The most popular poet of the 70s of the 19th century, according to many researchers and critics, was N.A. Nekrasov. In his work, he posed problems that worried more than one generation of poets: the purpose of the poet and poetry, civic motives, the problem of universal human ideals.
His work is sometimes called a “poetic confession”, into which lines full of civic pathos are invariably woven. It is not surprising that it is to the reader-citizen, the reader-friend, to the Muse that the poet turns to the threshold of death, hoping for support. He hopes for the understanding of like-minded people in serving the people.
The poem “O Muse! I’m at the door of the coffin...” when first published in Otechestvennye zapiski in 1878, it was accompanied by the note: “This poem, according to the testimony of the deceased’s sister, A.A. Butkevich, was the last thing he wrote.” Therefore, many researchers of Nekrasov’s work are inclined to regard his “last word” as a kind of testament. What worries the poet “at the door of the coffin”?
Raising the topic of the purpose of the poet and poetry, Nekrasov uses the traditional technique of addressing the Muse in the meaning of “poetry.” But in this case, the Muse also directly refers to the works of the famous poet. It is significant that Nekrasov himself does not think of himself separately from his work. He and his works are a single whole. This is emphasized by the pronoun “our”:
... our lot is enviable,
They won't abuse us.
For Nekrasov, poetry is the thread that connects him with the people, and this connection is eternal:
Between me and honest hearts
You won’t let it break for long
Living, blood union!
The epithets in this case are not accidental: “a living, blood union.” A true poet is alive as long as his memory lives in the hearts of the people. And since “the poet” and “his works” are, in Nekrasov’s understanding, synonyms, an indivisible whole, the “union” will always be “alive.” After all, the poet’s creations are immortal.
By “blood union,” the poet means a family union. This union is possible only with “honest hearts,” that is, with people who understand their true calling – “to be a citizen.”
It is also interesting that the author does not consider his work ideal, worthy of universal worship:
Even though I have a lot to blame
Let it increase a hundred times
My fault is human malice...
This recognition further increases the poet’s authority as an objective person and makes his work more significant for people with “honest hearts.” Despite the possible persecution and blasphemy that “human malice” is capable of, the author exclaims:
Do not Cry! our lot is enviable,
They won't mock us...
Why does he say: “our lot is enviable”? Apparently, because if a poet was able to excite the minds and hearts of people with his creativity, to encourage them to debate, this is already a great merit. This is already a recognition both by “honest hearts” and by those who exude malice. The word “abuse” is also noteworthy. The form of this verb expresses the duration of an action. Consequently, such disputes, positive and negative statements will last for a long time, not one or two generations.
Nekrasov's last poem is a monologue, or rather, a hidden dialogue with the Muse. It is with an address to her that he begins his work and ends it with a mention of her. Nekrasov describes his Muse this way:
...On this pale one, covered in blood,
The whip cut the Muse...
Poetry in Russia has gone through different periods: ups and downs. Many poets were persecuted and exiled for their works. Often their creations did not reach the masses, as censorship imposed a ban on publication. After all, it is known that poetry touches the strings of the human soul much deeper than prose. That is why Nekrasov paints such a vivid image of the Muse: “pale, covered in blood, cut with a whip.” And only a Russian person is able to understand this image. It is no coincidence that the author says:
Not Russian - he will look without love...
Without love, without awe, it is impossible to look at Russian poetry, knowing the history of its development. This is exactly what Nekrasov wanted to say to his readers “at the door of the coffin.” On the one hand, he asserts the immortality of poetry. On the other hand, this is a hidden appeal, a call to fellow poets to continue their thorny path, despite all obstacles.
With this poem, Nekrasov sums up his creative path. If given the opportunity, he would repeat it from start to finish. A poet is not a profession, it is a state of mind, a life path.
Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov is a Russian poet, writer and publicist.
The most popular poet of the 70s of the 19th century, according to many researchers and critics, was N.A. Nekrasov. In his work, he posed problems that worried more than one generation of poets: the purpose of the poet and poetry, civic motives, the problem of universal human ideals. His work is sometimes called a “poetic confession”, into which lines full of civic pathos are invariably woven. It is not surprising that it is to the reader-citizen, the reader-friend, to the Muse that the poet turns to the threshold of death, hoping for support. He hopes for the understanding of like-minded people in serving the people.
The poem “O Muse! I’m at the door of the coffin...” when first published in Otechestvennye zapiski in 1878, it was accompanied by the note: “This poem, according to the testimony of the deceased’s sister, A.A. Butkevich, was the last thing he wrote.” Therefore, many researchers of Nekrasov’s work are inclined to regard his “last word” as a kind of testament.
Without love, without awe, it is impossible to look at Russian poetry, knowing the history of its development. This is exactly what Nekrasov wanted to say to his readers “at the door of the coffin.” On the one hand, he asserts the immortality of poetry. On the other hand, this is a hidden appeal, a call to fellow poets to continue their thorny path, despite all obstacles. With this poem, Nekrasov sums up his creative path. If given the opportunity, he would repeat it from start to finish. A poet is not a profession, it is a state of mind, a life path.
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O Muse! I'm at the door of the coffin!
Even though I have a lot to blame
Let it increase a hundred times
My fault is human malice -
Do not Cry! our lot is enviable,
They don't mock us:
Between me and honest hearts
You won’t let it break for long
Living, blood union!
Not Russian - he will look without love
To this pale one, covered in blood,
The Muse cut with a whip...
Alexander Aleksandrovich Kalyagin (May 25, 1942, Malmyzh) - Soviet and Russian actor and director. People's Artist of the RSFSR (1983). Winner of two USSR State Prizes. A.A. Kalyagin is one of the largest artists of modern Russian theater and cinema.
“Oh Muse! I'm at the door of the coffin! Nekrasov
“Oh Muse! I'm at the door of the coffin! analysis of the work - theme, idea, genre, plot, composition, characters, issues and other issues are discussed in this article.
History of creation
The poem “O Muse! I'm at the door of the coffin! "Written in 1877. It is considered Nekrasov’s last poem, according to the recollections of his sister. A poem is the result of a writer’s life and poetic testament. It was published in “Notes of the Fatherland” No. 1 for 1878.
In the last years of his life, the writer was seriously ill. Feeling his imminent death, he turns to his favorite image of poetry - the Muse.
Literary direction and genre
The poem must be considered in the context of Nekrasov’s entire work as a realist poet. It plays the same role in Nekrasov’s work as the poem “Monument” in Pushkin’s work, as well as other monument poems (Horace, Derzhavin). In the poem “O Muse!..” Nekrasov draws a conclusion about the role of the poet and poetry, about the significance of his own poetry in the life of society. The poem belongs to the genre of civil lyrics.
Theme, main idea and composition
The poem consists of three stanzas. Nekrasov does not separate them with spaces, and they are inseparable from one another, because neither the first nor the second stanza ends the sentence, which continues in the next stanza. This technique makes the monologue continuous. The lyrical hero seems to be in a hurry to say everything to the end, to have time to speak out.
The poem can be divided into three semantic passages. In the first, the lyrical hero repents before the Muse - an allegory of the poet’s work. In the second part, the lyrical hero encourages his Muse, connects himself with her, associating his creativity with the source of this creativity.
In the third part, Nekrasov describes the Muse. He contrasts the attitude towards the Muse (creativity) of Russian and non-Russian consciousness. The themes raised by the revolutionary democrat Nekrasov in his work are uninteresting and unsympathetic for a foreigner: people's life along with all its suffering.
The theme of the poem “O Muse!..” is popular recognition of the poet’s work.
Main idea: Nekrasov’s muse is close to the Russian people.
Paths and images
The image of the Muse is the leitmotif of Nekrasov’s work. In the poem “Yesterday, at about six o’clock,” the lyrical hero calls Muse the sister of a young peasant woman who silently endures the beating with a whip. Even in his youth, Nekrasov determined the priorities of his work: closeness to the people and willingness to endure suffering (Nekrasov suffered a lot from the censors). The image of the Muse also appears in other poems of the poet. In one of his later works, Nekrasov speaks of Muse: “The sister of the people is also mine.” The last poem sums up the poet's poetic activity. Anyone who does not understand the Russian people (not Russian) is far from the topic of people’s suffering, and therefore does not like “ pale, covered in blood, cut with a whip Muse." Epithets describing the Muse are metaphorical characteristics of creativity.
But honest hearts are united with the poet alive, blood a union (epithets) that will not break for a long time. That is, the writer will be interesting to his people for a long time. This is a roll call with Pushkin: “And for a long time I will be so kind to the people.”
Epithet blood refers to a quote from another poem about the role of the poet and poetry: “A thing is strong when blood flows underneath it” (“Poet and Citizen”). A blood union is a union of like-minded people engaged in one noble cause.
The poem begins with an appeal to the Muse and metaphorical poetism " at the door of the tomb." Expecting death, the lyrical hero repents before the Muse. Nekrasov saw the poet's purpose as serving the people. He asks for forgiveness, obviously, for the compromises that had to be made with censorship, or for the departure from folk themes in his work.
Nekrasov knew that he had many ill-wishers. He encountered them both as a poet and as the editor of Sovremennik, which was, after all, closed. He conveys this idea using a metaphor: human anger will increase his guilt “a hundredfold.”
The lyrical hero asks the Muse not to cry. He does not separate himself and his creativity. The fate of both the poet and his poems is enviable: “They will not mock us.” The poet will be held in high esteem as long as there are hearts to which his poems are close. On the verge of death, Nekrasov affirms his life’s work: to convey to the Russian people the ideals of truth and humanism.
Meter and rhyme
The poem is written in iambic tetrameter. Women's rhyme alternates with men's. The rhyme is circular.
O Muse! I'm at the door of the coffin!
Even though I have a lot to blame
Let it increase a hundred times
My fault is human malice -
Do not Cry! our lot is enviable,
They don't mock us:
Between me and honest hearts
You won’t let it break for long
Living, blood union!
Not Russian - he will look without love
To this pale one, covered in blood,
The whip cut the Muse...
Analysis of Nekrasov’s poem “O Muse! I'm at the door of the coffin!..."
According to the testimony of Nekrasov’s sister Anna Butkevich, the poem “O Muse! I’m at the door of the coffin!..” - the last work written by Nikolai Alekseevich before his death. It is not surprising that it touches on the theme of the poet and poetry. It was she who was the most important for Nekrasov throughout his life. One of its first mentions is found in a small sketch from 1848, “Yesterday, at about six o’clock...”. In this poem, the lyrical hero talks about how, while walking along Sennaya Square in St. Petersburg, he saw a picture of a young peasant woman being beaten with a whip. In the last two lines, he called Muse the sister of that unfortunate woman. Two Nekrasov poems, written with an interval of almost thirty years, are surprisingly intertwined. In the work “O Muse! I’m at the door of the coffin!..” a similar thought is conveyed. Nekrasov characterizes Muse with the following words: “pale”, “in blood”, “cut with a whip”.
Naturally, the coincidence described above is not accidental. Nikolai Alekseevich compared his muse to a peasant woman, emphasizing the nationality of his own poems. In addition, he was referring to the difficulties he encountered throughout his career. At various times, critics and official censorship found many reasons to persecute Nekrasov. For example, after the reform of 1861, he was accused of an outdated approach to the problems of the peasants. Allegedly, the common people began to live well, but for some reason the famous writer stubbornly continues to lament his difficult lot. Nekrasov has also been criticized more than once for his dedication to social issues. Even Fet, who rarely participated in various public polemics, refused to consider Nikolai Alekseevich a true poet because of this.
In the poem “O Muse! I’m at the door of the coffin!..” there is a reference to another work by Nekrasov - “” (1852). In it, the poet once again confirms his loyalty to his Muse, the expresser of people's aspirations. Nikolai Alekseevich calls the union with her “strong and bloody.” In the last poem this idea is somewhat modified. The muse becomes the link between the poet and “honest hearts.” The place of the adjective “strong” related to the union is taken by the definition “living”. At the same time, Nekrasov does not refuse the epithet “blooded”. The alliance with “honest hearts” is extremely important for Nikolai Alekseevich. It serves as a kind of key to immortality. The poet is alive as long as people remember his work, as long as his lyrics find a response in people’s souls.
At the beginning of the poem, the hero says that he is “to blame a lot.” The motif of the poet’s guilt before the Muse, before the people, appears more than once in Nekrasov. Nikolai Alekseevich often regretted that he directed his talent in the wrong direction. As a rule, this refers to his works written not at the behest of the Muse, but to support the existence of the Sovremennik magazine, which he headed for almost twenty years.
Among liberal-minded people of the second half of the nineteenth century, Nekrasov’s work enjoyed enormous popularity. Despite this, contemporaries were unable to fully appreciate Nikolai Alekseevich’s lyrics. Such an important task fell on the shoulders of literary scholars of the twentieth century. It is quite obvious that at times Nekrasov was too keen on acute social themes to the detriment of the artistic value of the poems. He himself understood this perfectly well, asking not to include some of his works in collections. Nevertheless, the novelty and originality of Nikolai Alekseevich’s style had a huge impact on Russian-language poetry.
A poem written in December 1877 by N.A. Nekrasov, literally shortly before the death of the great Russian poet, is a confession, a conversation with a high poetic feeling - the Muse.
Full of modulations and high syllables, this work is like a confession, a farewell sounds restless and enthusiastic.
One can feel the deep feelings of the lyrical hero, filled with a note of suffering.
The poet thanks the Muse:
“The sister of the people is also mine.”
Bearing in mind that it was the Muse, his poems, written for the people and in defense of the people, that became the connecting link between the poet and the peasantry. A kind of thread that firmly connected the poet and the people.
Through each line he walked a thorny path, paving the way into the hearts of people, and it was the Muse that reunited them, and gave the country a chance to find a new person who completely devoted himself to serving in the name of the ideals and greatness of the country and its inhabitants.
And on the eve of his death, he thanks her, sums up the sad results...
He is concerned about the future fate of poetry, so he tries to appeal to everyone, openly discussing the purpose of the poet, that he must leave an indelible mark, a spark with each of his poems...
“...Between me and honest hearts
You won’t let it break for long
Living, blood union!
From these same lines we can conclude that Nekrasov means a long memory, a memory that will keep memories of him and his work. This is what will immortalize him, make him immortal, alive.
But the author also emphasizes the imperfection of his works, blames himself for incomplete sacrifice and dedication, but even having caused an indignant human hubbub with his poems, he will be happy with this reaction. After all, with this very childhood, lines from the heart and soul, he will awaken other souls, give the opportunity to think, encourage reasoning...
Disputes and praise, contempt and recognition of the poet are all emotions that the author craves. Any response from the people!
Nekrasov paints a portrait of the Muse of “cut” blood, thereby making it clear what the poets had to go through in order to convey even a line, even a word to the people. Persecution, exile, arrests - all this is common among the creators of the word.
And only a Russian person will understand these lines and feel this struggle.
Concluding his farewell song, he admires for the last time the entire wealth of Russian poetry, asking him to preserve and exalt it with all his heart, to preserve it as a treasure.
He addresses both the masses and poets who follow the same path of serving the people as he does.
He says that being a poet is a state of mind and heart, and not just a profession.
