The girl sang in the church choir
About all the tired in a foreign land,
About all the ships that have gone to sea
About all who have forgotten their joy.

And it seemed to everyone that there would be joy
That in a quiet backwater all ships,
That tired people in a foreign land
They found a bright life for themselves.

Analysis of the poem "The girl sang in the church choir" by Blok

In his youth, A. Blok adhered to the most advanced and revolutionary views. Youthful maximalism was fueled by numerous movements that declared the need for a violent coup. It seemed to the young poet that only by completely destroying the old world could a new happy society be built, in which there would be no suffering and pain. The events of 1905 revealed to Blok a terrible picture that accompanies all revolutions. Instead of the triumph of freedom and justice, chaos reigned in the country. The phrase "A revolution is not made with white gloves" appeared before Blok in all its open nudity. His ideal performances were confronted with rushes of blood and incredible brutality. These events seriously shaken the poet's former convictions. He realized that the price for imaginary happiness was too high.

In 1905, Blok wrote a poem "A girl sang in a church choir ...". It is believed that this happened as a result of an actual visit by the poet to one of the temples.

The Orthodox Church sought to calm the popular unrest and reconcile the warring factions. Church services were held throughout the country with fervent prayers. The lyrical hero is present at such an event. He draws attention to one girl in the choir, who stands out for her innocence and purity. In the image of a girl, one can imagine the long-suffering soul of Russia, which prays for all its sons, regardless of their political convictions. "Tired", "departed ships", "forgotten joy" - this is how the author described the numerous participants in the revolution. For a girl, there is no difference between workers and gendarmes. Both are equally deceived and carried away by false ideas. A civil war, regardless of its outcome, will end in massacre and destruction anyway. The girl feels sorry for all the people as a whole.

It seems to the author that a magic voice and a "white dress" are capable of reasoning people, directing them to the true path. Hope for the best is revived in the souls of those gathered in the church. But the image of a crying child appearing in the finale returns to harsh reality. In the church, you can forget about the surrounding horrors for a while. They will end anyway. But we must not forget about those who will never "come back." People who died for their ideas will not be resurrected and will not be able to appreciate how necessary their death was for Russia.

The poem "The girl sang in the church choir ..." is evidence of a serious break in Blok's soul. Since that time, he gets rid of revolutionary views and completely goes into symbolism.

A. Blok's creativity absorbed traditions with extraordinary completeness Russian poetry, starting with V. Zhukovsky, M. Lermontov, A. Fet, A. Grigoriev, F. Tyutchev, Y. Polonsky, and ending with V. Soloviev. Learning block
silt all the best achievements of Russian art, taking over from them the baton of humanism and the highest spirituality.
The poem "The girl sang in the church choir" is one of the most striking examples of Blok's philosophical lyrics.
The poem was written in 1905 and thematically is a response to the events of the Russian-Japanese war ("in a quiet backwater of all ships"). However, this is only a pretext, an external impulse for thinking about subjects of a more general nature.
The block of this period is the "Stranger" Block. A bright unattainable ideal, as in his earlier poems was the image Of the lovely lady, has become more real. It would be more accurate to say that in the early poems Blok was of little interest in reality in general. He chanted the world of his dreams. Now his lyrical hero is faced with the surrounding reality, and she amazes him with her dissonance with the ideal world. In verse, the theme of a double world arises: the real world - base and vulgar, in which there is no place for high ideals, and the surreal world, the world of high spirituality and light ideals. This conflict (romantic in nature) reaches the highest drama and intensity in Blok.
One of the poems of this kind is the poem "The girl sang in the church choir."
From the first lines before us there is a "church choir" and - more broadly - the theme of Christian mercy and compassion.
The girl sang in the church choir
About all the tired in a foreign land,
About all the ships that have gone to sea
About all who have forgotten their joy.
One of the basic tenets of Christianity appears before us in a form “cleansed” of theological husk: faith in a better, more just and merciful world, in harmony and happiness.
So her voice sang, flying into the dome,
And a ray shone on a white shoulder,
And each of the darkness looked and listened,
Like a white dress sang in the beam.

And it seemed to everyone that there would be joy
That in a quiet backwater all the ships,
That tired people in a foreign land
They found a bright life for themselves.
The poet not only paints a certain picture, he empathizes with it, admires it. He seems to be listening to the liturgy himself. In addition, in the image of the "girl from the church choir" it is easy to see the features of the same Beautiful Lady, "The Wife Clothed in the Sun". Layering on Christian motives, the image leads us to the idea of ​​the Mother of God. And here it is primarily a compassionate, comforting image.
However, with the last quatrain, Blok sharply strengthens the theme of the double world, barely outlined in the poem earlier.
And the voice was sweet and the beam was thin,
And only high, at the royal gates,
Participant in secrets, - the child cried
That no one will come back.
The Royal Doors is a place in the altar that is associated with Christmas and the baby Jesus. Thus, the child in Blok's poem is the Savior. However, it is not named directly, it is precisely human traits that are emphasized in it, participation in our world. In addition, the Savior here is a child, that is, the torment of the cross is still ahead of him, the atonement of human sins is ahead. It would seem that the very image of the Savior should give hope for a future revival, but this is not the case with Blok. Baby Jesus mourns people, mourns the world, which, despite the upcoming torment of the cross, he is unable to save. The theme of fate, the inevitable end of the world and the entire civilization occupies a central place in the poem. It should be noted that the Symbolists, including Blok, embraced F. Nietzsche's idea of ​​the gradual degeneration of European civilization and its inevitable collapse under the blows of wild hordes, in which, unlike the Western community, vital forces were preserved. Wild tribes will sweep away the corrupted civilization, and history will begin all over again - until the new civilization again runs out of inner strength and is again swept away by the wild hordes. Symbolists and other "decadents" lived in anticipation of the collapse of civilization, many of them believed that hordes would come from the east (for example, V. Soloviev with his idea of ​​"pan-Mongolism"),
In the poem "A girl sang in a church choir ..." eschatological presentiments (ie, premonitions of the end of the world) subjugate the entire poetic space, filling it with sorrow and boundless compassion for the doomed.
Eschatological sentiments were embodied in the work of Blok with greatest strength in comparison with all his contemporaries-poets. They will sound in full voice during the years of revolutionary terror (the poems "The Twelve" and "Scythians"), during the period of rampant all-destructive elements, which Blok perceived as the collapse of the entire Western civilization, but at the same time blessed it with the name of Christ, sincerely believing that the collapse of the old world will be the beginning of a new life, a new round of human development.
The poem is full of metaphors and epithets, the method of metonymy is used ("a white dress sang in a ray"). Uses Blok and symbols - mainly related to the Christian religion ("church choir", "dome", "bright life", "royal gates", "child").
Blok's creativity had a huge impact on the creativity of poets of the XX century, becoming one of the most noticeable phenomena in Russian lyric poetry of the era of wars and revolutions.

The poem "The girl sang in the church choir", like other works of Blok, fully corresponds to the foundations of symbolism. At the same time, it is imbued with a bitter sense of loss - these are lines dedicated to revolutionary uprisings and executions. Brief analysis“The girl sang in the church choir” according to the plan, used in the literature lesson, will help 11th grade students to better understand the poet and the mood of his era.

Brief analysis

History of creation- the poem was written in 1905 and is closely related to the bloody events - the suppression of revolutionary uprisings in the country. The poet was also influenced by the stories about the Tsushima battle, since it was at this time that the Russian-Japanese war ended in defeat.

Poem theme- faith in a bright future, embodied in a prayer to an innocent girl, and the deliberate doom of this prayer.

Composition- two-part. In the first part, Blok shows hope for a bright and clean future, embodied in the image of a girl with a pure soul. The second part is completely opposite to it: in it the poet demonstrates the cruelty of mortal life, which is based on blood and suffering.

genre- a lyric poem.

Poetic size - dolnik.

Epithets – “Foreign land”, “white dress”, “quiet backwater”.

History of creation

Blok's early poetry is imbued with revolutionary ideas and a rebellious spirit. The poem "A girl sang in the church choir", written in 1905, was no exception. It is based on the emotions that the poet felt in connection with the massacre of revolutionary-minded workers.

At the same time, the history of the creation of this work is somewhat more complicated: the author also veiledly tells about the Battle of Tsushima, in which the Russian squadron suffered a crushing defeat. As a patriot, Blok was deeply upset not only by the defeat of the fleet, but also by the death of a huge number of Russian soldiers.

Theme

The main idea of ​​the poem is hope and its futility. The first is expressed in the image innocent girl, which is a prayer so sincere that everyone who listens to it begins to believe in grace and in a successful outcome even of knowingly tragic situations. The idea of ​​futility is expressed by an infant who is close to God, so that he knows for sure that bloody sacrifice has already been brought and none of those for whom they pray will return back.

Composition

The verse can be easily divided into two parts, defining the main theme and mood of each. So, the first is imbued with the light of hope. She feels the opposition of an angel-like girl singing about hope and peace, a cruel reality with its bloody and merciless events. The singer's sincerity and purity make people in the church believe for the best.

But already in the second part, Blok points out the futility of their faith, ending the poem with the words “no one will come back”. The image of a child used by him is the same symbol as a beautiful girl. Children are the creatures closest to God, so the Lord Himself expresses regret with his tears. In addition, for the author, this is a child-prophet who cries in advance over the sad outcome of the war for Russia and its difficult future.

genre

This is a lyric poem in which the poet expresses his own emotions associated with the cruelty of life and people who are waging senseless wars, although they could be free and live in peace. Poetic size - dolnik.

Expression tools

The block emphasizes emotional content with the help of such expressive means, how:

• Epithets- “foreign land”, “white dress”, “quiet backwater”.
• Metaphors- “her voice sang”, “ships that went to sea”, “the dress sang in the ray”.

But he also uses other techniques, such as sound writing. Anaphores add euphony to the text and increase its emotionality, and multi-union only increases the emotional tension due to the stringing effect it has created.

The gentle image of a girl whose purity is repeatedly emphasized by the epithet “white” leaves a strong impression.

All means of expressiveness work for the idea, expressing the contradictory nature of the world, which Blok himself was acutely aware of: in him there is a bright tender hope on the one hand and ruthless cruelty on the other.

A. Blok supported the ideas of the revolutionaries, but later he had an epiphany. The poet realized that such methods cannot administer justice, it will bring too much pain to people. And he expressed this understanding in his poem "A girl sang in a church choir", the analysis of which is presented below.

Events leading up to the creation of the verse

The analysis of "A girl sang in a church choir" should begin with a brief background to its creation. As you know, Blok approved of the ideas and views of the revolutionaries. But after the rallies of peasants and workers were brutally suppressed in 1905, and the revolutionaries tried in any way, regardless of the people, to achieve their goal, the poet seemed to see clearly.

He realizes that the country has embarked on a terrible path, that a Civil War may begin. And people will be willing to hurt each other just because they have different beliefs. During that turbulent time for the country, services were constantly held in churches to save the Fatherland. Perhaps, Blok expressed his impression of one of these services in his poem.

Features of the composition

When analyzing "The girl sang in the church choir", the composition of the poem should be described. It is based on an antithesis in which two parts are opposed. One of them describes the temple, the image of a girl and magical singing. People who hear him have a hope that everything will be fine.

But in the second part, the poet brings everyone back to reality. Suddenly, a child's crying is heard. As if the child has a presentiment that the suffering of people is not over yet. Block paid great attention to the description of the first part. Perhaps this was due to the fact that most people did not yet realize the full horror of the revolution. They continued to believe that peace would soon reign in the country and everyone would be happy.

And only a few, like a crying child, understood that the girl's song would not come true. There are still trials ahead of people before peace and order reign.

Sound-rhythmic side of the piece

One of the points of the analysis "The girl sang in the church choir" is the sound-rhythmic characteristics of the poem. It is written in the form of free or accent verse, which uses alternation of different sizes. Therefore, when reading, in order not to violate the rhythmic integrity, lines written in two-syllable size should be read more slowly.

In describing the temple and the image of the girl, the poet resorts to alliteration for sonorous sounds and hissing sounds. This creates a sense of silence while reading, a sense of calm, hope. When the poet describes the crying of a child, he uses alliteration for voiced consonants. From a loud and harsh scream, the listeners return to reality, from which they fled to the land of dreams, after listening to the girl's singing.

The image of the people

In the description of the parishioners, one can see the image of the Russian people, which should be mentioned in the analysis of the poem "The girl sang in the church choir". People came to the temple in the hope that they will find peace here. After all, prayer is all that then remained with ordinary people who did not participate in the revolution.

And in the poem there is no clear division among the parishioners. Because everyone who was in the temple, they are all one, all are equal. These could be families that have already lost someone close to them. Or relatives of those who took an active part in the events of the revolution. And there were people who simply prayed for the future of their Motherland, for the whole people, for peace to reign.

Therefore, the parishioners listened so attentively to the girl's singing. For them, it became a ray of hope. They believed that their prayer would be answered. Therefore, the more unexpected was the cry of the child in that bright silence. As if only a child understood that the revolution was just beginning then.

The image of a singing girl and a crying child

In the analysis of "The Girl Sang in the Church Choir" by Blok, it should be noted that the image of a girl, during which a ray illuminates, occupies a central place in the poem. Her song about ships at sea is the embodiment of the hope that they will return. In the same way, people taking part in the revolution will return to their loved ones.

Her song is a ray of light that illuminated the lives of all the assembled parishioners. Her singing is filled with faith in a better future, it is beautiful because it comes from a pure heart. People tired of rallies and civil war, felt calmness and peace in their souls during the church service. The girl in Blok's poem is a symbol of hope and a bright future.

But only to a child, pure in soul and sinless in thought, the secret is revealed: that the end of tragic events is not yet. The child has a presentiment of something terrible ahead, and from not understanding what it is, he cries. He is sorry that the bright hopes of these people are not destined to come true. And the poet, one of the few who understands the reason for this cry, realizes that the meetings of 1905 are only the beginning of the terrible events of the revolution.

Literary devices and paths

One of the points of the analysis of the verse "The girl sang in the church choir" is the literary paths used by the poet. Block used metaphors, syntactic parallelism, epithets and anaphores to add even more expressiveness to the images, to emphasize the opposition of the two parts. Assonances give a musical coloring to the work, due to which the reading of the lines is melodious.

Analysis of the text "A Girl Sang in a Church Choir" allows readers to see the poet's desire to show the duality of this world. This work was dedicated to the victims of the shooting at Winter Palace... For A. Blok, it was very dear, and he ended each of his public reading with this particular poem.

The girl sang in the church choir
About all the tired in a foreign land,
About all the ships that have gone to sea
About all who have forgotten their joy.

And it seemed to everyone that there would be joy
That in a quiet backwater all the ships,
That tired people in a foreign land
They found a bright life for themselves.

Philological analysis of the poem

Alexander Blok - the greatest poet of the 20th century, began his career as a symbolist poet. If the poems of the "First Book" of poems are imbued with mysticism and are far from real life, then, starting in 1905, Blok's interest in public life sharpened. The Russo-Japanese War, the First Russian Revolution opened the poet's eyes to reality. In this regard, in the work of Blok of the second period, motives began to sound, leading him to rapprochement with the people, homeland and life.
The poem "A girl sang in the church choir ...", written in August 1905, was included in the cycle "Various Poems" (1904 - 1905) "Second Book" by Blok. The poet responds to the military events of the Russian-Japanese war, in which great amount sons of the Russian land, many were wounded, captured.
The theme of the poem "A girl sang in the church choir ..." is a prayer for those who died and did not return from the war, filled with faith in a bright future and hope that it will be heard. An interesting and unusual idea of ​​the poem is to show the doom of this prayer.
Let's take a closer look at the stylistics, syntax, linguistic units and figurative structure of the text.
The poem consists of four paragraphs (stanzas), interconnected. Each stanza has semantic completeness, which activates the reader's attention. Compositionally, the text can be divided into two parts. The first three quatrains are the girl's prayer, imbued with bright hope and holy faith that everything will be fine. The last stanza, and, consequently, the second semantic part, seems to deny the first, showing the doom of this prayer. Thanks to the reception of the antithesis, a contradictory world appears before us: earthly and divine, faith in the holiness of prayer and its doom.
The integrity of the entire text is achieved not only in meaning. The author uses semantic repetitions: exact lexical repetitions (" about all», « Ray», « joy», « ships», « voice», « what», « and"), Synonymous repetitions (" watched and listened», « quiet» - « bright», « sweet» - « thin"), Root repeats (" ships» - « ships», « stranger» - « foreign land», « tired» - « tired», « on white» - « white»).
Thus, it is easy to see that the poem is built on repetitions, and this, of course, is one of the strong points of this poem. It is repetitions that are key words and constitute the semantic dominant of this text.
The poem has a special dimension - a four-beat dolnik. It is known that dolnik occupies an intermediate position between the syllabo-tonic and tonic systems of versification. Thus, this poem has a rhythmic organization, but at the same time the number unstressed syllables not always between drums. The four-beat dolnik conveys the emotion of the heroine, gives the text melodiousness and melody.
In Blok's poem, male and female rhymes alternate, which gives it great musicality and smoothness ( chore - edge, sea - my own, kupol - shoulder, heard - ray, there will be ships, people - got it, ton - vrat, child - back). The masculine rhyme at the end of the stanza emphasizes the completeness of the text.
The poem has a cross rhyme that gives it a special expressiveness. In the third stanza, there is an imprecise rhyme:

And it seemed to everyone that joy would no ,
That there are all ships in the quiet harbor,
That tired liu in a foreign land di
They found a bright life for themselves.

In each quatrain, it is easy to notice an anaphora (“ about all», « and», « what»), Giving the text emotion and emotion.
In addition, the text uses the multi-union technique. Writing and subordinate unions: « and a ray shone on a white shoulder,ANDeach of the gloom watchedand listened ...AND everyone thoughtwhatjoy will beWhatin a quiet backwater all ships,Whattired people in a foreign land ...AND the voice was sweetand the beam was thinAND only high ...". This stylistic technique creates the effect of stringing compositional and subordinate parts subordinate clauses... In this regard, throughout the entire poem, emotional stress gradually increases. In the first quatrain, there is a lack of union, due to which the girl's prayer becomes more expressive.
In the second quatrain, the inversion is observed " sang her voice flying into the dome", Thereby intonationally highlighting the word" voice»For the subsequent participle turnover, which carries aestheticism.
The temporal organization of the poem is also peculiar. There are few verbs in the text, which speaks of static, lack of dynamics. Interestingly, in the first three stanzas (the first semantic part), imperfective verbs of the past tense are used ( "Sang", "sang", "shone", "looked and listened", "sang", "seemed") which indicates the duration and repeatability of the action. In this regard, we seem to hear the repeated repetition of prayer. Saying it over and over again, the power of the request increases, as if we enter a state of union with the Supreme. Time seems to slow down, creating the illusion of a bright future. However, in the second semantic part, in addition to the imperfective past tense verbs ( "Was", "cried") the perfective verb appears “ will not come»In the future tense. It indicates the completion of the action - the prayer is heard by God. It should also be noted that in this case the verb “ will not come»Denotes not only the end of the action, but at the same time its beginning. Thus, the expression “ nobody will come back»Acquires an additional semantic connotation and becomes a metaphor foreshadowing the future upheavals of the 20th century.
Artistic time in this text is inextricably linked with art space. This relationship is usually called a chronotope. In this poem, the reader finds himself involved in two spaces, the boundaries of which are too blurred and practically not felt: on the one hand, the real and the earthly - the girl sings a prayer in the temple (1-3 stanzas), on the other hand - the divine (the last stanza).
The artistic expressiveness and poetry of the text of Blok's poem is achieved through the use of homogeneous members sentences complicated by participial phrases. The author uses participial phrases to aesthetically influence the feelings of readers.
The phonetics of Alexander Blok's poem is peculiar. Alliteration of consonants R , l gives the text euphony and musicality, the girl's prayer seems to be chanted (ne l a, ho R e, mouth l oh, to R Ayu, kor ab l yah, mo R e, R adost, ne l, th l os, l sucking, in a coupo l , l uch this l, on ba l ohm, from m R aka smot R e l and with l gone, be l oh n l atye pe l about in l uche, kaza l axis to R ab l and, mouth l s l youdi, light l oh, oh R e l and, with l adok, then l bko). The emphasis on hissing sounds is an expression of the silence that always reigns in the temple (virgin NS ka, h at f ohm, u NS units NS forgetting them NS them flying SCH uh, listen NS al, lu h, chu f binet, f life, at h astny, h then, ka f dy). The last stanza is characterized by alliteration to voiced consonants ( G O l os, s l a d OK, l uch, then n ok, at Tsa R sky Bp at, P R and often n th Tai n am, n l aka l R e b e n ok), which gives a feeling of anguish.
Thus, the motive of the doom of prayer intensifies with each line of the poem.
The tropics are also special " The girl sang in the church choir". With the help of paraphrases “ at the Royal Doors" and " Communicator of the Mysteries»The block makes the text of the poem more sublime, divine. We understand that the Royal Doors are the altar in the church, and the Communioner of the Mysteries is the communion, i.e. attached by the soul to the higher nature and to eternal life in it.
To add color and expressiveness, the author uses epithets: “ foreign land», « the voice flying into the dome», « on white shoulder», « in a quiet backwater», « tired people», « bright life», « ray ... thin», « voice ... sweet". The epithet “ the voice was sweet", Showing the desirability and sincerity of prayer.
Metaphors " sang her voice" and " the dress sang"Confirm the all-absorbed prayer for the dead and those who did not return, sincere faith in its power.
Undoubtedly, symbolic words occupy one of the main places in the poem, are its dominant. With the help of symbols, the poet helps the reader to understand the system of artistic images and the development of the author's idea.
Under the pen of Alexander Blok, the word “ ship". It symbolizes all people who have gone to Russo-Japanese War and did not return back. " Dome”Becomes the personification of God himself. The girl's prayer calls out to Jesus, so she “ flying into the dome", I.e. turned to God.
And the very image of the girl acquires an additional semantic coloring. Before us is not just a girl, but a generalized image of a woman waiting for her sons from the war. The block plays with the symbolism of color. No wonder he uses white: the girl is dressed in a white dress. She's like an angel. Through white, the author tries to influence the thoughts of the reader so that he can understand the feelings of the poet himself. White is an ambiguous symbol. However, in this poem, he symbolizes the moral purity of the soul, innocence, motherly care, closeness to God.
The ray image is also symbolic. On the one hand, a ray as a symbol of people's hope. On the other hand, a ray as confirmation that the prayer is heard by God. In addition, the ray is a connecting thread of the earthly and divine worlds, but it is very fragile, therefore “ the beam was thin».
The image of a child has special symbolism. In general, a child is a symbol of a pure, sincere and sinless soul. He turns out to be the closest to the divine world, since he undergoes the rite of Communion. The child was crying " high, at the Royal Doors”, Because it was near the altar (on the throne) that the sacrament of receiving the Holy Gifts (bread and wine, which during communion turned into the Body and Blood of Christ) took place. The cry of a child symbolizes the grief and regret of God himself. He knows that " nobody will come back».
Thus, words-symbols, syntactic and compositional organization, semantic repetitions are the dominant feature of the poem. Alliteration, tropics and metrics enhance the emotional impact on the reader, add aestheticism. Thanks to the reception of the antithesis, Alexander Blok shows us, on the one hand, the holiness of prayer and faith in its fulfillment, on the other, its doom, the grief of God himself. Blok draws us a contradictory world, filled with hope for a brighter future, but at the same time with cruelty and anger.