About valor, about exploits, about glory
I forgot in the woeful land
When your face is in a simple frame
In front of me shone on the table.
But the hour has come, and you left the house.
I threw the cherished ring into the night.
You gave your fate to another
And I forgot the beautiful face.
The days flew by, spinning like a cursed swarm ...
Wine and passion tormented my life...
And I remembered you before the lectern,
And he called you, like his youth ...
I called you but you didn't look back
I shed tears, but you did not descend.
You sadly wrapped yourself in a blue cloak,
On a damp night, you left the house.
I don't know where your pride is
You, dear, you, gentle, found ...
I sleep soundly, I dream of your blue cloak,
In which you went into the damp night ...
No longer dream of tenderness, of glory,
Everything is over, youth is gone!
Your face in its simple frame
I removed the table with my hand.
Analysis of the poem "On valor, on exploits, on glory" by Blok
Blok's poem "About valor, about exploits, about glory ..." refers to the poet's love lyrics. It is dedicated to a real event in life. Blok wrote it in 1908, immediately after his wife left him. It should be noted that their relationship was very strange. The poet's wife, L. Mendeleev, was an actress, which left a very big imprint on her life. Between creative people rarely develop strong family relationships. Hectic life constantly pushes them in search of new strong impressions. This is what happened in the Block family. Mendeleeva left him for another poet -. Blok was very upset by the betrayal of his wife, who for a long time was his creative muse.
In the poem one can feel the deep personal experience of the author. He does not use the complex symbolism inherent in his early work. Behind every line, the pain of a deceived person is felt. The image of the “face in a simple frame” is a portrait of his wife, which was constantly on the poet’s desktop. In it he found the source of his inspiration.
For the first time after his wife's betrayal, the author was at the mercy of the anger and misunderstanding that gripped him. He throws away the “cherished ring” and assures himself that he has forgotten about the ungrateful woman forever. The lyrical hero is looking for a way out in "wine and passion." But gradually he is overwhelmed by memories of a happy past. The marriage took place in early age Therefore, Blok associates his wife's betrayal with the loss of youth.
The poet is trying to return his beloved. But his prayers and tears remain unanswered. Here another symbol of the work appears - the “blue cloak”, in which the wife left home. There is no longer any malice in Blok's soul, he addresses his ex-wife with affectionate words: "sweet, tender." Even in his sleep, he is constantly haunted by the image of the "blue cloak", which in one night broke the poet's entire life in two.
The poem ends with the recognition that both youth and love are irretrievably gone. Carefree dreams left the poet forever. The symbolic farewell action is the cleansing of the table from the “face in a simple frame”.
The work still did not become the final point. Yielding to Blok's entreaties, his wife returned to him, but left again after some time. Until the death of the poet, these mysterious relationships continued. He himself, having lost faith in pure love, started short-term novels. But the first wife forever remained for him a symbol of the first immaculate love.
Comprehensive analysis of A. Blok's poem
“About valor, about exploits, about glory…”
Completed by: Course Student
in new sociocultural conditions"
1. Theme of the poem
In the work of Alexander Blok, the theme of love has always prevailed. Joy and sadness were combined in his love lyrics, apparently because the ideal of a refined and sublime, proud and trusting, beautiful and tender woman did not find its earthly embodiment.
At first, Blok was very passionate about his future wife, Lyubov Dmitrievna Mendeleeva, to whom he dedicated the cycle “Poems about the Beautiful Lady”. According to the words, if you carefully read this book, you will see that “this is a true story about how one teenager fell in love with a neighbor so enthusiastically that he created the Radiant Virgin from her and transformed her entire surrounding landscape into unearthly villages. It was exactly what Dante did to Partinari's neighbor's daughter." lived and wrote in very difficult historical conditions, painfully feeling the lack of harmony in the "terrible world". He did not feel it in his soul either. Only love could bring Blok that necessary, desired peace, without which it was impossible to live. Love was called upon to exclude chaos not only in the soul, but also in the world surrounding the poet. Blok deified the love that revealed to him lofty sense life. He devoted a huge number of poems to this wonderful feeling. One of them - "About valor, about feats, about glory...".
This poem was written in 1908 and was included in the third volume of the Poet's Collection of Poems. The cycle "Retribution", to which the poem refers, continues the theme " scary world"The word "retribution" is usually understood as a punishment for a certain crime. Moreover, a punishment that comes from outside, from someone. Retribution, according to Blok, is primarily a person's condemnation of himself, the judgment of his own conscience. The hero's main fault is betrayal of data once sacred vows, lofty love, betrayal of human predestination... And the consequence of this is retribution: spiritual emptiness, weariness from life, submissive expectation of death... These motifs sound in all the poems of the "Retribution" cycle.
That high, sinless love has gone forever from the life of the poet, reality has destroyed the ideal, and the poet mourns for the lost pure dream, in which he is now unable to believe so strongly:
About valor, about exploits, about glory
I forgot in the woeful land
In front of me shone on the table ...
No longer dream of tenderness, of glory,
Everything is over, youth is gone!
I removed the table with my hand.
All the verses of the collection are imbued with a thirst “to see the unearthly in the earthly” (V. Bryusov). A purely personal experience is melted here into a universal one, into a mystery with the coming descent to the earth of the Eternal Femininity.
For six years, Blok wrote about one woman, dedicated 687 poems to her. In 1903, the poet married Lyubov Dmitrievna. This was the end of the lyrical diary addressed to the Beautiful Lady. Blok's poetic world includes new themes, new images. In the cycle "Retribution", in which the poet prophesies a speedy judgment and retribution to the society that has fettered, enslaved and "frozen" a person, the famous "About valor, feats, glory ..." (1908) is published. The poem is written in a special manner and differs markedly in style and subject matter from other poems in the "Retribution" cycle.
2. Genre
The genre of the poem is a love letter. This is a conversation with a portrait of a distant lover who once left lyrical hero. However, the hero perceives him as a living, spiritualized image. That is why he calls him not a portrait, but a face, and, turning to the portrait, he speaks as if the beloved who left him is able to hear his words, realize the full depth of her mistake and, perhaps, return to the hero. The whole poem is built on the opposition of two images (the lyrical hero and his beloved woman), which only emphasizes the insurmountable distance between them.
3. Plot
The plot of the poem and its development are inextricably linked with the personality of the lyrical hero. In the first stanza, we see that the whole world of the hero is focused on the image of his beloved. About valor, about exploits, about glory
4. Artistic media
"I forgot on the sad earth" - these first lines confirm that it is common for lovers to experience a feeling of complete satisfaction and harmony with the world and with themselves only when the object of love is nearby.
But now “the hour has come,” in the second stanza, the beloved leaves the hero. And the meaning of life disappears with it. The loss of internal guidelines completely unsettles the hero, and he is left alone with the passions that "torment" his life.
During the period of time contained in the next three stanzas, the life of the lyrical hero is filled only with memories and pain from the realization of loss. However, in the last stanza, we see that he finally manages to make a mature decision to let go of the lost love, and this undoubtedly shows the maturation of the hero and his formation as a self-sufficient person.
Composition: size, rhyme, rhythm.
Poem size:
_ _" / _ _" / _ _" /_ _"/ _ _" /_ iambic pentameter. This poetic size was used by many poets from Shakespeare to his contemporaries " Silver Age". He recreates human speech within the framework of an epic or dramatic story, tension of will, clarity, firmness are inherent in it. It is obvious that Blok uses the names of this size to emphasize the tragedy expressed in the work.
Rhyme cross.
The first line of the last stanza "No more dreaming of tenderness, of glory ...", on the one hand, completes the poem, forming ring composition. On the other hand, it contains a profound idea that a person's personal happiness and his social role are closely related.
trails. To make the language of a literary work more expressive, special means are used: epithets, comparison, metaphors.
The first line of the work "On valor, on exploits, on glory ...", as it were, deceives the reader's expectation: it seems that we will talk about the topic of civic duty. However, love experiences turn out to be most important for the hero at a certain stage of life, so great and boundless is the bitterness of his loss. In the poem, we come across a large number of epithets: "on the woeful earth", "cherished ring", "cursed swarm", "damp night". The tenderness with which the hero remembers his beloved, comparing her with his youth: "And he called you as his youth," is reflected in the work with such epithets as: "beautiful face", "you, dear", "you, tender" . There are personifications and metaphors in the poem: “when your face is in a simple frame”, “it shone on the table in front of me”, “I threw the cherished ring into the night”, “you gave your fate to another”, “days flew”, “wine and passion
tormented my life", "I sleep soundly."
From the first lines, the poet hints to the reader at the mood of the whole work, using the epithet "On the woeful earth." In the second stanza in a central way is cherished ring- a symbol of love fidelity. The boundless despair of the lyrical hero, caused by the departure of his beloved, is expressed in the episode when he throws out the “cherished ring”. Night in this case symbolizes darkness and the unknown. However, according to the aesthetic views of the symbolist poets, to which he belonged, the meaning of a symbol can never be fully exhausted. In this case, it can be perceived more broadly: the night is the time when demonic forces rise. Despair and the loss of the meaning of life for the narrator are described by the epithets "damned swarm", "damp night".
To convey to the reader how much his chosen one meant to the hero, the comparison is used: “And he called you as his youth.” The author points out that with the departure of love, the best days of our hero's life also go away. The serene youth is behind, the time has come for a harsh growing up.
The metaphors “when your face is in a simple frame”, “before me shone on the table”, pointing us to the heroine, reflect the fact that the lyrical hero is inclined to deify and idealize her even after betrayal. “I threw the cherished ring into the night”, “you gave your fate to another” - these metaphors, as it were, indicate the choice of both characters and the fact that their paths diverge. Blok uses the personifications “days flew by”, “wine and passion tormented my life” to show that otherworldly dark forces dominate the life and fate of the hero, with which he does not want to fight. The power of the love feeling of the lyrical hero is also actualized by the motive of the dream:
"I sleep soundly, I sleep your blue cloak,
In which you went into the damp night.
Stylistic figures:
Repetitions/refrain: "a face in a simple frame." Repetition demonstrates the importance for the author of the described object, process, action, etc. When using this figure, the author repeatedly mentions something that particularly excited him, also concentrating the reader's attention on this.
Antithesis: Contrasting is an expressive means that makes it possible to make a particularly strong impression on the reader, to convey to him the author's strong excitement due to the rapid change of concepts that are opposite in meaning, used in the text of the poem. Also, opposite emotions, feelings and experiences of the author or his hero can be used as an object of opposition.
"When your face is in a simple frame
In front of me shone on the table ...
Your face in its simple frame
With my hand I removed from the table”;
Inversion: “They tormented my life”, “your blue cloak”, “I left on a damp night”, “I cleared the table”. Inversion in poetic texts performs an accent or semantic function, a rhythm-forming function for building a poetic text, as well as the function of creating a verbal-figurative picture.
Assonance: “I don’t know where your shelter is pride/ I sleep soundly, I dream of your cloak blue"," Everything passed, youth passed! / With my hand I removed from table».
Anaphora gives the text additional emotionality.
“And I remembered you before the lectern,
And he called you, as his youth ... "
Even after years, the lyrical hero still remembers that fateful day of farewell:
"I called you, but you did not look back,
I shed tears, but you did not descend.
Synonyms: valor, deeds, glory; sweet, tender.
Archaisms: the hour has come, lectern, pride.
In the poem "On valor, on feats, on glory," the image of a man devastated by life with a difficult fate appears. The poem is autobiographical, because during this period his first love, Lyubov Dmitrievna, the granddaughter of the famous chemist Mendeleev, leaves him and goes to Blok's close friend, the poet Andrei Bely.
After parting with his beloved, the hero lost the meaning of life, he lost himself. He no longer meets true love, on life path he encounters only passion. We see that, having lost his beloved, the hero lost faith in life, lost his moral support. Loss has turned carefree life hero into existence. He is tormented by wine and passion, but this is not a spiritual life, but only a sinful parody of it, burning and devastating the soul. It is symbolic that the hero remembers his beloved in front of the lectern (an lectern is a high table with a sloping top, on which icons and holy books). Obviously, in love, he seeks salvation for his lost soul. Also, it is in front of the lectern in the Temple that the wedding ceremony is held. This image is used to show how dear the hero is the already forgotten vows of eternal love and fidelity.
The line "Everything is over, youth is gone!" emphasizes that time cannot be turned back. A man, immersed in his sufferings, and then, seeking to be consoled, spending his days in search of truth in wine, lost not only love. He lost everything. The ambitious dreams of youth are irrevocably a thing of the past. Life plans remained unfulfilled. Only realizing this, the lyrical hero found the strength to remove the portrait of his beloved from the table. However, having lost his beloved, the lyrical hero did not become embittered against her. Years later, he still calls her sweet and gentle. The gap is perceived by him as a fatal accident, in which pride is to blame.
All his life he cherished the hope of her return. The portrait removed from the table at the end of the poem testifies to the final loss of this hope, but at the same time it is a certain courageous step of a person in which the mind finally defeated the painful feeling that has grown to universal proportions. However, the hero managed to put so much grief and longing into this farewell gesture that the reader, even realizing the correctness of the perfect deed, still continues to sympathize with the unfortunate person.
The poem has a pronounced dramatic beginning, which is typical for the lyrics in general. A typical love triangle turned into an inconsolable heartbreak drama. Some of the images in the poem also resemble the details of theatrical props.
During this difficult period, the poet breaks with his symbolist friends. Blok seemed to be drowning despair in wine. But, despite this, the main theme of the poems of the period of the “Scary World” is still love. But the one about whom the poet writes his magnificent poems is no longer the former Beautiful Lady, but a fatal passion, a temptress, a destroyer. She torments and burns the poet, but he cannot escape from her bonds, her power.
Even about the vulgarity and rudeness of the terrible world, Blok writes soulfully and beautifully. Although he no longer believes in love, does not believe in anything, but the image of a stranger in the poems of this period still remains beautiful. The poet hated cynicism and vulgarity - they were never in his poems.
If you carefully read the poem "About valor, about exploits, about glory ...", then it is easy to see that it echoes the poem "I remember a wonderful moment ...".
When your face is in a simple frame
In front of me shone on the table ...
In Pushkin we see similar lines:
I remember a wonderful moment:
You appeared before me.
"And I forgot your beautiful face" - "And I forgot your gentle voice." "Days flew" - "years went by." But, despite such a similar scenario, the endings of the poems are completely opposite: at the end of the poem, the soul awakens, in Blok we see only bitterness, despair (the hero did not return his beloved).
In the saving faith of love, love as a cleansing bright feeling, A. Blok always believed and strove to give all of himself to the great love for a woman, for the Motherland ... He dedicated his feelings, thoughts, soul to love, which is clearly expressed in poems throughout his work poet, whose name Russia is still proud of.
Being an extremely romantic person, generous with spiritual personal feelings, he literally created a school of love experiences with his poems.
Dedicating poems to his muse, his beautiful lady, the poet literally dissolves in his own spiritual impulses and difficult moods. This is the highest value of his life.
Blok considered spiritual intimacy to be the pinnacle of relationships.
The history of the idea and creation of the poem
Blok's poem "About valor, about exploits, about glory ..." was created on real events that happened to the poet himself. It is known that when he saw his future wife for the first time, the author was captivated and delighted. Therefore, the lyrics of this period are so passionate and so impressionable. He hoped that the marriage with the woman he loved would be happy. But everything turned out not at all as the poet had planned.
But something was missing in Lyubov Mendeleeva's marriage. She again became interested in another and went to him. From this man she gives birth to a son, but after that she decides to return to the poet again. All this time they did not break off contact, since Alexander Blok himself insisted on friendship, for which spiritual intimacy was always more important than physical. It is known that they had known each other since early childhood, but then, having parted for a while, they met again. After they began to live together, the poet did not want any carnal relations, since for him it was secondary and overshadowed spiritual intimacy. Lyubov Mendeleev was an actress who, every time after her tour and after new hobbies, still returned to Alexander Blok.
All these love triangles eventually spilled out in 1908 into a lyrical work.
About valor, about exploits, about glory
I forgot in the woeful land
When your face is in a simple frame
In front of me shone on the table.
But the hour has come, and you left the house.
I threw the cherished ring into the night.
You gave your fate to another
And I forgot the beautiful face.
The days flew by, spinning like a cursed swarm...
Wine and passion tormented my life...
And I remembered you before the lectern,
And he called you, like his youth ...
I called you but you didn't look back
I shed tears, but you did not descend.
You sadly wrapped yourself in a blue cloak,
On a damp night you left the house.
I do not know where the shelter of my pride
You, dear, you are gentle, found ...
I sleep soundly, I dream of your blue cloak,
In which you left on a damp night ...
No longer dream of tenderness, of glory,
Everything is over, youth is gone!
Your face in its simple frame
I removed the table with my hand.
With great sadness, the poet describes the situation in which he found himself. The departure of a beloved is a tragedy that plays out before the eyes of the reader. Complete despair and disappointment covers the protagonist "I threw the cherished ring into the night."
Memories remain, a bright image, and as proof that everything happened, a photograph on the table "your face in a simple frame." Sadness and pain of loss do not cause negative feelings. The protagonist recalls the bright image "in front of the lectern". Even the fact that the beloved has gone to another man does not allow her image to be tarnished.
The poet does not blame anyone for his suffering, not a single bad word was said about the departed woman. The hero has no choice but to accept his fate. With a heavy heart, he mentally releases the object of his adoration.
To make it easier to cope with the loss, the abandoned lyricist removes the photograph of a woman with his own hand, hoping that this will make him feel better.
Composition "About valor, about exploits, about glory ..."
The entire Blok poem is divided into three large parts: the first is the author is trying to forget the woman he loves, the second is his memory of her, the third is the decision to let go. he ends up removing her picture from his desk. The composition in the work is circular and helps the author to show the present, the past and what awaits in the future.
The poet, trying to explain to the reader his main idea, uses a large number of verbs, but only all of them are used in the past tense. The poet shows that everything has already passed, and now there is no suffering at all in his life. The author talks about those feelings that he has already experienced, just a memory of them remained. The soul of the protagonist has now calmed down and he can even sleep, calmly and without worries.
An interesting female image, which is shown by Alexander Blok in just a few features-descriptions. She is beautiful, gentle, independent, fearless and proud. The poet's attitude towards her is tender, as if he creates a deity out of her. And her photograph, like an icon, stood on his table. She dreams of him, as if she were bliss, dreams of her bring joy to the poet, not suffering. Maybe that's why the author chooses the form of a message for this poem - a declaration of love.
Expressive means
The declaration of love, which sounds in the poem by Alexander Blok, refers to the time when they were together with the woman they loved, but now this time is gone and will never return. The author tries to use as many expressive means as possible to diversify the literary text:
★ Metaphors.
★ Anaphora.
★ Epithets.
★ Syntactic parallelism.
★ Comparisons.
★ Paraphrase.
★ Avatars.
★ Inversion.
★ Dots.
All this helps the perception of the poem. By the end of the work, the reader sincerely sympathizes with the author, sharing his tragedy.
Symbols in a poem
One of the symbols that the author successfully introduced into the text is the ring. His main character throws into the night, as an indicator of a complete break. The rings that the spouses gave each other are no longer a symbol of love and fidelity, so there is no need to stand on ceremony with this accessory.
The second symbol is a blue cloak, which is repeated several times in the text. The raincoat is a symbol of the road, and the blue color itself is anxiety and loneliness. Blue is also the color of betrayal. Our lyrical hero has everything mixed up from the betrayal of his beloved woman and disappointment, and Blok chooses the blue cloak to show the tragedy of the situation even more vividly.
A photograph becomes a symbol of love and tenderness, and the author emphasizes several times “in a simple frame”. The author is so in love that he does not care what quality the frame is. Photo is dear to my heart.
Analysis of the poem
The love story described in the poem is controversial and controversial. The former happiness cannot be returned. The problem that has arisen in family life is a fateful rock!
Alexander Blok treated his own wife more like a muse, like a creative inspiration. And Lyubov Mendeleeva, although she was a man of art, an actress, apparently, wanted to remain an earthly woman. This was the contradiction of the spouses, so talented, and so different.
For the poet, his wife is not only a source of purity. He associates it with freshness, with youth. He notes that after her departure, there is a farewell to youth “Everything is over, youth is gone!” As if with the departure of the woman, the protagonist lost all orientation, but realized that this was the point of no return. Point of no return to youth, love, former happiness.
Hopes collapsed, which is why he removes the portrait of his beloved woman from the table at the very end of the poem. It is difficult for him to do this, but he understands that he must. The poet showed the reader that the mind still won over the feelings, and no matter how sad he was, he still made the final act. This decision turned out to be the most true and correct. Now this tremendous feeling of love will no longer bring him so much pain and suffering. And maybe soon happiness will appear in his life, and sadness and tragedy will go away.
About valor, about exploits, about glory
I forgot in the woeful land
When your face is in a simple frame
In front of me shone on the table.
But the hour has come, and you left the house.
I threw the cherished ring into the night.
You gave your fate to another
And I forgot the beautiful face.
The days flew by, spinning like a cursed swarm...
Wine and passion tormented my life...
And I remembered you before the lectern,
And he called you, like his youth ...
I called you, but you did not look back,
I shed tears, but you did not descend.
You sadly wrapped yourself in a blue cloak,
I do not know where the shelter of my pride
You, dear, you, gentle, found ...
I sleep soundly, I dream, your cloak is blue,
In which you left on a damp night ...
No longer dream of tenderness, of glory,
All gone, youth gone?
Your face in its simple frame
I removed the table with my hand.
I was not - and by age I could hardly be - close to Blok. But I met with Blok, spoke with him, I remember a lot of what he said, and I want to talk about it.
The first time I saw Blok was in the first half of 1903 or at the very end of 1902, when Blok was 22 years old and I was only 12. He came to my brother Alexander Vasilyevich1 and sat at our family evening tea, in gray, as they wore then, a student's jacket. Of everything that happened that evening, I remember only one thing, but I remember it well: reading Blok's poems and talking about them. It began with the fact that my father, in the midst of some seemingly indifferent conversation, suddenly said in a somewhat tense tone, turning to Blok: “Alexander Alexandrovich! Read the verses." To this Blok quite calmly and simply replied: "Yes, I will read it with pleasure." He was reading The Queen Watched Screensavers. Father - an admirer and translator of Dante and Petrarch - smiled with slight irony. “Well, why do you write decadent poetry? Why blue puzzles? Why are the puzzles blue? Blok, thinking a little, replied: "Because the night is blue," but then, laughing, he said: "No, of course, not that." And wishing, perhaps, to ward off the reproach of decadence, he read: "I am young, and fresh, and in love." “This is a completely different matter. However, fragrant tears. But Blok very confidently replied: “No, maple tears are fragrant. Another question is whether there can be tears - maple. This seems to be the end of the controversy.
I will skip rare meetings in subsequent years (in 1906-1909, often at the Komissarzhevskaya Theater - at premieres) and move on to the time when I began to meet with Blok outside
Family and outside of his relationship with my brother, but on his own - as a writer.
The first such meeting was at the beginning of 1909. It took place, as it were, symbolically for me - almost literally on the threshold of the editorial office of Novy Zhurnal dlya Vsekh2 and Novaya Zhizn, where I went to collect one of my first literary royalties. “Are you in the Magazine for All? Block asked. Were your poems in a magazine? I liked it". This stingy praise would have been still dearer to me if I could then have foreseen his later and equally stingy: "I didn't like it." Going up to the editorial office, I saw on the editorial table a piece of paper written in Blok's clear handwriting. The lines caught my eye:
You wrapped yourself in a blue cloak sadly.
On a damp night, you left the house.
I didn't ask myself why the raincoat was blue. By that time, Blok, with his entire system of images, had firmly entered my consciousness, into my whole life.
V.V. Gippius "Meetings with Blok"
