Are you interested in knowing the most important and significant moments in the life of a writer? Then you did the right thing by opening the page where Fet’s chronological table is presented. It will help not only schoolchildren, but also teachers. The table briefly describes Fet's life and work; You can give the presented data to your students during a lesson, or you can remember forgotten dates and events yourself. The writer of the golden age left behind a lot lyrical works, each of which conveys his inner mood. A biography of Afanasy Fet by dates will help you independently understand the stages of his development creative path and the main moments of the life of the great poet.

1820, December 5 (18)- Born on the Novoselki estate in the Mtsensk district of the Oryol Province, which belonged to the retired officer Afanasy Neofitovich Shenshin.

1835-1837 - Studying at the German private boarding school Krümmer in Verro (now Võru, Estonia). At this time he began to write poetry and show interest in classical philology.

1838 - entered Moscow University, first to the Faculty of Law, then to the historical and philological (verbal) department of the Faculty of Philosophy. Studied for 6 years: 1838-1844.

1840 - a collection of Fet’s poems “Lyrical Pantheon” was published with the participation of Apollo Grigoriev, Fet’s friend from the university.

1845 - entered military service in the cuirassier regiment of the Military Order, became a cavalryman.

1846 - He was awarded the first officer rank.

1850 - Fet’s second collection was published, which received positive reviews from critics in the magazines Sovremennik, Moskvityanin and Otechestvennye zapiski.

1853 - Fet was transferred to a guards regiment stationed near St. Petersburg;
in St. Petersburg he met with Turgenev, Nekrasov, Goncharov and others, as well as his rapprochement with the editors of the Sovremennik magazine.

1854 - served in the Baltic Port, which he described in his memoirs “My Memories”.

1856 - Fet’s third collection, edited by I. S. Turgenev, was published.

1857 - Fet married Maria Petrovna Botkina

1858 - retired with the rank of guards captain and settled in Moscow.

1859 - the poet broke up with journalist Dolgoruky A.V. from Sovremennik.

1863 - a two-volume collection of Fet’s poems was published.

1867 - Afanasy Fet was elected justice of the peace for 11 years.

1873 - Afanasy Fet was returned to the nobility and the surname Shenshin. Literary works The poet continued to sign his translations with the surname Fet.

1883-1891 - publication of four issues of the collection “Evening Lights”.

1892, November 21 (December 4)- died in Moscow. According to some reports, his death from a heart attack was preceded by a suicide attempt. He was buried in the village of Kleymenovo, the family estate of the Shenshins.

March's most popular resources for your classroom.

In memory of Afanasy Afanasyevich Fet (1820-1892)

Afanasy Afanasyevich Fet - famous Russian poet with German roots,lyricist,translator, author of memoirs. Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences of St. Petersburg

In the Oryol province, not far from the city of Mtsensk, in the 19th century the Novoselki estate was located, where on December 5, 1820, in the house of the wealthy landowner Shenshin, a young woman Charlotte-Elizabeth Becker Fet gave birth to a boy, Afanasy.

Charlotte Elisabeth was a Lutheran, lived in Germany and was married to Johann Peter Karl Wilhelm Feth, assessor of the Darmstadt City Court. They married in 1818, and a girl, Caroline-Charlotte-Georgina-Ernestine, was born into the family. And in 1820, Charlotte-Elizabeth Becker Fet abandoned her little daughter and husband and left for Russia with Afanasy Neofitovich Shenshin, being seven months pregnant.

In the pastures of the dumb I love in the bitter frost
In the sunlight, the sun has a prickly shine,
Forests under the caps or in gray frost
Yes, the river is ringing under the dark blue ice.
How they love to find thoughtful gazes
Winded ditches, blown mountains,
Sleepy blades of grass among the naked fields,
Where the hill is bizarre, like some kind of mausoleum,
Sculpted at midnight, - or clouds of distant whirlwinds
On white shores and mirror ice holes.

Afanasy Neofitovich was a retired captain. During a trip abroad, he fell in love with the Lutheran Charlotte Elizabeth and married her. But since the Orthodox wedding ceremony was not performed, this marriage was considered legal only in Germany, and in Russia it was declared invalid. In 1822, the woman converted to Orthodoxy, becoming known as Elizaveta Petrovna Fet, and they soon married the landowner Shenshin.

When the boy was 14 years old, the Oryol provincial authorities discovered that Afanasy was registered under the surname Shenshin earlier than his mother.
You got married to your stepfather. In connection with this, the guy was deprived of his surname and noble title. This hurt the teenager so deeply, because from a rich heir he instantly turned into a nameless man, and all his life he then suffered because of his dual position.

From that time on, he bore the surname Fet, as the son of a foreigner unknown to him. Afanasy perceived this as a shame, and he developed an obsession:which became decisive in his life path, - to return the lost surname.

Afanasy received an excellent education. The talented boy found it easy to study. In 1837 he graduated from a private German boarding school in the city of Verro, in Estonia. Even then, Fet began to write poetry and showed interest in literature and classical philology. After school, in order to prepare for entering the university, he studied at the boarding house of Professor Pogodin, a writer, historian and journalist. In 1838, Afanasy Fet entered the law, and then the philosophical faculty of Moscow University, where he studied in the historical and philological (verbal) department.

Wonderful picture
How dear you are to me:
White plain,
Full moon,

Light high heavens,
And shining snow
And distant sleighs
Lonely running.

At the university, Afanasy became close to student Apollon Grigoriev, who was also interested in poetry. Together they began to attend a circle of students who were intensively studying philosophy and literature. With the participation of Grigoriev, Fet released his first collection of poems, “Lyrical Pantheon.” The young student’s creativity earned Belinsky’s approval. And Gogol spoke of him as “an undoubted talent.” This became a kind of “blessing” and inspired Afanasy Fet to further work. In 1842, his poems were published in many publications, including the popular magazines Otechestvennye zapiski and Moskvityanin. In 1844, Fet graduated from the university.

The spruce covered my path with its sleeve.
Wind. Alone in the forest
Noisy, and creepy, and sad, and fun, -
I do not understand anything.

Wind. Everything around is humming and swaying,
Leaves are spinning at your feet.
Chu, you can suddenly hear it in the distance
Subtly calling horn.

Sweet is the call of the copper herald to me!
The sheets are dead to me!
It seems from afar as a poor wanderer
You greet tenderly.

After graduating from the university, Fet entered the army service; he needed this to regain his noble title. He ended up in one of the southern regiments, from there he was sent to the Uhlan Guards Regiment. And in 1854 he was transferred to the Baltic regiment (he later described this period of service in his memoirs “My Memoirs”).

In 1858, Fet finished his service as a captain and settled in Moscow.

In 1850, a second book of poetry was published.Feta, which was already criticized positively in the Sovremennik magazine, some even admired his work. After this collection, the author was accepted into the circle of famous Russian writers, which included Druzhinin, Nekrasov, Botkin, Turgenev. Literary earnings have improved financial situation Fet, and he went to travel abroad.

In the poems of Afanasy Afanasyevich Fet, three main lines were clearly visible - love, art, nature. The following collections of his poems were published in 1856 (edited by I. S. Turgenev) and in 1863 (two-volume collected works).

Despite the fact that Fet was a sophisticated lyricist, he managed to perfectly conduct business affairs, buy and sell estates, making a fortune.

In 1860, Afanasy Fet bought the Stepanovka farm, began managing it, and lived there constantly, only appearing briefly in Moscow in the winter.

In 1877, Fet bought the Vorobyovka estate in the Kursk province. At 18
8 1 he bought a house in Moscow, came to Vorobyovka only for a dacha summer period. He again took up creativity, wrote memoirs, translated, and released another lyrical collection of poems, “Evening Lights.”

Afanasy Afanasyevich Fet left a significant mark on Russian literature. In his first poems, Fet praised the beauty of nature and wrote a lot about love. Even then, his work showed characteristic- Fet spoke about important and eternal concepts with hints, knew how to convey the subtlest shades of moods, awakening pure and bright emotions in readers.

After the tragic deathbelovedFet dedicated the poem “Talisman” to Maria Lazic. It is assumed that all subsequent poems by Fet about love are dedicated to it. In 1850, a second collection of his poems was published. It aroused the interest of critics, who did not skimp on positive reviews. At the same time, Fet was recognized as one of the best modern poets.

The night was shining. The garden was full of moonlight. were lying
Rays at our feet in a living room without lights.
The piano was all open, and the strings in it were trembling,
Just like our hearts are for your song.
You sang until dawn, exhausted in tears,
That you alone are love, that there is no other love,
And I wanted to live so much, so that without making a sound,
To love you, hug you and cry over you.
And many years have passed, tedious and boring,
And in the silence of the night I hear your voice again,
And it blows, as then, in these sonorous sighs,
That you are alone - all life, that you are alone - love.
That there are no insults from fate and burning torment in the heart,
But there is no end to life, and there is no other goal,
As soon as you believe in the sobbing sounds,
Love you, hug you and cry over you!

Afanasy Fet remained a staunch conservative and monarchist until the end of his life. In 1856 he published a third collection of poems. Fet praised beauty, considering it the only goal of creativity.

In 1863the poet released a two-volume collection of poems, and then there was a twenty-year break in his work.

Only after the poet’s stepfather’s surname and the privileges of a hereditary nobleman were returned to him, he took up creativity with renewed vigor.

Towards the end of his life, Afanasy Fet's poems became more philosophical. The poet wrote about the unity of man and the Universe, about the highest reality, about eternity. Between 1883 and 1891, Fet wrote more than three hundred poems; they were included in the collection “Evening Lights.” The poet published four editions of the collection, and the fifth was published after his death. With a thoughtful smile on his brow.

Lesson 3. Stages of the biography and creativity of A. A. Fet

The purpose of the lesson: to introduce the main stages of the life and work of A. A. Fet.

Equipment: portrait, collections of poems

Method: messages with reading poetry of the poet

Epigraphs:

And while the light rejoices in holy art,

Inspired Fet will be dear to you with tender feelings.

K. Fofanov

But in a touching verse you will find

This eternally fragrant rose...

A. A. Fet

He is a high, highest authority in poetry, in art, in thought.

V. Bryusov

The enormity of the philosophy of Solovyov and Fet is beyond doubt,

We listen to their music on earth, and their love knows no bounds...

A. Blok

During the classes

I. with brief analysis results of the test written by the children in the previous lesson.

II. Teacher's word.

Both the personality, fate, and creative biography of A. A. Fet are unusual and full of mysteries, some of which have not yet been solved. Pure poetry, far from the realities of life, subtle lyricism and practicality of life, the life of a poet full of drama and contradictions, often unexpected in its movement and transitions - all these paradoxes are intertwined in one person, causing an ambiguous attitude towards him.

Fet's popularity is still great. The modern reader undoubtedly has an interest in his poems. How can this be correlated with the rejection of Fet’s poetry by the democratic reader in the 60s of the 19th century?

Or maybe not give a definite answer, but simply read the musical lines and reflect on the facts of life, love and death, as incomprehensible secrets of nature to the human essence. Everyone should try to find answers in the poet’s poems to many exciting questions of existence.

It is impossible to talk about the originality of A. Fet’s work without talking about his life.

III.

Afanasy Afanasyevich Fet (Shenshin) was born on November 23 (December 5 according to the new style) 1820 in the Oryol province, near the city of Mtsensk. The father of the future poet was a reserved man, stern towards his wife and children.

Fet's mother, whose maiden name was Charlotte Becker, belonged by birth to a wealthy German burgher family. After converting to Orthodoxy, she received the name Elizaveta Petrovna. The story of her marriage is mysterious. Shenshin was her second husband. Until 1820 she lived in Germany, in Darmstadt, in her father's house. Apparently, after her divorce from her first husband, Johann Fet, she met forty-four-year-old Afanasy Neofitovich Shenshin. He brought her to Russia. Afanasy Neofitovich's love passed away as quickly as if it had never happened. The mother meekly resigned herself, and only got sick more and more often. As a child, Fet had something to think about, something to be sad about. But there was also good, perhaps more good than bad.

Many of Fet's first teachers turned out to be narrow-minded when it came to book science. But there was another science - natural, directly life-based. Most of all, she taught and educated surrounding nature and living impressions of life, brought up the entire way of peasant and rural life. This is, of course, more important than book literacy. This is a practical diploma that has a deep effect and lasts a lifetime. Happy is the person who has mastered it from his youth. He is especially happy if his life calling is poetry!

Afanasy Fet studied at the Krummer boarding school in the city of Dorpat from the age of 14. The boarding school had beloved teachers and a living desire for knowledge. Here the poet learned a lot, learned a lot. And this was knowledge for life. They provided great assistance in his literary and poetic works. Good knowledge German language, which Fet owed not only to his mother, but also to the boarding school, allowed him to later translate German poets, in particular his beloved Heine.

From 1834 to 1844 he studied at Moscow University. Serious poetry studies begin in the first year. He wrote down his poems in a special “yellow notebook” he kept for that purpose. Fet's poetic fate is happy; great first revealed to him the joy of poetry, and the great Gogol blessed him to serve it. At the same time, the future poet became close to fellow student Apollo Grigoriev. He was an extraordinary young man, and later a talented poet and critic. Talented university youth gathered in Grigoriev's house. Around Grigoriev and Fet, not just a friendly company of interlocutors is formed, but a kind of literary and philosophical circle.

While at the university, Fet published the first collection of his poems. It was called somewhat intricately: “Lyrical Pantheon”. This collection was published at the end of November 1840 without a name with only initials: “A. F.”

This book is in many ways still a student's book. The influence of a variety of poets, Russian and Western, is noticeable in it; in a word, the book sounded with many different voices. For a collection of works by a very young poet, this is a fairly common occurrence.

In the collection, the greatest preference was given to two genres: the ballad, so beloved by romantics (“Abduction from a Harem,” “Castle Raufenbach” and others), and the genre of anthological poems, that is, poems on a theme or manner close to the ancient ones. Fet, both mature and young, was especially successful in poetry of the anthological kind. In the poet's first collection, the master's handwriting is already visible: everything here is simple, clear, precise. Moreover, what expressive details, what a visible picture they create!

Already, with sickles placed on their shoulders, the tired reapers

They resound the cool field with their sonorous song;

The forest smells of lily of the valley; there, under the ravine, birch trees

They glow with the crimson of dawn, and here, in the small bushes

The nightingale sang loudly, pleased with the evening coolness

The faithful horse steps forward beneath me at a slow pace,

Bends his neck into a ring and drives away midges with his tail.

After the release of “Lyrical Pantheon”, the two largest magazines of the 40s - “Moskvityanin” and “Otechestvennye zapiski” - began to willingly publish his poems, and some poems, as exemplary ones, ended up in the then well-known “Chrestomathy” by A. D. Galakhov, the first edition of which was published in 1843.

Eighty-five poems were published in these magazines from 1841 to 1845 (before entering military service), including the now textbook “I came to you with greetings...”

In the poet’s life during this period there were many trials and turmoil, but he was adamant in his decisions: “... in life I was always concerned about the future, and not about the past, which cannot be changed.”

During his years of military service, Fet also had genuine joys - high, truly human. This is a meeting with Maria Lazic. She became his heroine love lyrics. Maria Lazic was gifted with a deep and subtle poetic feeling, knew poetry and understood it. She knew and loved Fet's poems. The poet could not help but appreciate this. “Nothing,” he wrote, referring to his relationship with Lazic, “brings us together like art in general - poetry in in a broad sense words. Such intimate rapprochement is poetry in itself.”

But their relationship ended tragically, due to many circumstances. After the tragic death of Maria Lazic, the poet fully understands love, unique and only love. Now he will remember all his life, talk and sing about this love - in lofty, beautiful, amazing verses. Already in his declining years in one of his best poems - “Alter Ejo” (Another (second) me (lat.) - Fet will say: ... that grass that is far away on your grave, Here on the heart, the older it is, the fresher it is ...

“In these words,” says critic N.N. Strakhov, “youthful love, and death, and the long years lived after this death, and a distant grave, and an old heart, which long ago became the grave of a beloved being, an eternally fresh grave, even forever refreshing. The beauty of this bold but simple feeling, endless tenderness, which grows deeper and brighter over the years, but burns as in the first minute.”

IV. Teacher's word.

The biography of a poet is, first of all, his poems. We have already talked in part about Fet's poems, but did not dwell on them in detail. This will be in the next two lessons.

Homework.

1. Prepare a retelling of the message based on the textbook.

2. Learn 2 poems by heart (of the student’s choice). The following poems are offered: “At dawn, don’t wake her up...”, “I came to you with greetings...”, “Whisper, timid breathing...”, “What a night...”, “The swallows have disappeared...”, “I tell you I won’t say anything...”

Creative debut- the first book “Lyrical Pantheon” (1840), poems on the pages of the magazines “Moskvityanin” and “Otechestvennye zapiski”. Admiring reviews of the works of Fet N.V. Gogol, V.G. Belinsky and Ap. Grigorieva.

Military service.(The goal is to return the noble title and surname). Military service in the Kherson province, the poet subordinates the training of the will and the development of unshakable perseverance to “instant achievement of the goal by the shortest route.”

A series of poems about love.“In a soul tormented by years...”, “You have suffered, I still suffer...”, “The sun’s ray between the linden trees was both burning and high...”, “I don’t see your imperishable beauty...”, “For a long time I dreamed of the cries of your sobs... " and etc.

Expressive reading poems.

The poet dedicated most of his poems about love to his beloved Maria Lazic, whom he met in 1848. But Fet did not marry the girl, since he saw marriage as “a significant obstacle to career advancement.” The poet had no idea that after Mary’s death, when he reached fame and all the heights of prosperity, the unexpected would happen: he would begin to rush from the happy present to the past, in which his beloved girl remained forever.

The predominant tone of Fet's love lyrics is tragic.

Poems about nature. The collection “Evening Lights” is an extraordinary creative rise of A. A. Fet.

A cycle of poems about nature: “Spring”, “Summer”, “Autumn”, “Snow”, “Sea”. Dissolving into natural world, plunging into its most mysterious depths, lyrical hero Feta gains the ability to see the beautiful soul of nature.

Expressive reading of poems about nature.

Prose works Feta. From 1862 to 1871 Fet’s two largest prose cycles were published in the magazines “Russian Messenger”, “Zarya” and others: “From the Village”, “Notes on Voluntary Labor”. This is “village” prose: the cycles consist of stories, essays, and short stories. Main meaning prose - “defense” of one’s landowner’s economy and the affirmation of the idea of ​​​​the advantage of civilian labor. (Fet bought the Stepanovka estate in the Oryol province, then the Vorobyovka estate in the Kursk province, acquired big house in Moscow, became a prudent owner and businessman.)

Fet's poetry and prose are artistic antipodes. According to Fet, prose is the language of everyday life, and poetry is the life of the human soul and nature.

The final stage of Fet's poetic creativity(1870–1892). “On an evening so golden and clear...” (1886), “With one push, drive away a living boat...” (1887), “Never” (1879), “The azure night looks at the mown meadow...” (1892), etc.

If earlier the poet found “spiritual peace and pleasure” in his poems, now it worries and torments him.

Four collections “Evening Lights” (1883, 1885, 1888, 1891). All the lyrics of these collections are permeated with the feeling that the world is, as it were, “falling apart, having lost its “harmony.” More and more anxiety, pain and confusion appear in Fet’s poems.

Fet's translation activities. Translates poems by ancient poets, Goethe, Schiller, Heine, Byron, Shakespeare's tragedies, etc. In translations he strives for accuracy. “Of course, I translate literally,” writes Fet in a letter to V.S. Solovyov.

A. A. Fet - poet of “pure art”

Fet constantly emphasized that poetry should not be connected with life, and the poet should not interfere in the everyday affairs of, as he put it, the “poor world.”

So the questions public life in his poems he did not touch upon. Fet “could never understand that art was interested in anything other than beauty,” and acted as a defender of “pure art.” (like his like-minded people in their views on art: V. P. Botkin, A. V. Druzhinin, Ya. P. Polonsky, A. N. Maikov, etc.). The poet sought to contrast art with reality. Turning away from the tragic sides of reality, from those questions that painfully worried his contemporaries, Fet limited his poetry to three themes: nature, love, art. The poet wrote:

Inevitably, Into the world of aspirations,

Passionately, tenderly

Hope and prayers;

Feeling the joy without effort

With the splash of wings I do not want

fly in Your battles.

Fet's poetry is a poetry of hints, guesses, omissions. His poems are lyrical miniatures, with the help of which he conveys “the subtle experiences of a person organically connected with nature.”

Homework.

1. Answer the questions:

1) What, in your opinion, is unusual about Fet’s life and work?

2) What struck contemporaries about the poet’s character?

3) What is the essence of the theory of “pure art”?

4) What makes up the undying charm of Fet’s poems?

2. Learn your favorite poem by heart and analyze it.

3. Individual messages and assignments on topics:

1) A. A. Fet - poet-musician.

Select romances by Russian composers based on Fet's poems.

2) Why were the poet’s poems criticized? What parodies of Fet’s poems do you know?

Lesson 87
MAIN THEMES AND MOTIVES OF A. A. FET'S WORK.
ARTISTIC ORIGINALITY OF HIS POETRY

Goals: expand students' understanding of Fet's work, artistic originality his poetry; to help high school students feel the poetic charm, melodiousness and musicality of most of Fet’s texts; find out what struck contemporaries in the poet’s character, why Fet’s poems caused a large number of disputes, parodies, ridicule; develop skills for independent analysis of a lyrical work.

Visual aids: portrait of A. A. Fet; recording of romances and songs based on the poet's poems.

A. A. Fet (1820-1892) is much less of an anthologist than Maikov; in his first collection “Lyrical Pantheon” (1840) there are very few anthological poems (“Bacchae”, “Weary reapers, having laid sickles on their shoulders...”); there are much more manifestations of epigone romanticism in it - oriental, medieval and folk ballads (“Abduction from the Harem”, “Castle Raufenbach”, “Strangled”), Spanish (“Serenade”) and oriental (“Odalisque”) plots with a characteristic stylistic design, lexical composition.

In the early 40s. Fet more than once turns to “imitations of the ancients”, creates many magnificent anthological poems, distinguished by “brightness and clarity of expression” - the poem “Diana” (1847), for example; however, this genre is internally alien to him.

The direction of Fet’s further work is determined not by “picturesqueness or plasticity of images,” but by “subjective-poetic mood.” If, according to a contemporary’s definition, the main thing in Maikov is “concentrated observation of the external manifestations of nature, the observation of a painter, sensitive to the beauty of colors and lines,” then Fet is primarily characterized by “an unaccountably enthusiastic desire to recreate in words the poetic moments of our life - a desire with whom Mr. Tyutchev was already distinguished at that time and with whom Mr. Fet was preparing to enter literature.”

The future Fet is already easily discernible in the aspiring writer. In the 40s He created poems that are as much “Fetov’s” as those that belong to a later time - the period of his creative heyday. In most of Fet's early poems there is a noticeable desire for a certain complexity of thematic movement, entirely determined by his purely individual associations.

The smooth flow of poetic thought is disrupted; the absence of certain links in its development creates a feeling of understatement, fragmentation, and a random connection of motives (“A wavy cloud...”, 1843; “As a new cap comes to you...”, 1847; “The cat sings, eyes narrowed...” , 1842; “I’m waiting... Nightingale Echo”, 1842). Fet does not strive for clarity, certainty of the lyrical situation, or psychological clarity of images.

The main thing for him is to reproduce the emotional atmosphere, convey the mood, record the vague, unclear, vague mental movements of a person, individual moments in the development of feelings, in the development of the characters’ relationships (“Kenkets, and marble, and bronze ...”, 1847; “On the double glass patterns...", 1847; "You tell me: forgive me...", 1847).

Fet’s frequent repetitions are no coincidence indefinite revolutions- something, somehow, some (“Some kind of secret thirst”, “Some spirit of the night owns the garden”), negative, interrogative intonations (“I don’t know: in the life of the local Duma, are they right, Are my feelings right?.. I hear my heart beating faster, And what’s wrong with me? - I don’t know!”).41 Already in the early Fet, his contemporaries noticed this “ability... to catch the elusive, to give an image and name to what came before him was nothing more than a vague, fleeting sensation of the human soul, a sensation without image or name.”

The nature of the subject of the image in Fet’s poetry explains his frequent appeals to the theme of dreams, daydreams, daydreams (“I see you in all my dreams...”, 1847; “These thoughts, these dreams...”, 1847; “Fantasy”, 1847). The most important aesthetic principles that determined the poetics of the mature Fet were declared by him already in the 40s.

The impossibility of conveying in words these “vague, fleeting sensations of the human soul” forced the poet to turn to the language of the “soul” (“Oh, if only the soul could speak without a word!”), “the language of the eyes” (“And retell everything to her in the language of the eyes.” ), the language of smells (“I have long wanted to speak to you in an odorous rhyme”), the language of sounds:

Speak to my soul;

What cannot be expressed in words -

Sound into the soul.

Here is the fundamental justification for the “musicality” of Fet’s poetry, which in this regard continues the “melodic” line of Zhukovsky and Tyutchev. Already in the 40s. the poem “Your luxurious wreath is fresh and fragrant...” was written, the lyrical theme of which develops according to the laws of movement of a musical theme (this, in particular, is the function of the refrain). The cycle of poems with the characteristic title “Melodies” (“Silent, starry night...”, 1842; “Storm in the evening sky...”, 1842; “The smile of languid boredom...”, 1844; “For streams wind through the stern...", 1844).

In the 40s The principle of word usage that surprised the poet’s contemporaries was also formed - “strange” epithets, seemingly impossible combinations of words, perceived as incredible “lyrical audacity.”

Fet's early poems are filled with something that grates on the ears of the reader and critic of the 40s. combinations such as “ringing garden”, “melting violin”, “long gazes”, “ruddy childhood”, “silver dreams”, which become possible when referring not to direct meaning words, but to an extremely extended figurative; the connection between the main meaning and the figurative one is established through the purely emotional perception of the word.

Fet's poetry already in the 40s. was noticed by contemporaries. Appeal to the world of simple, everyday human feelings, poeticization of emotional movements that are close and understandable to everyone, the extraordinary art of lyrical communication with the reader - all this was new, unusual, attractive.

The poetic work of Ya. P. Polonsky (1819-1898), close to Fet in its melodic form, is developing in the same direction. His romance poems of the 40s, such as “The Sun and the Moon” (1841), “Challenge” (1844), “Recluse” (1846), “Song of the Gypsy” (1853), “Bell” (1854) , - samples of romance lyrics somewhat modified in accordance with the requirements of the time, already from the late 30s. displacing the traditional classical elegy.

And Maikov, and Shcherbina, and Fet, and Polonsky, each in accordance with the characteristics of his individual talent, paved the way to liberation modern poetry from that “sad, dissatisfied, sad-lazy element” that gave her “a stamp of monotony.”

Their, according to Druzhinin, “fresh, strong, self-confident, sometimes discordant” voices returned to poetry the vital authenticity, simplicity, and naturalness it had lost; opened up new possibilities for artistic comprehension of the world. In the 40s the work of each of the named poets was perceived as a phenomenon opposed, on the one hand, to vulgar romanticism, and on the other, to the “reflective” direction in poetry, and in this regard, the poems of the anthology poets and Fet’s poetry are equal.

However, in a broader sense, as certain stage the formation of Russian poetry as a whole, Fet’s early lyrics are much more significant than the anthological experiments of Maykov or Shcherbina. The anthological lyrics did not contain the prerequisites for further development, nor did they indicate the path of this development. The discoveries made by Fet in the 40s essentially determined new turn in the development of intimate psychological lyrics, remained a living literary phenomenon for many decades, and were picked up by poets of the beginning of the new century.

As a poet of the 40s. Fet certainly experienced the “trends of the times,” the content of which Belinsky expressed as follows: “Reality is the slogan and the last word modern world! The “material” of Fet’s poetry is, in general, also reality, but only a narrow, defined area of ​​it: the area mental life a person, his feelings and impressions.

Fet is not interested in the world modern ideas and modern images: the poet’s social indifference was evident already in his first poetic experiments. In his poetic development, it is no coincidence that he proceeds from the aesthetic system already adopted in the previous decade; The poet searches for something new within the purely romantic sphere. Using a particular example of the creative relationship between Fet and Benediktov, K. Shimkevich showed this well.

Overcoming the poetic tradition of the 30s followed a different path. in the works of poets who are not alien to the ideological, social movement of its time. Here the source of new means of lyrical expression was prose. This appeal to the leading genre of the era was completely justified, since it was in prose - and, more specifically, in the prose of the “natural school” - that the advanced ideas of the time found expression.

A similar phenomenon has been observed more than once in the history of Russian poetry; characterizing, for example, the poetic era of the 1850-1860s, I. G. Yampolsky wrote that “in the history of literature it has happened more than once that the influence of narrative prose was clearly felt on some poetic movement.”

History of Russian literature: in 4 volumes / Edited by N.I. Prutskov and others - L., 1980-1983.