Comprehensive analysis of the poem by A. Blok

"About valor, about exploits, about glory ..."

Completed by: Course student

in new socio-cultural conditions "

1. Theme of the poem

The theme of love has always prevailed in the work of Alexander Blok. Joy and sadness were combined in his love lyrics, apparently because the ideal of a refined and sublime, proud and trusting, beautiful and gentle woman did not find its earthly embodiment.

At first, Blok was greatly attracted by his future wife, Lyubov Dmitrievna Mendeleeva, to whom he dedicated the cycle "Poems about the Beautiful Lady". According to the words, if you read this book carefully, you will see that “this is a true story about how one teenager fell so enthusiastically in love with a neighbor that he created a Radiant Maiden out of her and transformed her entire surrounding landscape into unearthly villages. This was what Dante did with the daughter of a neighbor of the Partinari. " lived and wrote in very difficult historical conditions, painfully feeling the lack of harmony in the "terrible world". He did not feel it in his soul either. Only love was able to bring Blok that necessary, desired peace, without which it was impossible to live. Love was designed to exclude chaos not only in the soul, but also in the world around the poet. Blok deified love, which revealed to him the high meaning of life. He dedicated a huge number of poems to this wonderful feeling. One of them - "About valor, about exploits, about glory ...".
This poem was written in 1908 and was included in the third volume of the poet's Collected Poems. The cycle "Retribution", to which the poem belongs, continues the theme of the "terrible world". The word "retribution" is usually understood as a punishment for a certain crime. Moreover, the punishment coming from the outside, from someone. Retribution, according to Blok, is, first of all, a person's condemnation of himself, the judgment of his own conscience. The main fault of the hero is betrayal of the once sacred vows, high love, betrayal of human destiny. And the consequence of this is reckoning: mental emptiness, fatigue from life, submissive expectation of death. These motives sound in all poems of the "Retribution" cycle.
That high sinless love has gone forever from the life of the poet, reality has destroyed the ideal, and the poet grieves over the lost pure dream, in which he is now unable to believe so strongly:

About valor, about exploits, about glory
I was forgetting on a woeful land

Before me shone on the table ...
Do not dream of tenderness, of glory,
Everything is over, youth is over!

I removed it from the table with my own hand.

All the poems of the collection are imbued with a thirst "to see the unearthly in the earthly" (V. Bryusov). A purely personal experience is melted here into the universal, into a mystery with the coming descent to the land of the Eternal Feminine.

For six years, Blok wrote about one woman, dedicated 687 poems to her. In 1903, the poet married Lyubov Dmitrievna. This was the end of the lyrical diary, addressed to the Beautiful Lady. Blok's poetic world includes new themes, new images. In the cycle "Retribution", in which the poet prophesies a speedy judgment and retribution for the society, which fettered, enslaved and "frozen" a person, the now famous "On valor, on exploits, on glory ..." (1908) is published. The poem is written in a special manner and differs markedly in style and theme from other poems of the "Retribution" cycle.

2. Genre

The poem by genre is a love message. This is a conversation with a portrait of a distant lover who once left the lyrical hero. However, the hero perceives him as a living, spiritualized image. That is why he calls him not a portrait, but a face and, referring to the portrait, he speaks as if the beloved who left him is able to hear his words, realize the full depth of her mistake and, perhaps, return to the hero. The whole poem is built on the opposition of two images (the lyrical hero and his beloved woman), which only emphasizes the insurmountable distance between them.

3. The plot

The plot of the poem and its development are inextricably linked with the personality of the lyric hero. In the first stanza, we see that the whole world of the hero is focused on the image of the beloved. "About valor, about exploits, about glory

4. Artistic means

"I forgot on a woeful land" - these first lines confirm that lovers tend to experience a feeling of complete satisfaction and harmony with the world and themselves only when the object of love is near.

But now "the hour has come," in the second stanza, the beloved leaves the hero. And the meaning of life disappears along with it. The loss of internal reference points completely unsettles the hero, and he is left alone with the passions that "torment" his life.

Throughout the period of time enclosed in the next three stanzas, the life of the lyric hero is filled only with memories and pain from the realization of loss. However, in the last stanza, we see that he finally manages to make a mature decision to let go of his lost love, and this undoubtedly shows the hero's growing up and his becoming as a self-sufficient person.

Composition: size, rhyme, rhythm.

Poem size:

_ _ "/ _ _" / _ _ "/ _ _" / _ _ "/ _ iambic pentameter. This poetic meter has been used by many poets from Shakespeare to contemporaries of the Silver Age. It recreates human speech within the framework of an epic or dramatic story, tension of will, it is characterized by clarity, firmness.Obviously, Blok uses names of this size to emphasize the tragedy expressed in the work.

Cross rhyme.

The first line of the last stanza "No longer dream of tenderness, of glory ...", on the one hand, completes the poem, forming ring composition... On the other hand, it contains a deep thought that a person's personal happiness and his social role are closely related.

Trails... To make the language of a literary work more expressive, special means are used: epithets, comparisons, metaphors.

The first line of the work "On valor, on exploits, on glory ..." seems to deceive the reader's expectations: it seems that it will be about the topic of civic duty. However, love experiences are most important for the hero at a certain stage of life, so great and boundless is the bitterness of his loss. In the poem we come across a large number of epithets: "on a woeful land", "a coveted ring", "a cursed swarm", "damp night". The tenderness with which the hero recalls his beloved, comparing her with his youth: "And he called you as his youth", is reflected in the work with such epithets as: "beautiful face", "you, dear", "you, tender" ... There are personifications and metaphors in the poem: "when your face is in a simple frame", "it shone on the table in front of me", "I threw the cherished ring into the night", "you gave your destiny to another", "days flew by", "wine and passion

tormented my life, "I am fast asleep."
From the first lines, the poet hints to the reader about the mood of the whole work, using the epithet "On a woeful land." In the second stanza centrally is the cherished ring- a symbol of loyalty to love. The boundless despair of the lyric hero, caused by the departure of his beloved, is expressed in the episode when he throws out the “cherished ring”. In this case, the night symbolizes darkness and uncertainty. However, according to the aesthetic views of the Symbolist poets, to whom he belonged, the meaning of the symbol can never be exhausted to the end. In this case, it can be perceived even wider: night is the time when demonic forces rise. Despair and the loss of the meaning of life for the narrator are described by the epithets "cursed swarm", "on a damp night."

To convey to the reader how much his chosen one meant to the hero, the comparison is used: "And he called you as his youth." The author points out that with the departure of love, the best days of our hero's life also pass away. The serene youth is behind, the time has come for a harsh growing up.

The metaphors "when your face is in a simple frame", "before me shone on the table", pointing to the heroine, reflect the fact that the lyric hero is inclined to deify and idealize her even after betrayal. “I threw the cherished ring into the night”, “you gave your fate to another” - these metaphors seem to indicate the choice of both characters and the fact that their paths diverge. The personifications "flew by days", "wine and passion tormented my life" Blok uses to show that otherworldly dark forces dominate over the life and fate of the hero, with which he does not want to fight. The strength of the love feeling of the lyrical hero is also actualized by the motive of the dream:

“I am fast asleep, your blue cloak is sleeping for me,

In which you left on a damp night. "

Stylistic figures:

Repetitions / refrain: "plain framed face". Repetition demonstrates the importance for the author of the described object, process, action, etc. When using this figure, the author repeatedly mentions something that particularly excited him, focusing the reader's attention on this as well.

Antithesis: Opposition is an expressive means that makes it possible to make a particularly strong impression on the reader, to convey to him the strong excitement of the author due to the rapid change of the opposite in meaning concepts used in the text of the poem. Opposite emotions, feelings and experiences of the author or his hero can also be used as an object of opposition.

“When your face is in a simple frame

Before me shone on the table ...

Your face in its simple frame

I took it off the table with my own hand ”;

Inversion: "They tormented my life", "your cloak is blue", "left in the damp night", "I removed from the table." Inversion in poetic texts performs an accent or semantic function, a rhythm-forming function for building a poetic text, as well as the function of creating a verbal-figurative picture.

Assonance: “I don’t know where your pride/ I am sound asleep, I dream of your cloak blue"," Everything is over, youth passed! / I removed with my hand table».

Anaphora gives the text additional emotionality.

“And I remembered you before the analogue,

And he called you as his youth ... "

Even after years, the lyric hero remembers that fateful day of farewell:

“I called you, but you didn’t look back,

I shed tears, but you did not descend. "

Synonyms: valor, exploits, glory; sweet, tender.

Archaisms: the hour has come, lectern, pride.

In the poem "On valor, on exploits, on glory" there appears an image of a man devastated by life with a difficult fate. The poem is autobiographical, because during this period his first love, Lyubov Dmitrievna, the granddaughter of the famous chemist Mendeleev, leaves him and goes to Blok's close friend, the poet Andrei Bely.

After parting with his beloved, the hero lost the meaning of life, he lost himself. He no longer meets true love, on the path of life he encounters only passion. We see that, having lost his beloved, the hero lost faith in life, lost his moral support. The loss turned the hero's carefree life into existence. Wine and passion torment him, but this is not spiritual life, but only a sinful parody of it, burning and devastating the soul. It is symbolic that the hero recalls his beloved in front of a lectern (lectern is a high table with a sloping top, on which icons and holy books are placed in the Church). Obviously, in love, he seeks salvation for his lost soul. Also, it is in front of the analogue in the Temple that the wedding ceremony is held. This image is used to show how dear to the hero are the already forgotten vows of eternal love and fidelity.

The line "Everything is over, youth is over!" emphasizes that time cannot be turned back. Man, immersed in his suffering, and then, seeking to be comforted, spending days in search of truth in wine, lost not only love. He lost everything. The ambitious dreams of youth are irrevocably a thing of the past. Life plans remained unfulfilled. Only realizing this, the lyrical hero found the strength to remove the portrait of his beloved from the table. However, having lost his beloved, the lyrical hero did not become embittered against her. Years later, he still calls her sweet and tender. The gap is perceived by him as a fatal accident, in which pride is to blame.

All his life he cherished the hope of her return. The portrait, removed from the table at the end of the poem, testifies to the final loss of this hope, but at the same time it is a certain courageous step of a person, in which the mind finally defeated the painful feeling that had grown to universal proportions. However, in this farewell gesture of the hero he managed to put so much grief and longing that the reader, even understanding the correctness of the deed, still continues to sympathize with the unfortunate person.

The poem has a pronounced dramatic beginning, which is characteristic of the lyrics in general. The typical love triangle turned into an inconsolable heartbreak drama. Some of the images in the poem also resemble the details of theatrical props.

During this difficult period, the poet breaks with his Symbolist friends. It seemed that Blok was drowning despair in wine. But, despite this, the main theme of the poems of the "Terrible World" period is still love. But the one about whom the poet writes his magnificent poems is no longer the former Beautiful Lady, but a fatal passion, a temptress, a destroyer. She torments and burns the poet, but he cannot escape from her bonds, her power.

Even about the vulgarity and rudeness of the terrible world, Blok writes soulfully and beautifully. Although he no longer believes in love, does not believe in anything, the image of a stranger in the poems of this period still remains beautiful. The poet hated cynicism and vulgarity - they were never in his poems.

If you carefully read the poem "On valor, on exploits, on glory ...", then it is easy to see that it echoes the poem "I remember a wonderful moment ...".
When your face is in plain frames
Before me shone on the table ...
In Pushkin we see similar lines:
I remember a wonderful moment:
You appeared before me.
"And I have forgotten a beautiful face" - "And I have forgotten your gentle voice." "The days flew by" - "the years passed." But, despite such a similar scenario, the endings of the poems are completely opposite: by the end of the poem, the soul awakens, in Blok we see only bitterness, despair (the hero did not return his beloved).
A. Blok always believed in the saving faith of love, love as a cleansing light feeling and strove to give all of himself to the great love for the woman, for the Motherland ... He dedicated his feelings, thoughts, soul to love, which is clearly expressed in poems throughout his work a poet whose name Russia is still proud of.

About valor, about exploits, about glory
I was forgetting on a woeful land
When your face is plainly framed
Before me shone on the table.

But the hour has come and you left home.
I threw the cherished ring into the night.
You gave your destiny to another
And I forgot the beautiful face.

Days flew by, spinning in a cursed swarm ...
Wine and passion tormented my life ...
And I remembered you before the analogue,
And he called you as his youth ...

I called you, but you didn't look back
I shed tears, but you did not descend.
You sadly wrapped yourself in a blue cloak,
On a damp night you left the house.

I don’t know where your pride is
You, dear, you, tender, have found ...
I'm fast asleep, I dream of your blue cloak,
In which you left on a damp night ...

Do not dream of tenderness, of glory,
All is over, youth is over!
Your face in its simple frame
I removed it from the table with my own hand.

Analysis of the poem "On valor, on exploits, on glory" by Blok

Blok's poem "On valor, on exploits, on glory ..." refers to the poet's love lyrics. It is dedicated to a real event in life. Blok wrote it in 1908, immediately after his wife left him. It should be noted that their relationship was very strange. The poet's wife, L. Mendeleev, was an actress, which left a very big imprint on her life. Strong family relationships rarely develop between creative people. Stormy life constantly pushes them in search of new strong impressions. This is what happened in the Blok family. Mendeleeva left him for the sake of another poet -. Blok was very upset by the betrayal of his wife, who for a long time was a creative muse for him.

A deep personal experience of the author is felt in the poem. He does not use the complex symbolism inherent in his early work. The pain of a deceived person is felt behind every line. The image of a "face in a simple frame" is a portrait of his wife, which was constantly on the poet's desk. In it he found the source of his inspiration.

The first time after his wife's betrayal, the author was at the mercy of anger and misunderstanding that gripped him. He throws away the "cherished ring" and assures himself that he has forgotten about the ungrateful woman forever. The lyrical hero is looking for a way out in "wine and passion". But gradually he is overwhelmed by memories of a happy past. The marriage was concluded at an early age, therefore, the infidelity of his wife is associated with the loss of youth in Blok.

The poet is trying to return his beloved. But his pleas and tears remain unanswered. Here one more symbol of the work appears - the "blue cloak" in which the wife left home. In the soul of Blok there is no longer anger, he turns to his ex-wife with gentle words: "sweetheart, gentle." Even in a dream, he is constantly haunted by the image of the "blue cloak", which in one night broke the poet's whole life in two.
The poem ends with the recognition that both youth and love are irrevocably gone. Carefree dreams left the poet forever. Cleansing the table from the "face in a simple frame" becomes a symbolic farewell action.

The piece, however, did not become the final point. Yielding to Blok's pleas, his wife returned to him, but left again after some time. Until the poet's death, this mysterious relationship continued. He himself, having lost faith in pure love, started short-term novels. But the first wife forever remained for him a symbol of his first immaculate love.

17.11.2011 15:05:00
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Victor, let me play a little hooligan. :))
An excerpt from the novel "..."

Igor knocked over the glass and with an artistic gesture snatched the blue volume from the shelf.

With your permission, ladies and gentlemen, let us take Blok. I beg your pardon, San Sanych, I will slightly shake your tripod with incense. What is the most famous poem of the great poet? Well, except for the poem "The Twelve"? Of course, this is: "About valor, about exploits, about glory." But! Think about it: the poem is entirely based on logical blunders. We read the first stanza:

"About valor, about exploits, about glory
I forgot on a woeful land
When your face is in plain frames
Before me shone on the table. "

What is it about? - Igoresha looked around the audience. - Some time ago, the lyrical hero was in love. He even forgot that usually men are much more interested in than some kind of beloved woman - about fame. Of course, he was apart from his beloved. From the lady of the heart, only “a face in a simple frame” remained - a photograph or a portrait.

"But the hour has come and you left home ..."

Hello, please! It turns out that in the previous stanza she lived with him, this woman? She sat next to me, looked, for example, out the window, and at that time he looked at her portrait, shining on the table. Apparently, the portrait shone better. And he stared at the portrait, not at his lady. Ha, dear lire. hero! I know why she left you. I would have done the same in her place.

“But the hour has come and you left home,
I threw the cherished ring into the night.
You gave your destiny to another
And I have forgotten the beautiful face. "

Forgot? So you threw away the portrait? Yeah, in the night with the coveted ring. If the portrait continued to stand on the table, the hero would not forget his face. About the epithets "cherished" (ring) and "beautiful" (face), I am already silent.

This is the style of a cruel romance, ”Lucy finally said. “Such things are permissible in it.

“I called you, but you didn’t look back,
I shed tears, but you did not descend,
You sadly wrapped yourself in a blue cloak,
You left the house on a damp night. "

Yes, this is a complete failure! Four verb rhymes in a row! And what! “She went down, she went away,” “I looked back, I turned around”! "I shed tears ..." - a good tearful hero dreaming of glory! Any editor, seeing such a helpless technique, is obliged to close the manuscript and return it to the author. But this is Blok! Genius! He can! And, by the way, according to the logic of the plot development, it turns out that the heroine again (again!) Left. When did she come back? There is nothing about this in the text!

“I don’t know where my pride is sheltered
You, dear, you, tender, found ...
I'm fast asleep, I dream of your blue cloak,
In which you left on a damp night .. ".

"I am sound asleep." Lucy, how would you react to such a confession from a gentleman? Guys, if you ever want to tell your beloved that you feel bad without her, do not tell her that you have a sound sleep and a good appetite! Further, on the psychology of lyre. hero: he sheds tears, then fast asleep. Let me remind Stanislavsky: I don’t believe!

“Don't dream of tenderness, of glory,
Everything is over, youth is over!
Your face in its simple frame
I took it off the table with my own hand. "

How can you put "tenderness" and "glory" in one semantic row? It's like “warm” and “green” - the words don't fit together. A classic mistake of inexperienced poets. As for the “face in a simple frame,” it was, in theory, removed from the table three more stanzas ago. Remember when the lire. has the hero forgot his face? How did this face end up on the table again?

And the epithets ?! The cloak is blue, the frame is simple, the night is damp. Banality on platitudes. And where is the symbolism for which Blok is so famous? Where, in what lines can it be found and evaluated here? And this creation is passed off as an example of poetry? In my opinion, all this - a ring-face, found-gone, gone-condescended - does not stand up to the slightest criticism.

I butchered Blok like a herring, ”Lucy smiled tightly. - It's funny.

It is clear, - Dimka finally broke through Igor's monologue, - in order to appreciate these poems, you need to understand their context, namely, to have an idea of ​​the personalities of Alexander Blok and Lyubov Mendeleeva. The readers - and these were people from their own circle - saw in these verses something more than just words. Symbolism just implies that there is a certain hidden, sacred meaning. It was believed that this secret knowledge was available to "dedicated" contemporaries of the Blok. And you, Igorek, dissected the text as a set of words, according to their first plan. With such an analysis, the whole spirit of the era evaporated.

Thanks for explaining, damn it. But let me do a little hooliganism, old man, to amuse Lucy. And you must admit, Dimych: if today someone brought you such verses, without naming the author, you would have gouged them cleaner than me! I did not want to discredit San Sanych at all. I have a different goal: to show how the criteria of perfection and beauty can change depending on the era. Even in such a detailed habitual environment as poetics. Lucy is right: today such a text can only be perceived as a cruel romance. Many masterpieces of the past are, shall we say, not relevant today. But the paradox of history is that the work, in fact, is long gone, and the fame of its author lasts.

And in this poem I am most sorry for his heroine - Lyuba Mendeleev, - Lucy shrugged her shoulder. “They made an idol out of it during her lifetime and put it on a pedestal. No one remembers her tragedy on this pillar. All - ah, Blok! And she?

As Anna Akhmatova said about her memories, “Blok and Bely loved you. Shut up! " - tossed firewood Igorek.

Well, connoisseurs, tell me, who of the geniuses of Russian poetry rhymed "yourself-you" and "couldn't-get sick"?

Pu-shkin, ”Dimych and I held out in chorus, looked at each other and laughed. - This is from the first stanza of Onegin.

Pour, boys! So what are we drinking for?

And who is in tune with the era, the problems are on the side! - immediately issued Dimych. "

"About valor, about exploits, about glory ..." Alexander Blok

About valor, about exploits, about glory
I forgot on a woeful land
When your face is plainly framed
Before me shone on the table.

But the hour has come and you left home.
I threw the cherished ring into the night.
You gave your destiny to another
And I forgot the beautiful face.

Days flew by, spinning in a cursed swarm ...
Wine and passion tormented my life ...
And I remembered you before the analogue,
And he called you as his youth ...

I called you, but you didn't look back
I shed tears, but you did not descend.
You sadly wrapped yourself in a blue cloak,
On a damp night you left the house.

I don’t know where your pride is
You, dear, you, tender, have found ...
I'm fast asleep, I dream of your blue cloak,
In which you left on a damp night ...

Do not dream of tenderness, of glory,
All is over, youth is over!
Your face in its simple frame
I removed it from the table with my own hand.

Analysis of Blok's poem "On valor, on exploits, on glory ..."

The love lyrics of Alexander Blok are very controversial and controversial. Until now, researchers of the poet's work are trying to understand the complex relationship between the author and his wife Lyubov Mendeleeva, who was Blok's muse. Nevertheless, their marriage was not happy, and a few years after the marriage, Mendeleev went to the poet Alexander Bely. Then she returned, repented of her mistake, and - again started a new romance, from which she gave birth to a son. Blok himself during this period also experienced several romantic hobbies. The spouses could not see each other for months, since Lyubov Mendeleeva was an actress and often went on tour. But they still remained friends at the insistence of the poet, who believed that spiritual closeness was much more important than physical.

Nevertheless, Blok was very upset by problems in family life. And in 1908, when Lyubov Mendeleeva got along with Alexander Bely, he wrote his famous poem "On valor, on exploits, on glory ...", in which he spoke about his experiences. And he confessed that he was able to overcome in himself a painful passion for a woman, who, by the will of fate, played a fatal role in the fate of the poet.

It is worth noting that the future spouses have known each other since childhood, as their families were friends. However, when they met years later, they hardly recognized each other. Blok fell in love with a 16-year-old beauty who dreamed of becoming an actress. She responded to his advances with complete indifference. By that time, Blok was fond of mysticism and was looking for secret signs of fate in any combination of circumstances. And then one day, as a student and aspiring poet, he met Mendeleev on the street, believing that this was not an accidental coincidence. Blok not only convinced himself that he loved this woman, but also infected Mendeleev herself with an unshakable belief that they were destined to be together. In 1903, the couple got married, but they really became husband and wife only a year later, since the poet refused to darken the ideal, in his opinion, spiritual union, with carnal joys.

Indeed, many eyewitnesses recalled that in life Blok treated Mendeleeva not as a wife, but as a muse. And, remembering parting with her, he wrote in his poem that "he shed tears, but you did not condescend." The symbol of love for Mendeleeva for the poet was "a face in a simple frame" - a portrait of his wife, which after the wedding always stood on the poet's table. And this was also a kind of symbol, which Blok attached special importance to. He was convinced that it was this portrait that helped him in his work, while not paying any attention to his wife, who could stand behind him. As a result, the poet states the inevitable: "You sadly wrapped yourself in a blue cloak, you left home on a damp night."

It is noteworthy that Lyubov Mendeleeva was not only a symbol of spiritual purity for the poet, but was also associated with youth. Therefore, the author notes that her departure marked the end of her carefree youth. “Can't we dream of tenderness, of glory, everything is over, youth is gone?” Blok asks. And he answers to himself that this is really so. The woman, whom the poet idolized, took with her not only the feeling of lightness and carelessness inherent in youth, but also inspiration. However, Blok still managed to cope with his feelings, so he wrote: "I took your face in a simple frame off the table with my hand."

The poet could not even imagine that fate forever tied him with this woman. She left and came back. Blok even agreed to recognize her son as his own child, but at the same time he himself started affairs on the side. However, until his death, he believed that Mendeleev's Lyubov was "the sacred place of the soul."