The poem "On railway”, completed on June 14, 1910, is part of the “Motherland” cycle. The poem consists of 36 lines (or 9 stanzas), written in iambic meter with a two-syllable accent on the second syllable. The rhyme is cross. Alexander Blok clarifies in the notes to the poem that this is an imitation of one of the episodes of L.N. Tolstoy from "Resurrection".
The poem “On the Railway” conveys pain, melancholy, naivety and faith in possible easy, happy life for a pretty young girl who still could not curb her wayward fate and chose death over her unsuccessful path in life.
Plot develops at a sparsely populated passenger station of one of the train stations, and the narrative is narrated by a man who knew this woman and remembered what she was like until she decided to follow in the footsteps of Anna Karenina. The poem has ring composition, because in its last quatrain it returns us to the first.
It is not clear why she waited for her happiness on the platform?.. Why so good woman, "beautiful and young" couldn't arrange your life? Why did she choose death instead of fighting for her happiness? The author asks: "Don't approach her with questions", but, penetrating the soul of this rhymed work, quite a lot of them arise.
But heroine image laconic, nevertheless, it does not repel, but is endearing. It is clear that the woman in her youth chose the wrong road, from which it was very difficult to turn off. She flattered herself with the hope that some passer-by would be enchanted and “he will look more closely from the windows”.
Of course, the woman secretly expected and wanted attention from the yellow or blue carriages (which is equivalent to first and second class), but “Only once did the hussar... Slide over her with a tender smile...”. The passengers of the yellow and blue carriages were primly cold, indifferent to the whole world and, especially, to this woman, whom they simply did not notice. Green carriages (third class) were not shy about showing their feelings, so they were equally loud "they cried and sang". But they also cast indifferent glances at the heroine; some were uninteresting, others did not need her, and others had nothing to give in return.
It is not for nothing that this poem is placed in the “Motherland” cycle, which reveals many aspects of patriotic themes. This is both the fate of Russian women and the bleak life in pre-revolutionary Russia, and the image of his beloved homeland.
- “Stranger”, analysis of the poem
- “Russia”, analysis of Blok’s poem
- “The Twelve”, analysis of the poem by Alexander Blok
- “Factory”, analysis of Blok’s poem
- “Rus”, analysis of Blok’s poem
- “Summer Evening”, analysis of Blok’s poem
The poem “On the Railroad” was included in the “Motherland” cycle. The work reveals the tragedy of fate and the suicide of a young woman. The action takes place at a small remote stop; the author does not indicate the name of the district or province.
To understand the fate of the heroine, it is enough to know that this is the wilderness. This fact allows us to feel more deeply the loneliness and joylessness of a young woman who dreamed of happiness. Trains probably stop very rarely, “passing by on the usual line.” The reader understands that the platform is deserted by the fact that only she and the gendarme standing next to her are visible from the windows. From the poem it becomes clear that she went out onto the platform more than once, caught many glances from people looking out of the windows, but only once noticed the passing smile of a hussar leaning on the red velvet
Many people passing by saw the woman, but few paid attention to the lonely figure standing on the platform. These imaginary meetings occupied a huge place in the life of a single woman. Words about passing youth with its empty dreams make you think about the speed and irrevocability of time, about unfulfilled hopes. Dreams of finding happiness ran into the indifference and coldness of those around me. Millions of deserted eyes from the carriages looked at her, many bows were given, but all to no avail.
The author asks not to ask her anything. But questions arise of their own accord. The reader will find the answers after carefully reading the poem, when a clear idea of the cause of suicide is formed. We are talking about a woman meeting not a specific person from the train, but about the expectation of wonderful changes for the better. Constant visits to the station and unjustified hopes give the reader the opportunity to feel the hopelessness of the young heroine’s situation.
Constantly passing trains symbolize life rushing by. Her heart was torn apart by the melancholy of the road. The inability to change anything prompted a beautiful woman to commit suicide.
Poem A. Blok "On the Railroad" begins with a description of the death of the heroine - a young woman. The author returns us to her death at the end of the work. The composition of the verse is thus circular and closed.
On the railway to Maria Pavlovna Ivanova Under the embankment, in the unmown ditch, She lies and looks as if alive, In a colored scarf thrown over her braids, Beautiful and young.It used to be that she walked with a sedate gait towards the noise and whistle behind the nearby forest.
Walking all the way around the long platform, She waited, worried, under the canopy... The carriages walked in the usual line, Trembling and creaking;
In the first quatrain, Blok paints the image of a “beautiful and young” woman, whose life was interrupted in its prime. Her death is just as absurd and unexpected as it is absurd that now she, “in a colored scarf thrown over her braids,” lies “under an embankment, in a ditch...”:
It used to be that she walked with a sedate gait towards the noise and whistle behind the nearby forest.Walking all the way around the long platform, she waited, worried, under the canopy.
She walked calmly, “decorously,” but there was probably so much restrained tension, hidden expectation, and inner drama in it. All this speaks of the heroine as a strong nature, which is characterized by depth of experience and constancy of feelings. As if on a date, she comes to the platform: “Tender blush, cooler curl...” She arrives long before the appointed hour (“walking all the way around the long platform...”). And the carriages “walked along the usual line,” indifferently and tiredly “trembled and creaked.” Life in the carriages went on as usual, and no one cared about the lonely young woman on the platform. In the first and second grades (“yellow and blue”) they were coldly laconic, fencing themselves off from the rest of the world with an armor of indifference. Well, in the “green” ones (cars III class
), without concealing their feelings and without being embarrassed, “they cried and sang”:They stood up sleepy behind the glass and looked around with an even gaze at the Platform, the garden with faded bushes, Her, the gendarme next to her... How humiliating and unbearable these “even glances” must have been for the heroine of the poem. Will they really not notice her? Doesn't she deserve more?! But she is perceived by those passing in the same row as the bushes and the gendarme. A typical landscape for those traveling on a train. Normal indifference. Only in Blok’s poem does the railway become a symbol of the poet’s contemporary life with its meaningless cycle of events and indifference to people. General impersonality, dull indifference to others, both of entire classes and individuals, creates an emptiness of the soul and makes life meaningless. This is “road melancholy, iron”... In such a deadening atmosphere, a person can only be a victim. Only once did the young woman have an alluring vision of a hussar with a “tender smile,” but, probably, it only stirred her soul. If happiness is impossible, mutual understanding in the conditions " scary world
“Impossible, is life worth living? Life itself is losing value.The author refuses to explain the reasons for the death of the young woman. We don’t know whether “she was crushed by love, by dirt or by wheels.” The author also warns us against unnecessary questions. If they were indifferent to her during her lifetime, why now show insincere, short-term and tactless participation.
A. Blok's poem "On the Railway" begins with a description of the death of the heroine - a young woman. The author returns us to her death at the end of the work. The composition of the verse is thus circular and closed.
On the railway
Maria Pavlovna Ivanova
Under the embankment, in the unmown ditch,
Lies and looks as if alive,
In a colored scarf thrown on her braids,
Beautiful and young.
Sometimes I walked with a sedate gait
To the noise and whistle behind the nearby forest.
Walking all the way around the long platform,
She waited, worried, under the canopy...
In the poem “On the Railway” you can find many other symbols. The symbol of the path - fate is the railway. Depicting continuous lines of passenger cars, Blok sets the theme of the road, life path person. People constantly move from carriage to carriage, some are lucky, others suffer the bitterness of defeat. People's lives are spent in constant movement. A train, locomotive, station is a symbol of a stage or moment of the journey. But the path, the road, are also harbingers of the outcome, towards which every person moves, as if towards a cliff. Perhaps the poet perceived this outcome as death old Russia and the birth of a new one, which all the people were looking forward to. The railway is a sign of a terrible world, merciless to people.
In most of the poem, the poet writes about the past, but it is inextricably linked with the present.
The color scheme of the poem is also interesting. The color of Blok's poetry is a means of expressing emotional assessment and attitude towards images. By color scheme the first and last quatrains contain practically no colors, they are colorless. In the past, in another world - a different flavor. Here are the “bright eyes” (lights) of the oncoming train, and the gentle, lively blush on the cheeks of this girl, and the multicolored carriages (apparently, division by class). Blue is the color of the sky, sublime – carriages for the rich, yellow is bright, hurting the eyes the color of warmth and at the same time illness - middle class, and green is the color of grass, proximity to the ground - third class carriages. It is noteworthy that the view from the platform is completely different from the view from behind the windows of the cars. From the inside, the world is visible in faded, colorless colors. The only bright, sharp color in the carriage is scarlet. It can symbolize blood, irritation, aggression and cruelty of these people. Outside there are forest trees, behind the forest there is a long platform with a canopy on it. The color scheme is not muted, but quite calm. Green color trees, apparently a blue gendarme uniform and, most likely, a wooden platform. Blok deliberately does not give “color” definitions for some words, giving the reader the opportunity to imagine this picture in his own imagination.
In the poem, the author uses the technique of reverse narration, that is, he begins with the death of the heroine, tragedy, gradually revealing previous events.
Alexander Alexandrovich Blok
Maria Pavlovna Ivanova
Under the embankment, in the unmown ditch,
Lies and looks as if alive,
In a colored scarf thrown on her braids,
Beautiful and young.
Sometimes I walked with a sedate gait
To the noise and whistle behind the nearby forest.
Walking all the way around the long platform,
She waited, worried, under the canopy.
Three bright eyes attackers -
Softer blush, cooler curl:
Perhaps one of those passing by
Look more closely from the windows...
The carriages walked in the usual line,
They shook and creaked;
The yellow and blue ones were silent;
The green ones cried and sang.
We got up sleepy behind the glass
And looked around with an even gaze
Platform, garden with faded bushes,
Her, the gendarme next to her...
Just once a hussar, with a careless hand
Leaning on the scarlet velvet,
Slipped over her with a tender smile,
He slipped and the train sped off into the distance.
Thus the useless youth rushed,
Exhausted in empty dreams...
Road melancholy, iron
She whistled, breaking my heart...
Why, the heart has been taken out a long time ago!
So many bows were given,
So many greedy glances cast
Into the deserted eyes of the carriages...
Don't approach her with questions
You don’t care, but she’s satisfied:
With love, mud or wheels
She is crushed - everything hurts.
Alexander Blok’s poem “On the Railway,” written in 1910, is part of the “Odin” cycle and is one of the illustrations of pre-revolutionary Russia. The plot, according to the author himself, is inspired by the works of Leo Tolstoy. In particular, “Anna Karenina” and “Sunday”, the main characters of which die, unable to survive their own shame and having lost faith in love.
The picture, which Alexander Blok masterfully recreated in his work, is majestic and sad. A young woman lies on the railway embankment beautiful woman, “as if alive,” but from the first lines it is clear that she died. Moreover, it was not by chance that she threw herself under the wheels of a passing train. What made her commit this terrible and senseless act? Alexander Blok does not give an answer to this question, believing that if no one needed his heroine during her life, then after her death there is especially no point in looking for motivation for suicide. The author only states a fait accompli and talks about the fate of the one who died in the prime of life.
It is difficult to understand who she was. Either a noble noblewoman or a commoner. Perhaps she belonged to a fairly huge caste of ladies prostitute. However, the fact that a beautiful and young woman regularly came to the railway and followed the train with her eyes, looking for a familiar face in the respectable carriages, speaks volumes. It is likely that, like Tolstoy's Katenka Maslova, she was seduced by a man who subsequently abandoned her and left. But the heroine of the poem “on the railway” until the last moment believed in a miracle and hoped that her lover would return and take her with him.
But the miracle did not happen, and soon the figure of a young woman constantly meeting trains on the railway platform became an integral part of the dull provincial landscape. Travelers in soft carriages, carrying them to a much more attractive life, glanced coldly and indifferently at the mysterious stranger, and she aroused absolutely no interest in them, just like the gardens, forests and meadows flying past the window, as well as the representative figure of the policeman who was on duty at the station.
One can only guess how many hours, full of secret hope and excitement, the heroine of the poem spent on the railway. However, no one cared about her at all. Thousands of people carried multi-colored carriages into the distance, and only once did the gallant hussar give the beauty a “tender smile,” meaning nothing and as ephemeral as a woman’s dreams. It should be borne in mind that the collective image of the heroine of Alexander Blok’s poem “On the Railroad” is quite typical for the beginning of the 20th century. Fundamental changes in society have given women freedom, but not all of them have been able to properly use this invaluable gift. Among the representatives of the fairer sex who were unable to overcome public contempt and were forced to be doomed to a life full of dirt, pain and suffering, of course, is the heroine of this poem. Realizing the hopelessness of the situation, the woman decides to commit suicide, hoping in this simple way to immediately get rid of all her problems. However, according to the poet, it is not so important who or what killed the young woman in her prime - a train, unhappy love or prejudice. The only important thing is that she is dead, and this death is one of thousands of victims for the sake of public opinion, which places a woman on a much lower level than a man and does not forgive her even the most insignificant mistakes, forcing her to atone for them with her own life.
