"The poet died" Lermontov's verse "The death of a poet". To whom did Lermontov dedicate "The Death of a Poet"?

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

Pushkin and Lermontov are two names that have the right to be side by side for several reasons. First, they are equal in art. Moreover, History itself decreed that the death of one became a springboard to the All-Russian popularity of the other.

Two Geniuses

When in 1837, having learned about the fatal duel, mortal wound, and then the death of Pushkin, Lermontov wrote the mournful "The poet died …", he himself was already quite famous in literary circles. The creative biography of Mikhail Yurievich begins early, his romantic poems date back to 1828-1829. He is growing rapidly as a lyricist-rebel, of a tragic, Byronic warehouse. Particularly remarkable are his love poems - "The Beggar", "At Your Feet …" and many others, revealing to the reader the deep drama of Lermontov's experiences. Yes, and civil, revolutionary sense, poetry deserves great attention. The time of apprenticeship for Mikhail Yurievich turned out to be short. Venerable writers speak of him with respect andpredict a great future. And Lermontov considers Pushkin to be his idol, spiritual Teacher and Mentor. Therefore, with such pain, as about the loss of a personal one, he writes: “The poet died …”

Legends and rumors

They didn't know each other personally - it didn't happen. Although historians and biographers, bit by bit collecting information about great people, much still remains unknown. So in our case - who knows - maybe sometime previously unknown facts will be revealed, and it turns out that the poet, i.e. Pushkin, died, yet at least once he managed to shake hands with Lermontov or exchange a friendly word with him. At least they had a lot of mutual friends. Gogol and the Karamzin family, Zhukovsky and Smirnova-Rosset, Odoevsky. Even the younger brother of Alexander Sergeevich, the restless rake Lyovushka, bowed to Lermontov in Pyatigorsk and witnessed Michel's quarrel with "Monkey" - his sworn "friend" and his future murderer Martynov. There are indirect rumors that both geniuses still saw each other - at a small secular party at Vsevolzhsky. However, Mikhail Yuryevich did not dare to approach his idol, he was embarrassed, and someone distracted Pushkin all the time … And so the Poet died, without talking with his future successor about the main thing, about what was the meaning of life for both: about Creativity. But it is known for certain that Pushkin repeatedly noted strength and depth, brilliant signs of Lermontov's high talent.

History of Creation

So, the beginning of February 1837 shook St. Petersburg, Moscow, and thenand all of Russia by two events of perhaps equal importance. The first is that “The sun of Russian poetry has set”, that Pushkin has died. And the second - spread in the lists and memorized, flying around the northern capital like lightning, the work "The Death of a Poet". Lermontov's verse, which became a guilty verdict of the secular mob and announced that a new, uncrowned king had ascended the poetic throne. Apparently, Lermontov began to work on the work as soon as rumors of a fatal duel and injury reached him. The first edition is dated February 9 (January 28), when there was still a glimmer of hope that Pushkin would survive. Although, anticipating a tragic denouement, Mikhail Yuryevich ends with the phrase "And his seal is on his lips …".

“The death of a poet” (Lermontov’s verse) is supplemented by the next 16 lines on February 10, when it becomes known that Pushkin is no more. It was then, as the journalist Panaev later noted, that Lermontov's work began to be rewritten tens of thousands of times, learned by heart.

A poet in Russia is more than a poet

The popularity of the poem reached such a level that it was reported to the "greatest persons". The reaction of the emperor was immediate - arrest at home, and then another exile to "hot spots", to the Caucasus. Lermontov was ill at that time, so he was not sent to the guardhouse. But his friend Raevsky, whose text was found during the search, was indeed arrested and sent to the Olonets province. Why such cruel disgrace? For fundamentalhuman and socio-political position. After all, to whom did Lermontov dedicate "The Death of a Poet"? Not just the amazingly talented writer Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin, no! Russian art has always been generously endowed with talents, and the Russian land does not lack them to this day. For Lermontov, Pushkin's work is a challenge to lack of spirituality and slavery, a breath of fresh, clean air, free, not polluted by servility, baseness and meanness. And Pushkin himself is named paradoxically accurately: “The poet died! - a slave of honor has fallen …”Lermontov has these two words as synonyms. A true poet, from God, by nature does not have the ability to lie, act disgustingly, contrary to conscience and high moral concepts. As the friends of the deceased spoke about the work, “Mr. Lermontov's poems are beautiful; someone who knew and loved our Pushkin well could write them.”

Historical value

The poem "The Poet Died" by Lermontov occupies a special place in Russian literature. In fact, this is the earliest and most powerful assessment of Pushkin in terms of a work of art, poetic generalization - his "wonderful genius", of national significance for Russia. At the same time, the very fact of his writing is an indicator of Lermontov's national self-consciousness personally, his civic, moral and political position. As the critic Druzhinin wrote, Mikhail Lermontov was not only the first to mourn the poet, but also the first to dare to throw an “iron verse” in the face of those who happily rubbed their hands and mocked the tragedy. "The king is dead - long live the king!"- this is how one could designate the public outcry about the great mystery of history associated with the death of Alexander Pushkin and the fact that "The Poet Died" (Lermontov's verse) put him among the first writers of Russia.

Poetry genre

“Death of a Poet” is both a solemn ode and harsh satire. The poem contains, on the one hand, rave reviews about the personality of the great Pushkin. On the other hand, angry and impartial criticism of his ill-wishers, secular society led by the emperor and close dignitaries, police chief Benckendorff, a host of critics and censors who did not want lively and sincere, freedom-loving and wise, humane and enlightening thoughts and ideals to penetrate into society. So that they occupy the minds and souls of young people who are under the yoke of political reaction. Emperor Nicholas never forgot about the events of December 14, 1825, when the throne of Russian sovereigns was shaken. It was not for nothing that he unequivocally assessed the "Death of a Poet" as an appeal to the revolution. The odic lines are written in a solemn, "high" style and contain the appropriate vocabulary. Satirical ones are also sustained in strict aesthetic canons. Thus, Lermontov achieved surprisingly harmonious unity with genre diversity.

Composition of the poem

“The Death of a Poet” is a poem with a rather complex and at the same time clear, carefully thought out and organized composition. In terms of content, several fragments clearly stand out in it. Each is logically complete, differs in its style,its inherent pathos and idea. but all of them are a single whole and are subject to the general meaning of the work. Analyzing the composition, you can identify the theme and idea of the work.

Theme, idea, issues

The first part consists of 33 lines, energetic, angry, emphasizing that Pushkin's death is not a consequence of the natural course of events, but a purposeful and deliberate murder of a man who alone rebelled against the opinion of the "light". Death is the retribution for the Poet's attempt to be himself, to remain true to his talent and code of honor. Lermontov is concise and precise. Behind a specific soulless killer with a "cold heart", a catcher of "happiness and ranks", is Fate itself ("fate has come to pass"). In this, Mikhail Yuryevich sees the meaning of the tragedy: the “arrogant descendants” of the clans glorified by meanness do not forgive accusatory speeches addressed to them. They sacredly honor the traditions of autocracy and serfdom, because they are the basis of the well-being of their past, present and future. And anyone who dares to encroach on them must be destroyed! It doesn't matter, by the hand of the French Dantes or anyone else. After all, Lermontov himself died a few years later from the “Russian Dantes” - Martynov. The second part of the poem (23 lines) is equated to a lyrical digression. Mikhail Yuryevich does not hold back his spiritual pain, drawing a deeply personal and dear to him image of Pushkin. The poems are saturated with poetic figures: antitheses, rhetorical questions, exclamations, etc. The last part (16 lines) is again a satire, a formidable warning about the Supreme, Divine Court, the court of Time and History, which will punish the criminalsand justify the innocent. The lines are prophetic, for this is how it all happened…