Lermontov “From under the mysterious cold half mask”: analysis of the poem
The poem “From under a mysterious, cold half-mask...” was written by M.Yu. Lermontov in 1841. His style is romantic.
The work gives us many associations with the poet’s work. So, the atmosphere of the poem reminds us of a masquerade, we remember Lermontov’s drama with the same name, we remember the poem “How often, surrounded by a motley crowd...”. In the context of the poet’s entire work, we can consider lyrical hero as a lonely person opposed to society. In his soul (like any romantic hero) there is a confrontation between dreams and reality. The dream is a beautiful Stranger, who probably (like Blok) does not exist in reality. She has a “pleasant voice”, “a willful curl”, “living speeches”. But this dream is infinitely far from the lyrical hero. And this is conveyed at the very beginning of the poem. Thus, the “cold half-mask” conveys the heroine’s spiritual closeness, the smile of the sly lips is a daring challenge thrown to the hero. It turns out that even in his relationship with his beloved dream there is no harmony.
In addition, the image of the heroine is shaded and uncertain. When creating her portrait, the poet uses common epithets (“captivating eyes”) and words of high style (“virgin cheeks”). These definitions can be applied to any beauty. All this alienates the heroine even more. And close, harmonious relationships are impossible here. The soul of the lyrical hero endlessly yearns for his dear soul: “And everything seems to me: I once heard these speeches alive in the years gone by.” But the ending is disappointing: the hero and heroine will see each other “like old friends.” This excludes the possibility romantic relationships, love. Therefore, the lyrical hero remains infinitely lonely, twice lonely: his dream is distant and uncertain, but in reality there is no happiness.
Compositionally, the poem consists of two parts. The first part includes the first three stanzas. Here the theme of a beautiful dream develops, and the reader still allows for its embodiment in reality. The development of the theme, the depiction of the image here follows an ascending line and reaches its culmination in the third stanza.
The fourth stanza is the decline of the theme. The lyrical hero here comes closer to reality: in reality, his soulmate does not exist, and the dream excludes the possibility of a romantic relationship.
The poet uses a variety of means artistic expression: epithets (“from under the mysterious, cold half mask"), comparison ("pleasant, like a dream"), metaphor ("I carry an ethereal vision in my soul"), inversion ("my native curls left the wave"), vocabulary of high style ("virgin-flesh").
“From Under the Mysterious Cold Half Mask” by Lermontov is a love poem, noticeably different from his other creations written in the genre of love lyrics. What is special about this work and who served as the prototype for this mysterious woman?
What place does the poem occupy in the poet’s work?
Unfortunately, exact date spelling is unknown, but most literary scholars agree that it was the same fateful year for the poet - 1841. Again, it is not known for certain who the image of the mysterious stranger in the half-mask was based on. Some believe that this is Lermontov's last hobby.
This was a married woman, but she still responds to the poet’s feelings. By that time, Mikhail Yuryevich was already bored. But in order to meet his beloved, he had to attend balls. These meetings took place in silence, because according to etiquette in those days, married women were not allowed to speak with strangers. There are suggestions that one of these meetings inspired Lermontov to write “From Under the Mysterious Cold Half Mask.”
This small love poem differs from others in that it is filled not with raging passions, but with peaceful feelings. Perhaps this is due to the fact that by that time all youthful passions had been replaced by calm and deep feelings. After all, his relationship with Lopukhina could not develop, so Lermontov could only keep tender affection in his heart and admire it from the side.
Motives in the poem
When analyzing “From Under the Mysterious Cold Half Mask” by Lermontov, one should consider in more detail the motives that exist in this work. This is the motive of the meeting, because the hero meets a mysterious stranger at a masquerade ball. Despite the fact that she seems cold to him, he tries to capture the image of this mysterious beauty in his heart.
Next comes the recognition motive, when the hero recognizes speech and other features. And the motive of hope for the next meeting, at which they will already be old friends. But the hero would be happy about this, because he would be able to see that beauty again and just talk to her.
Composition of the work
Lermontov's poem "From Under the Mysterious Cold Half Mask" has the following composition:
Literary devices
In “From Under the Mysterious Cold Half-Mask,” Lermontov uses contrast to create the heroine’s appearance: sometimes she seems cold and distant to the hero in a half-mask. But beneath her, he is sure that she radiates warmth and kindness. Of course, when describing a woman’s appearance, the poet uses romantic cliches, but the image still turns out to be original.
Also, in order for the poem to be smooth and musical, Lermontov uses assonance, inversion and parallelism. Its mood is more optimistic than sad. This is evidenced by the last line, which expresses the poet’s hope of meeting a stranger.
“From Under the Mysterious Cold Half Mask” by Lermontov is a lyrical poem imbued with hope. There are no strong feelings here, but quiet admiration and tender affection for the image of a mysterious stranger, accidentally met at a ball by the poet’s lyrical hero. Perhaps the whole story about Lermontov and Lopukhina is true, but regardless of who the poem was addressed to, it takes its rightful place among lyrical works.
Poem. read by O. Efremov
“FROM UNDER THE MYSTERIOUS, COLD HALF MASK”, verse. (presumably 1841), characteristic of the intimate lyrics of the late period: unlike the early love cycles with their pathos of reproaches and confessions, the poet’s attention is no longer focused on history own feelings, and on female images, significant regardless of their involvement in the lyrical biography of the author.
Mikhail Lermontov
“From under a mysterious, cold half-mask...”
From under a mysterious, cold half mask
Your voice sounded to me as joyful as a dream,
Your captivating eyes shone on me,
And the wicked lips smiled.
Through the light haze I involuntarily noticed
And the virgin cheeks and necks are white.
Lucky! I also saw a willful lock of hair,
The native curls who left the wave!...
And then I created in my imagination
By slight signs of my beauty;
And from then on, an ethereal vision
I carry it in my soul, caress it and love it.
And everything seems to me: these speeches are alive
In the years gone by I once heard;
And someone whispers to me that after this meeting
We will see each other again, like old friends.
Read by Oleg Efremov
Oleg Nikolaevich Efremov (October 1, 1927, Moscow, - May 24, 2000, ibid.) - Soviet and Russian theater director, actor, teacher and theater figure. People's Artist USSR.
Oleg Efremov is 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 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 civil, 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 great influence on the most prominent Russian writers and poets of the 19th and 20th centuries. Lermontov's dramaturgy had a huge influence on the development of theatrical art. Lermontov's works received a great response in painting, theater, and cinema. His poems became a true treasure trove for opera, symphony and romance, many of them became folk songs.
Your captivating eyes shone on me
And the wicked lips smiled.
Through the light haze I involuntarily noticed
And virgin cheeks, and white necks.
Lucky! I also saw a willful lock of hair,
The native curls who left the wave!..
And then I created in my imagination
By slight signs of my beauty;
And from then on, an ethereal vision
I carry it in my soul, caress it and love it.
And everything seems to me: these speeches are alive
In the years gone by I once heard;
And someone whispers to me that after this meeting
We will see each other again, like old friends.
Analysis:The poem was supposedly written in 1841. Central topic- theme of love. Unlike the early love cycles, the mature poet’s attention is focused not on the history of his own feelings, but on female images.
In the first half of the poem (stanzas 1 and 2), the appearance of the beloved is formed: “cold half-mask” (a symbolic sign of spiritual closeness and challenge), “captivating eyes,” “cunning lips.” In the last two stanzas, an “ethereal vision” of a beauty appears, woven from “light signs,” among which the heroine’s “pleasant, like a dream” voice is especially highlighted. This in Lermontov's lyrics was usually associated with the sublime and secret essence of love. However, the final "old friends" defines the relationship as one that excludes unconditional worship and romantic distance.
Size: iambic (but not exactly)
SAIL
The lonely sail turns white
In the blue sea fog!..
What is he looking for in a distant land?
What did he throw in his native land?..
The waves are playing, the wind is whistling,
And the mast bends and creaks...
Alas! he is not looking for happiness
And he’s not running out of happiness!
Below him is a stream of lighter azure,
Above him is a golden ray of sun...
And he, the rebellious one, asks for a storm,
As if there is peace in the storms!
Analysis:
M.Yu. Lermontov began writing unusually early. The famous “Sail” is the creation of a seventeen-year-old poet.
Images of a storm, sea and sail are characteristic of Lermontov’s early lyrics, where freedom is poetically associated with loneliness and rebellious elements.
“Sail” is a poem with deep implications. The development of poetic thought in it is unique and reflected in the special composition of the work: the reader always sees a seascape with a sail and the author reflecting on them. Moreover, in the first two lines of each quatrain a picture of the changing sea appears, and in the last two the feeling evoked by it is conveyed. The composition of “Sails” clearly shows the separation of the sail and the lyrical hero of the poem.
The central image of the poem is also of two levels: it is a real sail that “glows white in the blue fog of the sea,” and at the same time a person with a certain fate and character.
A double movement is felt in the composition: the sail goes deeper into the expanses of the sea element. This is the external plot of the poem. Another movement is connected with our understanding of the mystery of the sail: from the questions of the 1st stanza to the sympathetic exclamations of the second, from them to the recognition of the most passionate and cherished desire of the sail and the assessment of this desire.
In stanza 1, the poet’s gaze stops at the fog-shrouded sea with a lonely sail that turns white without merging with the sea. How many people have seen such a landscape more than once in their lives, but Lermontov has poetic reflection associated with it. Questions arise:
What is he looking for in a distant land?
What did he throw in his native land?
The antithesis seeks - threw, distant - native introduces contrast into the poem, which serves as the basis of the composition in this work.
The verse sounds light and smooth, the abundance of sounds L, R, N, M and the omission of the same stress in the first two lines convey a slight sway sea wave during calm weather.
But the sea is changing. The rushing wind raised the waves, and they seemed ready to crush the sail, “the mast bends and creaks.” The whistle of the wind and the sound of the sea are conveyed by a new sound scale: S, T, Ch, Shch become predominant. The feeling of vague anxiety at the sight of this picture turns into sad hopelessness from the consciousness that there was no happiness for the sail and that happiness is generally impossible for him:
Alas! He's not looking for happiness
And he’s not running out of happiness.
Loneliness and space do not bring freedom from painful questions; facing a storm does not bring happiness. The storm does not relieve the sail from the tedium of existence, but the storm is still preferable to peace and harmony. This idea is heard in the last stanza of the poem.
And again the sea calms down and turns blue, the sun shines. But this picture, pleasing to the eyes, calms down for only a short time. The author’s thought is in contrast to her mood and sounds like a challenge to all calm:
And he, the rebellious one, asks for a storm,
As if there is peace in the storms!
Sharp transitions from one state to another, changes in contrasting landscapes emphasize the multi-temporality of events, their dissimilarity from each other. The sail, however, in all cases resists its surroundings. The contrasts of the landscapes reveal the opposition of the sail to any environment, reveal its rebellion, the tirelessness of its movement, the eternal disagreement of the sail with the world.
Nature in “Sail,” as in many of the poet’s poems, is picturesque. Here is a whole palette of bright and joyful colors: blue (fog), azure (sea), gold (rays of the sun), white (sail).
The poet characterizes the main character of the poem with two epithets: “lonely” and “rebellious.” For Lermontov, loneliness is associated with the impossibility of happiness, hence the slight sadness at the very beginning of the poem. But the sail is not afraid of storms, is strong in spirit and unyielding to fate - rebellious!
For many generations, the poem “Sail” became not only a poetic recognition of Lermontov, but also a symbol of anxious restlessness, eternal searches, and the courageous opposition of a high soul to an insignificant world.
Size: 4 iambic
DEATH OF A POET
Vengeance, sir, vengeance!
I will fall at your feet:
Be fair and punish the murderer
So that his execution in later centuries
Your rightful judgment was announced to posterity,
So that the villains can see her as an example.
The poet died! - a slave of honor -
Fell, slandered by rumor,
With lead in my chest and a thirst for revenge,
Hanging his proud head!..
The poet's soul could not bear it
The shame of petty grievances,
He rebelled against the opinions of the world
Alone, as before... and killed!
Killed!.. Why sobs now,
Empty praise unnecessary chorus
And the pathetic babble of excuses?
Fate has reached its conclusion!
Weren't you the one who persecuted me so viciously at first?
His free, bold gift
And they inflated it for fun
A slightly hidden fire?
Well? have fun... He's tormenting
I couldn't stand the last ones:
The ceremonial wreath has faded.
His killer in cold blood
Strike... there is no escape:
An empty heart beats evenly,
The pistol did not waver in his hand.
And what a miracle?... from afar,
Like hundreds of fugitives,
To catch happiness and ranks
Thrown to us by the will of fate;
Laughing, he boldly despised
The land has a foreign language and customs;
He could not spare our glory;
I couldn’t understand at this bloody moment,
On Thu O he raised his hand!..
And he is killed - and taken by the grave,
The prey of deaf jealousy,
Sung by him with such wonderful power,
Struck down, like him, by a merciless hand.
Why from peaceful bliss and simple-minded friendship
He entered this envious and stuffy world
For a free heart and fiery passions?
Why did he give his hand to insignificant slanderers,
Why did he believe false words and caresses,
He, with youth who has comprehended people?..
And having taken off the former crown, they are a crown of thorns,
Entwined with laurels, they put on him:
But the secret needles are harsh
They wounded the glorious brow;
His last moments were poisoned
The insidious whispers of mocking ignoramuses,
And he died - with a vain thirst for vengeance,
With annoyance and the secret of disappointed hopes.
The sounds of wonderful songs have fallen silent,
Do not give them away again:
The singer's shelter is gloomy and cramped,
And his seal is on his lips.
_____________________
And you, arrogant descendants
The famous meanness of the illustrious fathers,
The fifth slave trampled the wreckage
The game of happiness of offended births!
You, standing in a greedy crowd at the throne,
Executioners of Freedom, Genius and Glory!
You are hiding under the shadow of the law,
There is a trial before you and the truth - keep quiet!..
But there is also God’s judgment, the confidants of depravity!
There is a terrible judgment: it awaits;
It is not accessible to the ringing of gold,
He knows both thoughts and deeds in advance.
Then in vain you will resort to slander:
It won't help you again
And you won't wash away with all your black blood
Poet's righteous blood!
Analysis:The poem “Death of a Poet” was written in 1837. This poem is associated with the death of A.S. Pushkin. When Pushkin was dying, Lermontov was ill. Lermontov was the first to write the truth about the death of A.S. Pushkin. Even Pushkin's friends were afraid to do this.
The poem “Death of a Poet” consists of two parts. The first part is an elegy, and the second is a satire. In this poem, Lermontov blames not only Dantes for Pushkin’s death, but also the entire society. According to Lermontov, the reason for Pushkin’s death is that the poet was doomed to loneliness and could not bear it. He rushes into a world alien to him and dies.
Pushkin died because “he rebelled against the opinions of the world...”. Secular society does not understand “his free, bold gift.” Lermontov compares Pushkin with Lensky from A.S. Pushkin’s novel “Eugene Onegin”:
... And he was killed - and taken by the grave,
Like that singer, unknown but sweet,
The prey of deaf jealousy...
Lermontov wants to show with this poem that Pushkin’s death is to blame secular society, which did not understand Pushkin when he was still alive. But then Lermontov writes:
Killed!.. why sobs now,
Empty praise unnecessary chorus
And the pathetic babble of excuses?
Fate has reached its conclusion!
In the first part of the poem, Lermontov takes several lines from other writers and changes them slightly.
The second part of the poem is a response to the judgments of those who justified the poet’s murderers:
And you, arrogant descendants
The famous meanness of the illustrious fathers...
Lermontov believes that if not earthly court, then “God’s court” will punish those who justified the poet’s murderers:
There is a terrible judgment: it awaits;
In his poem, Lermontov uses comparisons:
The wondrous genius has faded away like a torch,
The ceremonial wreath has faded.
Pushkin is like a candle that lights the way, and like a “solemn wreath” that decorates.
Size: 4iamb
Afanasy Afanasyevich Fet
"Dawn bids farewell to the earth"
Analysis: Already in the first lines the main antithesis is given on which the entire poem is built: the evening dawn above the earth and the darkening foggy valleys.
Mikhail Yurievich Lermontov
From under a mysterious, cold half mask
Your voice sounded joyful to me, like a dream.
Your captivating eyes shone on me
And the wicked lips smiled.
Through the light haze I involuntarily noticed
And virgin cheeks, and white necks.
Lucky! I also saw a willful lock of hair,
The native curls who left the wave!..
And then I created in my imagination
By slight signs of my beauty;
And from then on, an ethereal vision
I carry it in my soul, caress it and love it.
And everything seems to me: these speeches are alive
In the years gone by I once heard;
And someone whispers to me that after this meeting
We will see each other again, like old friends.
If early love lyrics Mikhail Lermontov was full of mental suffering and drama, but in later poems some peace is felt. 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 favor of this flighty person, not realizing that there was no place for reciprocal feelings in her heart. However, shortly before his death, Lermontov began an affair with Varvara Lopukhina, who by that time was married, but still responded to the poet’s feelings. The poem “From Under the Mysterious, Cold Half Mask...” is dedicated to her.
Varvara Lopukhina, after her husband Bakhmetev. Watercolor by Mikhail Lermontov
Presumably, it was written in the winter of 1841, when Lermontov arrived in St. Petersburg, expecting to resign. However, his report was not accepted, and the young officer had no choice but to enjoy the last vacation of his life. He spent it in secular salons and at balls, which he attended with the sole purpose of seeing Lopukhina. One of these meetings served as the occasion for the creation of the poem. In it, the poet’s beloved appears in the form of a mysterious stranger, whose face is hidden by a mask. However, even among hundreds of ladies, Lermontov is able to unmistakably recognize the one who occupies all his thoughts. After all, it was to him that evening that “captivating eyes shone and sly lips smiled.”
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 their own spouses or relatives. Therefore, Lermontov could not afford to speak to Lopukhina in the presence of all the secular gossips. He had to be content with little - furtive glances, exchanges of smiles and secret handshakes. Nevertheless, the poet considers himself lucky, since that evening he was able to notice both “the whiteness of his neck” and “a willful lock of curls that had left the wave.” Everything else was completed by his rich imagination, to which the author was very grateful. Moreover, in his mind he composed an entire dialogue with his beloved, which he believed in immediately and unconditionally. Moreover, even after the ball, the poet admits that he had already heard “these speeches live”, but cannot remember with whom else he could have such conversations. Lermontov has no illusions about how his relationship with Lopukhina will develop, since he does not intend to destroy the marriage of his chosen one. Therefore, admiring the beauty of this woman, he honestly admits: “We will see each other again, like old friends.”