Lesson #9
Subject : “Batyushkov Konstantin Nikolaevich (1787-1855): life and creative
Path. Anacreontic motifs in the lyrics of K.N. Batyushkov. Language
Lyrics by Batyushkov.
Goals:
- generalize and expand students’ knowledge about K.N. Batyushkov;
- consider the themes, motives and features of Batyushkov’s lyrics;
- improve skills in analyzing a lyric work.
Epigraph: “Live as you write and write as you live” (From Batyushkov’s article “Something about the poet and poetry”).
“Italian sounds! What kind of miracle worker is this Batyushkov!” (A.S. Pushkin).
During the classes
1.Organizing moment.
2.Record the lesson topic and epigraph. Setting goals.
3. Identification of students’ knowledge about K.N. Batyushkov.
4.Pages creative biography Batyushkova.
Students write down the main dates in a chronological table.
Name outstanding poet K.N.B. Not everyone knows now, but literary scholars know him as a luminary of Russian literature of the early 19th century, as an innovator in the field of Russian words, as a friend of Zhukovsky and Vyazemsky, as the beloved poet Pushkin.
May 18, 1787 – K.N. Batyushkov was born in Vologda, into an old noble family. He was brought up and studied in St. Petersburg in private foreign boarding houses and spoke many languages. Batyushkov’s literary pursuits were encouraged by his uncle, the then famous writer M.N. Muravyov.
1803 – joining the Ministry public education. Rapprochement with N.I. Gnedich. Interest in the art of antiquity, poetry of Greece and Rome.
Gnedich N.I. was best friend B. The friendship of these two poets is a separate page in the history of Russian literature. It was Gnedich who introduced B. into literary world, having read in literary circle the satire “Vision on the Shores of Lethe”, which made Batyushkov a recognized poet.
1805 . - first appearance in print on the pages of the Moscow magazine “News of Russian Literature”.
1807 – Batyushkov volunteered to join the active army, participated in the battle of Heilsberg (in Prussia). Injury, evacuation, serious illness. Return to Russia.
1808 - participation in Russian-Swedish war, which took place in Finland.
1812 - participant Patriotic War with Napoleon, showed courage in the fire near Leipzig, crossed the Rhine and celebrated the victory of Russian troops in Paris.
Batyushkov liked military life; evidence of this can be found in a letter to B. Gnedich dated March 19, 1807: “...I really like military craft. What will happen in future, God knows. Scold me, but I hate civilian service, I’m tired of ink; but I still love poetry, although they don’t love me... Imagine me, riding on a ryzhak along clean fields, and I am happier than all the kings, for dear I read Thassa or something similar. It happened that you shouted and said:
O wondrous valor, oh heroic deeds!
Straight on your side and off your horse!”
B. was the first Russian poet to glorify the joy of combat life - the brightness and liveliness of its flow. The article “Separation” is dedicated to this, which was appreciated by contemporaries and became a popular romance. In this article, the hussar takes an oath of allegiance to the shepherdess. Such a picture could only have arisen in the poet’s dreams, since in his real personal life he was unhappy. Girls did not like him because he was stooped, short and thin. Friends called B. “the Achilles of Russian poetry,” but he responded ironically: “Ah, Heel!”
1809-1814 – rapprochement with Karamzin writers: V. A. Zhukovsky, V. L. Pushkin, P. A. Vyazemsky. Joining the “Free Society of Lovers of Literature, Sciences and Arts”, where admirers of Radishchev gathered. Passion for the philosophy of French enlighteners of the 18th century. Anacreontic and Epicurean motifs of creativity.
Why was B. called “Achilles of Russian poetry”?
A deep expert and connoisseur of antiquity K.N.B. organically assimilated the achievements of ancient culture, which was embodied in his articles. It seems that B.’s lyrics brought together all the ancient gods and goddesses and all the mythological creatures and heroes accompanying them legendary history and ancient authors. B. received other nicknames among his literary friends: “little Ovid” and “new Tibullus.” These are the names of famous ancient Greek poets whom B. adored, whose poetry he admired, and whose free translations he made.
During this period of creativity, Batyushkov’s role model is ancient Greek poet Anacreon ( SLIDE), who lived in the 5th centuryBC. Anacreon sang of sensual love, friends, the joys of life, wine. Imitation of Anacreon gave birth to Anacreontic poetry. In Russia, he was imitated by M.V. Lomonosov, G.R. Derzhavin, K.N. Batyushkov, A.S. Pushkin, A.N. Maikov.
1815 – B. retired and moved to Moscow. With literary friends they organized the Arzamas society, which existed until 1818. This society, in addition to Batyushkov, included famous Russian writers of that time V.A. Zhukovsky, P.A. Vyazemsky, V.L. Pushkin, A.I. Turgenev, A.S. Pushkin and others. Members of the society have done a lot to improve the Russian literary language, bringing it closer to the modern one.
But soon the poet began to be tormented by a hereditary family illness - persecution mania. In 1821 . the last poems were written by him. Mental illness stopped his literary activity forever. They tried to treat him, took him to the Caucasus and Crimea, placed him in a mental hospital, then transported him to relatives in Vologda, where he lived until his death..
5. Let us dwell on some features of Batyushkov’s lyrics.
Researchers of the poet’s work identify three symbolic images that reflect the joy of earthly existence in the poet’s lyrics: the anacreontic image roses and images-emblems - wings, bowls.
Let's find these images in the article “Merry Hour”, in which the lyrical hero gives advice to his friends:
Others! Sit down and listen
Muses kind advice.
Do you want to live happily
At dawn spring years?
Drive away the ghost of glory!
For fun and entertainment
Sow roses along the way;
Let's say to youth: fly!
Just let me enjoy life,
Joy to drink with a full cup:
Oh! Not long to have fun
And not to live forever in happiness.
6.Analysis of the article “My penates”, “Bacchante”.
"MY PENATES"
The poem is written in the genre of a friendly message (i.e., a letter, an appeal to friends). It is dedicated to the poets V.A. Zhukovsky and P.A. Vyazemsky - contemporaries of Batyushkov.
Reference:
Zhukovsky V.A. - Russian poet, translator, critic. A.S. Pushkin considered Zhukovsky his teacher. Zhukovsky is the creator of the romantic movement in Russian poetry. In addition to his undoubted merits in the literary field, contemporaries note the high moral personal qualities of Zhukovsky, mainly moral principle which was as follows: “Every day - a good deed, thought or feeling, another one was subsequently added to it: “The poet’s deeds are his words.”
Vyazemsky Pyotr Andreevich- prince, Russian poet, literary critic. He was a big fan of Pushkin’s work and his friend. It was Vyazemsky who was the first to be informed by Pushkin from Southern exile about the plan for the novel “Eugene Onegin”: “I am now writing not a novel, but a novel in verse - a devilish difference!” Vyazemsky penned memoirs in which he captured the details of life the most prominent representatives Russian culture of the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
Compositionally, the article is divided into 5 parts.
1) Reading part 1.
Dictionary:
Penates - father's house, shelter (on behalf of penates - ancient Roman gods, patrons of the hearth). Pestuns - those who raised and nurtured.
Incense - incense.
Permesian goddesses gift(Parnassian) - Mount Parnassus, on which the Muses lived, including the Muse of poetry
Lar - a good household deity.
Skudel - clay dishes.
Conclusion:
What is the mood of this piece?
How does the poet describe his father's home? Why is he dear to him?
2) Reading part 2.
How do you understand the meaning of this part?
What earthly joys does the poet glorify?
How are anacreontic motives manifested here?
Dictionary.
Bogey – danger, something that inspires fear.
3) Reading and discussion of part 3.
Dictionary.
Goddess is blind - Fortuna, goddess of fate.
4) Reading part 4.
-- How did you understand what you read?
(The poet calls his poetic giftheavenly inspiration.
He invites his favorite poets or their shadows to his penates for a conversation: “And the dead and the living joined in one choir.”
...You are in front of them,
Parnassian giant,
Singer of heroes, glory,
Following the whirlwinds and thunder,
Our majestic swan
You're floating through the skies.
This refers to G.R. Derzhavin, who compared himself to a swan in one article.
In the crowd there are muses and graces,
Now with a lyre, now with a trumpet,
Our Pindar, our Horace
He's loud, fast and strong
Like Suna among the steppes,
And gentle, quiet, touching,
Like a spring nightingale.
This refers to two directions in Derzhavin’s poetry (civil and intimate psychological). Suna – the river on which the Kivach waterfall is located, sung by Derzhavin in the ode “Waterfall”.
...A charming story
Karamzin captivates(Karamzin’s story “Athensian Life”)
That ancient Rus' and morals
Vladimir temporary...(meaning historical works N.M. Karamzina)
Behind them is a beautiful sylph,
The pupil harits,
On a sweet-voiced zither
He strums about my darling;
Meletsky with me
Calls with a smile...
Yu.A. Neledinsky-Meletsky is a sentimentalist poet.
I.I. Dmitriev, I.I. Khemnitser are poets and fabulists.
5) Reading part 5.
O grandson of Aristippus! –meaning P. Vyazemsky
Conclusions:
This article is about the meaning of life. It contains Anacreontic motifs: the poet glorifies the joys of life, love, friendship, and the joy of creativity.
The poet is sure that home world, even marked with the stamp of poverty, is more moral and purer than luxurious reality.
He considers his teachers best poets of their time and compares them with the favorite poets of Ancient Greece.
He treats life and death philosophically.
A.S. Pushkin assessed the article “My Penates” this way: “This article breathes with some kind of rapture of luxury, youth and pleasure, the syllable trembles and flows - the harmony is charming.”
"BACCHANTE"
Dictionary.
Bacchus (Dionysus) – V Greek mythology god of vegetation, wine and fun, patron of viticulture and winemaking. The son of Zeus and the daughter of the Theban king Cadmus Semele.
Bacchae – companions of Bacchus (Dionysus)
IN Ancient Rome bacchanalia were held - holidays dedicated to Dionysus.
Tympanum – ancient percussion musical instrument, type of cymbals, timpani.
What is the image of a young bacchante? What attracts you to her?
Let's characterize phonetic features text. What consonant sounds predominate in it? (r, v, l)
What mood does the abundance of these sounds give to st-y?
(These are sonorant sounds. They are not heavy, so they give language st-i lightness and airiness, create a joyful mood).
Entry in a dictionary notebook.
Euphony (translated from Greek - euphony) - naturalness and beauty of sound artistic speech. Poetic phonetics. Alliteration. Assonances. Rhymes. Avoiding dissonant, difficult to pronounce and perceive combinations of consonants in a word (Pu ps is crazy. Oh, more often okoladom! – in K. Chukovsky’s book “From Two to Five”)
7. Lesson summary.
Explain the meaning of the expression “anacreontic motives of Batyushkov’s creativity.”
What feeling is imbued with Batyushkov’s early work? Slide 2
“Live as you write and write as you live” (From Batyushkov’s article) Hood. Yu.Ivanov K.N.Batyushkov. 1980s
N.I. Gnedich (far right) among other writers (I.A. Krylov, A.S. Pushkin, V.A. Zhukovsky) in the painting by G. Chernetsov
Anacreon. 5th century BC e.
Others! Sit down and listen to the Muse’s gentle advice. Do you want to live happily at the dawn of spring? Drive away the ghost of glory! For fun and amusement Sow roses along the way; Let's say to youth: fly! Just let me enjoy life, Drink joy with a full cup: Ah! You can’t have fun for long and you can’t live forever in happiness.
P.A. Vyazemsky V.A. Zhukovsky
Artist S. Solomko. Bacchus
Dionysus. (Dionysus riding a leopard).
Hood. M. Jose. Bacchanalia
Topic: “Philosophical elegies of K. Batyushkov”
Periodization of K.N. Batyushkov’s creativity: 1st period - 1802-1812. 2nd period – (1812-early 1814) 3rd period – (mid 1814 1821)
Hood. V.B.Iovik. Friend's shadow. 1986
For Batyushkov, the main evaluation criterion is work of art- this is the concept of “taste”. Batyushkov’s “taste” is manifested in the unity of form and content that is almost always present in his poetry. Batyushkov demands accuracy and clarity from the poet. Batyushkov himself is attracted not just by bright colors. In his dynamic paintings we almost physically feel specific details: “the happy Ile de France, abundant, abundant in water”, “the huge god of the seas”, “the thick shadow under this elm tree”...
Batyushkov does not invent new words (which we will see in Yazykov’s work) and very rarely new combinations (“ruins of luxurious attire”). The poet boldly uses archaisms in his poems (“agreement is straight”, “zane”), Slavicisms (“desnitsa”, “vesi”, “stogny”); philosophical “vocabulary” (“proportionality”, “phenomena”, “equilibrium”); colloquial expressions.
In his elegy "Tavrida" (1815) we find the same features of style; everyday words (“rural garden”, “simple hut”) peacefully combine with “sublime phraseology” (“under the sweet sky of the midday country”, “under the shelter of a quiet night”).
The author boldly inserts poetic text proverbs (“And happiness lives only there, // Where we, the crazy ones, are not”, “The day is long, painful for the lazy fool, // But short, on the contrary, useful to the sage”; “Here there will be a meeting not according to dresses”).
Contemporaries especially appreciated harmony, musicality, and “sweetness” in Batyushkov’s poems. “No one possesses the charm of euphony as much as he,” wrote V.A. Zhukovsky. - Gifted with a brilliant imagination and an exquisite sense of expression and subject matter, he gave genuine examples of style. His poetic language inimitable... in the harmony of expressions.” “Italian sounds, what a miracle worker this Batyushkov is,” “charm and perfection - what harmony,” Pushkin wrote admiringly, making his remarks on Batyushkov’s “Experiments.”
The smoothness and musicality of the rhythm are what especially captivates Batyushkov’s poetry. Thus, in Batyushkov’s poem “The Song of Harald the Bold” (1816), the picture of sailing on a stormy sea receives sound coloring thanks to the constant alliteration “l” - “r” - the increased intensity of these sounds is characteristic of the entire poem. Let's quote just one verse:
There were only three of us on the Light Boat;
And the sea rose, I remember, like mountains;
The black night loomed at noon with thunder,
And GeLaLa gaped in the salty wave.
But the waves lashed in vain, raging,
I scooped them up with a helmet, worked with a weight:
With GARALD, oh friends, you knew no fear
And they flew into the peaceful marina with a boat!
This poem is interesting and audio repeats(Wall, Stand, pier, whipped), which give the verse greater expressiveness. Phonetic harmony is the background against which amazing power manifests itself poetic originality Batyushkova.
The rhythmic effect is achieved different ways. The poet loves anaphora:
To him alone, - all the warriors spoke, -
He alone will lead us to glory.
(“excerpt from Canto I” of “Jerusalem Liberated”) (1808).
He also resorts to inversion (“I left the shore of foggy Albion” - the arrangement of words depends on the rhythm of the verse); alternates various iambs (often six-, penta- and tetrameters); loves truncated adjectives:
You sang a storm of abuse, and the Eumenides turned pale
Gloomy views revealed all the horrors of war...
Scattered... tender beauties...
Those young roses are dedicated to Cyprus...
And what do my enchanted eyes see there?
"To Tass", 1808
Batyushkov boldly combines different vocabulary, different styles. In the late Batyushkov, this variety of usage “fulfills the most important task of destroying the harmonious image of the world,” writes N. Friedman, “Batiushkov needs the reader to experience the depth of loss with the greatest vividness of memories, so that he recognizes the beautiful before losing it.”
Summarizing all that has been said, we can determine the historical and literary significance of K.N. Batyushkov in the words of V.G. Belinsky: “Batyushkov contributed a lot to the fact that Pushkin appeared as he really appeared.
This merit alone on Batyushkov’s part is enough for his name to be pronounced in the history of Russian literature with love and respect.”
Questions about the work of K.N. Batyushkova
- What genres does Batyushkov try his hand at?
- What is the main idea of his “Anacreontic” lyrics?
- What type of satire does Batyushkov use?
- In what genre does his talent flourish with particular force?
- What new did Batyushkov bring to Russian poetry?
- Is it possible to say that Batyushkov managed to recreate the “anthological” verse?
- Can we agree that with his poetry Batyushkov created the beauty of an “ideal” form?
- What distinguishes Batyushkov’s poetic language?
- Do you agree with Belinsky’s words that in Batyushkov’s lyrics “the old and the new lived amicably next to each other, without interfering with one another”?
- Did Batyushkov manage to create his own “school”?
- What is the main difference between Batyushkov’s poetry and Zhukovsky’s poetry?
- How can one determine the role of Batyushkov and his significance in the history of Russian poetry?
On the foundation of “little philosophy” Batyushkov forms his poetic world, which on July 17, 1816 in the “Society of Lovers of Russian Literature” he called light poetry. This is the first period (1802-1812) of creativity. I would combine skepticism with sensitivity and hedonism. The lyrical hero is depicted using the material and spiritual attributes of antiquity, its life and mythology, surrounded by muses, nymphs, altars, idols of the gods..
The poet sings of love, friendship, joy of life, personal freedom. The writer’s task is to know “man in his passion,” to guess the “secret play of passions.” Batyushkov creates a portrait of his beloved, capturing the impression of her image. V love lyrics the author describes the happiness of lovers, “voluptuousness and bliss,” the burning of “earthly passions.” (“Revenge,” “Merry Hour”). For Batyushkov, love is the passion that controls a person. The image of his beloved accompanies the poet everywhere, merging with him. (“Response to Turgenev”, “My Genius”, “Elegies”, “Separations”). But the delight in life is combined with a premonition of a crisis. Batyushkov introduced the fable principle into “light poetry”, depicted a split consciousness, and approached a realistic depiction of war.
The second period (1812-1813 and the spring of 1814) is the formation of Batyushkov’s historical thinking. His letters to N.I. Gnedich, Pushkina, D.P. Severin, simultaneously transmitted the move historical events And inner world a person, a patriot, a receptive, sensitive personality. The poems include the idea of the relativity of values in the light of history. He would be disappointed in the ideas of the Enlightenment... the poet sees salvation in Christian religion. The philosophy of asceticism develops in Bulgaria. Religiosity would be mournful, but the hero is strongly attached to earthly life.
The poet’s participation in the War of 1812 was reflected in the message “Prisoner”, “On the ruins of a castle in Sweden”, “Crossing the Rhine”.
In the third period (from mid-1814 to 1821), philosophical and religious reflections, motives of tragic love, and the artist’s eternal discord with reality appear in poetry. Hopelessness becomes the theme of the poems. (My genius, Separation, friend, Awakening, Taurida). Disappointments receive historical motivation, and the elegy becomes a meditation on the philosophical and historical theme of the bleak vicissitudes of a ruthless fate. (“On the ruins of a castle in Sweden”). In Batyushkov’s poems, the problem of the era was developed - the relationship between the “common” life of humanity and mental life individual person. in his work, the image of the author was built as a thinking person who perceives and evaluates the world.
The historical elegy reflects the horrors of war, longing for the dead, these works are full of citizenship, the poet glorifies the exploits Russian people and its leaders. He enriches the genre of elegy and turns it into a lyric-epic work (“Dying Tass”). In the poem “To Dashkov,” combining “the serious with the playful,” the author, for the first time in poetry, makes the private and the civil a common subject of intimate and passionate experience for everyone.
Expressed in perfection artistic form“truth is in feelings” - such was the aesthetic requirement for poetry made by Batyushkov in mature years his creativity.
“Little philosophy” and “light poetry” complement each other. This is a deeply-won position of self-determination and growing self-awareness of the individual. Defending the world of “my penates,” the poet discovered Big world“memory of the heart”: Epicurianism as the joy of daily pleasures, Horatianism as the philosophy of the “golden mean”, Voltaire’s skepticism and the wisdom of Montaigne, the sweet style of Petrarch and the bitterness of Tasso’s fate.
The ballad genre in the works of V.A. Zhukovsky.
The leading role in Zhukovsky’s work belongs to the ballad. The following ballads belong to his pen:
- antique (“Cassandra”, “Achilles”, Complaints of Ceres, “Ivik Cranes”, “Eleusinian Feast”);
- medieval knightly ("The Nightingale's Harp", "The Glove" Knight Rollon, Smalholm Castle, "Midsummer Evening");
- domestic (“Vadim”, “Svetlana”, “Lyudmila”).
In the period from 1808 to 1833. Zhukovsky creates 39 ballads, which are characterized by deep lyricism. Most ballads are based on the theme of crime and punishment. Crime is caused by individualistic passions: ambition, greed, jealousy, selfish self-affirmation. In a duel between good and evil, good always wins, and evil is punished. For the criminal in ballads, punishment comes from the person’s conscience (“Smalholm Castle”) or comes from the very depths of life. (" God's judgment over the bishop"). . Zhukovsky affirmed the ideals of goodness, truth, and humanity. Zhukovsky is convinced that this is the moral law, the source of which is in the hands of the Creator.
Constant hero of ballads - strong personality aimed at achieving an egoistic goal. The poet's noble heroes are always sublimely pure, inspired by the best human feelings and never change them.. Nature in Zhukovsky’s ballads takes on the function of revenge for a crime: the Avon River overflowed its banks and flooded Warwick; The mice began to bite Bishop Gatton to death.
In ancient ballads, Zhukovsky poeticizes history, turning ancient gods and heroes into romantic characters. The poet’s main thing is the inviolability of humane reports on which the world rests, the morality of humanity and the goodness inseparable from the beautiful are formed.
The poet rethinks antiquity as a transition from savagery and barbarism to a civilized society. He is interested in the Spirit Ancient world. And in sight is the worldview of an ancient hero. Accepting his lot, the ancient man in the ballads makes his own choice; for example, Achilles knew in advance about his death.
Medieval (“knightly”) ballads resurrected fantastic stories about forbidden or “eternal”, although unrequited love, about secret crimes, about relations with evil forces, about lust for power, the treachery of cruelty, envy, betrayal, about touching fidelity, about tender feelings and sorrowful passions. Their same. illuminates humanity. Yes, love, unreal on earth, is possible in heaven. It is stronger than moral standards, but fate is stronger than a person overcome by passion. For example, "Heol's Harp".
In domestic ballads, Zhukovsky revives the motif of folk historical and lyrical songs. Historical place and time are relative. The action is outside of history and outside of concrete space. Man is brought face to face with Eternity, with all of Fate. Among the ballads there are those dedicated to love: “Lyudmila”, “Svetlana”. The main thing here is to calm down and guide a person in love who has experienced a tragedy in love on the true path. Zhukovsky demands the curbing of selfish desires and passions.
Ballad Zhe. was a closed genre structure with a moving plot and gravitated towards a philosophical understanding of the plots. The man in the ballad felt power over himself higher powers, however, the choice of which way to go was always hers
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Already in the ballad “Lyudmila,” Zhukovsky talks about curbing selfish desires and passions. Lyudmila is blinded love passion, reproaches God for cruelty and injustice. HER retribution - image of the dead the groom that drags her into the grave.
And in the ballad “Svetlana” the heroine, with humility and fear, without losing faith, prays for happiness. She finds happiness: the groom returns after long separation. Zhukovsky believes in the eternity of love and happiness, the condition of which is fidelity to the grave and beyond the grave.
Love triumphs over death - this is the romantic idea of the ballad. Zhukovsky introduces national Russian flavor into the ballad: a description of fortune-telling on the “Epiphany evening”, signs and customs. The ballad is written in a rapid rhythm: the ballad horses are racing, the girl and her groom are rushing towards them, and her heart is breaking..
"Heol's Harp" (1815) - significant work early romanticism. Zhukovsky raises the question of the spiritual closeness of people given their social inequality. The idea of the ballad is the triumph of love over social disunity, the advantage of moral equality over social inequality. But even in “The Harp of God” the poet seeks a resolution of contradictions not here on earth, but there, in the afterlife.
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Konstantin Nikolaevich Batyushkov
Ideological artistic originality poetry of Batyushkov.
Belinsky, defining the originality of the poetry of the author of “The Bacchae,” wrote: “The direction of Batyushkov’s poetry is completely opposite to the direction of Zhukovsky’s poetry. If uncertainty and nebula amount to distinctive character romanticism in the spirit of the Middle Ages, then Batyushkov is as much a classicist as Zhukovsky is a romantic.” But more often the critic praised him as a romantic.
Batyushkov’s work is very complex and contradictory. This gives rise to great controversy in his assessment. Some critics and literary scholars consider him a neoclassicist (P. A. Pletnev, P. N. Sakulin, N. K. Piksanov). Based on the poet's obvious connections with sentimentalism, he is perceived either as a sentimentalist (A. N. Veselovsky) or as a pre-romanticist (N. V. Fridman). Exaggerating the similarities between Batyushkov and Zhukovsky, he was classified as a “dull” romanticist. But Batyushkov, experiencing at the beginning of his work the partial influence of classicism (“God”), and then humanistic-elegiac romanticism, did not belong to the true adherents of either classicism or elegiac romanticism. All of him literary activity, poetic and theoretical, at its core developed in a constant struggle with classicism and its epigones. Clearly aiming for classicism, he asked in his “Message to N. I. Gnedich”: “What’s in loud songs for me?” Batyushkov spoke at difficult conditions transitional time: the passing but still active epigonic classicism, growing sentimentalism, humanistic-elegiac romanticism emerging and gaining popularity. And this was reflected in his poetry. But, experiencing and overcoming the influence of literary influences, Batyushkov was formed primarily as a poet of hedonistic-humanistic romanticism. His poetry is characterized by the creation objective image lyrical hero, appeal to reality, expressed, according to Belinsky, in particular, in the introduction of “events in the form of memories” into some elegies. All this was news in the literature of that time.
A large number of Batyushkov's poems are called friendly messages. These messages pose and solve problems social behavior personality. Batyushkov's ideal artistic embodiment- definition, naturalness and sculpture. In the poems “To Malvina”, “The Merry Hour”, “Bacchante”, “Tavrida”, “I feel that my gift for poetry has gone out” and similar ones, he achieves almost realistic clarity and simplicity. In “Tavrida” it’s warm initial appeal: “Dear friend, my angel!” The image of the heroine is plastic, rosy and fresh, like a “rose of the field,” sharing “labor, worries and lunch” with her beloved. The expected circumstances of the heroes’ lives are also outlined here: a simple hut, “a home key, flowers and a rural vegetable garden.” Admiring this poem, Pushkin wrote: “In terms of feeling, in harmony, in the art of versification, in luxury and carelessness of imagination, Batyushkov’s best elegy.” But she is not inferior to the elegy “I feel that my gift in poetry has gone out.” With its sincerity of feelings and sincerity of its appeal to its beloved, it anticipates the best realistic elegies of Pushkin.
Details of the life of the lyrical hero (“Evening”, “My Penates”) indicate an invasion of poetry Everyday life. In the poem “Evening” (1810), the poet talks about the “staff” of a decrepit shepherdess, the “smoky shack”, the “sharp plow” of the oratai, the fragile “get along” and other specific details of the circumstances he recreates.
Bright plasticity best works Batyushkova is determined by the strict purposefulness of all means of depicting them. Thus, the poem “To Malvina” begins with a comparison of the beauty with a rose. The next four stanzas play on and expand on this comparison. And the graceful work ends with a wish-recognition: “Let the tender roses be proud On the lilies of your chest! Oh, dare I, my dear, confess? I would die like a rose on it.” The poem “Bacchae” recreates the image of the priestess of love. Already in the first stanza, which reports the rapid run of the Bacchus priestesses to the holiday, their emotionality, impetuosity, and passion are emphasized: “The winds noisily carried away their loud howls, splashes and groans.” The further content of the poem is the development of the motive of elemental passion. Belinsky wrote about the elegy “On the Ruins of a Castle in Sweden” (1814): “How everything in it is sustained, complete, finished! What a luxurious and at the same time elastic, strong verse!” (VII, 249).
Batyushkov's poetry is characterized by a complex evolution. If in the early poems he tends to express and depict states of mind more or less statically (“How happiness slowly comes”), then in the heyday of his creativity the poet depicts them in development, dialectically, in complex contradictions (“Separation”; “The Fate of Odysseus”; “To a Friend”).
Batyushkov’s works, embodying natural, individual feelings and passions, did not fit into the usual genre-type formations and verse metro-rhythmic schemes of classicism, intended to express abstract feelings. Following Zhukovsky, the poet contributed his share to the development of syllabic-tonic verse. “Easy poetry,” which required naturalness and spontaneity, led to Batyushkov’s widespread use of iambic in different feet, characterized by colloquialism, expressiveness, and flexibility. According to I. N. Rozanov, almost two-thirds of his poems were written in this meter (“Dream”, “Message to N. I. Gnedich”, “Memories”, etc.). But for most of the most cheerful lyrical works glorifying love, Batyushkov preferred a playful trochee (“To Phyllis,” “False Fear,” “Lucky,” “Ghost,” “Bacchae”). Expanding the possibilities of syllabonics, the poet, in addition to tetrameter (“How happiness slowly comes”), hexameter (“Message to my poems”), iambic, also uses trimeter. The liveliness of the message “My Penates,” written in iambic trimeter, evoked the praise of Pushkin and Belinsky.
In a number of poems, Batyushkov showed examples of strophic art and remarkable mastery of the symmetrical construction of verse (“On the death of F. F. Kokoshkin’s wife”; “To a friend”, “Song of Harald the Bold”, “Crossing the Rhine”). Giving his poems ease, the spontaneity of the flow of feelings and thoughts, he more often uses free stanzas, but also strives for symmetry in it (“Merry Hour”).
Taking care of the naturalness of the poems, the poet pays a lot of attention to their euphony. He loves musical harmonies of consonants: “They play, dance and sing” (“To Malvina”); “The clock is winged! don’t fly” (“Advice to Friends”); “She shone in all her greatness” (“Memories”); “Horses with a silver rein!” (“Lucky”) Skillfully repeating, concentrating the sounds p, r, b, etc., the poet creates an entire musical symphony in the poem: “You awaken, O Baya, from the tomb When the aurora rays appear...” (1819).
Batyushkov is one of the first among poets to violate the absolute boundaries between genres established by the classicists. He gives the message the properties of either an elegy (“To a Friend”), or a historical elegy (“To Dashkov”), he enriches the genre of elegy and turns it into a lyric-epic work (“Crossing the Rhine”, “Hesiod and Omir - Rivals”, "Dying Tass")
Expanding possibilities colloquial speech in poetry, Batyushkov achieves spontaneity in verses: “Give me a simple pipe, Friends! and sit around me under this thick elm shadow, where freshness breathes in the middle of the day" (“Advice to Friends”). But at the same time, where necessary, he turns to anaphors (“Excerpt from Song XXXIV of Furious Orland”), inversions (“Shadow of a Friend”) and other means of syntactic figurativeness.
Democratizing literary language, the poet is not afraid of words and expressions from a wider circle than his beloved society of the enlightened nobility. In him we will find appropriately used words: “crash” (“Advice to Friends”), “stomping” (“Joy”), “blurs” (“Prisoner”).
The plastic expressiveness of Batyushkov’s works is helped by precise, specific, visual arts, in particular epithets. He has a red youth, a cheerful Bacchus, winged hours, green meadows, clear streams (“Advice to Friends”), playful and lively nymphs, a sweet dream (“Merry Hour”), an innocent maiden (“Source”), curly groves (“Joy”) "), the figure is slender, the girl's cheeks are flaming ("Bacchae").
But, fully mastering the art artistic word and having brilliantly demonstrated it in many beautiful lyrical creations, Batyushkov also left poems that were, to one degree or another, unfinished. This was also noted by Belinsky. According to his observation, lyrical works the poet is predominantly “below the talent he discovered” and far from fulfilling the “expectations and demands aroused by himself.” They contain difficult, awkward turns and phrases: “ More like by sea It’s possible to sail comfortably on a boat” (“N. I. Gnedich”, 1808). Or: “Led by the muses, he penetrated into the days of his youth” (“To Tassu”, 1808). They are not always free from unjustified archaism: in the elegy “The Dying Tass”, written in 1817, there are words that clearly fall out of its style: “koshnitsy”, “kissing”, “vesi”, “finger”, “oratay”, “ ripe”, “fire”, “woven”, “right hand”, “hundreds”, “voice”, “unbreakable”.
Batyushkov is a wonderful expert on antiquity. He introduces historical and mythological names of this world into his poems. The poem “Dream” recalls zephyrs, nymphs, graces, cupids, Anacreon, Sappho, Horace and Apollo, and in the poem “Advice to Friends” - nymphs, Bacchus, Eros. He has poems “To Malvina”, “Message to Chloe”, “To Phyllis”. However, the abundance of ancient names, historical and mythological in poems about modernity, undoubtedly introduces stylistic inconsistency. That is why Pushkin, regarding the message “My Penates,” remarked: “The main flaw in this charming message is the too obvious confusion of ancient mythological customs with the customs of a resident of a village near Moscow.” In this poem, in a “wretched hut” with a “decrepit and tripod table”, “hard bed”, “meager rubbish”, “cups”, “golden cup” and “bed of flowers” coexist.
119 poems were written, of which 26 were translations and 6 imitations. His most popular original poems: “Recovery”, “Happy Hour”, “My Penates”, “To D.V. Dashkov”, “Crossing the Rhine”, “Shadow of a Friend”, “On the ruins of the castle of Sweden”, “Tavrida” , “Separation”, “Awakening”, “Memories”, “My Genius”, “Hope”, “The Dying Tass”, “Bacchae”, “From the Greek Anthology”.
Batyushkov has 27 prose works (from 1809 - 1816), distinguished by stylistic merits. The main ones: “Excerpt from letters of a Russian officer from Finland”, “ Word of praise sleep", "Walk around Moscow", "About the poet and poetry", "Walk through the Academy of Arts", "Speech about mild influence poetry into language" (to which he gave great importance), “On the writings of Muravyov”, “Evening at Kantemir’s”, “Something about morality based on philosophy and religion”. It is impossible not to mention “Batiushkov’s notebook entitled: “Someone else’s is my treasure.” This book contains a lot of translations, but also various memories, sketches, independent thoughts that are not devoid of interest.
Konstantin Nikolaevich Batyushkov. Portrait of work unknown artist, 1810s
Batyushkov’s correspondence with friends, especially with Gnedich, to whom 85 letters were written, has almost the same significance. Of Batyushkov’s comic works, the most famous are “Vision on the Shores of Lethe” and “Singer in the Camp of the Slavic-Russians.” Both are dedicated to ridiculing the Conversations party with Shishkov at the head.
Batyushkov’s main merit lies in the development of verse; he completely mastered its harmony and realized that he needed to learn it from the Italian poets, of whom he had always been a passionate admirer. Constant models for translations were: Casti, Petrarch, Tibullus, Guys, Tasso, Batyushkov’s ideal was Ariosto. “Take the soul of Virgil,” he writes, the imagination of Tassa, the mind of Homer, the wit of Voltaire, the good nature of La Fontaine, the flexibility of Ovid—here is Ariost.” Belinsky wrote about Batyushkov: “Such poems are excellent even in our time; at their very first appearance they should have given rise to general attention, as a harbinger of an imminent revolution in Russian poetry. These are not yet Pushkin’s poems, but after them one should have expected not just any other poems, but Pushkin’s.” He “prepared the way” for Pushkin, whose first works were imitations of Batyushkov. The young man Pushkin found dissonance in Zhukovsky’s poems and, striving for perfection, imitated Batyushkov.
KONSTANTIN BATYUSHKOV. "Hope". Biblical story. Video
We must not forget that if Karamzin had predecessors such as Fonvizin and Derzhavin, then Batyushkov had no one and completely independently developed the harmony of the verse. His poetry is distinguished by its extraordinary sincerity. “Live as you write (he says) and write as you live: otherwise all the echoes of your lyre will be false.” Batyushkov remained faithful to this ideal throughout his life.
His poetry is partly of a non-Russian character, divorced from his native soil. The influence of Italian poets was reflected in the epicurean direction of Batyushkov’s lyre. The move away from motives more characteristic of Russian nature was further facilitated by the struggle with the Shishkovists, who deeply outraged the poet. “You must love your fatherland; whoever does not love him is a monster. But is it possible to love ignorance? Is it possible to love morals and customs from which we have been separated for centuries and, what is even more, for a whole century of enlightenment?
Batyushkov’s poetry, distinguished by its sincerity, was in close connection with his personal life. Just as his life up to joining the militia, his poetry was meaningless. After he survived the war and traveled abroad, his poetry took on a more serious direction (“