Songfulness of Koltsev's folk poetry. Lyrics A

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A. Koltsov - Collector of folk songs

Every poet has his own teacher. Koltsov’s teacher was the Russian people and their poetry.

A. Koltsov wanted the poetry of the people to become public property, so that works of folklore would be published in books, just as the works of writers are printed. “Do whatever you want,” he wrote to the publisher of Otechestvennye Zapiski A.A. Kraevsky, - and sing songs: we need them!

Koltsov recorded works of folklore. He started with proverbs. “I collected several proverbs,” reported the poet A.A. Kraevsky in a letter dated February 12, 1837, “but I don’t know which ones I should write down: which ones are just random, or which ones Bogdanovich and Snegirev don’t have.”

Soon Koltsov turned to songs. “After the sayings,” he reported to the same A.A. Kraevsky in a letter dated July 16, 1837, “I am now collecting folk songs, and I have already collected a little. I took them hard." Two weeks later he wrote to Kraevsky again: “Having received no response to the song I sent you, I am now sending another. I need your answer at the present time because, as I already wrote to you, I began to collect Russian folk songs intently.”

Seeing that his work was in vain, that the songs he recorded were not published, Koltsov was amazed. He could not understand why this was happening: after all, the same Kraevsky published the songs of other collectors! He did not even deign to give Koltsov a written answer. The poet lost hope in Kraevsky. He turned to his friend V.G. for help. Belinsky and sent him a notebook with songs. This happened in 1838. At that time, Belinsky was the editor of the Moscow Observer (the great critic began editing this magazine in the spring of 1838, and exactly a year later the magazine was closed). But Koltsov was again unsuccessful: the collection of his songs was not published. In a letter dated August 15, 1840, the poet asked V.G. Belinsky: “Have you lost the Russian folk songs, the notebook?” This phrase was enough to later accuse Belinsky of being inattentive to the Voronezh poet, indifferent to the poetry of the people, etc., etc. Now that new materials have become known, these reproaches seem absurd and pathetic. No, Belinsky did not lose Koltsov’s notebook, and it was not his fault that the poet’s notes were not published.

It was believed that the poet’s notes had perished, just as almost his entire Voronezh archive had perished. The only hope left was for the notebook sent to Belinsky, but that was not found either.

The first to mention the Koltso collection of songs was biographer A.V. Koltsova M. de Poulet. In his book “A.V. Koltsov in his everyday and literary affairs and in his family environment,” he sought to prove that Belinsky’s assessment of the poet’s work was erroneous. And so, setting out to show the “real” Koltsov, de Poulet, speaking about the folk songs collected by the poet, said the following: “Judging by the few samples preserved in the papers of A.A. Kraevsky (de Pula knew five songs recorded by A.V. Koltsov. - P.U.), Koltsov was a bad collector, and some of the songs and sayings he delivered were not only cynical, but also stupid.” There is no need to refute this slander.

With his statement, de Poulet pursued two goals: to discredit both the poet and his great friend, V.G. Belinsky. The fact is that these songs were from a notebook that Koltsov sent to critics. True, the notebook itself was not found, but the songs were rewritten by Belinsky’s hand and were intended for printing. However, Belinsky failed to publish them. According to I.A. Bychkov, who discovered Koltsov’s songs, rewritten by Belinsky, in the archives of A.A. Kraevsky’s “Song about Vanka the Keymaker” (“As the prince had it, Prince Volkonsky”) “was not allowed by the censor to print and was crossed out in red ink.” Perhaps this was the fate of other songs by A. Koltsov. True, one of them (“Masha took berries from the damp forest”) by V.G. Belinsky cited in his article on folk poetry, which was published in Otechestvennye zapiski in 1841.

And so, with the light hand of a liberal literary critic, rumors began to spread that Koltsov did not know how to write down the poetry of the people.

No one saw Koltsov’s original notes, no one imagined their volume and nature, but the most decisive conclusions were drawn. So, A.I. Nekrasov, in his article “Koltsov and folk lyrics (an experience of parallel analysis),” seriously argued that folklore was alien to Koltsov, that the origins of his creativity should be sought not in the poetry of the people, but in the lyrics of songwriters of the early 19th century: “Not a single poem by Koltsov “, he declared, “in its content it does not find a match in folk songs. Koltsov introduces not only folk motifs into his songs, and not even mainly them: a whole range of themes and moods of Koltsov’s songs have no parallel in folk lyrics.”

V.V. Danilov, without even considering it necessary to provide any evidence, went even further. He wrote: “Even in relation to living folk songs, the artistic reproduction of which is recognized as Koltsov’s poetry, he was indifferent. A.A. Kraevsky encouraged Koltsov to collect folk songs, which he himself (Kraevsky. P.U.) regarded ideologically and attached importance to as an exclusive source of judgment about science. But Koltsov did not learn such ideas from Kraevsky, and when he began collecting songs, he simply complained in one letter to him: “What a bore it is to collect them!”, and in another letter he repeated again: “it’s soggy and difficult to collect them.” As we see, Koltsov was far from being passionate about nationality.”

The meaning of Koltsov’s admission that collecting folk songs is “smoky and difficult” is completely clear: recording songs seemed to him an extremely responsible matter: many wrote down a song as a poem, but the song is not told, but sung: others recorded from dictation, and what is the best method - unknown. But Danilov is right about one thing: Koltsov really did not assimilate Kraevsky’s ideas about folklore (we will talk about them below); he recognized Belinsky, not Kraevsky, as his ideological leader.

Among the works of researchers of the so-called vulgar sociological direction, the book by P.M. Sobolev “A.V. Koltsov and oral poetry". Sobolev approached the assessment of the facts with a ready-made opinion, which was suggested to him by the above-mentioned works of Nekrasov and Danilov. Let us note, by the way, that Sobolev often does not even consider it necessary to express his opinion and quotes entire pages from these authors.

Sobolev proceeded from the fact that A.V. Koltsov is not a people’s poet, but an exponent of the ideology of philistinism, and, consequently, his work is anti-people, alien to the people and their poetry. “We know that Koltsov’s poetic work,” stated P.M. Sobolev, “began with the imitation of modern talented prasol literary authorities and that the poet never had any interest in folklore.” And further: “Having taken almost nothing directly from peasant song folklore, Koltsov’s poetry itself gave him nothing or almost nothing.”

Only in our time the question of the attitude of A.V. Koltsov’s approach to the poetry of the people began to be reconsidered decisively. Without introducing new facts into science, R.V. Zaborova, already using well-known material, showed the absurdity of the accusations brought against Koltsov of indifference to the poetry of the people, and was correctly able to evaluate the poet’s collecting work and the large role that Belinsky played in it. In resolving the issue of A.V. Koltsov, Voronezh researcher V.A. also contributed a lot to folk art. Tonkov in a number of his latest works.

However, the original recordings of Koltsov’s songs remained lost. “It is known that many of Koltsov’s papers,” wrote N.A. Yanchuk - ended up on the flea market after his death. It is very possible that there were also notebooks with recordings of songs, and now, obviously, all hope has been lost that they could be preserved somewhere in private hands.”

In the thirties of the XIX century. a group of folk poetry lovers began intensively collecting it. This group was headed by enthusiastic collector P.V. Kireevsky, who devoted almost his entire life to his favorite work.

To recording songs by P.V. Kireevsky attracted many educated people of that time, primarily 9 members of his family and the Yazykov family, P.M. Bestuzhev, E.M. Khomyakov, D.A. Valueva, N.P. Kireyevskaya and others. Soon the whole cultural Russia was talking about the collection of Kireevsky’s songs. From all over the country, songs collected by various amateurs began to come to him. A.S. Pushkin and N.V. Gogol supported the noble cause started by P.V. Kireevsky.

In the hands of Kireevsky it turned out huge variety materials that now constitute our national wealth. He did a tremendous amount of work to prepare everything he collected for printing, but the remarkable collector managed to publish only a small collection of spiritual poems.

After the death of P.V. Kireyevsky's archive, not disassembled or even described, came to the disposal of the Society of Lovers of Russian Literature. Here they disposed of it as they wished, and much of it disappeared without a trace.

In the 60s XIX century The Society of Lovers of Russian Literature undertook the publication of Kireyevsky's materials, entrusting this task to a member of the society, Prof. P.A. Bessonov. Bessonov, who was only interested in epic poetry, selected epics and historical songs from the archive, publishing them in ten volumes (issues). Lyrical songs were published only in 1911-1929. Since the materials were published different people For almost a century, the nature of publications was extremely varied and of varying quality. Many published works are not certified; it is not indicated by whom, when or from whom they were written, which is extremely important for science.

Three or four years ago, the writer of these lines set himself the goal of understanding this complex and enormous material. A large card index of all collectors and their records was compiled. There were many gaps and dark places in this file cabinet.

One such place particularly interested me. P.V. Kireyevsky, publishing his “Russian Folk Songs” (spiritual poems discussed above) in 1848, expressed gratitude in the “Preface” to those people who provided him with song materials. Among these persons he named A.N. Koltsov, who sent him songs from the Voronezh province.

There was no doubt that A.N. Koltsov is A.V. Koltsov. In general, it should be noted that there are many typos in the book. But here’s what was surprising: Koltsov’s name was mentioned, but not a single one of his songs at that time (so it seemed at first) made it into printed publications. What's the matter? I had to study everything that science knows about Koltsov as a collector of songs. The results were disappointing: all researchers unanimously declared that the poet’s notes had disappeared without a trace.

But there was still a trace. In 1846, P.V. Kireyevsky stated that Koltsov’s records are in his archive. After the death of P.V. Kireevsky is one of the active collectors of folklore P.I. Yakushkin and relative P.V. Kireevsky V.A. Elagin compiled a quick, rough inventory of the archive. In this inventory, it was again confirmed that Koltsov’s records are kept in the Kireyevsky archive.

In 1868 P.A. Bessonov, publishing the seventh issue of “Songs collected by P.V. Kireyevsky,” again, albeit mutely, confirms that Koltsov’s songs are in Kireyevsky’s collection. Commenting on the song “You rise, rise, red sun,” Bessonov stated: “The same song is included in the Novikovsky songbook, part III, and the late A.V. Koltsov recorded it in Voronezh and gave it to Belinsky for publication. But in both of these examples, after the same, and perfectly developed, beginning, the mistress is depicted, sometimes in grief over her relatives, sometimes as a murderer of them, especially her brother.”

It remains to be assumed that Bessonov had in his hands Koltsov’s notebook sent to Belinsky. After all, science did not know what songs the poet sent to Belinsky, but Bessonov not only names the song, but also retells its content. From this it could be concluded that Belinsky handed over Koltsov’s notebook to Kireyevsky for printing. However, no one paid attention to this fact, and Koltsov’s notes continued to be looked for anywhere, but not where they needed to be looked for.

No attention was paid to the fact that the song “As the prince had, prince, prince at Volkonsky,” recorded by Koltsov, was published by Bessonov in the fifth issue of Kireevsky’s “Songs” (pp. 128-130).

True, Bessonov, contrary to his usual rule, did not even say when and by whom this song was recorded, but after the publication of its text A.I. Lyashchenko in the complete works of A.V. There was no doubt that it belonged to Koltsov.

Although Bessonov was involved in publishing only epic poetry from Kireyevsky’s collection, it cannot be said that he did not understand the meaning of Koltsov’s songs. It can be assumed that he was preparing the Koltsovo materials for publication as a separate publication. This is evidenced by the fact that eighteen of Koltsov’s songs were copied, apparently on his instructions, into a separate notebook (the copyist’s name could not be established). It is not clear why this publication was not carried out.

It seems even more incomprehensible that Academician M.N. Speransky, having undertaken the publication of all non-epic materials from Kireyevsky’s collection, did not publish Koltsov’s songs as a separate book and did not even include them in the “New Series” of Kireyevsky’s songs. After all, M.N. Speransky stated: “Now it has turned out to be possible to complete the publication and give science all the material known to us, collected by P.V. Kireyevsky and his diligent employees." Obviously, this happened because Koltsov's manuscript was supposed to be lost. But it's incredible. The archive at this time was already strictly registered:

It was allowed to use it only with a special document;

True, publishers (P.A. Bessonov, M.N. Speransky) took materials home, but each time they left their receipts for the manuscripts taken (several such receipts have been preserved in the archives).

Fate was merciless to Koltsov during his lifetime. She seemed to follow him into the grave. Who could have stolen the poet's notes and why? Working in the archive, the author of these lines was more than once convinced that M.N.’s statement. Speransky’s “about the complete publication of all Kireyevsky’s materials” is not true: we managed to find many valuable unpublished materials (some of them are already in print).

The difficulty of searching for Koltsov’s songs was that many of the songs in the archive were completely rewritten, and no rough recordings were preserved. For example, A.S.’s handwritten notes have not been preserved. Pushkin. In white records, the name of the collector was often not indicated. But there was a landmark: two songs by Koltsov, found in copies of Belinsky, were published by A.I. Lyashchenko in the complete works of the poet. They were the ones who had to be looked for. To do this, it was necessary to verify every piece of paper, and there are tens of thousands of them in the archive!

Things went slowly. But in one of the folders there was a small notebook with a neat inscription: “Folk songs.” Songs follow one after another, some of them are amazing in their content - such songs have not yet been published. But who wrote them down? I carefully read every letter, did not miss a single note, not a single comment. I return once again to the title page. For some reason it seems thicker than the other sheets of the notebook. This is true! The title page was stuck together with another. I separate them. On the second title page there is a clear inscription:

Folk songs collected by Alexey Koltsov. Voronezh. 1837.

The notebook opens with a song about Vanka the Key Holder (“As it was with the prince, with Prince Volkonsky”).

In the same folder I find a notebook with the inscription “Folk songs. III". Everyday, painstaking, but exciting work began.

Most of the work went into finding the second notebook: it was torn into separate sheets, which were located in different folders.

What we found exceeded all expectations! If in science we were talking about only one notebook by Koltsov, which he sent to Belinsky, now five of them have been discovered. Three notebooks are entitled “Folk Songs” and, accordingly, each is numbered in Roman numerals: I, II and III. Koltsov's name is indicated only on the second title page of the first notebook. His name no longer appears on any of the other notebooks.

The paper of the first three notebooks is the same: bluish-gray, faded, without watermarks. Ink - brown. The size of the notebooks is 1/4 sheet - the format of a modern school notebook.

Judging by the handwriting, these are white notebooks: crossed out and replaced lines and song lyrics are rare. The handwriting is neat and even. All sheets of five notebooks have been preserved in full, with the exception of one sheet from the second notebook. In all five notebooks, Koltsov marked 60 songs, 10 with repeated recordings (Belinsky’s notebook).

It is possible that not everything collected by the poet has yet been found, but what has been found allows us to speak of Koltsov as the largest collector of folklore of his time. It is especially important to emphasize that Koltsov’s principles of collecting and selecting material were different from those of many of his contemporaries, in particular the Slavophiles.

When starting their collecting work, the Slavophiles set themselves tasks determined by their philosophical views. Just as in politics they turned their gaze to pre-Petrine Rus', so in folk poetry they tried to find evidence of the “serene”, happy and joyful life of the Russian people in the past. Antiquity, the past were the subject of their main interest.

No wonder P.V. Kireevsky in the “Preface” to his collection of “Russian folk songs” stated: “For all seasons, for all main holidays, for all main events family life there are special songs that bear the stamp of deep antiquity, and especially where urban influence is less sensitive, the Russian peasant - a faithful branch of his ancestors, who did not deviate from them even in the smallest details of his home life - still sings these ancient songs , because they completely merge with his feelings and with his customs, just as they expressed the feelings and customs of their ancestor. He treasures his songs: one can say that they constitute the favorite and best joy of his simple life.”

Thus, from the point of view of P.V. Kireyevsky, the people live by antiquity, cherish it as a testament of their ancestors. The Slavophiles did not want to notice the modern life of the people, their aspirations, just as they did not want to notice the contemporary poetry of the people.

A.V. Koltsov was in a fundamentally different position. Living in the midst of the people himself, knowing their aspirations, Koltsov assessed folk poetry differently. For him, folk songs are a reflection of folk life. He did not idealize the people, he saw them dark sides and was indignant at them. “I listened to a lot of them (songs - P.U.), but all of them, you know, are such rubbish that your ears wither: they are chock-full of obscenity. It’s a shame to say how our ordinary Russian people scold.” But the poet sought to show the people as they really were; he did not consider it shameful for himself to collect works of folklore from which others turned away. Koltsov even included two songs in his collection that are “chock full of obscenity.”

Koltsov was the first to notice the birth of songs of a new social class - the workers. For him, workers, like peasants, are also “common people”, whose interests he lived by.

In the note to the song “Like a Glorious Factory Man,” the poet writes: “In Moscow they sing at the factory for seven weeks.”

This indicates that he did not write down everything that happened to come to hand, but selected material, perhaps even specifically looking for it, trying to give a complete picture of the life of the people contemporary to him.

The Koltsov recording of a workers' song is perhaps the only recording of the folklore of workers of the first known to science. thirds of the XIX V.

Slavophile collectors disdained the poetry of the workers and ignored it.

The same P.V. Kireevsky wrote: “It is impossible not to recognize the gloomy truth of which many years of studying this subject (collecting folk songs. - P.U.) convinced me of all their (songs. - P.U.) beauty, everything that constitutes the essential dignity of their character , is already old, and this antiquity is no longer revived in new, similar industries, as was the case for so many centuries. It is not surprising if those who heard Russian songs only in cities or big roads, value them little. This new generation of songs, which is beginning to displace the old ones, is truly unworthy of being treasured... A truly beautiful Russian song must be sought in the wilderness, far from cities and from the centers of industrial activity.”

The poetry of the workers irritated the Slavophiles, obviously not so much with its form as with its content. Already the first songs of the workers testified to a feeling of hatred of exploitation and expressed protest against inhumanity.

Get lost, Matyushin,

With the plant with its own,

With rotten goods...

These words of the song, recorded by Koltsov, were included in many works of workers' folklore.

It is also interesting to note that Koltsov recorded several anti-priest songs.

If anti-priest tales are the first half of the 19th century c., are known to science quite widely, we know anti-priest songs only in a few recordings. The censorship did everything to prevent them from being published. Let us remember, even in “The Tale of the Priest and His Worker Balda” by A.S. When Pushkin was published, Pop was replaced by the Merchant-Ostolop. Only harmless, comic anti-priest songs made it into print.

The song “Pop you are a party, pop a brawler,” recorded by Koltsov, is an evil satire on the clergy. The fact that such works had wide use in Russia, according to V.G. Belinsky in his famous “Letter to Gogol”: “Is it really you, the author of “The Inspector General” and “ Dead souls"- wrote Belinsky, - did you really sincerely, from the heart, sing a hymn to the vile Russian clergy? Do you really not know that our clergy is held in universal contempt by Russian society and the Russian people?”

Recordings of traditional peasant songs are especially widely represented in Koltsov’s collection. Many aspects of peasant life are reflected in these songs: the desire for freedom (“You sing, you sing, soul of nightingales”), a woman’s protest against a humiliating position in the family (“Dance, girls”), condemnation social inequality(in many songs), protest against unequal marriages (“The dawn did not dawn”, etc.), etc.

Most of these songs are known in other versions, but Koltsov, a great artist of words, strictly selected the best of them. Let’s take for example the song “Chernetskoye Beer Was Moist.” In science, it is represented by many options, but all of them cannot be compared with Koltsov’s recording. Here is a version published in the Voronezh Provincial Gazette in 1852:

It’s like a miracle across the sea - the monk brewed beer.

It was blurry, it went into my head.

I can’t shake myself, I can’t toss myself up.

It was blurry, it got into my neck...

It was blurry, it got into my little hands...

It was blurry, it entered the little legs...

This recording is, in essence, just an intro to the song, and not the song itself.

The collector (his last name is unknown) must have written down the first text he came across. Koltsov’s text is much more expressive:

Chernetsk beer was soggy.

Chernechik, Chernechik, Chernechik.

You are mine, - the young grieving man.

The drunkenness entered the riotous head.

Chernechik - you are mine, - young griefer.

I cut birches and knitted panicles.

I cut birch trees, knitted panicles, knitted panicles.

I knitted the panicles, I loaded the cart.

I am a cart - a cart of burden.

I loaded the cart and harnessed Burenka.

Burenka - harnessed. Sent to Moscow

“On the broom,” he shouted, “on the broom,” he shouted.

It happened to be driving through the German Settlement.

You are my little chernechik, young goryun.

He saw a girl sitting under the window.

Sits under the window. Sits under the window

Plays with a flower. Plays with a flower.

Sneaked up lightly. He said quietly...

Quietly, he said. Quietly said:

I love you. Love love.

Koltsov’s collection amazes modern researchers not only with the originality of its content, but also with its recording technique, perfect for that time. At that time it was still customary to record and publish songs not as they were sung by the people, but processed and smoothed to the taste of the noble reader. True, some collectors sought to reproduce the lyrics of the songs as accurately as possible and understood that their processing was unacceptable. These collectors conscientiously recorded songs from dictation, often even with the dialectal features of the singer’s speech. So, for example, in the 30s. XIX century recorded songs by P.I. Perevlessky. Here is an example of the beginning of a song he recorded:

Ay, Dunyushka Hamina

I walked along the shore,

To grieve, to cry,

According to Ragov’s efforts:

“I know I won’t be able to visit you.

Beer, don’t drink wine,

Don’t eat the sweet cotton wool”...

It is obvious that Perevlessky (at that time he was a student at Moscow University) sought to convey the features of the song as accurately as possible. At first glance, he achieved his goal. In fact, this is not so. folklore poet collection

Perhaps Perevlessky's recording will provide a useful service to dialectologists, but it cannot satisfy the researcher of the poetry of the people. The whole point is that Perevlessky, recording the song under the dictation of the singer, did not realize that this was not a story, not a poem, but a song. The song is not spoken, but sung; only during singing are all its manifestations revealed. poetic features. You need to record songs not from dictation, but during their performance and singing. Science has approached this simple and obvious conclusion rather slowly. For Koltsov, it was completely clear. Here, for example, is the song above, but already recorded by the poet:

Ay Dunyushka Fomina - Fomina,

I walked and walked along the bank.

She waved her right hand - she waved,

She sighed with her heart and sighed.

“Oh light, my side is the side.

German settlement - settlement,

I know I won’t be there - I won’t be there,

Don't drink wine or beer - don't drink beer.

Don't eat Kalachikov - don't eat...

As we can see, in Koltsov’s recording this same song acquired the character of a musical, rhythmically clearly structured work.

Let us note that Koltsov did not accidentally, but quite consciously began to record songs during performance. This is evidenced, in particular, by the following fact. The song “You stand, my grove” was recorded by him twice - under dictation and during performance - singing. He gives both of these recordings, placing them side by side and thereby showing how much depends on the method of recording the song.

Let's compare both records. Dictation recording:

Stop, my grove,

Stop, don't bloom,

Stop, dear round dancer,

Stop, don't leave...

Recording while performing:

Oh-oh, stop, my grove, oh,

You stop, my grove, stop, don’t bloom,

Stop, don’t bloom, oh stop, dear round dancer,

Oh wait, dear round dancer, wait, don’t leave,

Stop, don't leave...

He wrote to Kraevsky about the fundamental difference between these records: “It should be noted: so. As I wrote it down, it has exact words, word for word; but they sing it differently in a round dance. All their verses are repeated several times and mostly mixed up, and in other verses there is an addition of vowels, particles to the verses, for example, o, oh, oh, aoi, ay-oh. I have it and it’s written off like that, and it’s very true. Whatever you want, I'll send it to you. This song is amazing how good it is for the voice, it’s a pity that I don’t know how to put the voice on.”

Since Koltsov viewed songs as an expression of folk life, he was interested not only in their content, but also in the conditions of existence and performance of songs.

Often, if the content of an entry is not clear enough, Koltsov accompanies it with notes. So, for example, the song “The dawn did not dawn” tells how “a worthless husband rose from the dead” and began to kiss his wife. The content of this song seems absurdly fantastic. From Koltsov’s notes everything becomes clear: “In a round dance, a young guy lies down on the ground. In their heads, instead of father and mother, there is a guy and a girl. At the feet instead of a wife there is a girl. The round dance sings a song. The girl who replaces the wife cries at the end of the song. The dead man gets up and kisses her. The whole round dance is roaring on the spot.”

Koltsov always strived for accuracy and did not allow himself to make any corrections to the lyrics. This is evidenced by copies of those songs that were sent to Belinsky. The differences in them are completely insignificant. So, for example, in the song “You rise, you rise, red sun” in Belinsky’s notebook the seventeenth line looked like: “The tray is well decorated,” in notebook No. 1 it was changed: “the tray is well decorated.” In Belinsky’s notebook, the thirty-first line read: “She repented”; in notebook No. 1: “She repented,” etc. Apparently, Koltsov became increasingly convinced that phonetic recording of songs was necessary. The minor edits to the lyrics that Koltsov made went precisely in this direction.

Note next feature Koltsov's notes: they usually lack punctuation marks. This is not explained by the poet’s illiteracy. Indeed, in the notebook sent to Belinsky, Koltsov placed signs everywhere in accordance with syntactic rules that time. The absence of signs in other notebooks is obviously explained by the fact that the poet was faced with difficulties that were insoluble for him. He understood that the usual placement of punctuation marks violates intonation structure songs. Not knowing how best to arrange the signs, he entrusted this matter to publishers. Note that this problem has not yet been solved. Typically, syntactic signs in songs are placed in accordance with grammatical standards. We did the same when preparing songs recorded by Koltsov for publication.

Usually Koltsov does not distinguish between the negative particles “not” and “neither” and writes “neither”, and he writes “neither” together with the verbs. In our publication, the particles “not” and “neither” are printed in accordance with grammatical norms.

Koltsov usually does not use capital letters where necessary.

In other cases, we retained Koltsov’s phonetic notation: tovo, walk, force, prolub, vozmi, slati (instead of stlati), shcho zh (instead of what zh), etc., etc. In a word, if Koltsov’s spelling has any -meaning for understanding the pronunciation of a word, then it is preserved everywhere. The songs recorded by Koltsov will be studied by specialists for a long time, but it is already clear how great their significance is. They enrich the song culture of our people, and give researchers previously unknown material. They will also help to study in more depth the creative origins of one of our most outstanding national poets.

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The life and work of the Russian Soviet poet, screenwriter, playwright, author and performer of his own songs Alexander Arkadyevich Galich. Childhood and adolescence, the beginning of creativity. The political urgency of Galich's songs, conflict with the authorities, deportation and death.

presentation, added 04/28/2011


The theme of the poet and poetry is one of the most important topics in the works of N.A. Nekrasova. It extends through several of his works, in particular “Poet and Citizen” and “Elegy”.

essay, added 12/16/2002


The formation of the creative path of Robert Burns and the themes of his works. Place love lyrics in the works of the Scottish poet. R. Burns's use of Scottish folklore, plots and techniques folk ballads when creating your own works.

presentation, added 11/13/2016


Review of the relationship between Russian poetry and folklore. Studying the works of A.S. Pushkin from the point of view of the embodiment of folklore traditions in his lyrics. Analysis of the connection between the poet’s poems and folk songs. Getting to know the lyrics of A.S. Pushkin in kindergarten.

course work, added 09/22/2013


The theme of the poet and poetry in the works of V. Mayakovsky. Features of such works of the Russian poet as "Order No. 2 for the Army of Arts", " An Extraordinary Adventure, which was with Vladimir Mayakovsky in the summer at the dacha", a suicide letter to "Everyone", the poem "At the top of my voice".

presentation, added 04/17/2011


Description of the main facts from the life of Sergei Aleksandrovich Yesenin. Their reflection in creativity and manifestation in the leading motives of his works. Recognition of the poet's first poem. Yesenin's attitude to the revolution. The originality of his poetry. The poet's lifestyle.

Koltsov’s poetry is especially obvious to readers. A small amount of creativity, the clarity of folklore orientation, the attention of Zhukovsky, Pushkin, Vyazemsky, Odoevsky, Belinsky, Botkin, the tragedy of the everyday fate of the “prasol poet” - all this is visible, concrete. Meanwhile, precisely because of all this evidence, as happens in the history of literature, questions remain in connection with some literary phenomenon, which in turn, as if by themselves, do not need clarification. Although in reality they need it.

“Lyrical feeling” permeates the poet’s entire work: his thoughts about the fate of the Motherland, exciting stories about four-legged friends, beautiful depictions of forests and steppes. Pictures of Russian nature are warmed with warmth and light. Koltsov was a brilliant master landscape lyrics, a truly inspired singer of his native land.

In Vasiliev’s poems, nature is all in eternal motion, in endless development and change. Like a person, she is born, grows and dies, sings and whispers, is sad and rejoices. In depicting nature, he uses the rich experience of folk poetry. He often resorts to personification.

The color palette creates not only a visible picture of nature, but also a mood. Contrasting colors convey a mood of anxiety and trouble. The color image - red on white - foretells troubles.

Koltsov has still lifes, the soul of nature lives in them. Many colored images of Koltsovo poetry pass through all creativity, becoming vivid symbols, allegories, and catchphrases.

Its blue color has a mystical connotation. From afar, from space, our planet is blue-blue - its main color content. It can be assumed, that Blue colour Koltsov’s combination of the “unspeakable” and the tender conveys a sacred meaning. The country he loves is the promised land for him, no matter how deeply it sinks into oblivion and no matter what monsters walk on its surface.

Epithets, comparisons, metaphors in the lyrics of A. Koltsov and P. Vasiliev do not exist on their own, not for the sake of the beauty of the form, but in order to more fully and deeply express the poet’s feelings. Reality, concreteness, and tangibility are characteristic of the figurative structure. The desire to materialize the image is one of important points originality of the realistic style.

For Koltsov, nature is the eternal beauty and eternal harmony of the world. Gently and caringly, without any external pressure, nature heals human souls, relieving the stress of inevitable earthly overloads. Living, vibrant pictures of nature in the poet’s poems not only teach us to love and preserve the world of earthly beauty.

They, like nature itself, contribute to the formation of our worldview, the moral foundations of our character, our conscience and, moreover, our humanistic worldview.

In the poetry of P. Vasiliev, the human world and the natural world are one and indivisible. Hence the wisdom of insight, the moral height of the poet’s philosophical lyrics. The poet is well aware of the immutable truth that the removal of a person from nature, and even more so a conflict with it, brings irreparable moral damage to society. The range of thoughts and feelings contained in those poems of the poet where nature is perhaps the main, main character is enormous. Understanding of nature is closely connected with folk mythology.

Depending on nature, man tried to subjugate it mentally, poetically, becoming spiritually related to it, bringing it closer to himself. All folk metaphors are based on man’s desire to “tame”, “domesticate” the phenomena of natural elements, to subordinate them by assimilating them to simple, everyday, tangible, close things. The transmission of the universal, the common through the everyday and simple, became the constructive beginning of A. Koltsov’s figurative poetics. Cloud, snow, blizzard, blizzard, sun, moon, moon, glow, sky, stars and entire constellations - everything is known through objects that you can touch with your hand.

There is another important pattern in the orientation of A. Koltsov and P. Vasiliev towards folk mythology. Initial ideas about the environment often served only as starting points that helped them build their poetic world. The landscape was often created according to the laws of folk poetics, but the “psychologization” of the landscape, that is, the expression of spiritual feelings caused by contact with nature, took place according to the laws of one’s own creativity.

“Psychological parallelisms” common in folk poetry play a smaller role in Koltsov’s work than the methods of lyrical interpretation of the image that he himself found. And not always symbolic meanings trees, birds and flowers, adopted in folk poetry, are assimilated in his poems: very often he gives objects of nature their own meaning and their own individual lyrical coloring. This lyric enchants us with its colors and excites us with its music.

Koltsov’s depiction of man in communication with nature is complemented by his love for all living things. In this view there were echoes of the ancient idea of ​​​​man and nature, which remained in the consciousness of the peasantry for a long time.

One of these questions in connection with Koltsov remains the question of his specific artistic tradition in poetry, about the real context of this tradition. Not a single work on folklore principles in Russian poetry is complete without the name of A.V. Koltsova.

The significance of A. Koltsov’s works is determined by the position of the lyrical “I”, with all the surrounding elements of existence. On the other hand, the natural essence is not a background, not a minor element of the overall composition. They are the spiritual refuge of the poet.

The characteristic motifs of Koltsov’s work are based on the oral and poetic folk tradition. The folkloric beginning is clearly visible already in the first verses. Some of them are entirely based on traditional song material. On the other hand, the poet’s originality is evident: new meaningful details appeared in the text, and the poetic lines took on strict rhythmic outlines.

Subsequently, Koltsov created works that were completely different in genre from their original sources - folk songs. This was caused by his desire to independently comprehend folk poetic material. Ultimately, it was this tendency that determined the originality and diversity of the lyrical intonations of the poets.

Pushkin also drew the attention of Russian writers to folk art so that they could better see the “properties of the Russian language.” Koltsov was endowed with a rare talent to see and feel these properties.

Perceiving and creatively comprehending the historically established features of Russian speech, Koltsov at the same time widely used modern colloquial, rightly believing that he can help to a much greater extent in establishing that internal contact with the reader that the poet persistently sought. Koltsov was very attracted to contemporary vocabulary. She imperiously penetrated his poems Koltsov A.V. and Russian literature. - M.: Nauka, 1988. .

His poetry is typical "open style" poetry. The first sign of Koltsov’s poetry is what is usually denoted by the words: “like a bird sings.” There is a feeling of spontaneity, as if bordering on formlessness, and even turning into it:

I'm not going to death,

Don't bury me.

For only six months

We must part;

There is a village beyond the Volga

On the steep bank:

My father lives there

There's my birth mother

He invites his son to visit;

I'll go to my father

I bow to my dear...

The main thing here is direct feeling. In general, the power of feeling seems to reign supreme in Koltsov’s poems, determining everything; in this sense, his poetry is the standard of what for L. Tolstoy as a theorist was the universal criterion of creativity (“expression of feelings”). This feeling is completely integral, it seems to lead both thoughts and images, be it a memory of love for a sweetheart, the apotheosis of peasant labor, or a picture of a tragic forest, symbolizing the death of Pushkin. It should be noted, however, that “undivided emotionality”, “unreasoning element”

Koltsov are generally not absolute. Moreover, they are conditional in their own way. This is the sphere, the aura, in which Koltsov’s everything else is immersed, because Koltsov, in essence, in many of his images is a poet of thought, but a special “thought of the heart,” but so collective and broad that it seems to be absent as a thought. And it is present as a whole world, as global discoveries, driven by the power of feeling:

Red flame

Dawn broke out;

Across the face of the earth

The fog is creeping...

On the threshing floors everywhere,

Like princes, stacks

Sit wide

Raising our heads...

("Harvest", 1835)

Koltsov’s favorite images are forest and steppe. In them, central Russia appears in its broad, global, and highly specific guise... The steppe dominates; but at a crucial moment the image of a forest appears - powerful, full of direct mystery (the poems “The Daredevil”, “The Farm”, “The Forester’s House”, “Russian Song”, and, finally, “The Forest” as such, dedicated to Pushkin). Most often, the forest and the steppe act as beacon images in interaction, and within the same work:

Don't sing, nightingale,

Below my window;

Fly away to the forests

My homeland!..

("Song", 1832)

Similarly in the poems “The Daring Man” (1833), “The Young Reaper” (1836), “The Second Song of Likhach Kudryavich” (1837), “Separation” (1840), “Russian Song”, etc. And in all this lies a powerful thought, drawn by feeling. To illustrate this thesis more clearly, we can recall Koltsov’s poems, in which philosophical and poetic thought is “warmed” by an emotional impulse; There are quite a few such poems:

In the soul of a person

Thoughts arise

Like in a foggy distance

Heavenly stars...

("The Poet", 1840)

So this image receives vital truthfulness, artistic persuasiveness, completeness, brightness and liveliness in Koltsov’s poetry.

Some epithets and definitions take a postposition in relation to the word “steppe” and are thereby updated, which significantly enhances their expressiveness. And as a result, the image becomes deeper, more artistically authentic, and speech acquires smoothness and songlike melodiousness. This is also facilitated by the fact that none of the epithets are repeated with the same meaning, despite the fact that repetitions as an artistic device are generally characteristic of A. Koltsov’s poetic style.

In Koltsov’s poems about the steppe, sentences of complex and complicated structural-semantic types predominate and almost never occur simple sentences, which is so different from the folk traditions of “village” image-making, which give preference to simple designs.

Once a successful screensaver has been found, the poet strives to use it as fully as possible; the underlying similarity of some aspects of objects or phenomena is transferred to one another, giving rise to more and more new associations, understandable only when the screensaver itself is retained in memory.

Screensaver for Koltsov - only necessary condition for image-making, its first step leading to deep poetic knowledge of the surrounding world. Therefore, there are much fewer screensavers in the poet’s poetry than new poetic images created on their basis. And this is one of the features of the poet’s relationship with oral folk art. He often takes ready-made images from folklore and creates original images from them.

Russia was not only Koltsov’s strongest, perhaps the only strong love, Russia was the cementing mortar on which he “kneaded” his aesthetics. There was nothing outside Russia: no poetry, no life, no love, no glory. Everything is in her, without her there is nothing. You can give up all ordinary human attachments, give up everything. Not from her - then chaos will begin. In a word, Koltsov never imagined himself outside of Russia, but at first the feeling of his homeland was almost unconscious, childlike and serene, happy with his innate involvement in its roots and origins - in its nature. It was almost animalistic in its ineffability.

The openness of style, pressure, scope, primacy of feeling, etc., which we find in Koltsov, are cardinal. Even his key words bear traces of this: violence, daring, etc.

Heavier than the mountains

Darker than midnight

lay on my heart

Black Duma!

A. Koltsov’s images are open, emotional and picturesque, aimed at the secret music of the world as its high, integral harmony. On the other hand, they can be scrupulously material and empirical:

And under the bench there is a chest

Lying overturned;

And, bent over, the hut,

How the old lady stands...

But this is rather an exception, confirming general trends. In the Russian tradition, which is directly oriented towards folklore and classics, there are, as is known, two spiritual and stylistic lines - strictly realistic and romantic. A. Koltsov is largely associated with the latter. Pushkin, Belinsky, Zhukovsky, Vyazemsky, Vl. drew attention to his involvement in romanticism. Odoevsky.

The name of Koltsov is to a certain extent associated with a surge of neo-romantic sentiments in Russian poetry Koltsov A.V. Nikitin I.S. Poetry. - Voronezh: Central Black Earth Book Publishing House, 1989..

Free-romantic music, melody, the smoothness of the world, its diversity, colorfulness, general picturesqueness, acceptance and love for all living things, and the feeling of the black abyss as fate and tragedy, overcome by the world's light, the sun, complete freedom and looseness of expression while secretly observing the harmonic form , never turning into shackles, the triumph of a “violent” feeling and a bright mind, which have acquired original, primordial unity, contrast and brightness, leisurely and sharpness, cosmism and filigree concreteness - all these features of the utmost creative freedom characteristic of high romanticism, features that are both typological and piercingly individual, strict and relaxed are characteristic of Koltsov to the highest degree.

On my face

Paternal blood

Lit in milk

Red dawn.

Black curls

They lie in brackets;

What I'm working on -

Everything is wrong for me...

To distant lands

Well done:

What's down the Don

Along the embankment

Good value

There are little souls there!

Razdolnaya steppe

Far around Koltsov A.V. Complete collection poems. - M.: Education, 1988. .

The figurative and verbal texture is all within one atmosphere: gold, black, red, blue, daring, well done, steppe, forest, sky, horse, mower and scythe, hops, joy, black cloud, melancholy-trouble-sorrow... Intonations are appropriate. As an example, we can trace the unity of various motifs at different levels of image depth.

Koltsov's poetry is characterized by an open feeling of the tragedy of the world with all its bright triumph and joy - a feeling characteristic of high romantic creativity. It is associated with a feeling of fate and other unknown objective forces; it also comes from the history of the native places of all this middle, southern Russia with its thousand-year tragedy. Grandiose images are born only from tragedy. Another thing is that the tragedy itself is not enough for him; that the high light of the worldview enters into a struggle with the black, gray abyss. But without it there is no truth. The historical North became, with its quiet Puritan life, the holder of foundations, the custodian of culture itself; the tragic South is a scale, a “shattering”, an “abyss”, an all-glowing share and defeat. And on everything - the light and greatness of the destinies of the world.

The verse of Koltsov’s “daring”, “dispersed” images is in the feeling of simultaneous joy and “tear” of the world, in the awareness of the power and strength of spiritual, historical, cosmic confrontations, reflected one in the other continuously:

I'll get rid of trouble -

I will meet with grief...

(A. Koltsov.)

The piercing color relief and picturesqueness of southern romantic poetry attracts attention. The unrestrained southern elements, supported by the harsh sun and the “blue wind”, heat, colors, the brightness of nature itself, do not allow the poet either asceticism or simple restraint:

On my face

Paternal blood

Lit in milk

Red dawn...

(A. Koltsov.)

Music, booming rhythm, and melody dominate his poems. A. Koltsov is one of those who keep a secret: at the same time extremely sharp and extremely smooth, musical and melodious.

Rhythmic experiments of great poets - M.Yu. Lermontov, Tyutcheva, A.A. Feta’s courage cannot be compared with what Koltsov created and what is called “Koltsov’s verse” for the impossibility of introducing it into the generally accepted professional canonical system. As you know, this verse can be interpreted as “anapaest + iambic”, and with artificial chant - as a trochee. But these specific signs do not give an idea of ​​the extreme intonation freedom, scope, and prowess that this powerful verse gives:

Get itchy, shoulder!

Swing your hand!

Smell it in your face

Wind from midday...

At the same time, we know that Koltsov was fluent in the canonical iambic (many poems, especially early ones), as well as simple anapest (“Eyes”, 1835), trochee (“Separation”, 1840), etc.; but, of course, his true triumph is his famous logaedic dolnik, which paved the way for many other poets. Masterly melodic moves, a sign of musical and rhythmic freedom, are present in Koltsov’s poems in addition to his very ingenious folklore-personal scheme. For example,

Don't be born rich

And be born curly:

By magic

Everything is ready for you Koltsov A.V. Complete collection of poems. - M.: Education, 1988. .

The universal in his poems and songs was certainly refracted through the specifically peasant. Peasant artists established peculiar relationships with great literature. They no longer called themselves self-taught; on the contrary, their poetic thought and the architectonics of verse were at the level of the highest achievements of Russian poetry.

P. Vasiliev - these are poems that come from life, from knowledge of peasant life. The main place in them is occupied by a realistic image village life. The significance of the lyrics lies in the fact that in them the feeling of love for the homeland is always expressed, not abstractly and rhetorically, but specifically in visible landscape images.

What does the soul want -

From the earth will be born;

Profit on all sides

Crawling and falling...

Enjoying nature, getting used to it, the poet rises to philosophical thoughts about the meaning of life, about the laws of existence. In this area of ​​creativity, Koltsov is as original as in others: his abstract concepts always receive material expression, his images do not lose their plasticity, and the author’s voice clearly sounds in his poems.

The poet’s philosophical reflections on life and death, on human destiny, about the transitory and eternal in earthly existence.

A. Koltsov came to literature as a deeply lyrical poet, whose entire work was dedicated to one main topic- the theme of the Motherland. The feeling of a blood connection with nature, characteristic of oral folk art, generated by the peasant’s daily communication with it, his dependence on it, permeates all the poet’s lyrics. This is why it worries us so much today.

The idea that man is a part of nature, that he is vitally connected with it, is expressed in Koltsov’s poems through the entire figurative system, through the poetics itself. Nature in his poems, as in folk art, feels like a human being, and a person feels like a tree, grass, river, meadow.

In the paintings of his native places, created by Vasiliev in the last years of his life, the sad winter landscape almost completely dominates. In his work, the poet seems to be in two times. His hero often identifies his state, his feelings with some vision of a cold winter landscape. Pictures of winter cold and desolation could not be more suitable for framing his thoughts. They are connected by a single tonality, achieved by metrical slowness and the similarity of vocabulary and sound recording. It is also important to trace the changes occurring in the poet’s choice of colors.

In terms of perfection of form, unexpected beauty of comparisons, musicality, impeccability of taste, Koltsov’s lyrical poems, dedicated to his homeland, his father’s home, the native beauty of nature, telling about spiritual sadness, are in no way inferior to his earlier works. They differ, first of all, in colors, flavor, and sound of words. And at the same time, Koltsov’s lyrics recent years carries within it motives that are very far from reassuring.

Much more important in Koltsov’s lyrics is not the historical analogy that is present in his works, what is more significant is what the poet saw people's Russia standing on the edge of the deepest social and historical transformations, and felt a deep personal dependence on her. And I felt it so strongly that I never parted with this feeling.

The creations of Koltsov and Vasiliev were and are the deepest embodiments of the spiritual life of the Russian people and Russian people, and therefore, prototypes of their own spiritual life.

Koltsov's poetry is a source of deep reflection on many social and philosophical problems: village and city, life and death, state and people, people and individuals.

The first publications of Koltsov’s poems revealed to the reader the charm and magic of Central Russian nature, the hidden world of the lyrical hero, in whom the Motherland took the place of his beloved. In Russian poetry, so rich in masterpieces of landscape lyricism, a new singer has appeared, sonorous and clear voice which resounded far over the sadness of the fields.

The poetry of A. Koltsov and P. Vasiliev has much in common with each other, but the theme of nature runs through the entire work of both one and the other poet.

For literature of the 19th century. characterized by a wide appeal to oral folk art. A. S. Pushkin became the first poet of the 19th century who widely showed all the richness and beauty of Russian folk culture. Songs and sayings, legends and riddles - the entire heritage of the Russian people was included by the poet in his works. From this poem and story they did not lose their sublimity and sophistication; on the contrary, they gained a lot from such influence.

Pushkin creates a story " Captain's daughter”, in which he uses folk songs and proverbs (“Take care of your honor from a young age”) as epigraphs for chapters, emphasizing with them ideological meaning works. He creates his wonderful fairy tales, which reveal a deep understanding of the social essence of folklore, in particular the satire of folk tales. Pushkin translated prose stories into poetry and created a lot of original things in this area, for example, a unique verse of the fairy tale about the priest and the worker Balda.

Lermontov wrote a poem about the merchant Kalashnikov, using a song about Kostryuk. Gogol achieves great success in creating a heroic, patriotic story using Ukrainian folklore (“Taras Bulba”). Songs were a new phenomenon A. V. Koltsova, who superbly synthesized the features of the form and style of folk song and the achievements of book poetry. The work of A. V. Koltsov continued the traditions of A. F. Merzlyakov, A. A. Delvig, N. G. Tsyganov and other poets who created early XIX V. folk songs. But he more organically assimilated folk poetics, and most importantly, the very spirit of folk poetry, as evidenced by such vivid images as the hero of the poem “Mower”.
Folklore is used in a deeply realistic way in creativity N. A. Nekrasova. The poet knew folk songs, fairy tales and legends from childhood. As a revolutionary democrat, he subordinated the use of folklore in his works to the idea of ​​a peasant revolution. The image of Savely, the Holy Russian hero, like other characters in the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus',” show the poet’s excellent knowledge of folk life and creativity. Folklore helped the poet to truthfully show the plight of the masses, their spiritual world, their high moral qualities. In his poem, Nekrasov created the image of a person who loves the people and their creativity, Pavlushi Veretennikov, in whom the features of the famous folklorist P. I. Yakushkin are recognizable:

He sang Russian songs smoothly / And loved to listen to them...

Nekrasov also owns such a beautiful song as “Troika” (“Why are you greedily looking at the road”), and legends (about Kudeyar). Using folk motifs, the poet creates images of Russian women - Matryona Timofeevna and Daria. He widely refers to various folk genres; songs, proverbs, riddles.

Vivid example of use folklore works gives creativity A. N. Ostrovsky. Setting himself the task of creating a national repertoire of Russian theater, Ostrovsky considered it necessary to write in the people's language. His plays often have proverbs as their titles: “We will be our own people,” “Truth is good, but happiness is better”; “Simplicity is enough for every wise man.” In a number of plays, for example “Poverty is not a vice,” he showed folk customs and rituals. The images and speech of many of his heroes and heroines are imbued with song intonations (Katerina in the play “The Thunderstorm”). In the wonderful fairy-tale play "The Snow Maiden" Ostrovsky used the familiar folk story and created the poetic image of the Snow Maiden.
The best achievements of the creativity of realist writers formed the basis of the progressive traditions of Russian literature. Writers of subsequent generations were formed under their influence. Song traditions were continued by poets, often not very talented and large, but close to folk art, which allowed them to create works loved by the people. This is I. Z. Surikov, the author of the song “Rowan” (“Why are you standing, swinging ...”), D. N. Sadovnikov, a famous collector of folklore, author of the song “Because of the island to the core.”
Each subsequent stage in the history of Russian literature provided a lot of new information in understanding the values ​​of folk art. A new stage in the development of realism at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. brought originality to the relationship between literature and folklore.
Thus, prose writers often used the form of a folk tale, and its satirical character became increasingly stronger. The most striking example is provided by "Fairy Tales" M. E. Saltykova-Shchedrin. The tales of S. M. Stepnyak-Kravchinsky took on a propaganda character (“The Tale of the Penny”). The tales of V. M. Garshin, L. N. Tolstoy, and N. S. Leskov were more moralizing. All these works were not intended for children, like the fairy tales of writers of the first half of the 19th century. (S.T. Aksakov, V.F. Odoevsky, etc.), but were subordinated to the decisions of important social issues.
Writers also used the form of legend. N. S. Leskov wrote the legends " Non-lethal head" - about a person who owns an object with magical power. V. G. Korolenko in the story “In Deserted Places” processed the legend of invisible city Kitezh.
Many prose writers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. works of great ideological and artistic significance were created on the basis of folklore traditions, images and plots. You can name Leskov’s “Lefty” - an original work, full of caustic criticism of the tsarist arbitrariness and ruthless bureaucracy that ruined the talented Russian artisan. Using folk expressive means, Korolenko creates images of strong, brave people, such as Tyulin in the story “The River Is Playing.” Writers often depict the characters of people from the people using folk poetic means (Platov in “Lefty”, Platon Karataev and Tikhon Shcherbaty in “War and Peace”).
Writers who developed the essay form made widespread use of folklore. The essay began to be addressed in the sixties by V.A. Sleptsov, F.M. Reshetnikov, A.I. Levitov and others, but it reached its brilliance later in the work of G.I. Uspensky. Drawing pictures of folk life, these writers were forced to turn to folk art both as an element of folk life and as an arsenal of such artistic means that would help depict folk life.

At first XX century interest in “folk life, in Russian folk art, which characterized Russian culture at all stages of its development, has acquired special significance and relevance. The plots and images of Slavic mythology and folklore, folk popular print and theater, the song creativity of the people are being interpreted in a new way by artists, composers, poets of various social and creative orientations.

Yesenin was connected with Russian nature, with the village, with the people. He called himself "the poet of the golden log cabin." Therefore, it is natural that folk art influenced Yesenin’s work.

The very theme of Yesenin’s poems suggested this. Most often he wrote about rural nature, which always looked simple and uncomplicated to him. This happened because Yesenin found epithets, comparisons, metaphors in popular speech:

Behind the smooth surface the trembling sky

Leads the cloud out of the stall by the bridle.

Sparrows are playful,

Like lonely children.

Yesenin often used folklore expressions: “silk carpet”, “curly head”, “beautiful maiden”, etc. The plots of Yesenin’s poems are also similar to folk ones: unhappy love, fortune telling, religious rituals (“Easter Annunciation”, “Wake” ), historical events(“Martha the Posadnitsa”).

Just like the people, Yesenin is characterized by animating nature, attributing human feelings to it:

You are my fallen maple, icy maple,

Why are you standing, bent over, under a white snowstorm?

Or what did you see? Or what did you hear?

It’s as if you went out for a walk outside the village.

Many of Yesenin’s poems are similar to folklore in form. These are poem-songs: “Tanyusha was good”, “Play, play, little girl...”, etc. Such poems are characterized by repetition of the first and last lines. And the very structure of the line is taken from folklore:

It’s not like dawn in the streams of the lake they wove their pattern, Your scarf, decorated with sewing, flashed over the slope.

Sometimes a poem begins like a fairy tale:

On the edge of the village

Old hut

There in front of the icon

An old woman prays.

Yesenin often uses words with diminutive suffixes. He also uses old Russian words, fairy-tale names: howl, gamayun, svey, etc.

Yesenin's poetry is figurative. But his images are also simple: “Autumn is a red mare.” These images are again borrowed from folklore, for example, a lamb is the image of an innocent victim.

Yesenin’s color scheme is also interesting. He most often uses three colors: blue, gold and red. And these colors are also symbolic.

Blue - the desire for the sky, for the impossible, for the beautiful:

In the blue evening, in the moonlit evening

I was once handsome and young.

Gold is the original color from which everything appeared and in which everything disappears: “Ring, ring, golden Rus'.”

Red is the color of love, passion:

Oh, I believe, I believe, there is happiness!

The sun hasn't gone out yet.

Dawn with a red prayer book

Prophesies good news...

Thus, we can say that Yesenin used many features of folklore, which for the poet was a conscious artistic method.

Poetry Akhmatova represents an unusually complex and original fusion of traditions of Russian and world literature. Researchers saw in Akhmatova the successor of the Russian classical poetry(Pushkin, Baratynsky, Tyutchev, Nekrasov) and the recipient of the experience of older contemporaries (Blok, Annensky), put her lyrics in direct connection with the achievements of psychological prose of the 19th century (Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Leskov)7. But there was another, no less important for Akhmatova, source of her poetic inspiration - Russian folk art. Early creativity Akhmatova - first of all, the lyrics of love feelings, often unrequited. The semantic accents that appear in Akhmatova’s interpretation of the love theme turn out to be in many ways close to the traditional lyrical song, in the center of which is the failed fate of a woman.

For example, in Akhmatova’s poem “My husband whipped me patterned...”, the general lyrical situation of the poem is typologically correlated with a folk song: both the bitter fate of a woman given to an unloved man, and the folklore image of a “prisoner” wife waiting at the window your betrothed.

My husband whipped me with a patterned one,
Double folded belt.
For you in the casement window
I sit with the fire all night.

It's dawning. And above the forge
Smoke rises.
Ah, with me, the sad prisoner,
You couldn't stay again.

For you I share a gloomy fate,
I took a lot of pain...

Folklore tradition - especially song tradition - has greatly influenced poetic language and the imagery of Akhmatova’s lyrics. Folk poetic vocabulary and colloquial syntax, vernacular and folk sayings appear here as an organic element of the linguistic structure.

Grief strangles - it won’t strangle,
The free wind dries the tears,
And the fun will stroke you a little,
It will immediately deal with the poor heart.

From folklore, from popular beliefs and the image of flying cranes, carrying away the souls of the dead (“Garden”, “Ah! It’s you again...”, “So wounded crane...”). It often appears in Akhmatova’s works, carries an important semantic load and is associated either with the theme of passing love, or with the premonition of one’s own death:

So wounded crane
Others call: Kurly, Kurly!
And I, sick, hear the call,

The sound of golden wings...
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
"It's time to fly, it's time to fly
Over the field and the river.
Cause you can't sing anymore
And wipe the tears from your cheeks
With a weakened hand."

The nature of metaphorization in Akhmatova’s lyrics is associated with the poetic structure of folk songs.

Then like a snake, curled up in a ball,
He casts a spell right at the heart,
That's all day long like a dove
Coos on the white window.

I'll jump onto the alder tree like a gray squirrel.
I'll run like a timid weasel,
I will call you Swan,
So that the groom is not afraid
In the blue swirling snow
Wait for the dead bride26

Elements of ditty poetics are also characteristic of Akhmatova’s poetry:

I didn't cover the window
Look straight into the upper room.
That's why I'm having fun today,
That you can't leave.

In the 20-40s, Russian song lyrics continued to develop. Among songwriters in the 20s, the songs of A. A. Delvig were very popular. Poems and songs on folk themes A.V. Koltsov represent the most striking phenomenon in the general process of development of Russian poetry. Koltsov, as a poet, first of all went through the school of creative practice from the songwriters of the first generation. It is possible that even the very desire to write songs arose in him under their influence. In the poet's lyrical heritage there are works that have features of imitation. But the strength of his own talent and its life sources allowed Koltsov to find his own voice in his work and in many ways to be ahead of all the songwriters of his time. Unlike them, Koltsov in his work followed not only modern literary and song traditions, but also the style of folk songs that were well known to him and the living folk language. He strove in his work to depict the real life of the people, their work, everyday life and poetry, so it was much broader in topic and more realistic. Koltsov’s songs, which is especially important, were also characterized by a new internal mood, which was deeply different from the traditional sentimental “dejection” of modern Russian songs. They contained cheerful, optimistic calls for overcoming any adversity in life. Koltsov’s works, expressing folk social optimism, were very close to the folk songs themselves, in which even in the motifs of “sadness and melancholy” the hopelessness of life’s grief was never felt.

Koltsov’s songs were not only meaningful and lyrical. According to the poet himself, songs for him were, first of all, what was “sung.” Koltsov tried to sing his songs more than once. About one such case, he wrote to V. G. Belinsky: “The steppes again enchanted me; the devil knows to what oblivion I admired it. How good it seemed! And I sang with delight: “It’s time for love”... The original size of the verse created by Koltsov was very close to the rhythmic structure of folk songs.

The people in Koltsov’s songs were depicted in the fullness of their lives - not only in work and everyday life, but also in moments of concentrated reflection on their lives. Koltsov in his songs always emphasized the character of the hero, his vitality, faith in the future:

How long will I be

Let's live at home,

My youth

To ruin for nothing?

How long will I be

Sit under the window

On the road into the distance

Watch day and night?

("Falcon's Duma")

In songs about national poverty, homelessness, orphanhood(“The Orphan”, “The Thought of a Villager”, “In Bad Weather the Wind”, “The Sun Is Shining”, “The Poor Man’s Share”) the bitter lot of the poor man was depicted using images of misfortune, grief, and evil fate borrowed from folk poetry. But Koltsov’s depiction of the peasant’s “evil lot” was combined with the motives of courageously and stubbornly overcoming it. This is especially evident in Koltsov’s songs “Village Trouble” (the motives of the struggle between the poor and the rich), “The Thought of the Falcon” (the hero’s passionate impulse for a better life), “To go to destruction - sing songs like a nightingale” (valiant prowess that helps heroically overcome any grief) and in others.

Koltsov's thoughtful insight into folk life allowed him to see the main thing in it, to highlight the most significant. In this regard, the leading theme of his songwriting deserves special attention - labor theme. Koltsov saw the strong love of the peasants for the “mother raw earth” and purely peasant labor interests and hopes associated with agricultural labor. He reflected all this with great artistic force both in the poem “Mower” and in a kind of trilogy - “The Plowman’s Song”, “Harvest” and “Peasant Feast”, dedicated to peasant labor. In these works, Koltsov showed not only the poetry of peasant labor, but also that concentrated, majestic "ritualism" which was so characteristic of peasant life.

Along with these themes, Koltsov also occupied a large place in his work. songs on family, everyday and love themes. Artistically, Koltsov’s family, everyday and love songs were most closely related to folk songs. They were brought closer to them by traditional song images: “girl” and “well done,” “husband” and “wife”; repeated in a number of songs artistic techniques. In such songs Koltsov used folk song stylistic and compositional means: symbolism - “Ring”, “Dear little ring”, “Sadness of a girl”; lyrical appeals to the forces of nature - “Don’t sing, nightingale”, “Don’t make noise, rye”; lyrical monologue - “Oh, why did they hand me over by force”, “I won’t tell anyone”; metaphorical comparisons - “Youth flew by like a flying nightingale”; folk poetic epithets - “ardent wax”, “pure gold”, “damp earth”, “maiden soul”, “violent winds”, “brown curls”. But Koltsov always used these means in a very original way. So, for example, often turning to the form of a lyrical monologue, he often departed from traditional style folk songs, making them especially psychologically rich. Significant lyrical emotionality in Koltsov’s songs and even the expressiveness of the feelings expressed in them brought some songs closer to oral urban romances. It is possible that some of Koltsov’s songs - “Your black eyes ruined me”, “I won’t tell anyone”, “I loved him” and others - were created under the influence of the style of urban romances. In turn, Koltsov’s songs and romances became for a long time artistic models for many authors of songs and romances of the second half of the 19th century.

5. Prose of the 1830s: the new rise of romanticism. Analysis of works (optional) by A. A. Bestuzhev-Marlinsky (“Frigate “Nadezhda””), N. F. Pavlov (“Name Day”), I. I. Lazhechnikova (“Ice House”), V. F. Odoevsky (“La Sylphide”).

In the 20s, despite a fairly significant number of morally descriptive, moral-satirical, historical novels, “... prose in Russian literature occupied very little space and had very little meaning. She, as Chernyshevsky noted, strived to exist, but did not exist yet.” In the 30s, the picture changed dramatically. The leading role in the literature of this period undoubtedly belongs to prose.“The time for poetry has passed in our literature, the time for humble prose has come,” is how Belinsky characterizes this new period. Even Pushkin in the 30s wrote mainly in prose. A number of writers who made their debut in poetry (I. Panaev, N. F. Pavlov, V. A. Sologub, A. F. Veltman, etc.) joined the ranks of prose writers in the 1930s. Magazines of the 30s were filled not with poetry, but with prose, mainly stories, on the quantity and quality of which the success of the magazines depended.

The dominance of prose in the literature of the 1930s should in no way be explained by the fact that poetry had reached a dead end. Not a single decade was represented by such brilliant poets as the 30s, and the statement that Pushkin, Baratynsky, Polezhaev and others had outlived their usefulness by this time sounds completely unconvincing. The decline in the role of poetry is associated with broad social processes.

Literature comes out of salons and living rooms and captures larger and larger readership circles. The almanacs, so fashionable in the 20s, filled mainly with poetry, were designed for the secular salon. The magazines that replaced them in the 30s were no longer associated with narrow “salon” areas, but with a much wider and more democratic circle of readers. Quite a large number of articles were published in magazines. translated foreign literature, which was absent from the almanacs (their readers used foreign literature in the originals). The very choice of foreign literature testified to the different interests of the readers. The most popular was the new French literature, which, despite the traditions of the “romantic horror” (or thanks to them), revealed stunning pictures of the life of the lower classes of the big city and created already new genre- genre of real and social novel. This attracted the attention not only of the new reading public, but also of the tsarist censorship, which, with a Uvarov circular dated June 25, 1832, declared a fight against “the frantic modern French literature.”

The prose of the 30s is distinguished by new content and new genres. Not an adventure, but moral description becomes the center of all works. Even in historical novels, the desire to describe morals comes first. It was in this that contemporaries saw the main advantage of Walter Scott's novels. Despite the enormous popularity of historical novels, The dominant genre of the 1930s was the story. “Library for Reading” under the very significant title “One Hundred Thousand First and Last Tale” translates the feuilleton of Jules Janin, a writer very popular in Russian journalism of the 30s. This feuilleton speaks of the thematic diversity of stories, of their colossal flow, which “pours like rain, falls like hail.” “Telescope” defines the story “as a work of art creative imagination, significantly different from a prosaic anecdote and a historical story" and comes to the conclusion that "the current story, like a novel, is artistic performance life from all points of view."

One should not think, however, that the Russian story from its very beginning reflected life and was a realistic story. " Marlinsky was our first narrator, was the creator, or, better to say, the instigator of the Russian story,” writes Belinsky. Stylistically sophisticated, rhetorical, depicting violent passions and unusual situations, Marlinsky's stories were typical romantic stories. Marlinsky's romantic story enjoyed undisputed authority in the 30s and gave rise to a whole series of imitative stories. After December uprising exiled to Siberia and then to the Caucasus, cut off from Russian public life, Marlinsky did not notice the shifts that took place during this decade in Russian social life and literature. And his romanticism, losing its civic pathos, becomes shallower and vulgarized. The works of this period are distinguished by their narrow themes, special interest in intimate experiences, and careful attention to language. With his rhetoric and pomposity, his depiction of the fiery passions of his romantic heroes, he did not help reveal reality, but deliberately moved away from the “prose of life.” Meanwhile, Russian literature became more and more imbued with this “prose”.

Descriptive prose penetrated more and more persistently into great literature. In 1831, the first truly realistic “Tales of the late Ivan Petrovich Belkin” appeared. In 1833-1834. stories by N.V. Gogol appear, which in 1835 were published in the form of separate collections (“Mirgorod” and “Arabesques”). In the stream of romantic stories, Gogol's stories stood out sharply for their “low” themes and new democratic heroes. The interest of these stories lay not in the entertaining plot, but in the realistic reproduction of everyday pictures of life, in the bold exposure of the vulgarity of the reality of that time. The true meaning of Gogol's stories was not understood not only by the general public, but also by the majority of Russian critics. The latter reproached him for his “low” and “dirty” topics (“Moscow Observer”), for his rude and wrong language(“Library for reading”). Belinsky had a different attitude towards Gogol’s stories. The critic immediately saw in Gogol “the poet of real life.” In the 30s, the struggle between romanticism and Gogol's movement was in full swing.

It was precisely at the height of this struggle, in the mid-30s, that a new variety emerged from the flow of romantic stories - “ secular story”, which soon becomes one of the common fashion genres of the time. The secular story is moving towards new trends. A secular person and a secular society, their relationship - this is the main problem around which the content of these stories is built. From the inaccessible mountains of the Caucasus, from a gypsy camp and distant outskirts, the hero is transferred to an ordinary home environment, and the main attention is no longer paid to his adventures and extraordinary incidents, but to his experiences. Interest in inner world The hero is connected by a secular story with romantic poems. The story is significantly psychologized. Having brought the themes of their stories closer to modern reality, secular writers failed to find new artistic media to reveal this reality and describe it, they used romantic techniques that became dead cliches. Transferring the hero to a home environment is not a cancellation, but a replacement of the background. So, for example, for secular stories, the entire setting of social life became the romantic background: the living room, the boudoir, the theater, the ball, the masquerade. All these stories are strictly limited to the theme of light, more precisely, the theme of a secular woman. The most striking secular stories were those of Marlinsky (“Test” and “Frigate “Nadezhda”), Panaev (“The Bedroom of a Socialite Woman,” “She Will Be Happy”), V. Odoevsky (“Princess Mimi,” “Princess Zizi”), Rostopchina (“Ranks and Money”, “Duel”), Sologuba (“Big Light”). The author's main attention is this genre is directed not at depicting morals, but at sketching characters, the psychology of which is revealed in the love experiences of the heroes. The obligatory love affair is the center of the development of the plot of a secular story. And the characters, and the situation, and the whole life of secular society are shown not in the process of development, but as frozen, given once and for all. Hence the stereotyped, clichéd descriptions. Superficial observers of life, secular writers focus their main attention on issues of composition and especially language. They strive to enrich the literary language, to give this language grace, brilliance and colloquial ease of small talk.

The appearance of historical novel, the successes of which reflected the development of the national-historical self-awareness of Russian society and interest in the Russian past. In the West, the historical novel had already gained enormous popularity by that time. First Walter Scott, followed by Balzac, Hugo, Merimee, Stendhal, Cooper. Contemporaries explained the general fascination with the historical novel by the nature of the era itself, which came after the dramatic finale of the Napoleonic epic. “Previously, when getting acquainted with history, we were content with stories about battles and victories, but now, “questioning the past,” they want to delve into “the smallest details.” inner life" Interest in the ordinary, everyday, everyday life gives rise to the new kind The novel is realistic and historical. Russians also read Walter Scott, but I wanted to write about Russian history too. The first such experiment was Zagoskina’s “Yuri Miloslavsky” (1829), which received unprecedented success. Then followed “The Oath of the Holy Sepulcher” by Polevoy (1832) and Lazhechnikov - “The Last Novik” (31-33), “Ice House” (35) and “Basurman” (38). In 1835, Gogol released Taras Bulba, and in 1836 Pushkin’s The Captain’s Daughter appeared. A historical novel has been created.

IN historical novel the first half of the 30s emerged three main directions: didactic (Zagoskin, Masalsky, Zotov - go back to Karamzin), romantic (Polevoy, Lazhechnikov) and realistic. Lazhechnikov Ivan Ivanovich occupies a prominent place among the authors of historical novels. According to Bel., he gained wide fame and authority. Each of Lazhechnikov’s novels was the result of the author’s careful work on sources known to him, a careful study of documents, memoirs and the area where the events described took place.

Lazhechnikov’s most significant novel is “ Ice house"(1835). When creating it, the novelist read the memoirs of figures from Anna Ioannovna’s time - Manstein, Minich and others, published at the beginning of the 19th century. This allowed him to recreate with sufficient accuracy the atmosphere of court life during the time of Anna Ioannovna and the images of some historical figures, although in sketching them he considered it possible, according to his views, to change something in comparison with reality. This applies primarily to the hero of the novel, Cabinet Minister Art. Volynsky, slandered by the Empress’s favorite German Biron and sentenced to terrible execution. The writer idealized his image in many ways. The historical role of Volynsky, who fought against the temporary foreigner, was undoubtedly progressive. But in historical Volyn, positive features were combined with negative ones. Peter 1 beat him more than once for covetousness. Like other nobles of his time, Volynsky was no stranger to sycophancy, vanity, and careerism. All these features of his personality are eliminated by the writer. Volynsky in the novel is full of concern for the welfare of the state and the people, exhausted by heavy exactions; He enters into the fight with Biron only for the good of his homeland.

Volynsky's rival, the arrogant temporary worker and oppressor of the people Biron, is sketched by the writer much closer to the historical appearance of the empress's favorite. Despite all Lazhechnikov’s caution, the drawn image of Anna Ioannovna herself testified to her limitations, lack of will, and lack of any spiritual interests. The construction of the ice house, in which the wedding of the buffoon couple was celebrated, is shown by the writer as an expensive and cruel entertainment.

The plot presented Lazhechnikov with the opportunity to deeply reveal the plight of the people. For the holiday, conceived by Volynsky for the amusement of the Empress, young couples were brought from all over the country, creating the image of a multinational Russia. In the fear and humiliation experienced by the participants of the play in the ice house, in the fate of the Ukrainian tortured by Bironov’s minions the theme of the suffering of the Russian people under the yoke of Bironovism. Conveying the dreams of the firecracker Mrs. Kulkovskaya about how she, the “future noblewoman”, will “buy peasants in his name and beat them with his own hands,” and if necessary, resort to the help of an executioner, Lazhechnikov lifts the veil over serfdom morals, expressing his indignant attitude towards serfdom, his position as a writer-humanist.

The image of Trediakovsky turned out to be historically incorrect, which was noted by Pushkin in a letter to Lazhechnikov. Trediakovsky Lazhechnikova is more similar to his caricature in Sumarokov’s comedy “Tressotinius”, caused by fierce literary disputes of the mid-18th century, than to the historical reformer of Russian verse and a man of tragic life, who was mocked by nobles.

In the plot of the novel, political and love intrigues, Volynsky’s romantic love for the beautiful Moldavian Marioritsa, are constantly intertwined. This line of plot development sometimes interferes with the first, weakening the historicism of The Ice House. But it does not go beyond the framework of life and morals of the capital's noble society of that time. Not always skillfully intertwining the two main motives of the plot development of the novel, Lazhechnikov, unlike most historical fiction writers of his time, does not subordinate history to fiction: the main situations and the ending of the novel are determined political struggle Volynsky with Biron.

Reproducing in the novel “local color”, some interesting features of the morals and life of that time, the writer truthfully showed how state affairs were intertwined in the time of Anna Ioannovna with the palace and home life of the queen and her entourage. The scene of the people’s fright at the appearance of the “language”, at the utterance of the terrible “word and deed”, which entailed torture in the Secret Chancellery, is historically accurate. Yuletide fun of girls, belief in sorcerers and fortune-tellers, images of a gypsy, palace jesters and firecrackers, an idea with an ice house and the court entertainments of a bored Anna, which the cabinet minister himself had to deal with - all these are picturesque and true features morals of that time. In historical and everyday paintings and episodes, in depicting the horrors of Bironovism, the realistic stream in the writer’s work continues to flow.

"The poetics of early Yesenin is connected, first of all, with the traditions of folk art. creative path the poet began by imitating folklore. In his autobiography, he recalled: “I began to write poetry, imitating ditties. The poems were accompanied by songs that I heard around me...”?

The poet's deep connection with folklore was uninterrupted throughout his life. He collected ditties, of which he had about four thousand. S. Yesenin’s mother was considered the best songwriter in the village, and his father also sang well. Grandfather Titov, who raised Yesenin, knew many songs by heart. Yesenin was familiar with the work of many Russian poets: Pushkin, Lermontov, Koltsov, Yazykov, Nikitin and others.

From childhood, the poet absorbed the everyday life of his native village: with songs, beliefs, ditties that he heard and which became the source of his creativity.

Already in my early poetry S. A. Yesenin uses song and chat motifs, images of oral lyrics, which changed somewhat under the pen of the poet: new meaningful details appeared in the text, new depiction techniques appeared. Naturally, in his work, S. Yesenin was able to combine high poetry and living reality, folklore and individuality.

Yesenin usually set himself two tasks: firstly, he strove to preserve the original traditional spirit in the plot, and secondly, he made every effort to make his composition sound more original.

Yesenin uses elements of folk poetics when revealing the characters of the hero, when depicting various moods, external details of the portrait, when describing nature and to convey “color”. His poetry is of a folk song nature. What can the title of the poet’s first collection of poems, “Radunitsa,” indicate? The title and content of the collection are associated with a cycle of spring folk songs, which were called “Radovitsky” or “Radonitsky vesnyaki”. They show the spring mischievous joy of young awakening life.

Studying the work of S. Yesenin, one can notice that the poet was also attracted to various love situations: inviting a bride on a date, betraying a sweetheart and the experiences of a young man caused by this event, thinking about a young girl about her sad fate, which is predicted for her by signs of nature, and so on.

Before all the changes in Yesenin’s creative practice, a method was developed involving the introduction of his own lyrical hero into the traditional plot scheme. This can be seen in the example of the poem “Under the wreath of forest daisies...” (1911). The material for it was a folk song, which talks about a girl who lost her ring and with it the hope of happiness:

I lost my ring

I lost my love.

And along this ring

I will cry day and night.

Yesenin presented this event as follows: he made the main character not a girl dreaming of marriage, but a village carpenter who is repairing a boat on the river bank and accidentally drops “the cutie’s ring into the jets of a foamy wave.” The ring is carried away by a pike, and after this incident it is learned that the girl he loves has found a new friend. The poet, retelling a folklore plot, concretizes it, as a result of which new, original images arise:

My ring was not found

I went out of sadness to the meadow,

The river laughed after me:

The cutie has a new friend.

New images “revitalized” the lyrical action, thereby giving it a “shade of reality.” This corresponded to the poet’s task at the first stage of his work with folklore. Subsequently, Yesenin began to adhere to other rules, creating works with an oral artistic basis. He began to strive to ensure that, without losing touch with the traditional text in its key moments, he “moved away from it” in the selection of poetic images and details. In this case, new poems appeared that only vaguely resembled the original. An example is the poem “The reeds rustled over the backwater...” (1914). It echoes the famous folk song “I remember when I was still young.”

On a folklore basis, S. Yesenin also created a panoramic lyrical sketch, filling it with various figurative details collected from many folklore texts:

And at our gates

The korogod girls are dancing.

Oh, bathed, oh, bathed,

The korogod girls are dancing.

To whom is grief, to whom is sin,

And we have joy, and we have laughter.

Oh, bathed, oh, bathed,

And we have joy, and we have laughter.

("Lights are burning across the river", 1914-1916)

Enthusiastic intonation is characteristic of many of Yesenin’s works of folklore origin. In such a lyrical manner they wrote “It’s a dark night, I can’t sleep...”, “Play, play, little Talyanochka, raspberry furs...”, “The scarlet color of dawn is woven on the lake...”. The special character of the young poet’s worldview, brought up in a family where fun, jokes, sayings, and ditties were commonplace, played an influential role in his work.

A new round of development in the folklore creativity of S. Yesenin dates back to 1915-1916. The poet turns to new genres in his creative practice: family and everyday, comic, calendar, ritual songs, trying to convey them genre features. S. Yesenin knew ritual poetry well. Both calendar and family rituals are reflected in his work. Widely showing folk life, the poet could not ignore this form of folk culture existing in Russian society. These are Maslenitsa rituals, St. Thomas Week, the magic of Ivan Kupala - they have firmly entered the poetic world of S. Yesenin:

Mother walked through the forest in Bathing Suit,

Barefoot, with pads, she wandered through the dew

I was born with songs in a grass blanket,

The spring dawns twisted me into a rainbow.

I grew to maturity, grandson of the Kupala night,

The dark witch prophesies happiness for me.

("Mother", 1912)

In 1918, a book was published of Yesenin’s collection of ditties, where he cites several works of his own composition. For example:

I was sitting on the sand

At the high bridge.

There is no better poem

Alexandra Blokova.

Bryusov dances along Tverskaya

Not a mouse, but a rat.

Uncle, uncle, I'm big

Soon I'll be bald.

(“I was sitting on the sand,” 1915-1917)

For some time S. Yesenin did not write in folk genres and only in 1924-1925. in his poetry, song and ditty motifs will “sound” again (“Song”, “Oh you, sleigh ...”, “Talyanka rash rings ...”).

Often Yesenin, using the rich experience of folk poetry, resorts to the technique of personification. The bird cherry tree is “sleeping in a white cape,” the willows are crying, the poplars are whispering, “the blizzard is crying like a gypsy violin,” “the spruce girls are sad,” “it’s like a pine tree is tied with a white scarf,” etc. But, in contrast from oral folk art, Yesenin “humanizes” the natural world. Sometimes two descriptions are parallel:

Green hairstyle,

Girlish breasts,

O thin birch tree,

Why did you look into the pond?

(“Green hairstyle…”, 1918)

This poem shows a young slender birch tree, which is so likened to a girl that we involuntarily find ourselves “captured by the feelings” caused by the separation of lovers. Such “humanization” is not typical of folklore.

It is worth noting that S. Yesenin often uses the symbolism of images. Some images are so beloved by the author that they run through all of his lyrics (birch, maple, bird cherry). Colors are also important in the author’s poetry.

The poet's favorite colors are blue and light blue. These colors enhance the feeling of the immensity of the expanses of Russia, creating an atmosphere of the bright joy of existence (“blue falling into the river”, “blue evening, moonlit evening”).

The most important place in Yesenin’s work is occupied by epithets, comparisons and metaphors. They are used as a means of painting, they convey the variety of shades of nature, the richness of its colors, the external portrait features of the heroes (“fragrant bird cherry”, “the red moon was harnessed to our sleigh like a foal”, “in the darkness the damp moon, like a yellow raven... hovering above the ground " and etc.). Repetitions play an important role in Yesenin’s poetry, as in folk songs. They are used to express state of mind person to create a rhythmic pattern. S. Yesenin uses repetitions with rearrangement of words:

Trouble has befallen my soul,

Trouble befell my soul.

("Flowers", 1924)

The poetry of Sergei Yesenin is full of appeals. And often these are appeals to nature: "Lovely birch thickets!".

In the poem “Rus”, in the poems “Patterns”, “Mother’s Prayer” S. Yesenin spoke with pain about the people’s grief, about the sadness of the Russian village. And his feelings, his poems were consonant with ditties about the hated soldiery, about the fate of peasant boys in the war:

Take a walk warriors,

Last holidays for you.

The horses are harnessed

The chests are packed.?

Thus, folklore helped S. Yesenin become a deeply folk poet, reflect the national character of the worldview, convey the way of thinking of the people, their feelings and moods, as well as instill new images of the landscape of Russian nature into literary and song creativity. Folklore for Yesenin was a source of understanding of life, national character, customs and psychology of the Russian people.