Analysis of Lermontov's Poem “From under the mysterious, cold half-mask…. “From under the mysterious, cold half-mask…” M. Lermontov

The lyrics of M. Yu. Lermontov are a very subtle matter. Each line of his poetic compositions is like an open spiritual wound. Despite the fact that the poet had a reputation as an addicting and dreamy person, he always gave himself up to creativity with all the power of self-expression, tremblingly and under a veil of light detachment, rhyming through the experience. Each woman to whom Lermontov dedicated lines sincerely and passionately occupied his thoughts. But there was only one girl, whose memory and love remained in his heart until the end of his days.

The poem was written in 1841 and belongs to the late period of Lermontov's work. He was already bored secular society, he preferred solitude more often. However, for the sake of one of his beloved, who forever left a mark on his heart, the poet sometimes goes to balls. There he has the opportunity to meet Varvara Bakhmeteva, nee Lopukhina, and stealthily observe her. It is believed that the lines of this poem are dedicated to her.

The brother and sisters of Barbara, who was in the nobility, were friends with Lermontov, who later met the young lady himself. The love between them was platonic, but no less tender, bright and strong. Varvara, on the other hand, was forced to accept the proposal of the wealthy landowner Bakhmetev, who had approached her, since her parents were opposed to Lermontov. The poet dedicated more than one work to his beloved. It is also believed that the images of Vera and her old husband from "Princess Mary" (one of the chapters of "A Hero of Our Time") are written off from the Bakhmetevs.

Genre, direction and size

The genre of this lyrical work is elegy. The poet writes with sadness and a shadow of imagination about a meeting with his beloved woman.

The direction combines the features of romanticism and realism. Romanticism is manifested in how the poet is enthusiastic and captivated by the lady of his heart. And he uses bright means for this. artistic expressiveness. Realism is emphasized by the reality of the events and experiences of the author. Varvara Lopukhina became a muse for the poet already at the end of his life path. Even on envelopes with letters addressed to her, Lermontov often in a rage crossed out the initials of his beloved with her husband's surname and indicated the initial letter maiden name. He was so painfully worried about her marriage and the inability to be there.

The size of the poem is iambic six-foot. The rhyme used is cross, feminine and masculine.

Images and symbols

An important symbol of the poem is the mask, through which the poet easily recognizes his beloved. The fact is that at the time of the creation of this lyrical work, masquerades were popular. Lermontov addressed this topic more than once in his work. And having visited one of these masquerades, he had the opportunity to meet his beloved, Varvara Lopukhina. At that time, she was already married, and the poet understood the impossibility of a close relationship with her, which made him feel depressed.

The poem, of course, is autobiographical, although it has not been reliably established that it is dedicated specifically to Barbara. This is evidenced only by conjectures of contemporaries and eyewitnesses of events.

The lyrical hero, in the role of which the author himself acts, is able to recognize his beloved woman even under a mask. He distinguishes her features, notices the grace of the lines of her waist and face, catches every sound of her voice. That image, which is hidden under a masquerade mask, is infinitely loved by him, causes a quivering heartbeat and reminds of a strong feeling hidden inside. The rest is already drawing the imagination of the poet, he dreams that someday they will be able to meet their beloved “like old friends”, hoping in vain to go beyond the limits of inadmissibility and prohibition. The author seems to regret that he could not bestow dear woman happiness, and refuses to recognize the rights to her of another man, the landowner Bakhmetev.

Lopukhina reciprocated Lermontov's feelings. This is what the first quatrain of his work tells us. This, in turn, gave the poet inspiration and strength to create. They said that Varvara, like Mikhail Yuryevich, kept this love that broke out between them until her death. In part, the death of the poet crippled her. But the author left us these tender lines, in which he gives a special piquancy to the image of his beloved, whose face, recognizable by him, is excitingly hidden under a mask.

Themes and mood

  1. The main theme of the poem is, of course, love. She drives all the thoughts and actions of the poet, she changes and reveals him from the inside. Love for Varvara Lopukhina truly stood the test of time and circumstances: Lermontov retained his bright feeling for Varenka until the end of his life.
  2. We also see nostalgia bygone times, which we can also call the theme of the work. The author recalls with sorrow and longing those times when the chances were not yet lost.
  3. Mood lyrical work is the same as that of the author himself. He is consumed by bitter sadness from the inability to find happiness next to the woman he loves and bestow it on her. At the same time, the pace of versification is calm and does not differ in the ardor of expression. All this was characteristic of the late period of Lermontov's work.

Main idea

The poet turns to us the inner side of his life, and not its shell. He clearly draws a true picture of love: after all, it does not always and not everyone bring harmony and joy. Love can cause severe suffering, while being mutual. The triumph of reality over a dream, social framework over emotions - this is the main idea poems. Feelings do not always bring happiness, often they break up about the realities of life.

Lermontov talks about how complicated the relationship between loving friend friend by people who want to be together, but do not have the opportunity to find this happiness. However, even this state of affairs makes sense in the life of a person who is able to love. And by his example, the poet, as if urging us, under no pretext, not to give up our love, not to be afraid to admit to ourselves this feeling for another person, even if this road does not have a clear route and bright prospects.

Means of artistic expression

Everybody artistic means, used by the author when creating this poem, served to build the completeness of the images of himself as lyrical hero, strangers in a mask, acting as a beloved woman, and in general for a comprehensive transmission of the poet's reverent feelings.

Lermontov used only one comparison, and already in the first quatrain: "Your voice sounded to me like a dream." The poet thus immediately declares the desire of his heart for his beloved, the ability to easily recognize her in the midst of the noise and the ball, and about heartache filling it, being both near and far from her.

Epithets convey the bright emotional coloring given by the poet to the feelings and experiences described: “captivating eyes”, “cunning lips”, “mysterious, cold half-mask”, “virgin cheeks”. However, these artistic images they say that the poet is lonely and vulnerable. He realizes that he will not find a way to express his love. Sometimes it seems to him that his beloved is playing with his feelings, flirting. This is clearly conveyed through metaphors: “your captivating eyes shone on me”, “sly lips smiled”, “a masterful lock, native curls that left the wave”, “I carry a disembodied vision in my soul”. "Mouth" - as an example of sublime vocabulary, reporting the strength of feelings for a stranger in a mask. The exclamation "Lucky!" also transmits a high degree emotional state lyrical hero.

Lermontov approached the creation of this poem, being full of the warmest, sincere and strong feelings for the lady of the heart. And so he filled his creation with the most refined and touching vocabulary.

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"From under the mysterious cold half mask... "Mikhail Lermontov

From under the mysterious, cold half-mask
Your voice resounded to me like a dream.
Your captivating eyes shone on me
And the sly lips smiled.

Through the light haze, I involuntarily noticed
And virgin cheeks, and neck whiteness.
Lucky! I saw a masterful curl,
Native curls who left the wave! ..

And then I created in my imagination
By easy signs, my beauty;
And since then, a disembodied vision
I wear in my soul, caress and love.

And everything seems to me: these speeches are alive
In years past, I once heard;
And someone whispers to me that after this meeting
We'll see each other again like old friends.

Analysis of Lermontov's poem "From under the mysterious, cold half-mask ..."

If the early love lyrics of Mikhail Lermontov were full of mental suffering and drama, then in later poems one feels some peace. This is not surprising, since at the age of 15 the young poet fell in love with Ekaterina Sushkova and for a very long time sought the location of this windy person, not realizing that there was no place in her heart for reciprocal feelings. However, shortly before his death, Lermontov had an affair with Varvara Lopukhina, who by that time was married, but she responded to the feelings of the poet. It is to her that the poem "From under the mysterious, cold half-mask ..." is dedicated.

Presumably, it was written in the winter of 1841, when Lermontov arrived in St. Petersburg, hoping to resign. However, his report was not accepted, and the young officer had no choice but to enjoy the last vacation in his life. He spent it in secular salons and at balls, which he attended for the sole purpose of seeing Lopukhina. One of these meetings was the reason for the creation of the poem. In it, the poet's beloved appears as a mysterious stranger, whose face is hidden by a mask. However, even among hundreds of ladies, Lermontov is able to accurately recognize the one that occupies all his thoughts. After all, it was to him that “captivating eyes shone, and crafty lips smiled” that evening.

It is worth noting that in the 19th century, according to the rules of etiquette, married women even at balls they could not openly communicate with any other men, except for their own spouses or relatives. Therefore, Lermontov could not afford to speak with Lopukhina in the presence of all secular gossips. He had to be content with little - furtive glances, exchange of smiles and secret handshakes. Nevertheless, the poet considers himself lucky, because that evening he managed to notice both “the whiteness of the neck” and “the masterful curl, native curls that left the wave.” Everything else was completed by his rich imagination, to which the author was very grateful. Moreover, in his mind he composed a whole dialogue with his beloved, in which he believed immediately and unconditionally. Moreover, even after the ball, the poet admits that he had already heard “these speeches alive”, but he cannot remember with whom else he could have such conversations. Lermontov has no illusions about how his relationship with Lopukhina will develop, since he is not going to destroy the marriage of his chosen one. Therefore, admiring the beauty of this woman, she honestly admits: “We will see each other again, like old friends.”

Verse. read by O. Efremov

"FROM UNDER A MYSTERIOUS, COLD HALF MASK", verse. (presumably 1841), characteristic of the intimate lyrics of the late period: in contrast to the early love cycles with their pathos of reproaches and confessions, the poet's attention is now focused not on history own feeling, but on female images, significant regardless of their involvement in the author's lyrical biography.

Mikhail Lermontov
"From under the mysterious, cold half-mask..."

From under the mysterious, cold half-mask
Your voice sounded like a dream to me,
Your captivating eyes shone to me,
And the sly lips smiled.

Through the light haze, I involuntarily noticed
And virgin cheeks and neck whiteness.
Lucky! I saw a masterful curl,
Native curls who left the wave! ...

And then I created in my imagination
By easy signs, my beauty;
And since then, a disembodied vision
I wear in my soul, caress and love.

And everything seems to me: these speeches are alive
In years past, I once heard;
And someone whispers to me that after this meeting
We'll see each other again like old friends.

Reader Oleg Efremov

Oleg Nikolaevich Efremov (October 1, 1927, Moscow - May 24, 2000, ibid) - Soviet and Russian theater director, actor, teacher and theater figure. National artist USSR.
Oleg Efremov - the creator of the Sovremennik Theater, in 1956-1970 he was its artistic director; since 1970 he headed the Moscow Art Theater of the USSR. Gorky, and after its division in 1987 - the Moscow Art Theater. Chekhov.
One of the outstanding theater directors of his time, Oleg Efremov has always remained an actor.

Mikhail Yurievich Lermontov (October 3, 1814, Moscow - July 15, 1841, Pyatigorsk) - Russian poet, prose writer, playwright, artist. Lermontov's work, which successfully combines civic, philosophical and personal motives, responding to the urgent needs of the spiritual life of Russian society, marked a new flowering of Russian literature. It had big influence on the most prominent Russian writers and poets of the 19th and 20th centuries. Dramaturgy Lermontov had a huge impact on the development of theatrical art. Lermontov's works received a great response in painting, theater and cinema. His poems have become a real storehouse for opera, symphony and romance art, many of them have become folk songs.

"From under the mysterious, cold half-mask" "FROM UNDER A MYSTERIOUS, COLD HALF MASK", verse. (presumably 1841), characteristic of the intimate lyrics of the late period: in contrast to the early love cycles with their pathetic reproaches and confessions, the poet's attention is now focused not on the history of one's own. feelings, but on female images, significant regardless of their involvement in the lyric. biography of the author (cf. "M.A. Shcherbatova"; "Towards a portrait"). “In those years, love appears to Lermontov most often as a memory of the past ... as a flashing hope for the future ... or as a dream” [ Maksimov(2), p. 101]. The development of the theme of the verse. defined poetic. the transformation of the original - restless-sensual - impressions of the female appearance. In the 1st floor. verse. "components" of this impression: "cold half-mask" as symbolic. a sign of spiritual closeness and challenge (in the context of the disharmonious and disturbing lermont. theme of masquerade; see. The game in Art. Motives), the emphasized plastic corporality of the 2nd stanza, moments of a daring love game (the hero's greedy peering, the heroine's "sly lips" smile). It is no coincidence that A. A. Blok in a lyrically stylized portrait of L. (verse "Timelessness", 1906) conjugated this "sultry", in his words, female image with their infernal, appearing in the midst of "mysterious vulgarity" strangers in "black silks" (see Sobr. soch., vol. 5, 1962, p. 76). Meanwhile, in the last two stanzas - in the secret-heart area of ​​\u200b\u200bremembrance and hope - a “disembodied vision” of a beauty arises, woven from “light signs”; lines 11-12 echo the dream of an ideal lover in verse. “How often, surrounded by a motley crowd,” in lines 13-14, the theme of Platonic “remembering” and the search for a lost ideal in a new guise sounds muffled (cf. “No, I don’t love you so passionately”). Among the "light signs" poetic is especially highlighted. memory “pleasant, like a dream” voice of the heroine (“these speeches are alive” - in the 4th stanza), which in L.’s lyrics was usually associated with the sublime and secret essence of love (“She sings - and the sounds melt”, “There are speeches - meaning", etc.). However, the final unconstrained prosaism ("old friends") again brings the idealizers together. creation of poetry "dreams" into the sphere of relations, excluding unconditional worship and romantic. distance. In general, the verse. testifies to how far the free-contradictory sense of life of the late L. and from Pushkin's classic. cult " pure beauty”, and from the prescriptions of the romantic. idealism (cf. the verse of the Platonist A. K. Tolstoy “Among the noisy ball”, written in Lermontov’s - but devoid of multi-tonality - lyric plot; L. N. Tolstoy, bringing both verses together, preferred Lermontov’s, perhaps because of his life's unintentionality and whimsicality, see "Leo Tolstoy on art-ve and literature", vol. 2, 1958, pp. 152-53). Verse. - Lermont sample. composition skill. Thematic the balance of parts (1st-2nd stanzas - impression, 3rd-4th - dream) shifts from its place with a single intonation. tension of the last two stanzas ("And then I created ...", "And since then ...", "And everything seems to me ...", "And someone whispers to me ..."). Six-foot iambic in quatrains with cross-rhyming (8th and 11th verses - “light”, five-foot) thanks to compare. an abundance of dactylic caesuras and weakly struck moves in the beginnings of many others. poems gets a new sound - not uncommon for L.-rhythmist case of the transformation of traditions. size. Lines 7-8 allow us to notice that L. did not pass by the "risky" poetics of V. G. Benediktov. Verse. set to music by: M. A. Balakirev, L. O. Bakalov (Popov), S. N. Vasilenko, V. A. Gaigerova, Z. A. Levina, A. V. Mosolov, V. Ya. Shebalin and others Autograph unknown. For the first time - "OZ", 1843, vol. 28, No. 5, sec. 1, p. 80.

Lit.: Gunzburg, with. 207-08; Pumpyansky, with. 417; Peisakhovich(1), p. 435; Udodov(2), p. 127-31.

I. B. Rodnyanskaya Lermontov Encyclopedia / USSR Academy of Sciences. In-t rus. lit. (Pushkin. House); Scientific-ed. Council of the publishing house "Sov. Enzikl."; Ch. ed. Manuilov V. A., Editorial staff: Andronikov I. L., Bazanov V. G., Bushmin A. S., Vatsuro V. E., Zhdanov V. V., Khrapchenko M. B. - M .: Sov. Encycl., 1981

See what "From under the mysterious, cold half mask" is in other dictionaries:

    MOTIVES of Lermontov's poetry. The motif is a stable semantic element in lit. text, repeating within a series of folklore (where the motif means minimum unit plot structure) and lit. artistic prod. Motive m. b. considered in the context of all creativity ... ... Lermontov Encyclopedia

    "Lermontov" redirects here; see also other meanings. Mikhail Yurievich Lermontov ... Wikipedia

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    - "On the death of Pushkin" ... Wikipedia

    And, genus. pl. juice, dates skam, w. A narrow mask covering only upper part faces. Black half mask. Welder's half mask. □ From under the mysterious, cold half-mask Your voice resonated to me like a dream. Lermontov, From under the mysterious ... Her face ... ... Small Academic Dictionary

    HALF MASK, half masks, for women A narrow mask covering only the upper part of the face (forehead, eyebrows, part of the nose). “From under the mysterious cold half-mask, your voice sounded to me, gratifying, like a dream.” Lermontov. Dictionary Ushakov. D.N. Ushakov. 1935… … Explanatory Dictionary of Ushakov

    TRANSLATIONS AND STUDIES OF LERMONTOV IN THE LITERATURES OF THE PEOPLES OF THE USSR. The connections of L.'s creativity with the liters of the peoples of the USSR are numerous and diverse, they were implemented in different ways and carried out in individual liters, arose in different time depending on the… … Lermontov Encyclopedia

    MUSIC and Lermontov. Music in the life and work of L. The first muses. L. owes his impressions to his mother. In 1830 he wrote: “When I was three years old, there was a song that made me cry; I can’t remember her now, but I’m sure that if I had heard her, she would ... ... Lermontov Encyclopedia

In order to read the verse “From under the mysterious cold half-mask ...” by Lermontov Mikhail Yuryevich with the correct intonations, it is important to understand that it refers to love lyrics. It is believed that the poem, presumably written in 1841, hides the image of Varvara Lopukhina, with whose brother and sisters the poet was very friendly. Despite mutual sympathy, relations between young people could not develop (the Lopukhins family was against it). The beloved married another. Lermontov did not dare to compromise the girl. All that remained for him was brief meetings and admiration from the outside. There are no exact facts confirming the addressee of the lyrics. There is only a statement that Varvara was not indifferent to the poet until the end of his life.

The work introduces readers to the mysterious beauty, whose face is hidden by a half mask. But even in this form the smallest details the author recreates the image of a girl, declaring his love for her. He is already happy because he can keep in his soul a beautiful incorporeal vision.

The text of Lermontov's poem "From under the mysterious cold half-mask ..." is an ideal example of intimate poetry, suitable for in-depth analysis in a literature lesson (grades 10-11). On our website, you can simply download the poems in full or learn online.

From under the mysterious, cold half-mask
Your voice resounded to me like a dream.
Your captivating eyes shone on me
And the sly lips smiled.

Through the light haze, I involuntarily noticed
And virgin cheeks, and neck whiteness.
Lucky! I saw a masterful curl,
Native curls who left the wave! ..

And then I created in my imagination
By easy signs, my beauty;
And since then, a disembodied vision
I wear in my soul, caress and love.

And everything seems to me: these speeches are alive
In years past, I once heard;
And someone whispers to me that after this meeting
We'll see each other again like old friends.