “b”. Then the diagram will look like this: abababba. In the first quatrain the rhyme is cross, and in the second it is encircling. The last position is a strong place. The melody gradually approaches the final chord in each stanza, but the last line of the poem is perceived as the tonic of a piece of music.
Only if the demand expressed in it is realized, harmony will be restored in the terrible, imperfect world that threatens people with disasters, violating God’s will (“You are a reproach to God on earth” - stanza 8):
And learn today, O kings:
No punishment, no reward,
Neither the shelter of dungeons, nor altars
Fences that are not right for you,
Bow your heads first
Under the safe canopy of the law,
And they will become eternal guardians of the throne
Freedom and peace for the people.
(Stanza 12)
To determine the size of a poem, you need to count the number of strong points in a line, here there are four of them - this is iambic tetrameter, a size that was used by Pushkin in works of various poetic genres, touching on the whole range of topics. Poems are written in iambic tetrameter that express freedom-loving aspirations, philosophical thoughts, friendly feelings, impressions of nature, searches for answers to creative questions, declarations of love. Size does not limit the creative possibilities of the great poet; for every aspect of the content in his poems there is an expressive form. Analyzing its specifics, we should not forget that the poet in it embodies an ideological plan, including both abstract thought and sensation. Pushkin’s freedom-loving lyrics express indignation at social and moral vices, civic feelings, and excitement from the expectation of change.
The lyrical hero of Pushkin’s freedom-loving poems does not want his contemporaries to experience rebellions in which, as “in the noise of recent storms” (stanza 6), humanistic values are forgotten and people die. The call to “Rise, fallen slaves!” (stanza 2) does not contain a demand for rebellion, but an attempt to instill cheerfulness in those who have lost hope, the desire to “revolt”, to be reborn for new life trials, the result of which will be “liberty and peace of the people.” The final conclusion is significant for identifying the essence of the author’s position, devoid of thoughtless self-will. The poet does not embellish the story, does not hide the fact that there was both horror and shame in it (the concepts are repeated in stanzas 8.11). It is important for him to restore balance in society.
Only his life, along with the destinies of like-minded people, is he ready to sacrifice. They do not wear a martyr’s crown, as they do on “witnesses” of historical mistakes (“O martyr of glorious mistakes...” - stanza 6, where Louis XVI is remembered). They are aware that interference in the course of world events makes them participants in a universal tragedy, heroes who have the good fortune to confirm the sincerity of their convictions, the loftiness of their thoughts and the strength of their spirit. Appeals to friends, whose names will remain in the memory of posterity as destroyers of an unjust order, awakening Russia from an age-old sleep (“Russia will awaken from sleep...” - “To Chaadaev”), bringing closer the “chosen” day of freedom (A.N. Radishchev. “Liberty”) are the most important component of Pushkin’s freedom-loving lyrics.