“The Hermit Fathers…”: The Cleansing Power of Prayer

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Mature late A. Pushkin creates practically only masterpieces. These include the poem "The Hermit Fathers …", written six months before his death, around the end of July 1836. Even by the first words, you can determine that further reflection on your passions will go. And in his youth, the poet did not believe in the Creator, he composed ironic works on religious themes. Having traveled a difficult path from disbelief to knowing the Creator, he opened his heart and soul to cleansing prayers.

Where hermitage originated

In distant India, the first hermits appeared, who, in order to achieve liberation from all material things, moved away from people into caves and forests. They performed miracles of asceticism, refusing food, water and even breathing.

The first and subsequent Hermit Fathers proceeded from the concept that the body is the prison of the soul. The more the body is oppressed, the more free is the soul. Hermits deprived themselves of all ties with the world, and by this they wanted to achieve unity with the deity, to move to that world where there is nono change and therefore no suffering. All the Mediterranean religions, to which Christianity belongs, have adopted the concept of hermitage with some modifications. The first Christian hermit fathers appeared in Egypt and really lived in the deserts, eating alms. In Russia, at first this phenomenon arose in small monasteries remote from people. People went to hermits, elders, pillars to get answers to their questions, healing from diseases.

Penitence prayer

A short, only four lines, prayer is attributed to Ephraim the Syrian, a hermit of the 4th century.

It was completely translated into poetic language by A. Pushkin at the end of his work “The Hermit Fathers…”. These words of a desperate person, addressed to the Lord of our days, captivate hearts and souls to our time, because they are filled with the heat of sincerity, truthfulness, sincerity, sincerity. Ephraim the Syrian himself sinned a lot in his youth, but repented after the Lord enlightened him. He always remembered his sins and mourned the delusions of his youth.

Literary genre

One can attribute the work “The Hermit Fathers…” only to the genre of spiritual lyrics. A mature realist who removes all its veils from life with a penetrating glance, Pushkin's lyrical hero needs support amid the storms and hardships raging around him. Where to find it? Only in prayer, in appeal to the Creator.

Composition

Conditionally the poem "The hermit fathers and the wives are blameless …"can be divided into three parts.

The first one has four stanzas. It tells that a lot of prayers are necessary to fly away to the world invisible to the eyes and strengthen the heart when a person gets into life's adversities.

There are five stanzas in the second part. In it, the lyrical hero admits that only one of the prayers has a particularly strong effect on him in the sad days of Great Lent. He repeats it all the time. With emotion, he feels how she strengthens him with "an unknown force."

The third part is a poetic transcription of this prayer. First, the lyrical hero addresses the Lord of his days.

He asks him not to give his soul idleness and laziness; despondency, which was then understood as curiosity, fussiness and trouble; arrogance, that is, the desire to dominate and avoid empty, meaningless conversations. And what does the lyrical hero ask for? See and realize all your sins. Prudence and modesty. Patience to do good deeds and endure the hardships of life. Consciousness of one's imperfection before the Lord.

Problems of the work

The theme of A. Pushkin's poem "The Hermit Father…" is the sincere power that the lyrical hero puts into repentant prayer.

The main idea is to gain repentance. After the Grace descended on him, a person begins to see clearly and begins to distinguish truth from lies, evil from good. This statement correlates with the “Prophet” written about ten years ago, in which the hero lying like a corpse in the desert came to life after a divineverb, was filled with the Lord's will, and, having heeded the whole essence of earthly existence, he went to bring the truth to people.

Artistic techniques of the author

We continue to consider the poem. The analysis of "The Hermit Fathers and the Immaculate Wives…" will reveal the artistic means used by the poet.

In the work, the author turned to the melodious iambic six-foot, close to church recitative. Rhymes - paired with alternating male and female.

The language of the poem is deliberately filled with Church Slavonicisms and those words that should be attributed to Orthodoxy: fly around, the spirit of dull idleness, valley, in absentia, fallen, hidden, sins, humility, Master, mouth, chastity, mature.

A lyrical hero's prayer of repentance evokes emotion. That is, he becomes more responsive, spiritual, humble, benevolent, filled with feelings of sweet pity and cordial participation. This gift of God is not given to everyone. Only those who understand that the Creator is merciful to human imperfection can be touched with tears of joy in their eyes.

Pushkin, as always, is stingy with epithets. There are only three of them: sad (days of fasting), the power of prayer is unknown, battles and storms are valley. Ambitiousness is compared to a hidden snake (hidden metaphor).

Sincerely and purely praying, the lyrical hero can take off into those valley areas that are comprehended not by the eyes, but by the soul that has fully opened to the Lord. The prayer of Ephraim the Syrian helps the hero gain spiritual vision and strength. Only such repentance works miracles, transformingand strengthening the person. Prayer deprives him of doubts, and he completely surrenders himself to the will of the Lord. This gives him an incomparable happiness.