Poem "Clumsy Bear": comes from childhood

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

Strange people - authors writing for children. Anyway, unusual. Consider the great Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen. Coming from a poor family, he always claimed to be a personal friend of the Danish King Frederick. You never know what kind of fairy tales could be expected from this amazing storyteller! However, the words of the great Dane were later confirmed.

However, this article is not about him. In the family of the Soviet children's poet Andrei Alekseevich Usachev, there was a legend that his grandfather was acquainted with Nadezhda Krupskaya and once, by the will of fate, met Hitler, who was then only striving for power. Does it mean that Usacheva's grandfather was also an unusual person?

Magic of nursery rhymes

Children's poems… Everyone remembers them. They leave a lasting imprint in memory. Among them is "Clumsy Bear", composed by Andrei Alekseevich. Surprisingly harmonious, kind and light poems. Easy to understand and very well remembered. Even if you read them for the first time, you are still in a state of deja vu: it seems that you have already seen them, read them before. Moreover, a strong impression is created that these verses are familiar from childhood. However, this is a scammemory. According to Usachev himself, who was born in 1958, he began writing for children in 1985 (again: a game of numbers: 58 - 85). Accordingly, "Clumsy Bear" was written in the 80s of the XX century.

The secret is in rhythm?

What is the secret of children's poetry? Why are these poems so easily and freely perceived by both children under three years of age and adults, causing the latter to smile and nostalgia for childhood that has rushed off into the distance? Of course, the whole point is in the author, in the spiritual world into which he dips his reader. Andrei Alekseevich turned to children's topics under the influence of the works of Daniil Kharms, who found springs of thaw in the era of stagnation … Usachev, as he himself admitted in an interview given to the magazine "Reading Together", poetry is easy to come by. They intuitively direct his thought, thanks to their rhythm. (As an example, the latter is felt in the poem "Clumsy Bear".)

About Usacheva's "creative kitchen"

Usachev calls himself an inventor more often than a writer. Let's try to understand the secrets of his "creative kitchen". He has one secret: he always feels a child in himself, while not differentiating this part of himself from the “grown up” one. That is, the poet, taking up the pen, does not write specifically for some abstract, invented children. He always writes for himself - tangible, tangible, understandable, inside of which a child lives, setting criteria for creativity.

Since ancient times in Russia, the clumsy bear has been and is the hero of fairy tales, he is still one of the favorite toys for the smallest children. In fairy tales, this forest animal invariably acts as a sanguine and strong man, an exemplary family man, and his cubs - cubs - are cheerful, agile and comical. The father-bear, according to folk tradition, is called Mikhail Potapych, the mother - Nastasya Petrovna (in a feminine manner), and the son - Mishutka. This is exactly the bear cub in the work of Usachov.

Sometimes, to create a special, "fabulous" atmosphere in the house, we recommend that you, tired of a busy day, no, no, yes, and refresh your memory of the full poem "Clumsy Bear". Remember your childhood. Smile. Sometimes, to lift the mood, it is enough to even read at least the first verse.

Wonderfulness as a property of classical literature

The simple rhythm of the verse makes even adults forget about their "forgetfulness" and "stampedness" (we use the words of Andrei Alekseevich himself) and join in a good children's game, far from the "darkness" of life. The poem has elements of a classical work. The plot: a walk of a clubfoot bear through the forest. The climax: the mental anguish of the protagonist, ridiculed for his clumsiness by forest mockingbirds. Resolution: gaining self-confidence from good parental advice. By the way, such a view of the world around us is also inherent in classical literature. I recall the words of the American writer Louisa May Alcott that even in the adult gray and boring world, events sometimes happen, like a delightful fairy tale, bringing consolation. Of course, one of these things is both classical and children's literature, and, in particular,similar verses. "Clumsy Bear" and others are those works that help children to be kinder, happier, more joyful.

Usachev on the problems of modern children's literature

Usachev believes that there are currently problems with the literature offered to children. Not always the texts that fall into the hands of children really correspond to their age. In particular, in the segment of books for the little ones. In the last century, wonderful poems were written for them by Sergei Mikhalkov, Korney Chukovsky, Agniya Barto, Boris Zakhoder. This galaxy of masters of the pen gave many happy hours to children who touched kind, educative, exciting works. Even now Marina Moskvina, Tim Sobakin, Ksenia Dragunskaya address their kind and bright works to children. (Listing the names of his contemporaries, Andrei Alekseevich, out of modesty, forgot to mention himself, the poet who wrote: “A bear with a clubfoot is walking through the forest …”.)

However, according to authoritative children's writers, modern Russian children's publications "Hammer", "Kul", "Hooligan" often lower the bar of magic and kindness, which should be present in children's literature, especially for the smallest. Often, modern authors, creating works “about real life” for children, bring their goodies together with drug addicts and drug dealers. In such works, reality is simulated, it is clearly felt false, the heroes of such books do not want to believe. Whether business - "Bear clubfoot"! The author "caught" memorable characters, "grabbed" the folklore thread,managed to tell a simple story about a bear in a bright, interesting way.

Conclusion

We recommend that adult readers periodically refresh their memory of children's works, if only to get a charge of kindness. Good children's literature helps to better understand children, because the world of childhood is not something fantasy and far-fetched, the world of childhood is our real world, only seen from a different "non-adult" angle.