The main motives of Nekrasov's lyrics. Theme of the poet and poetry

In memory of Schiller

And valor?.. The century of “blood and sword”!
You placed a banker on the throne of earth,
He proclaimed the executioner a hero...

The crowd says: “The century does not need singers!”
And there are no singers... The deity fell silent...
Oh, who will now remind a person
His high calling?..

Forgive the blind, inspired artist,
And come back!.. Your magic torch,
Extinguished by a daring hand,
Shine again over the dying crowd!

Arm yourself with heavenly thunder!
Raise our fallen spirit to heights,
So that a person does not have dead eyes
I could contemplate goodness and beauty...

Execute self-interest, murder, sacrilege!
Tear off the crowns from the treacherous heads,
Lured the world away from the path of love and brotherhood,
Acquired through the efforts of centuries,

On the path of enmity!.. Into his affairs and feelings
Only you can bring harmony.
In your chest, persecuted priest of art,
Throne of truth, love and beauty.

Printed on PP, p. 32–33.
First published: OZ, 1874, No. 9, p. 231–232, without subtitle, with eight stanzas, censorship omission of art. 4 and signed: “N. Nekrasov" (reprinted: PP).
Included in the collected works for the first time: St. 1879, vol. III, was not included in the lifetime editions of Nekrasov’s “Poems.”
Autographs: 1) initial drafts, early edition and drafts of the second edition - IRLI, f. 203, No. 24, l. 3 (partially published: Chukovsky K. Nekrasov. Articles and materials. L., 1926, p. 325, more fully: PSSt 1967, vol. II, pp. 582–583); 2) typewritten manuscript, without a subtitle, with the date: “Sept. 6<ября>", - IRLI, f. 203, No. 24, l. 1 and vol. (published in part: PSS, vol. II, pp. 605–606, more fully: PP 1974, pp. 163–164).

Dated according to the typeset manuscript and the time of the first publication at the beginning of September 1874. In Nekrasov’s list of works written by him in July and the first ten days of August 1874 (see: PSS, vol. XI, p. 328), the poem “To the Poet” absent. The final edition probably arose during the preparation of “The Last Songs” (February-March 1877). At the same time, the subtitle “In Memory of Schiller” could have appeared. In the same year, Nekrasov wrote “Imitation of Schiller.”
The dedication to Schiller expresses Nekrasov's long-standing sympathies for the German poet. In the “Chronicle of the Russian Theater” for January 1841, Nekrasov noted the high merits of Schiller’s dramaturgy and classified him among the “great geniuses” (PSS, vol. IX, p. 458; current ed., vol. XI).. Dostoevsky spoke from name of the generation to which Nekrasov belonged: “Yes, Schiller really entered into the flesh and blood of Russian society, especially in the past and last generation we were brought up on him, he is dear to us and in many ways affected our development” (Time, 1861, No. 7, p. 48). The subtitle could also have arisen for censorship reasons. He made it easier to publish the poem without censorship distortions.
The reason for creating the work under comment could have been magazine debates about the role of poetry and the poet in society. For example, N.V. Shelgunov, polemically assessing the poetic section of the collection “Skladchina” (1874), in which Nekrasov also participated, wrote: “Although bad poetry has long lost its credit, nevertheless our magazines are stubborn in their tradition and are still hospitable to the so-called “chopped prose”. This preference for poetry should, of course, be explained by the fact that the “poet” has still retained the privilege of the “prophet”. But alas! his menacing word no longer thunders, because neither sincere pain nor passion can be heard in it” (Delo, 1874, No. 4, part II, pp. 65-B6).
The poem echoes other works of Nekrasov from 1874–1875: “Prophet”, “Elegy”, “Terrible Year”, “Contemporaries”. It may contain echoes of Schiller’s works - “Die Kunstler” (“The Artists”), “Die Sanger der Vor-welt” (“Singers of the Past”), etc. (see about this: Garkavi A. M. 1) Research about N.A. Nekrasov. - Scientist. zap. Kaliningrad state ped. Institute, 1961, (issue IX, p. 41; 2) The poem “To the Poet (In Memory of Schiller)” is the aesthetic declaration of P. A. Nekrasov. - Scientific tr. Kubansk. state Univ., vol. 273. Krasnodar, 1979, p. 64–67).
Criticism hostile to Nekrasov did not accept the democratic tendency of the poem. V.P. Burenin prefaced his response to him in a journalistic review with an ironic title: “An appeal from Mr. Nekrasov to the artist about the latter accepting the position of prosecutor” (St. Petersburg, 1874, Oct. 12, No. 281). The poem received a more objective assessment from critics after the release of “The Last Songs.” O. F. Miller wrote about Nekrasov: “Meanwhile, he repeatedly turns to the “poet”, pinning on him, as it were, his only hope<…>. Like Pushkin, he calls those who do not recognize poetry a crowd, but he does not see an ascetic in the poet<…>. He calls back the departed deity, he passionately evokes his struggle...” (Miller Or. The last songs of Nekrasov. - Svet, 1877, No. 5, p. 107).
The poem evoked a poetic response: L. Palmin, “In Memory of Nekrasov” (1878).

Analysis

“To the Poet (In Memory of Schiller)” Nekrasov

"To the Poet (In Memory of Schiller)" analysis of the work - theme, idea, genre, plot, composition, characters, issues and other issues are discussed in this article.

History of creation

The poem “To the Poet (In Memory of Schiller)” was written in 1874 and published in No. 9 of Otechestvennye Zapiski. The first publication did not have a subtitle, which appeared in the final edition, prepared in 1877.

Nekrasov, like most of his contemporaries, treated Schiller with reverence and considered him a “great genius.” The theme of the poet and poetry can be seen in the works of both Schiller and Nekrasov. For Nekrasov, Schiller was an ideal poet, preaching the very truth, love and beauty that Nekrasov did not find in modern society.

Literary direction and genre

Nekrasov creates in the poem “To the Poet” the image of a poet who plays an exceptional role in the education of society (Schiller was a poet of the Enlightenment, a representative of Weimar classicism). This poem is considered Nekrasov's aesthetic declaration. The realism of the poem lies in its historicism. It belongs to the genre of philosophical lyrics.

Theme, main idea and composition

The theme of the poem is the high purpose of the poet in society.

The main idea: the poet’s mission is similar to the prophetic. As soon as the poets fall silent, the crowd goes blind and plunges into darkness. The purpose of the poet is to bring harmony to the world and fight evil. Nekrasov calls on the poet not just to take active action, but to war: arm yourself - execute - disrupt crowns.

The poem consists of 6 stanzas. In the first two, the lyrical hero laments that in our age singers have fallen silent, there is no one to remind a person of his high calling.

In the next four stanzas, the lyrical hero calls on the inspired artist to return and fulfill his high mission - to bring to the world those virtues that are in his chest: truth, love and beauty.

Paths and images

Nekrasov, following Pushkin, contrasts the poet with the crowd. Nekrasov’s poem describes what will happen to the world in which the poet-prophets fall silent. Nekrasov believes that this is his contemporary society. The crowd abandoned the poet - and he fell silent. There is a parallel here with the biblical prophets, who fell silent, and the people, not hearing the will of God, perished.

Nekrasov describes the fall of modern society, personifying century, who of his own free will chooses his own rulers - bankers and executioners. Metaphors characterize this time: age of blood and sword, banker on the throne of earth, executioner hailed as a hero.

In contrast to the crowd, the poet is called singer of peace, freedom, love, valor, persecuted priest of art and even deity(metaphors). The biblical image of a prophet is combined in the poet with the ancient image of a priest of art. For the atheist Nekrasov, the poet really took the place of a prophet and deity. The lyrical hero calls on the singer to fulfill his mission: to remind a person of his high calling, light a magic torch(metaphor of truth), arm yourself with heavenly thunders(metaphor of divine chosenness, fair punishment), execute all the vices of society (self-interest, murder, sacrilege, betrayal).

Nekrasov calls for a change in modernity, devoid of the singer’s revelations. He describes such a world as path of enmity(metaphor), contrasting it paths of love and brotherhood, « acquired through the efforts of centuries"(metaphor). This path of love has been paved by poets for centuries, but today, from Nekrasov’s point of view, they have fallen silent.

The blindness of the crowd in Nekrasov’s poem can be cured by a torch, which the lyrical hero calls to light. The motif of divine vision and even the revival of dead eyes takes on a symbolic meaning of moral insight. Nekrasov considers the poet-singer to be a mediator between the high and the low. He is called lift up the fallen spirit of humanity(metaphor for the moral improvement of society).

Positive sublime epithets are contrasted in the poem with negative ones with the meaning of dying: high vocation, artist inspired, magic torch - hand daring, dying crowd, fallen spirit, dead eyes, treacherous heads.

Since the poet’s mission is divine for Nekrasov, he uses Old Slavonicisms in the poem: proclaimed, deity, fallen, inspired, lift up, with your eyes, contemplate.

The last stanza indicates the source of light that the singer brings into the world, harmonizing it. The source in the poet’s soul - “ throne of truth, love and beauty"(metaphor). The throne of the earth, on which human vices sit, described in the first stanza, is contrasted with the throne in the soul of an individual, the singer.

Meter and rhyme

The poem is written in iambic pentameter. The rhyme is cross, female rhyme alternates with male rhyme.

And valor. The century of “blood and sword”!
You placed a banker on the throne of earth,
He proclaimed the executioner a hero...

The crowd says: “The century does not need singers!”
And there are no singers... The deity fell silent...
Oh, who will now remind a person
His high calling.

Forgive the blind, inspired artist,
And come back. Your magic torch,
Extinguished by a daring hand,
Shine again over the dying crowd!

Arm yourself with heavenly thunder!
Raise our fallen spirit to heights,
So that a person does not have dead eyes
I could contemplate goodness and beauty...

Execute self-interest, murder, sacrilege!
Tear off the crowns from the treacherous heads,
Lured the world away from the path of love and brotherhood,
Acquired through the efforts of centuries,

On the path of hostility. In his affairs and feelings
Only you can bring harmony.
In your chest, persecuted priest of art,
Throne of truth, love and beauty. 1

comments, notes to the poem
TO THE POET
Nekrasov N.A.

1 Printed from PP, p. 32–33.
First published: OZ, 1874, No. 9, p. 231–232, without subtitle, with eight stanzas, censorship omission of art. 4 and signed: “N. Nekrasov" (reprinted: PP).
Included in the collected works for the first time: St. 1879, vol. III, was not included in the lifetime editions of Nekrasov’s “Poems.”
Autographs: 1) initial drafts, early edition and drafts of the second edition - IRLI, f. 203, No. 24, l. 3 (partially published: Chukovsky K. Nekrasov. Articles and materials. L. 1926, p. 325, more fully: PSSt 1967, vol. II, pp. 582–583); 2) typewritten manuscript, without a subtitle, with the date: “Sept. 6,” - IRLI, f. 203, No. 24, l. 1 and vol. (published in part: PSS, vol. II, pp. 605–606, more fully: PP 1974, pp. 163–164).

Dated according to the typeset manuscript and the time of the first publication at the beginning of September 1874. In Nekrasov’s list of works written by him in July and the first ten days of August 1874 (see PSS, vol. XI, p. 328), the poem “To the Poet” is missing . The final edition probably arose during the preparation of “The Last Songs” (February-March 1877). At the same time, the subtitle “In Memory of Schiller” could have appeared. In the same year, Nekrasov wrote “Imitation of Schiller.”
The dedication to Schiller expresses Nekrasov's long-standing sympathies for the German poet. In the “Chronicle of the Russian Theater” for January 1841, Nekrasov noted the high merits of Schiller’s dramaturgy and classified him as a “great genius” (PSS, vol. IX, p. 458; current edition, vol. XI). Dostoevsky spoke on behalf of the generation to which Nekrasov belonged: “Yes, Schiller really entered the flesh and blood of Russian society, especially in the past and in the generation before us, we were brought up on him, he is dear to us and in many ways affected our development” (Time , 1861, no. 7, p. 48). The subtitle could also have arisen for censorship reasons. He made it easier to publish the poem without censorship distortions.
The reason for creating the work under comment could have been magazine debates about the role of poetry and the poet in society. For example, N.V. Shelgunov, polemically assessing the poetic section of the collection “Skladchina” (1874), in which Nekrasov also participated, wrote: “Although bad poetry has long lost its credit, nevertheless our magazines are stubborn in their tradition and are still hospitable to the so-called “chopped prose”. This preference for poetry should, of course, be explained by the fact that the “poet” has still retained the privilege of the “prophet”. But alas! his menacing word no longer thunders, because neither sincere pain nor passion can be heard in it” (Delo, 1874, No. 4, part II, pp. 65-B6).
The poem echoes other works of Nekrasov from 1874–1875. “Prophet”, “Elegy”, “Terrible Year”, “Contemporaries”. It may contain echoes of Schiller’s works - “Die Kunstler” (“The Artists”), “Die Sanger der Vor-welt” (“Singers of the Past”), etc. (see about this: Garkavi A. M. 1) Research about N.A. Nekrasov. - Scientist. zap. Kaliningrad state ped. Institute, 1961, (issue IX, p. 41; 2) The poem “To the Poet (In Memory of Schiller)” is the aesthetic declaration of P. A. Nekrasov. - Scientific tr. Kubansk. state Univ., vol. 273. Krasnodar, 1979, p. 64–67).
Criticism hostile to Nekrasov did not accept the democratic tendency of the poem. V.P. Burenin prefaced his response to him in a journalistic review with an ironic title: “An appeal from Mr. Nekrasov to the artist about the latter accepting the position of prosecutor” (St. Petersburg, 1874, Oct. 12, No. 281). The poem received a more objective assessment from critics after the release of “The Last Songs.” O. F. Miller wrote about Nekrasov: “Meanwhile, he repeatedly turns to the “poet,” pinning his only hope on him. Like Pushkin, he calls those who do not recognize poetry a crowd, but he does not see an ascetic in the poet. He calls back the departed deity, he passionately evokes his struggle...” (Miller Or. The last songs of Nekrasov. - Svet, 1877, No. 5, p. 107).
The poem evoked a poetic response: L. Palmin, “In Memory of Nekrasov” (1878).

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“To the Poet (In Memory of Schiller)”, analysis of Nekrasov’s poem

History of creation

Nekrasov. like most of his contemporaries, he treated Schiller with reverence and considered him a “great genius.” The theme of the poet and poetry can be seen in the works of both Schiller and Nekrasov. For Nekrasov, Schiller was an ideal poet, preaching the very truth, love and beauty that Nekrasov did not find in modern society.

Literary direction and genre

Theme, main idea and composition

The theme of the poem is the high purpose of the poet in society.

The poem consists of 6 stanzas. In the first two, the lyrical hero laments that in our age singers have fallen silent, there is no one to remind a person of his high calling.

In the next four stanzas, the lyrical hero calls on the inspired artist to return and fulfill his high mission - to bring to the world those virtues that are in his chest: truth, love and beauty.

Paths and images

Nekrasov describes the fall of modern society, personifying century. who of his own free will chooses his own rulers - bankers and executioners. Metaphors characterize this time: age of blood and sword, banker on the throne of earth, executioner hailed as a hero .

Nekrasov calls for a change in modernity, devoid of the singer’s revelations. He describes such a world as path of enmity(metaphor), contrasting it paths of love and brotherhood. « acquired through the efforts of centuries"(metaphor). This path of love has been paved by poets for centuries, but today, from Nekrasov’s point of view, they have fallen silent.

Positive sublime epithets are contrasted in the poem with negative ones with the meaning of dying: high vocation, artist inspired. magic torch - hand daring. dying crowd, fallen spirit, dead eyes, treacherous heads.

Since the poet’s mission is divine for Nekrasov, he uses Old Church Slavonicisms in the poem: proclaimed, deity, fallen, inspired, lift up, with eyes, contemplate.

The last stanza indicates the source of light that the singer brings into the world, harmonizing it. The source in the poet’s soul is “ throne of truth, love and beauty"(metaphor). The throne of the earth, on which human vices sit, described in the first stanza, is contrasted with the throne in the soul of an individual, the singer.

Meter and rhyme

The poem is written in iambic pentameter. The rhyme is cross, female rhyme alternates with male rhyme.

The theme of poetry and the poet in Nekrasov’s lyrics. The originality of Nekrasov's lyrics

Many great literary artists have addressed the topic of poetry and the poet more than once, but in their works they revealed it in different ways.

Two directions in art

Two main trends in the question of how the tasks facing art should be understood emerged in the mid-19th century. Supporters of “pure art” believed that poetry does not lie in the depiction of reality. It lies in the grace of the subject and form of the poem. Representatives of this trend consciously avoided the problems of reality and turned to “eternal” themes in their work.

Representatives of the so-called “democratic” trend took the opposite position. They relied on the experience of the Decembrist poets, Lermontov and Pushkin. Of course, Nekrasov was one of them. The work of N. A. Nekrasov is a striking example of service to the Fatherland. Continuing the traditions of Lermontov and Pushkin, this poet constantly turned throughout his journey to the topic of poetry and the poet. Many of Nekrasov's poems are dedicated to her. We will highlight in this article only the most famous and important of them.

The theme of poetry and the poet in the lyrics of Nekrasov’s early years

Touching on this topic, Nekrasov, already in the 40s, was inclined to compare his Muse with a simple woman who came out of the people (“Yesterday, at about six o’clock.”). Nikolai Alekseevich thereby emphasized the nationality of all his work, which he realized at an early age. At the same time, he showed the difficulties that the poet had to face at the beginning of his journey. We are talking about Nekrasov’s struggle against journalistic persecution and censorship. Like a young peasant woman, his muse was “cut with a whip” and “slashed with a scourge.”

Poem "Muse"

In the poem "Muse", written 4 years later, the poet develops these assessments and comparisons. His mentor, alas, does not sing sweet songs. She does not teach harmony, does not use the pipe. His muse has a different appearance. Again the poet compares her to a peasant woman, but now in more detail. She sings in front of a "smoky ray" in a "wretched hut." This peasant woman is “killed by grief,” “bent over by labor.” However, Nekrasov’s Muse is not only likened to a village worker. She is also called "the companion of the sad poor." What is characteristic of this poem by Nekrasov is that the disposition to take revenge is a character trait of the muse. By this, the poet prepares a complex synthesis in his characterization of the wonderful “maiden,” a definition formulated somewhat later, in 1855, when he called her “the muse of revenge and sadness.”

Two types of poets in Nekrasov’s poem

Nekrasov also reflects on the creator, in particular, in the work “Blessed is the gentle poet.” This creation, created during the period of the “gloomy seven years”, is dedicated to the memory of N.V. Gogol (pictured below), who had just died. In it, despite censorship, the struggle is being waged for the triumph of the “Gogolian” movement in literature. This poem reveals in a new way the theme of poetry and the poet in Nekrasov’s lyrics. Nikolai Alekseevich sharply contrasts two types of poets: “the denouncer of the crowd” and the “kindly” artist of words.

Some researchers of the work of the author we are interested in are convinced that he meant by “kindly poet” Zhukovsky, who fully deserves this epithet. By “the denouncer of the crowd,” the satirist Nekrasov means Gogol. This writer’s path in literature was “thorny.” Gogol had no “mercy” and no peace from his opponents. “Cries of anger” and “blasphemy” constantly haunted him. And most importantly, it was Nikolai Vasilyevich, “arming his lips with satire,” who denounced social vices with a “punishing lyre.” Nekrasov was unusually close to the preaching of love through “hatred” of evil, “the hostile word of denial.” Like Nikolai Vasilyevich (his portrait is presented below), Nikolai Alekseevich “loved while hating.” Nekrasov proclaimed his cherished thought that those who live without anger and sadness do not love their homeland.

"Poet and Citizen"

The main themes and ideas of Nekrasov’s lyrics were associated with one very important concept for Nikolai Alekseevich - “citizen”. The poet, reflecting on the creative artist, creates a poem called "The Poet and the Citizen." He gave the image of the Poet some of his own features, hesitations, and doubts, although he strived, first of all, to typify this image. The figure of the Citizen is also distinguished by its generality. He demands that the Poet respond to various life conflicts, actively serve the people, and protect the disadvantaged. The lines of Nikolai Alekseevich that you don’t have to be a Poet, but you definitely have to be a citizen, go back to Decembrist poetry. Let us recall, for example, the formula of K. F. Ryleev (his portrait is presented below), who said that he was not a poet, but a citizen.

Nikolai Alekseevich develops this idea. The “colloquiality” and dramatism of the work “The Poet and the Citizen” (Nekrasov) was enhanced by its dialogic form. However, it did not save from didacticism and some declarativeness, which are manifested in rhetorical questions, instructions, calls, incentives, as well as in political vocabulary inherent in Nekrasov’s era.

The theme of poetry and the poet in Nekrasov’s lyrics runs through all of his work. Nikolai Alekseevich, responding to the debate about what role a poet should play in society, which took place in journalism in the 1870s, creates the poem “In Memory of Schiller” (“To the Poet”). The problematics and coloring of this work differ in many respects from previous poems about poetry, as an analysis of Nekrasov’s lyrics shows. Nikolai Alekseevich no longer touches on the topic of torment and suffering, does not connect the artist’s words with the fate of the peasantry. Nekrasov, whose poems are often dedicated to the suffering of ordinary people, limits himself to creating an ideal image of the Poet in this poem.

Who is the ideal image of the Poet for Nekrasov?

For him, it is Schiller (his portrait is presented below).

The creativity, thought, and life of this great German poet are beautiful for Nekrasov mainly because he sees in them the manifestation of an artist-judge, guided by the highest principles of beauty and morality. The author emphasizes the sublime and beautiful in the feat of his hero. He is equal in his faithful service to God's freedom. The poet is armed with "heavenly thunder." He stands above bankers and kings, and the “magic torch” raised by him, like a “lamp of reason”, already familiar to us, illuminates the path for people, brings them to the light.

His age and people need a Poet. He serves them without trying to isolate himself in art, divorced from life. The singer calls his muse only when the “types of goodness and love” are clear in his soul. According to the author, such a creator can and should remind people of their “high calling”, and also, which is especially important now for Nekrasov, bring “harmony” to their feelings and deeds, guided by the high ideal of beauty.

Poem "Elegy"

The theme of poetry and the poet in Nekrasov’s lyrics is also revealed in the poem “Elegy”. This is perhaps the most dramatically expressive and profound poem on this topic in the work of the author of interest to us. Nikolai Alekseevich, reflecting on the post-reform years, makes a disappointing conclusion that the topic of “the suffering of the people” has not lost its relevance. The fate of the peasants, the share of the people remains unbearable and painful. As before, the “chants of rural maidens” are filled with grief and sadness. The originality of Nekrasov’s lyrics throughout his work lies in the depiction of the suffering of the people. However, Nikolai Alekseevich in “Elegy” significantly expands the picture of the hardships of the peasants. He speaks, using the plural, of the misfortunes of various “peoples,” implying the triumph of reaction in the states neighboring Russia. Here people experience at this time a “dawnless night” (the definition given in the poem “The honest ones have fallen silent.”, written in the same year).

Nekrasov's poems are known and loved by many today. The largest and most famous of them is “Who can live well in Rus'?” Having read even this one work from the poet’s entire work, one can understand how much Nikolai Alekseevich loved the Russian people. However, not only Nekrasov’s poems reflect concern for him. The fate of the people worries the author in many other works. Nikolai Alekseevich sees the poet’s highest purpose in serving him selflessly. In “Elegy” Nekrasov seems to sum up his work, saying: “I dedicated the lyre to my people.” One cannot but agree with this.

The theme of the poet and poetry in the lyrics of N. A. Nekrasov

Continuing the traditions of Pushkin, Lermontov, Nekrasov throughout his entire career constantly turned to the theme of the poet and poetry.
Already in the 40s of the XIX century. touching on these motives, the poet compares his Muse with a simple woman from the people (verse “Yesterday, at about six o’clock ...”, 1848). By this, N. emphasized the nationality of his work and at the same time showed the difficulties that he encountered at the beginning of his creative career, fighting against censorship. His muse, like a young peasant woman, was slashed with a scourge, cut with a whip, and cursed with evil words. Four years later, in the poem “Muse” (1852), the poet develops these assessments of his Muse. N. compares her patroness to a peasant woman singing “in a wretched hut, in front of a smoky ray, bent by labor, killed by the torment.” But the poet’s Muse is not only likened to a rural worker, but is also called “the sad companion of the sad poor.” The word “sadness” spoken twice here very accurately defines one facet of the character of Nekrasov’s Muse. Another facet of it is a disposition to take revenge. In 1855, the definition was formulated: “The Muse of revenge and sorrow.”
N. also creates his own reflection on the creator - “Blessed is the gentle poet” (1852). Created during the “gloomy seventh anniversary”, it is dedicated to the memory of the recently deceased N.V. Gogol. And, despite censorship terror, he is fighting for the “Gogolian” direction in literature. Glorifying the poet - “the denouncer of the crowd,” N. in the second part of the poem endows the creator with the features of a prophet who is “pursued by blasphemers,” but who firmly follows his “thorny path.” And although the word “prophet” has not yet been named, the mission of prophecy, the ethic of self-sacrifice and service to love and truth are clearly outlined here.
Reflecting on the artist-creator, N. creates the famous poem “The Poet and the Citizen” (1856), in which he gave the image of the Poet some of his own features (certain doubts, hesitations and repentance). The figure of the Citizen is also distinguished by its generality, demanding from the Poet a response to life’s conflicts, active service to the people, and protection of the disadvantaged. The lines “You may not be a poet, but you must be a citizen” go back to Decembrist poetry. Responding to the debate about the role of the poet in society, which took place in journalism in the 1870s, N. creates the poem “To the Poet (In Memory of Schiller)” (1874). N. does not touch upon the topic of suffering and torment here. For N., the life, thought, and work of the great German poet are beautiful, first of all, because in them he sees a manifestation of the personality of the artist-judge, who is guided by the highest principles of morality and beauty. The poem sounds a call to militant public service:
Arm yourself with heavenly thunders!
...Executions are self-interest, murder, sacrilege.
Rip the crowns off the treacherous heads...
But, probably, the most profound and expressive poem on the topic of the poet and poetry was “Elegy” (1874) in the same 70s. This is a sincere spiritual confession, a conclusion summed up at the end of the journey. There is a lot of hesitation and doubt here. But these doubts are overcome, although at the cost of great effort. It is no coincidence that N. considered the lines of this poem “the most soulful” and favorite of those written in the last years of his life. They convey many of his innermost thoughts about modern reality, the situation of the people and about himself. Reflecting on the nature of the post-reform years, N. comes to the disappointing conclusion that the old theme of “the suffering of the people” has not lost its relevance:
Oh, if only years could age her!
God's world would flourish!
But the lot of the people, the lot of the peasants still remains painful and unbearable. With many of its motifs, this poem by N. is connected with Pushkin’s traditions.
Reflections on the people and the lyre, designed to mourn their misfortunes and tragic fate, give birth to a heartfelt stanza about the poet and poetry. It is the most important and profound Nekrasov self-expression:
I dedicated the lyre to my people.
Perhaps I will die unknown to him,
But I served him - my heart is calm...
In this the poet sees the role and purpose of poetry in general. This purpose is not only to “remind the crowd that the people are in poverty,” in order to “attract the attention of the powerful to the people,” but also to call the people to final liberation from slavery and their acquisition of true happiness (“The people are liberated, but are the people happy?”). And turning to the young men, the poet calls on them to contribute to this through their active deeds. This is how N. expressed his most important creative program.
Summing up the final results of his journey in the quatrain “Muse” (1876), returning to the motif of his early poems, N. again affirms the kinship of his poetry with the common people. The Muse who came to the tomb is “the sister of the people – and mine!” - exclaims the poet.

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/ Works / Nekrasov N.A. / Miscellaneous / The theme of the poet and poetry in the lyrics of N. A. Nekrasov

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Listen to Nekrasov's poem To the Poet in Memory of Schiller

Topics of adjacent essays

Picture for the essay analysis of the poem To the poet in memory of Schiller

History of creation

Literary direction and genre

Theme, main idea and composition

The theme of the poem is the high purpose of the poet in society.

The poem consists of 6 stanzas. In the first two, the lyrical hero laments that in our age singers have fallen silent, there is no one to remind a person of his high calling.

In the next four stanzas, the lyrical hero calls on the inspired artist to return and fulfill his high mission - to bring to the world those virtues that are in his chest: truth, love and beauty.

Paths and images

Since the poet’s mission is divine for Nekrasov, he uses Old Church Slavonicisms in the poem: proclaimed, deity, fallen, inspired, lift up, with eyes, contemplate.

Meter and rhyme

The poem is written in iambic pentameter. The rhyme is cross, female rhyme alternates with male rhyme.

“It’s stuffy! Without happiness and will...", analysis of Nekrasov’s poem
“Farewell”, analysis of Nekrasov’s poem
“The heart breaks from torment,” analysis of Nekrasov’s poem

Theme of the poet and poetry occupies a special place in Nekrasov’s work. Its originality is determined by the fact that for Nekrasov the problem of appointing an artist was not only aesthetic. Understanding it meant solving the fundamental question of the purpose of a human citizen in society. “A special flair for suffering,” which both Nekrasov’s contemporaries and researchers of his work note as a characteristic feature of the poet, was also manifested in Nekrasov’s perception of his era as tragic, as “a time of grief.” A witness to the people’s suffering, “deeply wounded” by this suffering, as Dostoevsky accurately said, Nekrasov saw his duty as a poet not only to tell the world about these sufferings, to “sing” them, but also to “turn reality around” “recreate minds.”

The illusory nature of such hopes for the ability of the poetic word to change life will very soon become obvious to the poet. IN poem of 1845 “Rhymes! poems! It’s been a long time since I was a genius.”, remembering the dreams and aspirations that united the young poets, Nekrasov will say with bitter irony about the utopian plans of the young poets:

"Heaven's Chosen", we sang, sang
And recreate minds with songs,
They wanted to turn reality around
And it seemed to us that our work was not empty,
It’s not childish nonsense that the Almighty himself is with us
And the hour of blissful fate is near,
When our work is blessed by our neighbor!

The bitter notes sounded in this early poem, caused by a clear awareness of the naivety of such dreams, an understanding of the impossibility of remaking the world with the poetic word, will become the leitmotif in Nekrasov’s later poems. The poet, in his other works, will more than once express the idea of the powerlessness of the poetic word, its inability to change people. “Where are the fruits of that useful work?” - he will ask bitterly 1857 poem “About the Weather” regarding numerous books about the “curious life of the poor.” Shedding “a river of tears” over books, readers were in no hurry to alleviate the existence of not the book poor, but the real poor. However, the irony caused by disbelief in the ability of the artistic word to “turn reality around” was never accompanied by Nekrasov’s doubt about the purpose of the writer “to remind the crowd that the people are in poverty while they rejoice and sing.”

The conviction that the vocation of a writer is to be a figure who actively intervenes in life also determined a new understanding of poetry. Nekrasov does not deny the divine origin of the poetic gift: the poet in his work will be called “the chosen one of heaven,” and not always with irony, as in the poem “Rhymes! poems! It’s been a long time since I was a genius.” But at the same time, Nekrasov insists that poetic creativity is also “hard work” (for example, in the 1856 poem “Almost saying: “You are a mere insignificance”). In a poem addressed to fellow writers (“Russian Writer,” 1855), he calls the Russian writer “a toiler-worker on the basis of Thought and Good.”

Nekrasov was clearly aware of the peculiarity of his aesthetic position and sought to emphasize the difference between his views on poetic creativity and the views of his predecessors. Thus, the beginning of a poem with a very traditional title - "Muse"(1852) - a kind of declaration of independence. Describing his inspiring Muse, the author carefully emphasizes the dissimilarity of his “ever-crying and incomprehensible maiden” from the tenderly singing Muse of Russian poets. The description is based on a deliberate opposition, in which negations dominate: “no”, “I don’t remember”:

No, the Muse sings tenderly and beautifully
I don’t remember the sweet-voiced song above me!
In heavenly beauty, inaudibly, like a spirit,
Flying from a height, my hearing is infantile
She didn't teach magical harmony<...>

His Muse is different: “unloved,” “sad companion of the sad poor.” The poet creates a multifaceted, contradictory image of the inspiring Muse. She is not a heavenly guest, but a beggar, a sufferer, begging for alms and worshiping only wealth: “crying, grieving and hurting, / Always thirsty, humbly asking, / For which gold is the only idol.” Conveying the meaning of her songs, sometimes mournful, sometimes “raunchy,” Nekrasov seems to recreate a brief sketch of his bitter youth. Describing the melodies of his Muse’s songs, the poet noted the dominant “sound” in them - the “moan”, which will indeed become the dominant sound image in the picture of Russian life he himself created:

<...>But the same mournful groan
It sounded even more shrill in a noisy revelry.
Everything was heard in him in a crazy confusion:
Calculations of petty and dirty vanity,
And wonderful dreams of youth,
Lost love, suppressed tears,
Curses, complaints, powerless threats.

The muse - a grieving beggar - is only one face of the inspiration. Her melancholy complaints are instantly replaced by rage and threats to the unrighteous world, and instead of the beautiful Virgin Muse, familiar to the Russian reader, full of heavenly harmony, the avenging goddess Nemesis appears:

In a fit of rage, with human untruth
The mad woman vowed to start a stubborn battle.
Indulging in wild and gloomy fun,
Played madly with my cradle,
She screamed: “Vengeance!” - and a violent tongue
God's thunder called for accomplices!

A rush of “wild passions” and “fierce sorrow” is sometimes replaced by a “divinely beautiful moment”,

When the sufferer, with her head bowed,
"Farewell to your enemies!" whispered above me...

The relationship between the poet and his Muse is devoid of harmony. In Nekrasov’s poem, the motif of the struggle with the Muse is heard for the first time. The “fierce battle” into which the hero enters with his “wild”, “mad” Muse ends with the triumph of the “incomprehensible maiden”: she forces the hero to go through the circles of earthly hell. Opening up this terrible world of suffering and humiliation to him, the Muse teaches him to feel someone else’s pain in order to tell the world about it:

Through the dark abysses of Violence and Evil,
She led me through labor and hunger -
Taught me to feel my suffering
And she blessed the world to announce them...

In this poem of 1852, Nekrasov expressed his understanding of his mission in literature, his calling, about which many years later, summing up his creative path, he would say the same way as in the early 1850s: “I was called to sing your suffering, / Amazing the people with patience.” But the poet is not only the “singer” of people’s suffering. The image of God's thunder as the “accomplice” of the Muse seems very important in this poem. The poet, in Nekrasov’s understanding, is not just “the chosen one of heaven,” but a companion of God, an assistant in a fair trial of earthly untruth. And in later poems, embodying his ideal of a poet, Nekrasov appeals to him: “Arm yourself with heavenly thunders / Raise our fallen spirit to the heights!” (“To the Poet (in memory of Schiller)”, 1874), connecting with the image of God’s thunderstorm his idea of higher, just retribution - cleansing, renewal of unrighteous life, ridding society of moral stuffiness and stagnation.

But another task seemed no less important to him - teaching, educating in the reader, through the power of the poetic word, a new consciousness, a new attitude to life. The idea that literature “at any cost, under any circumstances” “must not retreat one step from its goal - to elevate society to its ideal - the ideal of goodness, light and truth!” - becomes the writer’s sincere idea.

In the same year, 1852, Nekrasov created his other famous poem, dedicated to the purpose of the poet - "Blessed is the gentle poet". Like the poem “Muse”, it is built on an antithesis: the composition is based on the opposition of the destinies of two poets - the “kindly” and the “embittered”. The opposition itself, as is known, goes back to the seventh chapter of N.V.’s poem. Gogol "Dead Souls". It should be noted that, in asserting the unconditional well-being of the fate of the “kind” poet, Nekrasov is overly categorical. Neither critics nor readers were kind to those poets who “abhorred daring satire.” It is no coincidence that in response to this poem Y.P. Polonsky, one of those whom Nekrasov meant by the name of “kindly” poets, responded with a confessional poem about the dramatic fate of the “peace-loving lyre.” But the excessive polemical nature of Nekrasov’s poem was caused not only by the desire to attract the attention and sympathy of society to the fate of those poets who saw their purpose in correcting the vices of society, in “exposing the crowd.” The author sought to show the true meaning and true purpose of the “hatred” that fills the works of the “embarrassed” poet, forcing him to stigmatize the vices of society. The source of this hatred is true love, the poet’s highest goal is also love - love for people, love for his country:

Feeding my chest with hatred,
Armed with satire,
He goes through a thorny path
With your punishing lyre<...>

And believing and not believing again
The dream of a high calling,
He preaches love
With a hostile word of denial<...>

They curse him from all sides
And just seeing his corpse,
They will understand how much he has done,
And how he loved - while hating!

But it is characteristic that, while affirming such a high mission of the poet, Nekrasov never idealized either his hero-poet or his contemporary poets. The hero-poet in Nekrasov's lyrics is deprived of the aura of infallibility. He is never presented as the bearer of higher knowledge or truths. The image of a prophet as an exponent of God’s word will be close to Nekrasov, but he will call a “prophet” not a poet, but a democratic revolutionary, N.G. Chernyshevsky, who consistently defended his convictions. The hero-poet in Nekrasov’s poems is not endowed with talent that would allow him to feel his clear superiority over the “unenlightened.” He is not a genius and is marked by many human weaknesses: inconsistency in asserting his position, weak-willedness, and a tendency to compromise. According to V.V. Kozhinov, one of Nekrasov’s discoveries is that he “for the first time introduces into poetry the “everyday” person, the whole person, including in a non-poetic state. For the first time, he presents the poet as a person “under the yoke” of all kinds, including “petty” everyday “concerns,” with an unenlightened soul that has not risen above them.”

The contradiction between the high mission of the artist and the human weaknesses of the hero-poet will become the source of one of the dramatic motives in Nekrasov’s lyrics - the motive of unfulfilled duty. For the first time it sounded sharply, strongly, tragically in a poem "Poet and Citizen"(1855-1856), in many ways determining his ideological and artistic originality: declarations about the high purpose of the artist of words are inextricably linked here with the bitter confession of the poet, who admits his inability to follow them.

The poem is constructed as a dialogue: the poet and the citizen express their opinions about the role of the poet and the purpose of poetry. The poet and the citizen are in many ways like-minded. But there are also certain differences in their views. There is also a difference in human characters: a consistent, integral, persistent citizen, unyielding in his convictions, is contrasted with a poet. This is a man endowed with talent and a proud, fair soul, but a cowardly and inconsistent defender of his ideals and the truth he has realized.

In the citizen's declarations, some researchers see the ideals of V.G. Belinsky and N.G. Chernyshevsky. And at the same time, in the research literature, an objection is rightly expressed against “a simplified interpretation of the poem and the reduction of its images to prototypes.” A.M. Garkavi argues that the images of both the poet and the citizen “have the meaning of artistic generalizations” and “are carriers of the lyrical principle”: “Nekrasov’s aesthetic views are formulated in the statements of the poet and citizen.” And indeed: it is to the citizen that Nekrasov entrusts his dear thoughts about the purpose of poetry, which are expressed more than once in lyrics, in letters, in critical articles. So, for example, in a letter from L.N. Tolstoy (1856) sounds the central idea affirmed in the poem by a citizen: “<...>In our fatherland, the role of a writer is, first of all, the role of a teacher and, if possible, an intercessor for the voiceless and humiliated,” Nekrasov wrote.

Researchers see in this work a polemic with Pushkin’s poem “The Poet and the Crowd.” Like Pushkin's, Nekrasov's poem is structured as a dialogue, an argument. But if Pushkin’s poet opposes the “senseless” crowd, then Nekrasov’s poet’s antagonist is a citizen, the embodiment of moral responsibility and a sense of duty to the homeland. The polemic begins with the lines of Pushkin quoted by the poet - words about the purpose of the poet: “Not for everyday excitement, / Not for self-interest, not for battles, / We were born for inspiration, / For sweet sounds and prayers.” As you know, Pushkin’s poem ended with these words.

For the Nekrasov poet, these lines are the absolute truth, proof of the poet’s right not to participate in the life of society. The citizen’s attitude towards Pushkin’s lines is much more restrained. Researchers see his position as a polemic with Pushkin. Indeed, the citizen does not share the poet’s enthusiasm and admits that he “takes his poems to his heart more vividly than Pushkin’s poems.” However, this recognition does not mean denying the significance of Pushkin’s word. N.N.’s statement seems fair. Skatov that this is “not a refutation of the irrefutable Pushkin,” but “a refutation of the poet,” who “is not Pushkin.” The poet's poems do not seem artistically perfect to the citizen. He calls his poems “stupid”, says about his elegies that they are “not new”, “satires are alien to beauty, / Ignoble and offensive”, “the verse is viscous”. Pushkin is an unattainable model even for a citizen. It is important that further Pushkin is likened by a citizen to the sun, and a poet to the stars: he is “noticeable,” “but without the sun the stars are visible.” It can be assumed that these words are also polemical, but in relation to Chernyshevsky. In the mid-1850s. Chernyshevsky wrote to Nekrasov, placing his talent above Pushkin’s: “We have never had a poet like you. Pushkin, Lermontov, Koltsov as lyricists cannot be compared with you.”

Why does the citizen see not in Pushkin’s poetry, but in the poet’s imperfect lyrics, a source of strength that should awaken society? The reason for his persistent attention is an era completely different from Pushkin’s. This is the time when “the sun is not visible from anywhere,” this is the “time of grief.” Describing his era, the citizen uses one of the traditional images found in Pushkin’s lyrics: the country-ship. The present time is likened to them by a menacing storm, and it dictates a different role for the poet. Poetry, when the “storm groans”, should not be soporific “sweet sounds”, it should awaken the desire to resist the “earthly thunders”:

But the thunder struck; the storm is moaning,
And it tears the rigging, and tilts the mast, -
This is not the time to play chess,
This is not the time to sing songs!
Here is a dog - and he knows the danger
And barks furiously into the wind:
He has nothing else to do...
What would you do, poet?
Is it really in a distant cabin?
You would become an inspired lyre
To please the ears of sloths
And drown out the roar of the storm?

This symbolic picture of time, drawn by a citizen, is close to the author: the image of the era that Nekrasov repeatedly creates in his poems is dominated by the same metaphor - a storm, a thunderstorm. For example, in the poem “The Grief of Old Naum”: “But I was born at the wrong time - / It was a bad time!<...>/ The thunder rumbled incessantly, / And the whirlwind was terrible, / And the man stood under it / Frightened and speechless.” One of the direct sources of this metaphor may be the famous Pushkin poem “Arion”, in which the boat that died during a thunderstorm symbolizes the tragic end of the Decembrist uprising on December 14, 1825. In this Pushkin poem, the idea of the fate of the poet, who inspired swimmers with his songs, was extremely important . “Thrown ashore” by a “thunderstorm,” Pushkin’s singer saw his purpose in singing “former hymns,” an expression the essence of which is recognition of the singer’s unchanging loyalty to his dead friends, their “hymns” - their ideals. But Nekrasov is not satisfied only with the idea of the poet’s loyalty to high ideals; his role is considered more effective - it is to actively resist “earthly thunder.”

One can assume another possible source of images in Nekrasov’s poem: by drawing an anti-ideal image of a poet trying to drown out the “roar of the storm” and “delighting” the ears of the “lazy” with an inspired lyre, Nekrasov is polemicizing not so much with Pushkin as with the poem by Y.P. Polonsky “Rocking in a Storm” (1851). Polonsky’s lyrical hero, indeed, sought to escape from the sea storm, symbolizing life’s hardships and shocks, into “golden dreams” - memories of past happiness. The poet’s “dream” “in a time of grief,” according to the Nekrasov citizen, is shameful. He persistently repeats these words to the poet: “you shouldn’t sleep now,” “you only fell asleep temporarily: / Wake up: boldly smash your vices,” “it’s a shame to sleep with your talent.” When determining his requirements for a poet, a citizen proceeds from the requirements of the time itself. Poetry in “times of grief” should not lead readers away from real problems into the ideal world: it is a shame “in times of grief / The beauty of valleys, skies and seas / And to sing of sweet affection...”. Inaction and silence in a tragic time for the country are shameful. It is important to note that among those whom the citizen enrolls in the “camp of the harmless”, considering them to be untrue citizens of the country, inactive in the “time of grief”, they are placed nearby: money-grubbers, thieves, “sweet singers” and “wise men”, whose purpose is “conversations.” "

The son cannot look calmly
On my dear mother's grief,
There will be no worthy citizen
I have a cold heart for my homeland,
There is no worse reproach for him...
Go into the fire for the honor of your fatherland,
For convictions, for love...
Go and die blamelessly.
You will not die in vain: the matter is strong,
When blood flows through them...

The citizen’s statements contain many of Pushkin’s definitions: the poet, the citizen believes, is “the chosen one of heaven,” “the herald of age-old truths,” his “strings” are “prophetic.” “Service to art” is also recognized by him as the purpose of the poet. But at the same time he emphasizes another task: serving people. The citizen utters words expressed more than once by Nekrasov himself: about the inseparability of serving art with serving society and one’s neighbor. Thus, in one of his letters, Nekrasov asserted: “Only one theory is correct: love the truth unselfishly and passionately, more than anything and, by the way, more than yourself, and serve it, then everything will turn out fine: if you serve art, you will serve society, If you serve society, you will also serve art.” In the poem, this idea is embodied in a clear poetic formula:

Be a citizen! serving art,
Live for the good of your neighbor,
Subordinating your genius to feeling
All-embracing Love<...>

What is “Universal Love”? Written with a capital letter, the word “Love” means a feeling that does not separate a person from the world, but, on the contrary, promotes unity with people and the unity of all people. A citizen speaks of love for the country and people: for a poet, Love must be expressed in fiery words about goodness and beauty.

The poet’s statement following these words is not a dispute with the citizen’s beliefs. The poet does not reject the words of the citizen, he only does not recognize his right to follow these words: “to teach others requires a genius, / A strong soul is required.” And therefore, he places the activist, the citizen, above the poet, but understands his role in his own way: a true citizen, unlike a poet, silently fulfills his duty, moving towards his intended goal:

Blessed is the silent citizen:
He, alien to the muses from the cradle,
Master of your actions,
Leads them to a rewarding goal,
And his work is successful, the dispute...

The citizen does not agree with this definition of “citizen”: a “silent citizen,” in his opinion, is only pathetic. He also does not agree with the word “blessed,” or more precisely, with the possibility of such a definition of the citizen’s share: “blessed,” in his opinion, is not a “silent citizen,” but a “chattering poet.” A true citizen is one who “bears on his body like his own / All the ulcers of his homeland.” When he utters the famous words: “You may not be a poet, / But you must be a citizen,” then we are talking about the urgent need for true citizens that the country experiences. In addition, these words, which, as is known, go back to the poem by K.F. Ryleev’s “Voinarovsky”, at the same time contained an indication of a certain poetic tradition that a true poet should follow.

The dispute is essentially over. But not because the poet changed his beliefs, his position. She remained the same. In essence, when a poet argues with a citizen or when he expresses the idea of poetry as inspired prayer and sweet sounds, he is not arguing with a citizen, but with himself. The dialogue gradually turns into a monologue-confession of the poet, and the reader understands that the indifference to social issues that the poet proclaimed at the beginning of the conversation, his passivity and melancholy have their source in the drama he experienced. The reader is presented with the story of a man who left the struggle, who was afraid of responsibility for the bitter truths that he expressed in his poems. Assessing his past life from the point of view of those values and responsibilities that the citizen proclaimed and which he himself recognizes as unconditional, the poet strictly judges himself for apostasy from these covenants. These covenants are love and hatred: love for the unfortunate and disadvantaged, love for the fatherland and people, hatred for what prevents a person from being happy:

Without disgust, without fear
I went to prison and to the place of execution,
I went to courts and hospitals.
I won't repeat what I saw there...
I swear I honestly hated it!
I swear, I truly loved!
So what?.. having heard my sounds,
They considered them black slander;
I had to fold my hands humbly
Or pay with your head...
<...>The soul fearfully retreated.

Nekrasov conveys deeply personal experiences to his hero: his own pain, his own suffering. Repentance seems overly passionate, perhaps even exaggerated, especially considering Nekrasov’s genuine services to Russian society. But this passion and power of repentance can be explained by the highest ideal of a human citizen, which Nekrasov recognized for himself and to which he was invariably devoted:

<...>I don't hide the bitter truth
And I timidly bow my head
In the words: an honest citizen.
That fatal, vain flame
To this day it burns my chest,
And I'm glad if someone
He will throw a stone at me with contempt.

No one reproaches himself as passionately and ardently for trampling on the “duty of a sacred man” as the Nekrasov poet. He is also acutely aware of the fact that the refusal of honest civil service caused the loss of his creative gift. The lack of civic courage, which in poetry manifests itself as a departure from social issues and the fear of describing the vices of rulers, leads to the fact that the Nekrasov poet ceases to be not only a citizen, but also a poet:

But how afraid I was! how afraid I was!
When my neighbor drowned
In waves of essential grief -
Now the thunder of heaven, now the fury of the sea
I chanted good-naturedly.
Scouring little thieves
For the pleasure of the big ones,
I marveled at the audacity of the boys
And he was proud of their praise.
Under the yoke of years the soul bent,
She's cooled down to everything
And the Muse turned away completely,
The proud is full of contempt.

The idea of serving the poet, first of all, to the good of society is one of the central ideas in Nekrasov’s ideas about the purpose of the poet and poetry. Nekrasov realized how difficult it was to achieve this goal. At the same time, we were talking not only about the civic courage of the author, but also about the possibility of the words he expressed to pass through censorship. The collisions experienced by the poet with the inflexible censor were embodied in the image of the Muse, cut with a whip, the Muse in the crown of thorns, found in a number of poems by Nekrasov (“Celebration of life - the years of youth”, 1855, “I am unknown. I have not acquired you”, 1855, “O Muse! I am at the door of the tomb", 1877). The crown of thorns of Nekrasov's Muse - an unchanging detail of her appearance - emphasizes the idea of the poet as a sufferer for faith, for a high idea. In the poem “I am unknown. “I have not gained you,” it is also said about the death of the Muse under the whip:

No! She accepted her crown of thorns,
Without flinching, the dishonored Muse
And under the whip she died without a sound.

This same understanding of creativity and the idea of the path of the poetic word to the reader as a “thorny path” full of suffering and torment was expressed in poem “Yesterday, at six o’clock”, where in the fate of a peasant woman, punished with a whip on Sennaya Square, the lyrical hero guessed his Muse. The researchers noted that Nekrasov’s poem could not be a response to a direct impression: such punishments had already been abolished in 1848. But, choosing a young peasant woman, publicly punished, humiliated, as a symbol of his poetry, the poet undoubtedly wanted to emphasize the tragedy of the artist’s fate: the muse that inspired him was likened to the most powerless, defenseless and most unfortunate creature on earth - a young peasant woman. Calling her “The Muse of Revenge and Sadness,” Nekrasov talks about those two main feelings that become the source of his poetic motives: love and hatred. “That heart will not learn to love, / Which is tired of hating,” these lines from the poem “Shut up, Muse of Revenge and Sorrow” express the writer’s moral credo and truly define the pathos of his work.

Love and hate are the components of Nekrasov’s relationship to the world. It is no coincidence that 1855 poem "To the Demon" They are the ones that dominate the hero’s self-characterization:

Do I see it straight or crookedly?
I’m just boiling with my soul:
I hate it so deeply
I love you so unselfishly!

Love and hatred, love and revenge are recognized by Nekrasov as characteristic features of his poetry. IN poem of 1855 “Celebration of life - years of youth”, defining the originality of his poetic gift and the pathos of his creativity, Nekrasov will write:

There is no free poetry in you,
My harsh, clumsy verse!

There is no creative art in you...
But living blood boils in you,
A vengeful feeling triumphs,
Burning out, love is warming<...>

In this confession and reflection, the author, in fact, takes the position of opponents of his work, insisting on the “unpoeticism” and artistic imperfection of Nekrasov’s work. Perhaps he evaluates his poetry even more harshly than his critics. Explaining the low assessment of talent that was heard in a number of Nekrasov’s poems and which is “in blatant contradiction with the real social and aesthetic significance of Nekrasov’s poetic activity,” B.O. Corman sees its source in the fact that Nekrasov’s lyrical hero “constantly correlates his poetic activity with the needs of social development, with the situation of the people. Dissatisfaction with oneself, harsh self-esteem, bitter and unfair words about one’s poetry - all this is determined in Nekrasov’s lyrics by his characteristic folk criterion for assessing reality.”

Denying the artistic perfection of his poems, Nekrasov places a much higher value on the feelings that should inspire the poet and that inspired him himself - love and hatred. What kind of love is the poet talking about? For Nekrasov, this is the highest justice, love-service, love-compassion for one's neighbor. But it is precisely this kind of love that makes a person hate what brings suffering and pain to people. This love-hate, “which glorifies the good, / Which brands the villain and the fool / And bestows a crown of thorns / on the defenseless singer...”, is glorified by Nekrasov.

The motifs of “living blood” and “boiling” also seem very important in this self-characterization. The verb “boils” - one of the constants in Nekrasov’s lyrics - clearly conveys the extraordinary intensity, fullness of feelings of the lyrical hero, who always passionately surrenders to his experience - love or hatred, revenge, compassion or anger. Significant for Nekrasov’s understanding of the essence of poetic creativity is the motif of “living blood” as the basis of the poetic word. It is no coincidence that Nekrasov likens poetic works that suffered from the censor’s scissors to a peasant woman cut with a whip, or blood shed in vain. In the first part of the poem “About the Weather,” Nekrasov creates the image of the indignant and suffering A.S. Pushkin, who saw a poem mutilated by the censor. In his words spoken to the messenger, one can hear living pain, understandable to Nekrasov’s lyrical hero: “This is blood, he says, sheds, - / My blood<...>»

Much in Nekrasov’s aesthetic views is also clarified by another sincere motive of the poet: the affirmation of the dependence of his poetic word on the world of his native nature and the sad melodies of folk songs. This idea was expressed in poem "Newspaper". The world of the “native side” here appears as eternal bad weather: storm, wind, thunderstorm make Russian forests bend and groan, and this groan merges with a sad folk song, echoing in the melancholy tunes of the Russian poet:

Since it was written and written to us like this, -
So there is a reason for that!
Not ordered to the free wind
Sing sad songs in the fields,
Not ordered to the hungry wolf
Mournful groans in the forests;
Since time immemorial the rain has been pouring
Above the native side of the sky,
They bend, they groan, they break under the storm
Since time immemorial, native forests,
Since time immemorial, people's work
It boils under a sad song,
Our free muse echoes her,
He echoes her - or is honestly silent.

The drama in the sound of the theme of the poet and poetry intensified in the last decade of Nekrasov’s life. In many ways, it is determined by the consciousness of unfulfilled duty. One of the poems where this motif takes on a tragic poignancy was written in 1867. Already the first line: “I will die soon. A pitiful inheritance...” denotes his main motives: a bitter premonition of imminent death and the need to take stock of both the creative and human path. Caused by severe reproaches for double-mindedness, for the discrepancy between Nekrasov’s poetic appeals and human behavior, this poem becomes the confession of a man who believes in his ideals, in the fact that the purpose of his muse is only to glorify the suffering of the people, but who has not become a consistent conductor of these ideals. The leitmotif of the poem is a plea for forgiveness addressed to the homeland: “For a drop of blood shared with the people, / Forgive me, oh homeland! I’m sorry!..” The hero is trying to understand the reasons for his cowardice and apostasy. One of these reasons is the trials and suffering experienced in youth:

I spent my childhood under the yoke of fate
And youth is in a painful struggle.
A short storm strengthens us,
Although we are instantly embarrassed by her,
But long - settles forever
There is a habit of timid silence in the soul.

“Habits of timid silence” are called the main reason for the hero’s involuntary defection:

I didn’t trade the lira, but it happened
When inexorable fate threatened,
The lyre made an incorrect sound
My hand...

But the hero does not beg for forgiveness, he severely reproaches and executes himself for apostasy. Denying his right to remain in people's memory, the hero no less passionately asserts the true duty of a writer - to be a teacher, an educator, ready to give his life for a high goal:

I was called to sing of your suffering,
Amazing people with patience!
And throw at least a single ray of consciousness
On the path that God leads you,
But, loving life, to its momentary benefits
Chained by habit and environment,
I walked towards the goal with a hesitant step,
I didn't sacrifice myself for her.

One of Nekrasov’s last poems dedicated to the topic of the poet’s appointment, which was so significant for him, is "Elegy"(1874). Researchers call it “Pushkinsky”. Indeed, in this poem-testament, addressed to the “youths” - the younger generation, Nekrasov’s thought organically merges with Pushkin’s testaments. The most important idea of the poem is not only the recognition of the constant significance for the poet of the theme of “suffering of the people”, but also the affirmation of the highest purpose of every poet - service to the people:

<...>Alas! bye peoples
They languish in poverty, submitting to the whips,
Like skinny herds across mown meadows,
The muse will mourn their fate, the muse will serve them,
And there is no stronger, more beautiful union in the world!..

The poetic formulas included in these lines from Pushkin’s poem “Village” (“submitting to the scourge,” “lean herds,” going back to Pushkin’s “skinny slavery”) allow Nekrasov, according to the precise observation of N.N. Skatov, “to derive your ancestry from Pushkin, not declaring it, but confirming it with the whole structure of your “Pushkin” poems here.” In Nekrasov’s poem one can also see an echo of other Pushkin motifs, in particular, a certain polemic in relation to Pushkin’s poem “The Desert Sower of Freedom...” (1823), with the despair of the lyrical “I” that sounded in it, not believing in the possibility of awakening the people with the power of a life-giving word :

Desert sower of freedom,
I left early, before the star;
With a clean and innocent hand
Into the enslaved reins
Threw a life-giving seed -
But I only lost time
Good thoughts and works...
Graze, peaceful peoples!
The cry of honor will not wake you up.
Why do the herds need the gifts of freedom?
They should be cut or trimmed.
Their inheritance from generation to generation
A yoke with rattles and a whip.

Nekrasov's comparison of a submissive people with a herd undoubtedly goes back to this poem. But if Pushkin expressed disbelief in the possibility of “waking up peaceful peoples,” then Nekrasov’s hero is filled with the desire to serve the unfortunate and submissive “slaves.”

Researchers see in Nekrasov's "Elegy" echoes of another Pushkin poem - "Echo", in which the poetic word was interpreted as an echo of the voices of the world. But Nekrasov does not repeat Pushkin’s motif, he develops it: poetry, the poetic word according to Nekrasov, also gives birth to an echo, a reverberation in the world. This thought is devoid of an optimistic sound: conquering the “vales and fields”, forcing them to echo his song, the poet, alas, is powerless to evoke a response from the one to whom his words are dedicated. The poem ends with this dramatic confession, the motif of the silent people:

I wander thoughtfully in the evening twilight,
And the song composes itself in the mind,
Recent, secret thoughts are a living embodiment:
I call for blessings on rural labors,
I promise curses to the people's enemy,
And I pray to my friend in heaven for power,
And my song is loud!.. It is echoed by the valleys, fields,
And the echo of distant mountains sends her feedback,
And the forest responded... Nature listens to me,
But the one about whom I sing in the evening silence,
To whom are the poet’s dreams dedicated?
Alas! He doesn’t heed and doesn’t give an answer...

In one of his last poems - "Zine"(1876) the lyrical hero will again talk about the inevitability of forgetting his name by the people, and again see in this a fair retribution for his inability to be a “fighter” - equally in public service or poetic. Only civil service is affirmed as the only ideal:

Who, serving the great goals of the age,
He gives his life completely
To fight for a human brother,
Only he will survive himself...

In his later lyrics, Nekrasov is not inclined to belittle the significance and power of the poetic word: it is no coincidence that poetic work is likened to an ascetic feat in one of the poems of 1877 (“Zina”): and this work is interpreted as a condition for salvation, the “life-giving” of a person. Poetry is a “happy gift,” but it only gains meaning when the poet is endowed with the “resolve” to fight to the end. This idea is stated in the poem "To the Poet"(1877), which sounds like a testament and a confession:

Love and Labor are under piles of ruins!
Everywhere you look - betrayal, hostility,
And you stand - inactive and sad
And you slowly burn with shame.
And you send a reproach to heaven for the happy gift:
Why did you crown it with it?
When the soul is dreamily fearful
No determination to fight?..

But it would be wrong to say that in later lyric poetry the path traveled is interpreted only pessimistically. Along with tragic intonations, there can also be a belief in the high meaning of accomplished work. This belief was expressed, for example, in the poem “Dream”. The symbol of the poet here is the plowman, clearly evoking the tragic intonations and images of the poem “The Uncompressed Strip” (1854). In the poem “Dream,” one of the last created by Nekrasov, the image of a plowman who did not collect ears of corn is already associated with his own fate:

I dreamed: standing on a cliff,
I wanted to throw myself into the sea,
Suddenly an angel of light and peace
He sang a wonderful song to me:
“Wait for spring! I'll come early
I will say: be a man again!
I will remove the cover of fog from the head
And sleep with heavy eyelids;
And I will return my voice to the muse,
And again the blissful hours
You will find by collecting the ear
From your uncompressed strip.

This poem is devoid of dramatic notes; on the contrary, it is filled with faith in the possibility of returning to interrupted, unfinished work, faith in the feasibility of good impulses.