Literature Lesson: "On the Volga", Nekrasov. Analysis of the poem

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

It's been almost a century and a half since barges with cargo were pulled upstream by barges along the banks of the great Russian river. They remained only in Repin's brilliant painting and in Nekrasov's poetry. Thanks to these works of art, their image is forever imprinted in people's memory.

School literature lesson: Nekrasov, "On the Volga"

A certain stamp of formality is often superimposed on literary works offered for study without fail. The work of the famous Russian poet Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov is known to us from the school literature curriculum. It has long been perceived as something familiar and self-evident. But for several generations of Russian people of the nineteenth century, Nekrasov's poetry was by no means a museum exhibit. The poet was perceived by Russian society as a prophet, a fighter for the rights of the oppressed. In fact, he was a kind of people's tribune. And Nekrasov created the poem "On the Volga" as one of his program works. Let's try to read it again. The classics are so characteristic that it can sometimes be re-read. Because everything is familiar in it, interest in reading does not disappear. Her images do not fade with time.

The origins of creativity

Many researchers of the poet's work tend to call this work a poem. And there are certain grounds for this, if we focus primarily on its formal scope. But in terms of semantic content in the poem "On the Volga" Nekrasov swung at very large philosophical generalizations. The images he created make the reader think about human suffering on the way to the future. "About the price of progress", as it became customary to express in the twentieth century. But even if you do not delve into such abstract philosophical concepts, then this work is still not as easy to understand as it might seem at a superficial glance. Outside the context of the life and work of the poet, it is impossible to correctly comprehend this work of his. Nekrasov composed the verse "On the Volga" under the impression of a trip along this river. Almost like an artist portrayed from nature. And any normal artist is obliged to go through this path - from the impressions seen in life to a deep understanding and generalization of what he saw. There is nothing surprising in the fact that in his program work "On the Volga" the poet turned to the image imprinted in his mind as a child. This river itself, of course, personifies Russian strength and power. But no less so is the oppression and hopelessness of existence.

Childhood

Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov came from a once rich, but by the time of his birth, a fairly impoverished, noble family. His childhoodtook place in the family estate in the Yaroslavl province. The decisive role in the formation of any person, especially the future poet, is played by the environment in which the formation of his personality takes place. And the poet's childhood passed in an atmosphere far from idyllic. A large family teetering on the brink of poverty, a wayward and despotic father, traveling with him around the regions of the Volga region and the sight of endless people's suffering along the way - these are the most vivid impressions of childhood. They were highly controversial. But the poet's childhood passed precisely on the Volga. And this largely determined his subsequent work.

Youth of the poet

Before completing his studies at the gymnasium, Nikolai Nekrasov was glad to escape to St. Petersburg from his father's obsessive guardianship. Upon learning of his son's refusal to enter the military service, the latter severed relations with him and refused even minimal financial support. Then he had to make his way in life on his own. Long years of struggle for existence finally shaped him as a person. But the poet's childhood passed on the Volga. Nekrasov returned there repeatedly. Not only in poetry and poetic images. The poet traveled a lot around the country and perfectly imagined the situation in which the Russian peasantry lives. The thought of whether it is possible to somehow change his fate determined the choice of his life path for many years.

Literary activity

Nikolai Nekrasov has come a long way to success. And he achieved everything with his own work. Literary creativity gradually becamemain business of his life. His main themes in poetry were the fate of the serfs, the life and customs of the poor inhabitants of the Russian provinces. These themes were well known and close to the poet since childhood, which Nekrasov spent on the Volga. The poem, in which we are talking about the burlatskaya artel, is both a return to the impressions experienced in childhood and an understanding of what he saw from the standpoint of creative maturity. Nekrasov's literary activity was closely associated with such publications as the journal Domestic Notes, and later with Sovremennik, founded by Pushkin. He was also active in book publishing. It should be noted that, in addition to the undoubted poetic talent, Nikolai Nekrasov also had the talent of an entrepreneur. He managed to get out of poverty rather quickly.

People's Tribune

With all the involvement of Nekrasov in public life and educational activities, his main business was poetry. The poet Nikolai Nekrasov became widely known in Russia. His voice sounded furious and angry. Nekrasov's poems were read in various strata of Russian society: from the highest court aristocracy to those who barely learned to read. The lines of the poet were widely quoted and diverged in the form of aphorisms. Nekrasov constantly felt this reaction of Russian society to his work, and therefore he tried not to disappoint the reading public.

Nikolai Nekrasov, "On the Volga" - a poem about folkfate

This voluminous work is considered by most researchers of the poet's work to be one of the most significant. But at the same time, it is very far from direct socio-political declarations. The compositional plan of the poem "On the Volga" by Nekrasov is built quite complicated, but at the same time it is devoid of contradictions. The logic of the narrative is aimed at revealing the topic. The story is deliberately complicated and is conducted on behalf of a certain hero who, in his youth, was on the great Russian river and is happy to return to its banks again. Such a compositional technique allows the author to distance himself from the direct recitations of his character. But what is this piece about? Is it only about what Nekrasov saw on the Volga? An analysis of the entire extensive work of the poet allows us to conclude that he does not seem to have said anything fundamentally new in this poem. The theme of human suffering under the yoke of difficult life circumstances was dominant in his work. But only in the poem "On the Volga" Nekrasov managed to rise to deep philosophical generalizations. The poet reflects here on the future fate of his Motherland. Will the oppressed people break through suffering to a better future? Or is there only hopelessness ahead?

The rise of the social movement

The ideas and images of Nekrasov's poetry were not only heard and accepted by the Russian society. His angry preaching awakened public thought and forced them to look for ways to reorganize the existing order. All future revolutionaries were brought up on this poetry. Many of themperceived it as a guide to action, for them it was a kind of school lesson at the beginning of their lives. Nekrasov on the Volga was able not so much to see, but to intuitively feel the very people's strength, which one day will cease to obediently pull the strap offered to it by fate. And having dropped it, he will choose a suitable club on the shore and go to smash both the barge with the goods and its owners. For this to happen one day, entire generations of Russian revolutionaries were ready to go to hard labor and to the scaffold. They were inspired to exploits in the name of the people by the poetry of Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov. Even the Bolsheviks, who came to power half a century after the poet's death, considered themselves his spiritual heirs. They also read the poem "On the Volga" in their youth and were able to properly imbue its energy charge.

Nekrasov Literary School

But the poet left his mark not only in public life. In Russian literature of the second half of the nineteenth century, the existence of such a phenomenon as the "Nekrasov school" is noted. These were poets and writers who continued and developed the themes and images first identified in the work of Nikolai Nekrasov. The poets of the Nekrasov school primarily focused their attention on social problems. Abstract aesthetic and philosophical theories occupied them to a very small extent. They often neglected artistry in favor of citizenship. This literary trend was in constant confrontation with the opposite aesthetic camp, which preached "art for art's sake" and denied anythe social significance of poetic inspiration. On such a confrontation, Russian literature developed. Traces of the Nekrasov poetic school can be found even in the work of symbolist poets as far removed from it as Alexander Blok and Andrei Bely.