2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25
Summing up the results of life's journey, reflection on eternal questions, dreary expectation of the end of life, defeated by faith in the eternal life of one's creativity - such a tone permeates the works to which our round-up analysis is dedicated. A poem in Turgenev's prose (each of them) is the embodiment of the worldly wisdom of the writer, whose genius made it possible to convey in just a few lines what is embodied in dozens of philosophical treatises.
Frontier genre
This genre, related to both prose and poetry, arose in the Romantic era as a reaction to the strict aesthetics of classicism. Each poem in Turgenev's prose - "The Beggar", "The Russian Language", "Sparrow", etc. - to some extent relies on the works of its predecessors: Jules Lefevre-Demier, Charles Baudelaire and many others. The genre created by the Romantics had much more in common with lyric poetry than with prose, due to:
- conciseness;
- weakening the narrative beginning;
- of rich imagery;
- lyrical pathos.
At the same time, such poems had no rhyme or even rhythmic organization, which made them different from their closest "relatives" in literature - free verse and blank verse.
How many "poems in prose" were there by Turgenev?
Turgenev turned to small, one might say, miniature prose already in his declining years, after writing such masterpieces as "Notes of a Hunter" and "Fathers and Sons". This explains the peculiar epithet with which the writer endowed his cycle - "senile". During the life of the author, only 51 poems were published in Vestnik Evropy in 1882. The writer failed to prepare the remaining 30, and they came out only in 1930.
The same themes of poems in Turgenev's prose permeate the entire cycle. The motives of old age, love, Motherland, loneliness - the world of a person who anticipates imminent death is revealed before us. This paints prose poems in tragic tones. Meanwhile, feelings of loneliness and disappointment are accompanied by a different emotional palette - love for the Motherland, the Russian language, which contains the traditions of the people, their worldview.
"Sparrow": love is stronger than death
Let's start the analysis. The poem in Turgenev's prose "Sparrow" ends with lines that have become aphoristic: "Love is stronger than death." The reason for this was the everyday situation: the sparrow fell out of the nest due to strong winds. The hunter's dog ran tochick, as if sensing game. However, a moment later, another sparrow rushed to the ground to protect the fallen relative.
A bold act inspires a sense of awe in the narrator. To the brave bird, the dog may seem like a real monster, but some force forces it to leave its safe hiding place and face danger. The narrator calls this force love, on which all life rests. The realization of this comes even to Trezor - and a miracle happens: a dog, which is several times larger than its victim, retreats before love …
Such themes of poems in Turgenev's prose as love, its victory over death, sounded repeatedly. It is also emphasized here that all nature submits to this bright feeling, the entire Universe is moved by it.
"Dog": the same life huddled together
The image of fate, death can be called cross-cutting for Turgenev's poems. So, in one of them, death is presented as a disgusting insect that can pierce anyone with its sting. This theme will be further developed by Turgenev. "Dog" (a prose poem), unlike "Sparrow", does not have any clear plot. Rather, it boils down to the thoughts of the main character, sitting in a room with a dog, fleeing a violent storm.
This monologue of the stream of consciousness sounds tragic notes: that a person, that a dumb animal in the face of eternity are the same. Sooner or later death will fly in and extinguish forevera flame lit by someone. “One and the same life shyly clings to another” - this is how Turgenev expresses fear of inevitable death. “Dog”, a poem in prose, is similar to “Sparrow”, the statement of certain laws that are characteristic of the Universe, and humanity cannot avoid them. However, in the first work, such a law is love, and in the second, death.
Man, unlike a dog, is capable of self-awareness. “She doesn’t understand herself,” says the hero-narrator about a comrade in misfortune. But man, as a highly intelligent being, is aware of the impending death. This is both his curse and his blessing. The punishment is such moments of disappointment and fear in the face of impending doom. Blessing - the opportunity, despite the inevitable death, to find the meaning of life and change its course depending on the results of this constant search.
Hymn to the Russian language
As the analysis showed, the poem in Turgenev's prose "Russian language" opens another theme of the cycle - patriotic. In a small work (literally a few lines), the author contained all his pride in the Russian language, which absorbed the features of a great people who remained unshakable in the days of any trials. That is why it is so important to attend every literature lesson from the school bench. Turgenev creates extremely emotional poems in prose, and in The Russian Language this pathos reaches its climax.
Let's pay attention to the epithets. The author calls the Russian language great, powerful, truthful and free. Each of these definitions has a deep meaning. The Russian language is great and powerful, because it contains rich resources for expressing thoughts. Truthful and free - because such is its bearer, the people.
Speech is a phenomenon that is not given from somewhere above, it is created by people who consider it native. The Russian language, multifaceted and beautiful, corresponds to our people, sincere, powerful and freedom-loving.
Instead of a conclusion
As the analysis showed, the poem in Turgenev's prose - each of the ones we have considered - belongs to the top works of Russian literature. Despite their small volume, the author managed to reveal important topics that to this day do not cease to excite humanity.
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