Bunin's lyrics occupy a fairly significant place in his work, despite the fact that Ivan Alekseevich gained fame primarily as a prose writer. However, Ivan Bunin himself claimed that he was first and foremost a poet. This author’s path in literature began with poetry.
It is worth noting that Bunin’s lyrics run through his entire work and are characteristic not only of the early stage of development of his artistic thought. Bunin's original poems, unique in their artistic style, are difficult to confuse with the works of other authors. This individual style reflected the poet's worldview.
Bunin's first poems
When Ivan Alekseevich turned 17 years old, his first poem was published in the magazine “Rodina”. It's called "Village Beggar". In this work, the poet talks about the sad state in which the Russian village was at that time.
From the very beginning of Ivan Alekseevich’s literary activity, Bunin’s lyrics have been characterized by their special style, manner and themes. Many of his poems from his early years reflect the state of mind of Ivan Alekseevich, his subtle inner world, rich in shades of feelings. Bunin's quiet, intelligent lyrics from this period are reminiscent of a conversation with a close friend. However, she amazed her contemporaries with her artistry and high technique. Many critics admired Bunin's poetic gift and the author's mastery of language. It should be said that Ivan Alekseevich drew many accurate comparisons and epithets from works of folk art. Paustovsky highly valued Bunin. He said that every line of it was clear, like a string.
In his early work, not only Bunin’s landscape lyrics are found. His poems are also devoted to civil themes. He created works about the plight of the people; with all his soul he longed for change for the better. For example, in a poem called “Desolation,” the old house tells Ivan Alekseevich that he is waiting for “destruction,” “brave voices,” and “mighty hands” so that life will bloom again “from the dust on the grave.”
"Leaf Fall"
The first collection of poetry by this author is called “Falling Leaves.” It appeared in 1901. This collection included a poem of the same name. Bunin says goodbye to childhood, to his inherent world of dreams. In the poems in the collection, the homeland appears in wonderful pictures of nature. It evokes a sea of emotions and feelings.
In Bunin's landscape lyrics, the image of autumn is most often encountered. It was with him that his work as a poet began. This image will illuminate the poems of Ivan Alekseevich with its golden radiance until the end of his life. Autumn in the poem “Falling Leaves” “comes to life”: the forest, which has dried out from the sun over the summer, smells of pine and oak, and autumn enters its “mansion” as a “quiet widow.”
Blok noted that few people can know and love their native nature like Bunin. He also added that Ivan Alekseevich claims to occupy one of the central places in Russian poetry. A distinctive feature of both the lyrics and prose of Ivan Bunin was the rich artistic perception of his native nature, the world, and also the people in it. Gorky compared this poet in terms of his skill in creating landscapes with Levitan himself. And many other writers and critics liked Bunin’s lyrics, their philosophical nature, laconicism and sophistication.
Commitment to poetic tradition
Ivan Alekseevich lived and worked at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries. At this time, various modernist movements were actively developing in poetry. Word creation was in vogue, many authors were engaged in it. To express their feelings and thoughts, they looked for very unusual forms, which sometimes shocked readers. However, Ivan Bunin adhered to the classical traditions of Russian poetry, which were developed in their work by Tyutchev, Fet, Polonsky, Baratynsky and others. Ivan Alekseevich created realistic lyrical poems and did not at all strive for modernist experiments with words. The poet had enough of the events of reality and the riches of the Russian language. The main motives of Bunin's lyrics remain generally traditional.
Just I. A. Bunin
In Bunin's poetry, the problems of modernity are correlated with the concepts of good and evil, life and death. The poet is looking for the truth, in its search he turns to the history and religion of other countries. He is trying to understand according to what laws society and man as a whole develop. According to him, a person’s life is nothing more than a short period of eternity. He wants to see what is on the other side of life, and does not want to acknowledge the destruction of the noble way of life.
This is the uniqueness of Bunin's poetry. It was as if she was a century late, did not suffer from the motives of the revolution, did not succumb to modernist trends. Following the best classical traditions, Bunin is free to express his thoughts. He doesn't waste time coming up with something new, because there is still so much left unsaid.
Writer and artist rolled into one. Even though he never held brushes in his hands, or stood thoughtfully at a blank canvas on an easel, his poems are the same as paintings. So bright, lively and accurate. Laconic, restrained, laconic, at times unfinished, but at the same time complete. What is this? Mysticism, hypnosis, hack? Not at all. Just Bunin's poetry.
"Ghosts"
Bunin is classic. This author has absorbed into his work all the enormous wealth of Russian poetry of the 19th century. Bunin often emphasizes this continuity in form and content. Thus, in the poem “Ghosts,” Ivan Alekseevich defiantly declares to the reader: “No, the dead did not die for us!” For the poet, vigilance for ghosts means devotion to the departed. However, this same work indicates that Bunin is sensitive to the latest phenomena in Russian poetry. In addition, he is interested in poetic interpretations of myth, everything subconscious, irrational, sad and musical. It is from here that the images of harps, ghosts, slumbering sounds come from, as well as a special melodiousness akin to Balmont.
Loneliness and nature in Bunin's lyrics
As we have already said, Bunin wrote very often about nature. But, as the poet wrote, it was not the landscape that attracted him and it was not the colors that he sought to notice, but the fact that love and the joy of being shine in these colors. By describing nature, the poet made it possible to understand the mental state of the lyrical hero and his experiences. Meanwhile, the hero of Bunin’s works is constantly sad about his youth and the moments he experienced. He tries to look into the future and accept the past. Speaking about the state of the heroes of Bunin’s poems, this is eternal loneliness, and the theme of loneliness is played out by the writer in different ways. So we can see that loneliness is like grace for the soul, but it can also turn out to be a dark dungeon, imprisonment for the soul.
As a result, we can say for sure: Bunin’s lyrics are laconism, sophistication and philosophy.
"Ghosts"
Bunin is classic. This author has absorbed into his work all the enormous wealth of Russian poetry of the 19th century. Bunin often emphasizes this continuity in form and content. Thus, in the poem “Ghosts,” Ivan Alekseevich defiantly declares to the reader: “No, the dead did not die for us!” For the poet, vigilance for ghosts means devotion to the departed. However, this same work indicates that Bunin is sensitive to the latest phenomena in Russian poetry. In addition, he is interested in poetic interpretations of myth, everything subconscious, irrational, sad and musical. It is from here that the images of harps, ghosts, slumbering sounds come from, as well as a special melodiousness akin to Balmont.
3 pages, 1451 words
Nature and man in the lyrics of feta message. nature in feta's lyrics
... Fet can be called the most lyrical lyricist of the 19th century. Fet is a subjective poet, a poet of vague, unspoken, vague feelings, “half-feelings.” Fet is called the singer of beauty. He loved and knew how to appreciate music, nature, and beautiful people. In... rather a poet-musician.” Fet carefully and lovingly observed the life of nature. In his poems, nature has a soul, it is full of harmony. Roses are sad and laughing in the flower garden...
Transformation of landscape lyrics into philosophical ones
Bunin in his poems tried to find the meaning of human life, the harmony of the world. He affirmed the wisdom and eternity of nature, which he considered an inexhaustible source of beauty. These are the main motives of Bunin's lyrics, running through all of his work. Ivan Alekseevich always shows human life in the context of nature. The poet was sure that all living things are intelligent. He argued that one cannot talk about a nature separate from us. After all, any, even the most insignificant movement of air is the movement of our life.
Gradually, Bunin's landscape lyrics, the features of which we noted, turn into philosophical ones. For the author, the most important thing in a poem is now thought. Many of Ivan Alekseevich’s creations are devoted to the theme of life and death. Bunin's philosophical lyrics are very diverse thematically. His poems, however, are often difficult to fit into the framework of any one topic. This is worth mentioning separately.
Thematic facets of poems
Speaking about the lyrics of Ivan Alekseevich, it is difficult to clearly define the themes of his poetry, since it represents a combination of various thematic facets. The following faces can be distinguished:
- poems about life,
- about her joy
- about childhood and youth,
- about longing
- about loneliness.
That is, Ivan Alekseevich wrote in general about a person, about what touches him.
Essay on the theme of Bunin's lyrics - a story about the eternal and the transitory
Speaking about the work of the Russian writer Ivan Bunin, they often note deeply pessimistic moods, sadness, and tragic thoughts about life and death. In the stories published during the Civil War (two collections - “The Cup of Life” and “The Gentleman from San Francisco”), the sense of the catastrophic nature of human life, the vanity of the search for “eternal happiness” is extremely acute. The contradictions of social life in these works are reflected in the sharp contrast of characters and opposition of the basic principles of existence. “He was painfully preoccupied with the fluidity of time, old age, death...” - confirmed the writer V. Nabokov. In this regard, one cannot help but recall the difficult fate of Bunin himself. Emigration became a tragic milestone in the writer’s biography, which influenced not only his future life, but also his worldview, views and ideas, which, of course, were reflected in his work. Bunin had to suddenly and forever leave his native Russian land, to which he was attached “with love to the point of heartache.” The tragedy of life was reflected in gloomy moods in the works of this period, in which the writer began to increasingly delve into philosophical reflections on the meaning of life and death. Already in one of the first stories dedicated to parting with his native places (“To the ends of the world”), Bunin turns his mind’s eye to the infinite Universe: “And only the stars and mounds listened to the dead silence on the steppe and the breathing of people who had forgotten in their sleep their grief and distant roads...” And all the worries and worries of a person become meaningless in the face of eternity, in the face of inevitable death. But why does the topic of death arise so acutely in I. Bunin’s prose? Why does he speak with such heart-aching pain about the tragic fate of a people torn from their native land? Without a doubt, only a person who is wholeheartedly devoted to his homeland, whose life can only fully take place surrounded by native forests, fields, rivers, lakes and quiet village streets, can feel and acutely experience a people's tragedy so subtly. Yes, this person actually loves life with all his heart, and therefore a break with his homeland for him is tantamount to a break with life. “People are not at all equally sensitive to death,” writes Bunin in “The Life of Arsenyev.” “There are people who live all their lives under its sign, and from infancy have a heightened sense of death (most often due to an equally heightened sense of life) ... I belong to such people.” The writer speaks on behalf of his hero, but in reality these are his own thoughts, his own deep feelings. It is no coincidence that “The Life of Arsenyev” is often classified as Bunin’s autobiographical works. It was this “heightened sense of death,” based on the same “heightened sense of life,” that was characteristic of the author himself. Constantly observing the irreversibly passing life, Bunin at the same time tries to combine, connect the existence of an individual person, an individual destiny with “eternity” and “infinity”. He tries to find in any transitory life signs of its continuation in historical development, signs of its infinity. It is the awareness that death is inevitable, combined with a great love for people and love for life, that makes the writer seriously think about his purpose, about what needs to be done in this life so as not to be forgotten, in order to “continue” for centuries. That is why Bunin sees a certain “extension” of life in the inseparability of man and humanity, in building strong bridges between one and many, between the past, present and future of the entire people, the entire earth. “Blessed hours pass and... it is necessary, necessary... to preserve at least somehow and at least something, that is, to oppose death...” the writer noted. It is this idea that continues in many of his works. For Bunin, the expression of unfulfilled hopes and the general tragedy of life becomes the feeling of love, in which he sees the only justification of existence. The idea of love as the highest value of life is the main pathos of Bunin’s works of the emigrant period. "Everything passes. “Everything is forgotten,” says the hero of the story “Dark Alleys” Nikolai Alekseevich, but Nadezhda objects to him: “Everything passes, but not everything is forgotten.” We cannot allow everything to be forgotten—this is the author’s firm position. This position was not always correctly understood by critics during the writer’s lifetime. Bunin was openly outraged and upset by the misinterpretations of his works as “decadent”, “pessimistic”, “joyless”. He did not agree that his work was the work of “fading”; he did not have that “sadness of desolation” that was often mentioned in reviews of his stories and stories. They wrote about the story “The Village” precisely as a work “frozen with light sadness and the lyricism of withering and desolation.” Bunin categorically disagreed with this: “This is a completely incorrect characterization. In fact, in “The Village” there is no trace of sadness or lyricism, just as there is no withering or desolation.” The story, as well as the writer’s other works, reflects only reality, and the sadness is caused precisely by the fact that this reality - the actual life of the Russian village, Bunin’s beloved homeland - is not as joyful as he would like. As already mentioned, life for the writer was inextricably linked with his homeland. And only this life could he describe in his works. Bunin was homesick. A painful process of revaluation of values took place in him. The same Bunin, who in the first years after the revolution decided never to return to Soviet Russia, on the eve of the attack of Nazi Germany on his homeland in May 1941, wrote to N.D. Teleshov: “I really want to go home,” a few days later to A.N. Tolstoy - about the same thing. The latter began to work for permission for Bunin to return, but war broke out... Bunin suffered in separation from his homeland, which is why sometimes it seems that he is writing about the completion, the end of this life. That's how it was, in general. For a Russian writer, the need to leave his homeland can only be justified by the good for the homeland, the dream of its freedom and happiness. Bunin did not have this excuse. That is why the main motives for him are the finitude of existence, philosophical delving into the problems of life and death. Despite the leading role of tragic motives in different periods of creativity, this tragedy appears only when the author realizes the bitterness of life’s hardships and the hopelessness of wasted efforts. Then, when Bunin sees the significance of human activity, he comes to the idea of the eternal, including the eternal life of humanity. The work of I. A. Bunin is dear to us because his works capture life in its diverse manifestations. The main tone of his poetic words about Russia is sad: from elegy to extreme melancholy and despair. Nevertheless, in his poetry and prose, praise loudly sounds to everything living, blooming, everything human - that which is always dear and sacred. Bunin’s optimism can be expressed in the words of the hero of the sketch “Blind”, offended by life and yet glorifying it: “I walk, I breathe, I see, I feel - I carry life within me, its fullness and joy... This means that I perceive, accept everything that surrounds me, that is sweet, pleasant, related to me, evokes love in me. So life is, undoubtedly, love, goodness, that, and a decrease in love, kindness is always a decrease in life, there is already death.”
"Evening" and "The Sky Opened"
One of these facets are poems about the human world and the natural world. Thus, “Evening” is a work written in the form of a classic sonnet. In both Pushkin and Shakespeare one can find philosophical sonnets and sonnets about love. Bunin glorifies the natural world and the human world in this genre. Ivan Alekseevich wrote that we always only remember happiness, but it is everywhere. Perhaps this is the “autumn garden behind the barn” and clean air flowing through the window.
People are not always able to look at familiar things with an unusual look. We often simply do not notice them, and happiness eludes us. However, neither a bird nor a cloud escapes the poet’s watchful eye. It is these simple things that bring happiness. Its formula is expressed in the last line of this work: “I see, I hear, I am happy. Everything is in me."
The image of the sky predominates in this poem. Connected with this image, in particular, is the affirmation of the eternity of nature in Bunin’s lyrics. It is the leitmotif in the entire poetic work of Ivan Alekseevich. The sky represents life because it is eternal and extraordinary. His image is depicted, for example, in the verse “The sky opened.” Here it is the center of reflection on life. However, the image of the sky is closely connected with other images - light, day, birch. All of them seem to illuminate the work, and the birch tree gives the verse a white satin light.
Poetry I.A. Bunina. Main themes and images
Bunin entered literature through poetry. He said: “I am a poet more than a writer.” However, for Bunin, a poet is a person with a special view of the world. Speaking about his lyrics, we cannot clearly distinguish the themes of his poetry, because Bunin’s poetry and prose seem to go side by side. His lyrics are a collection of subtle thematic facets. In Bunin's poetry one can distinguish such thematic facets as poems about life, about the joy of earthly existence, poems about childhood and youth, about loneliness, and melancholy. That is, Bunin wrote about life, about man, about what touches a person. One of these facets is poems about the natural world and the human world. The poem “Evening” is written in the genre of a classic sonnet. Shakespeare and Pushkin have sonnets about love, philosophical sonnets. Bunin’s sonnet glorifies the world of man and the world of nature. We always only remember about happiness. And happiness is everywhere. Maybe it’s this autumn garden behind the barn And the clean air flowing through the window. In the bottomless sky, with a light, clean cut, a cloud rises and shines. I have been following him for a long time... We see and know little. And happiness is given only to those who know. The window is open. A bird squeaked and sat on the windowsill. And I take my tired gaze away from books for a moment. The day is getting dark, the sky is empty, the hum of a threshing machine can be heard on the threshing floor. I see, I hear, I am happy. Everything is in me. This poem says that we chase happiness, look for it, but do not realize that it is around us (“We only remember about happiness...”).
23 pages, 11034 words
Message Bunin is the finest painter of nature. “The natural world in creativity...
... which turns into anxiety and dying. Bunin would write many more poems about nature. Love for the summer thunderstorm in “The Fields Smell,” delight... Bunin managed to convey all his memories of noble life, immersing us in the atmosphere of that era with the help of sounds, colors and smells that convey the subtlest... Fit in consonance and sounds?. Happiness for Bunin is complete merging with nature, but it is available only to those...
People cannot always look at ordinary things with an unusual eye; they don’t notice them, they don’t notice happiness. (“We see little, we know little, and happiness is given only to those who know”).
But neither a cloud nor a bird, these everyday things that bring happiness, will escape the poet’s keen eye. Bunin’s formula of happiness is expressed in the last line of the poem: “I see, I hear, I am happy. Everything is in me." The image of the sky dominates the poem. In Bunin's lyrics, the sky is the leitmotif, it personifies life, it is extraordinary and eternal. The image of the sky is depicted in the poem “The Sky Opened.” In this poem, the sky is the center of reflection on life, but its image is interconnected with other images - day, light, birch. They seem to illuminate the entire poem, the birch giving it a white satin light. Dry leaves, a spicy smell, The satin shine of a birch tree... Oh, a happy moment, a deceptive moment, A hundredfold blissful melancholy. In these poems, Bunin seems to tell us that the world is around us and gives us happy moments. Bunin is classic. He absorbed into his TV all the wealth of Russian poetry of the 19th century. and often emphasizes this continuity in content and form. In the poem “Ghosts” he defiantly declares: “No, the dead did not die for us!” For the poet, vigilance for ghosts is tantamount to devotion to the departed. But this verse testifies to Bunin’s sensitivity to the latest phenomena of Russian poetry, to his interest in poetic poetry. interpretation of myth, to the transmission of the irrational, subconscious, sad and musical. Hence the images of ghosts, harps, dormant sounds, and a melodiousness akin to Balmont. The captivating beauty of the poem “Falling Leaves” is immediately realized by the reader: he cannot remain indifferent to this poetic. panorama of the forest at the time of its withering, when the colors change before our eyes, and nature undergoes its sorrowful and inevitable renewal. The close fusion of the painted pictures with folklore images of Russian fairy tales and beliefs is also captivating. Hence the extensive likening of the forest to a huge painted mansion with its walls, windows and wonderful folk carvings. The forest is beautiful, but with sad obviousness it is changing, emptying like a home, dying, like the entire way of life that has developed over the years. Just as man becomes increasingly alienated from nature, so does the lyre. the hero is forced to tear the threads connecting him with his native lands, his stepfather's land, and the past. This subtext underlies the poem and forms the symbolic image of Autumn, whose name is written with a capital letter. She is also called the “fading widow” whose happiness is like that of the lyre. hero, turning out to be short-lived. This determines the symbolic and philosophical character of the poem. Bunin's love poetry anticipates the cycle of stories "Dark Alleys". The poems reflect different shades of feelings. The poem “The sadness of shining and black eyelashes...” is imbued with the sadness of love, the sadness of saying goodbye to a loved one. The sadness of shining and black eyelashes Diamonds of tears, abundant, rebellious, And again the fire of heavenly eyes - Happy, joyful, humble I remember everything... But we are no longer in the world, Once young and blessed! Where do you appear to me from? Why are you resurrected in a dream, Shining with timeless charm, And the delight is wonderfully repeated, That brief earthly meeting, What God gave us and immediately dissolved again? The poem is divided into 2 stanzas. In the first, the poet remembers his beloved, her image still lives in his eyes, heart and soul. However, he realizes with bitterness that they have changed, and she, the old one, can no longer be returned (this is emphasized by the exclamation: “But we, once young and blessed, are no longer in the world!”).
13 pages, 6168 words
The theme of love in the poetry of A.A. Blok and S.A. Yesenin
... plagiarism Essay: The theme of love in the poetry of A.A. Blok and S.A. Yesenin The creative path of both A.A. Blok and S.A. Yesenin was complex and difficult, full of sharp contradictions, but ultimately direct and ... of the most popular and beloved poems - “Stranger”. It is part of the “City” cycle, in which the theme of the “black city”, hostile to the happiness and beauty of people, was so poignantly heard. ...
His tenderness in describing his beloved is emphasized by artistic means, such as metaphor (“diamonds of tears,” “fire of eyes,” “sadness of eyelashes”) and epithets (shining eyelashes, rebellious tears, heavenly eyes).
In the second stanza, the lyrical hero is tormented by questions about why she still comes to him in a dream, and recalls the delight of meeting her. His thoughts are expressed in the poem by rhetorical questions, and there is no answer to them. Poem "What's Ahead?" is filled with an atmosphere of happiness and tranquility, as evidenced by the lines What's ahead? Happy long journey. She calmly directs her eyes somewhere into the distance, and her young breast breathes easily and regularly and slightly separates the collar from the neck - And I feel the faint aroma of Her hair, her breath - and I smell the sweet return of past delights... What is there, in the distance? But I look, longing, Not forward, no, I look back. The lyrical hero understands that happiness with his beloved awaits him ahead, but he thinks about the past with sadness and does not want to let it go. Poems about love reveal different facets of feeling. In Bunin’s poetry, “star lyrics” are especially emphasized; this is the focus of the themes of the sky, stars, eternity and beauty. He wrote magnificent night, twilight poems, as if filled with shimmer. This can be explained by his special perception of the world. Bunin said: “I will not tire of chanting you, stars.” One of these songs to the stars was the poem “Sirius”. Where are you, my cherished star, Crown of heavenly beauty? Unrequited charm of snow and lunar heights? Where is youth simple, pure, In the circle of loved ones and family, And the old house, and the resinous spruce In the white snowdrifts outside the window? Blaze, play with hundred-colored power, Unquenchable star, Over my distant grave, Forgotten by God forever! The star Sirius is white, hundred-colored, the brightest star in the night sky. In Ancient Egypt, Sirius was considered a sacred star. This poem intertwines admiration for the beloved star and the philosophical reflections of the lyrical hero. The star is a symbol of fate; it is associated with life, youth, and homeland. Bunin considers the star a philosophical concept, since both man on earth and the star in the sky have a high mission - to serve eternal beauty. Bunin, as an inquisitive and life-loving person, was attracted by time, past and present. He has a number of poems on this topic, the most striking of which is “The Censer.” “In a forgotten monastery” ... “a censer, long extinguished, long ago empty, lies - all black inside from the coal and tar that once burned in it.” The censer is a symbol of the bygone past. But its black bottom suggests that there was a fire burning in it, which means that life was burning in it. In the second part of the poem, Bunin makes a call to himself, to his heart. You, heart full of fire and aroma, do not forget about her. Burn to blackness. That is, the author calls to live - to burn, as the ancient censer burned. In this we see the desire of the lyrical hero to fulfill the mission of his earthly stay to the end. Along with such eternal values of life as beauty of nature, love, goodness, merging with the surrounding world, work, tireless knowledge of the truth, there is, according to Bunin, another one - mastery of one’s native speech, familiarity with the Writings. In the poem “The Word,” the poet puts this human property as a special, immortal gift. This is exactly the “verb” that can turn a person into a god, and a poet into a prophet. This is exactly the value, cat. “in days of anger and suffering, at the world graveyard leaves people hope for salvation. So, the main features of the lyres. Bunin's poetry - aspirations to describe. details, brightness specific details, classic simplicity, laconicism, poeticization of eternal people. values, and first of all – native nature. The richness of subtext, frequent reference to symbolism, close fusion with Russian. prose, in particular with Chekhov's novels; attraction to the philosophical, frequent echoes of one’s own. stories. attraction to the philosophical, frequent echoes of their own. stories.
2 pages, 624 words
“All love is great happiness, even if it doesn’t...
... you live and breathe the person you love. Of course, “All love is happiness, even if it is not divided,” but I still want to... create a cycle of stories “Dark Alleys.” The main theme of this cycle is the theme of love. For Bunin, in true love there is something ... alley." The love between the master Nikolai Alekseevich and the peasant woman Nadezhda could not be happy, because according to the laws of that...
Reflection of modernity in Bunin's lyrics
It is noteworthy that when the revolution had already begun in Russia, its processes were not reflected in the poetic work of Ivan Alekseevich. He remained faithful to the philosophical theme. It was more important for the poet to know not what was happening, but why it was happening to a person.
Ivan Alekseevich correlated modern problems with eternal concepts - life and death, good and evil. Trying to find the truth, he turned in his work to the history of various peoples and countries. This is how poems about ancient deities, Buddha, Mohammed appeared.
It was important for the poet to understand by what general laws an individual and society as a whole develop. He recognized that our life on earth is only a segment of the eternal existence of the Universe. This is where the motives of fate and loneliness emerge. Ivan Alekseevich foresaw the coming catastrophe of the revolution. He considered this to be the greatest misfortune.
Ivan Bunin sought to look beyond the boundaries of reality. He was interested in the mystery of death, the breath of which can be felt in many of this author’s poems. The destruction of the nobility as a class and the impoverishment of the landowners' estates gave him a feeling of doom. However, despite the pessimism, Ivan Alekseevich saw a way out, which lies in the merging of man with nature, in its eternal beauty and peace.
Bunin's lyrics are very multifaceted. Briefly, within the framework of one article, we can note only its main features and give only a few examples. Let's say a few words about the love lyrics of this author. She is also quite interesting.
Ivan Alekseevich Bunin is one of the greatest poets of the twentieth century. Today this sounds like an axiom. However, for a long time, the fame of Bunin the prose writer somewhat obscured his poetry for readers. “Antonov Apples”, “Village”, “Sukhodol”, “Easy Breath” - these works were perceived as something more significant than Bunin’s poetry. But the writer’s lyrics show us an example of high, national culture.
Love for the native land, its nature, its history inspires Bunin’s muse. At the turn of the twentieth century, when the first shoots of proletarian literature were already emerging and the symbolist movement was gaining strength, Bunin’s poems stood out for their commitment to strong classical traditions. The poetry of Pushkin, Tyutchev, Fet, Nikitin left a deep mark on the writer’s soul because it was, as it were, part of the world around him. It was this poetry that translated into the language of art the impressions that young Bunin received. The first stage of the poet’s work is marked by the significant influence on him of such names as Koltsov and Nikitin. Bunin sees them as not just major poets, but also major national artists who serve as role models.
Proximity to nature, to village life, its labor interests, and its aesthetics could not but be reflected in the formation of young Bunin’s literary tastes and passions. His poetry becomes deeply national. The image of the Motherland, Russia, develops imperceptibly in poetry. He is already prepared with landscape lyrics, which are inspired by the impressions of his native Oryol region, Central Russian nature. In the poem “Motherland” (1891), Bunin speaks sharply and courageously about his native country:
They mock you, They, O homeland, reproach You with your simplicity, The wretched appearance of the black huts... So the son, calm and impudent, Is ashamed of his mother - Tired, timid and sad Among his city friends, Looks with a smile of compassion At the one who is hundreds she walked miles and for him, for the day of their meeting, she saved her last penny.
In his poems of 1899, Ivan Alekseevich Bunin often comes to sharp social generalizations. It is not without reason that one of his first poems, “The Village Beggar,” is dedicated to hungry peasant Rus'.
However, if Bunin’s early poems make the reader remember the poetry of Koltsov and Nikitin, then the poems of the early 1900s are in the tradition of Fet, Polonsky, and Maikov. The influence of these poets turned out to be very strong. Bunin's work is dominated by motifs of love dreams, bright fairs, and merry rides of mummers at Christmas time. During this period, the poet remains at the mercy of the old figurative system. He has to achieve the non-banal by outwardly banal means. He is looking for new possibilities in traditional verse. Bunin chooses such combinations of words that give rise to certain associations in the reader:
I am alone now - as always. But then the sunset spread its magnificent flame, And the Evening Star melts in it, Trembling through and through, like a semi-precious stone
Infinitely feeling a living connection with nature, the poet managed, following the path of Fet and Polonsky, to achieve true beauty and perfection in verse. Only by speaking with nature in its language, one could enter its endless and mysterious world:
The estate was silent in autumn. The whole house was in midnight silence, And like an abandoned child, the Eared Shell screamed on the threshing floor.
In contrast to the carefree attitude towards nature of populist poets, Bunin, with extreme meticulousness, accurately produces its world:
The leaves rustled as they flew around, the forest began to howl in autumn... A flock of some gray birds swirled in the wind with the leaves. I wanted to spin through the forest with the noisy whirlwind, screaming - And greet each copper sheet with joyfully mad delight!
This description of nature is especially contrasting with the social life of the country. After all, Russia from 1903 to 1906 experienced the storm of the first Russian revolution. At this time, Bunin slowly polished his works, traveling through the countries of the East. In his poems of that period we will not find the city, city life, echoes of social struggle. But later the writer appeared in prose works, which reflected the difficult life of society. And in the poem “Wasteland,” Bunin recreates images of people poisoned by slave psychology, those who gave all their strength to a dark life:
Peace to you, long forgotten! – Who knows Their names are simple? They lived in fear, and died in obscurity. Sometimes they forged chains in the village, pinned them down, and drove them to the settlement. But the monotonous woman's cry subsided - and again the days of labor, humility and fear passed...
If at the turn of the century landscape lyricism was most characteristic of Bunin’s poetry, then at the time of 1906–1911 Bunin increasingly turned to philosophical lyricism, continuing the poetry of Tyutchev. The poet’s personality expands unusually and acquires the ability of various transformations:
I am a man: like God, I am doomed to know the melancholy of all countries and all times.
Philosophical lyrics of the period of 1917 are increasingly crowding out landscape poetry. Bunin strives to look beyond the limits of reality. His poetry takes on the features of doom, the doom of the noble class that was born to him. The mystical and mortal breath is palpable in his poems, which will especially intensify in emigration. Where is the way out? Bunin finds it in a return to nature and love. The poet appears in the guise of a lyrical hero. It should be noted that Bunin's love lyrics are small in quantity. But it reveals many of the quests of late times.
Abroad, in exile, Bunin remains true to himself and his talent. He depicts the beauty of the world, Russian nature, and reflects on the mystery of life. But in his poems, until his death, pain and longing for his homeland and the irreplaceability of this loss are heard.
Bunin the emigrant did not accept the new state, but today we have returned as a national treasure all the best that was created by the writer. A singer of Russian nature, a master of intimate lyrics, Bunin continues the classical traditions, teaches to love and appreciate one’s native word.
Reading in the section:
- The theme of love and death in the works of I. Bunin
- The material and the eternal in Bunin’s story “The Gentleman from San Francisco”
- Analysis of the story “Clean Monday”
- Two destinies in Bunin’s story “Easy Breathing”
- Heroes of I. A. Bunin’s story “Clean Monday”
- How I.A. is revealed Bunin's philosophical theme in the story "Mr. from San Francisco"?
Previously published in the section:
- Heroes of I. A. Bunin’s story “Clean Monday”
- The material and the eternal in Bunin’s story “The Gentleman from San Francisco”
- Two destinies in Bunin’s story “Easy Breathing”
- The theme of love and death in the works of I. Bunin
- Analysis of the story “Clean Monday”
New section materials:
- How I.A. is revealed Bunin's philosophical theme in the story "Mr. from San Francisco"?
“The sadness of shining and black eyelashes...”
This poem consists of two stanzas. In the first of them, the author remembers his beloved, whose image still lives in his soul, in his eyes. However, the lyrical hero bitterly realizes that his youth has passed, and his former lover cannot be returned. His tenderness in describing the girl is emphasized by various means of expression, such as metaphors (“sadness of eyelashes,” “fire of eyes,” “diamonds of tears”) and epithets (“heavenly eyes,” “rebellious tears,” “shining eyelashes”).
In the second stanza of the poem, the lyrical hero thinks about why his beloved still comes to him in a dream, and also remembers the delight of meeting this girl. These reflections are expressed in the work by rhetorical questions, to which, as we know, there is no answer.
Love lyrics
Poems about love in the works of Ivan Alekseevich Bunin are presented in somewhat smaller quantities, but nevertheless play a large role among his works. A long time ago, Bunin's love lyrics were defined as tragic - perhaps this is the most capacious and accurate definition.
Love for Ivan Alekseevich is the most intimate, important, main thing, the thing for which it is worth living on earth. He is absolutely confident in the existence of true love, and although many of his poems are devoted to love suffering, he also writes about mutual, happy love, although less often. One of the main motives of Bunin’s love lyrics is considered to be loneliness, unrequited love, and the inability to experience happiness. It is tragic because it is dominated by thoughts about what did not come true, memories of the past, regrets about what was lost, and the fragility of human relationships.
Bunin's love lyrics come into contact with both the philosophical - love and death, and the landscape - love and the beauty of nature. Bunin is pessimistic - in his poems happiness cannot live long, love is followed by either separation or death, a successful outcome is not given. However, love is still happiness, since it is the highest thing a person can know in life. At the same time, the poet himself, in his personal life, after several unsuccessful attempts, nevertheless found family happiness and a wife who supported him in everything until the end of his days.
Like any other, Bunin’s love lyrics have a number of features. This, for example, is the avoidance of beautiful phrases, the use of nature as an observer of love suffering, the mention of spring (the poet’s favorite season) as a symbol of love, an open protest against the imperfections of the universe, the indispensable connection of the spiritual and the physical (it is impossible to recognize the soul without comprehending the flesh).
At the same time, there is nothing shameful or vulgar in Bunin’s poetry, it is holy and remains a great sacrament for him.
“The sadness of shining and black eyelashes...”
This poem consists of two stanzas. In the first of them, the author remembers his beloved, whose image still lives in his soul, in his eyes. However, the lyrical hero bitterly realizes that his youth has passed, and his former lover cannot be returned. His tenderness in describing the girl is emphasized by various means of expression, such as metaphors (“sadness of eyelashes,” “fire of eyes,” “diamonds of tears”) and epithets (“heavenly eyes,” “rebellious tears,” “shining eyelashes”).
In the second stanza of the poem, the lyrical hero thinks about why his beloved still comes to him in a dream, and also remembers the delight of meeting this girl. These reflections are expressed in the work by rhetorical questions, to which, as we know, there is no answer.
Bunin's lyrics: features
In conclusion, we list the main features that are characteristic of Bunin’s lyric poetry. This is the brightness of details, the desire for descriptive detail, laconicism, classical simplicity, poeticization of eternal values, especially native nature. In addition, the work of this author is characterized by a constant appeal to symbolism, a wealth of subtext, a close connection with Russian prose and poetry, and an attraction to the philosophical. He often echoes his own stories.