An excerpt from the biographical sketch of Mary Watson.

The most outstanding, dominant event of Dante's youth was his love for Beatrice. He first saw her when they were both still children: he was nine, she was eight years old. The "young angel", as the poet puts it, appeared before his eyes in an outfit befitting her childhood: Beatrice was in clothes of a "noble" red color, she had a belt, and she, according to Dante, immediately became "the mistress of his spirit" . "She seemed to me," said the poet, "more like a daughter of God than a mere mortal." “From the very moment I saw her, love took possession of my heart to such an extent that I had no strength to resist it and, trembling with excitement, I heard a secret voice: “Here is a deity that is stronger than you and will rule you.”



Allegorical portrait of Dante by Bronzino

Ten years later, Beatrice appears to him again, this time dressed in white. She walks along the street, accompanied by two other women, raises her eyes to him and, thanks to her "indescribable grace", bows to him so modestly and charmingly that it seems to him that he has seen the "highest degree of bliss."

Painting by Henry Holliday "Dante and Beatrice"

Intoxicated with delight, the poet runs away from the noise of people, retires to his room to dream of his beloved, falls asleep and has a dream. When he wakes up, he writes it down in verse. This is an allegory in the form of a vision: love with Dante's heart in her hands carries at the same time in her arms "a sleeping and veiled lady." Cupid wakes her up, gives her Dante's heart and then runs away crying. This sonnet by the eighteen-year-old Dante, in which he addresses poets, asking them to explain his dream, drew the attention of many to him, among other things, Guido Cavalcanti, who heartily congratulated the new poet. Thus began their friendship, which has never wavered since.

In his first poetic works, in sonnets and canzones, surrounding the image of Beatrice with a bright radiance and poetic halo, Dante already surpasses all his contemporaries with the power of poetic talent, the ability to speak the language, as well as sincerity, seriousness and depth of feeling. Although he, too, still adheres to the former conventional forms, the content is new: it has been experienced, it comes from the heart. However, Dante soon abandoned the old forms and manners and took a different path. He contrasted the traditional feeling of worshiping the Madonna of the troubadours with real, but spiritual, holy, pure love. He himself considers the truth and sincerity of his feelings to be the "powerful lever" of his poetry.

The poet's love story is very simple. All events are the most insignificant. Beatrice passes him down the street and bows to him; he meets her unexpectedly at a wedding celebration and comes into such indescribable excitement and embarrassment that those present and even Beatrice herself mock him and a friend must take him away from there. One of Beatrice's friends dies, and Dante composes two sonnets on this occasion; he hears from other women how much Beatrice grieves for the death of her father ... These are the events; but for such a lofty cult, for such love, which a sensitive heart was capable of brilliant poet, this is a whole inner story, touching in its purity, sincerity and deep religiosity.

This so pure love is timid, the poet hides it from prying eyes, and his feeling remains a mystery for a long time. In order to prevent other people's eyes from penetrating into the sanctuary of the soul, he pretends to be in love with another, writes poetry to her. Gossip begins, and, apparently, Beatrice is jealous and does not return his bow.

Dante and Beatrice, painting by Marie Stillman
Some biographers, not so long ago, doubted the real existence of Beatrice and wanted to consider her image as just an allegory, in no way connected with a real woman. But now it has been documented that Beatrice, whom Dante loved, glorified, mourned, and in whom he saw the ideal of the highest moral and physical perfection, undoubtedly historical figure, daughter of Folco Portinari, who lived next door to the Alighieri family. She was born in April 1267, married Simon dei Bardi in January 1287, and died on June 9, 1290, at the age of twenty-three, shortly after her father.

Dante himself narrates his love in Vita Nuova (New Life), a collection of prose mixed with poetry, which was dedicated by the poet Guido Cavalcanti. According to Boccaccio, this is Dante's first work - containing the full story of the poet's love for Beatrice until her death and beyond - written by him shortly after the death of his beloved, before he dried his tears for her. He called his collection "Vita Nuova", as some believe, because through this love a "new life" has come for him. His dear - for Dante, the personification of the ideal, something "divine, which appeared from heaven to give the earth a ray of heavenly bliss", "the queen of virtue." Clothed in modesty, says the poet, shining with beauty, she walks among praises, like an angel who descended to earth to show the world the spectacle of her perfections. Her presence gives bliss, pours joy in the hearts. Those who have not seen her cannot understand all the sweetness of her presence." Dante says that, adorned with the grace of love and faith, Beatrice awakens the same virtues in others. The thought of her gives the poet the strength to overcome any bad feeling in himself; her presence and bow reconcile him with the universe and even with enemies; love for her turns the mind away from all evil.

Michael Parkes, portraits of Dante and Betarice
Under the clothes of a scientist, Dante beats a pure, young, sensitive heart, open to all impressions, prone to adoration and despair; he is gifted with a fiery imagination that lifts him high above the earth, into the realm of dreams. His love for Beatrice is distinguished by all the signs of the first youthful love. This is a spiritual, sinless worship of a woman, and not a passionate attraction to her. Beatrice for Dante is more an angel than a woman; she, as if on wings, flies through this world, barely touching it, until she returns to the best one, from where she came, and therefore love for her is "the road to goodness, to God." This love of Dante for Beatrice realizes in itself the ideal of Platonic, spiritual love in its highest development. Those who did not understand this feeling, who asked why the poet did not marry Beatrice. Dante did not seek the possession of his beloved; her presence, bow - that's all he wants, which fills him with bliss. Only once, in the poem "Guido, I would like to ...", fantasy captivates him, he dreams of fabulous happiness, of leaving with sweetheart far from cold people, staying with her in the middle of the sea in a boat, with only a few , dearest, friends. But this beautiful poem, where the mystical veil rises and the sweetheart becomes close, desired, Dante excluded from the collection "Vita Nuova": it would be a dissonance in his general tone.

One might think that Dante, worshiping Beatrice, led an inactive, dreamy life. Not at all - pure, high love only gives new, amazing strength. Thanks to Beatrice, Dante tells us, he ceased to be an ordinary person. He began to write early, and she became the impetus for his writing. "I had no other teacher in poetry," he says in "Vita Nuova", "except myself and the most powerful teacher - love." All the lyrics of "Vita Nuova" are imbued with a tone of deep sincerity and truth, but its true muse is grief. And indeed, Short story Dante's love has rare glimpses of clear, contemplative joy; the death of Beatrice's father, her sadness, the premonition of her death and death are all tragic motifs.

The Vision of the Death of Beatrice by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

The premonition of Beatrice's death runs through the entire collection. Already in the first sonnet, in the first vision, Cupid's short joy turns into bitter lamentation, Beatrice is carried to heaven. Then, when her friend is kidnapped by death, the blessed spirits express a desire to see Beatrice in their midst as soon as possible. Her father, Folco Portinari, is dying. In the soul of the poet, the thought is immediately born that she, too, will die. A little time passes - and his premonition comes true: shortly after the death of his father, she follows him to the grave. Dante saw her already dead in a dream, when the women covered her with a veil. Beatrice dies because "this boring life is unworthy of such a beautiful being," says the poet, and, returning to her glory in heaven, she becomes "a spiritual, great beauty," or, as Dante puts it elsewhere, "an intellectual light full of love." ".

When Beatrice died, the poet was 25 years old. Death, dear, was a heavy blow to him. His grief borders on despair: he himself wishes to die and only in death awaits consolation for himself. Life, homeland - everything suddenly turned into a desert for him. Dante is crying about the dead Beatrice like a paradise lost. But his nature was too healthy and strong for him to die of grief.

Painting by Jean-Leon Gerome

From his great grief, the poet seeks solace in science: he studies philosophy, attends philosophical schools, zealously reads Cicero and, most of all, the last representative of culture ancient world, Boethius, who, by his translation and interpretation of Greek philosophical works, especially Aristotle's Logic, made available to future generations a part of Hellenic thinking and left them the work "De Consolatione Philosophiae" ["Consolation of Philosophy" (lat.)], so highly valued by the Middle over the centuries. Boethius wrote this book in prison, shortly before his execution, and tells in it how, at a time when he was languishing under the weight of his position and was about to fall into despair, he was visited by a bright vision: he saw Philosophy, which appeared to console him, remind him about the vanity of all earthly things and to direct the soul to a higher and lasting good. The direct connection of the work with the fate of the author, the fate in which many saw a reflection of their own position, as well as the clarity of its main ideas accessible to everyone and the noble warmth of presentation, brought a special influence to the book of Boethius in the Middle Ages; many have read it and found comfort in it.

"The Anniversary of the Death of Beatrice" by Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Dante’s indefatigable zeal for philosophy, which even temporarily weakened his eyesight, soon revealed to him, in his words, the “sweetness” of this science to such an extent that love for philosophy even eclipsed for a while the ideal that until then had only dominated his soul. And yet another influence struggled in him with the memory of the deceased. In the second half of Vita Nuova, Dante tells how one day, when he was immersed in his sadness, a beautiful woman appeared at the window, looking at him with eyes full of compassion. At first he felt grateful to her, but, seeing her again and again, gradually began to find such pleasure in this spectacle that he was in danger of forgetting the dead Beatrice. However, this new feeling did not give Dante consolation; a strong struggle flared up in his soul. He began to feel low and contemptible to himself, scolding and cursing himself for being able to distract himself, even temporarily, from the thought of Beatrice. The inner struggle of the poet did not last long and ended in the victory of Beatrice, who appeared to him in a vision that greatly excited him. Since then, he again thinks only of her and sings only of her. Later, in his other work, "Convito" ("Feast"), which concludes the most enthusiastic praise of philosophy, Dante gave an allegorical character to the verses dedicated to his second love, which he calls here "Madonna la Filosofia". But there can hardly be any doubt about its real existence, and this little deception of the poet is very excusable.

The feeling that at first seemed to him, under the influence of exaltation, so criminal, in fact was an extremely innocent and quickly flashed meteor of platonic love, which he later realized himself.

Salute to Beatrice by Dante Gabriel Rossetti
But Dante's other love, for a certain Pietra, about whom he wrote four canzones, has a different character. Who was this Pietra - is unknown, like much in the life of the poet; but the four canzones mentioned were written by him before his exile. They sound the language of still youthful passion, youthful love, this time already sensual. This love was easily combined in those days with mystical exaltation, with the religious cult of the feminine ideal; pure, chaste worship of a woman did not then exclude the so-called "folle amore" [crazy love (It.)]. It is quite possible that, with his passionate temperament, Dante paid tribute to him, and that he, too, had a period of storms and delusions.

A few years after the death of Beatrice - when, in fact, it is not known, but apparently in 1295 - Dante married a certain Gemma di Maneto Donati. Former biographers report that the poet had seven children from her, but according to latest research there are only three of them: two sons, Pietro and Jacopo, and a daughter, Antonia.

Dante in Exile, painting by Sir Frederic Leighton
Very little information has been preserved about the poet's wife, Gemma. Apparently she outlived her husband; at least as far back as 1333, her signature appears on one document. According to information reported by Boccaccio, Dante did not see his wife again after his exile from Florence, where she remained with her children. Many years later, at the end of his life, the poet called his sons to him and took care of them. In his writings, Dante nowhere says anything about Gemma. But this was a common occurrence in those days: none of the then poets touched on their family relationships. The wife was destined in that era to play a prosaic role; she remained completely outside the poetic horizon; next to the feeling that was given to her, another could perfectly exist, which was considered higher. Boccaccio and some other biographers claim that Dante's marriage was unhappy. But nothing definite about this is known; it is only true that this marriage was concluded without any romantic lining: it was something like a business arrangement in order to fulfill a public duty - one of those marriages, of which there are many now /
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Dante and Beatrice. Love story.

If the life of Dante himself is already so little known, then, of course, the history of his ancestors is also lost in a big fog. It is only true that the poet came, if not from a noble and wealthy Florentine family, then nevertheless from a sufficient family, whose past he looked with some pride. The poet erected a monument to one of his ancestors, Kachchagvide, in the Divine Comedy.

It must be assumed that Dante loved drawing and music. His plastic instinct is clear, according to Boccaccio, from the clarity of his images.

Dante found friends of youth in the artistic, musical and literary environment. So, for example, Casella, then a famous singer, was apparently very friendly with Dante, since even in Purgatory, Casella, having met the poet, assures him of his love, and Dante recalls his singing, which “quenched there are all sorts of sorrows in it.” Dante was also friends with the painter Cimabue, with the then famous miniaturist Oderisi, and with Giotto, this reformer of Italian art in the sense of painting. There is a beautiful portrait of the young Dante, copied from him by Giotto, probably in the period of time 1290-1295, and only recently, in 1840,! exposed on the wall of the chapel del Podesta in Florence. Close friends of Dante were the poets Lapo Giani, Chino da Pistoia, and especially Guido Cavalcanti. With Chino da Pistoia, who was five years younger than Dante, a famous lawyer and one of the best lyricists of that time, later a teacher of Petrarch, Dante, apparently, made friends later, during his exile.
The most outstanding, pre-eminent event of Dante's youth was his love for Beatrice. He first saw her when both of them were still children: he was 9, she was 8 years old. The “young angel”, as the poet puts it, appeared before his eyes in a dress, nrila-cheegvukschgm for her childhood: Beatrice was dressed in a “noble” red color, she wore a noyas, and she, according to Dante, immediately became “his mistress spirit." “She seemed to me,” says Loet, “more like the daughter of God than a mere mortal,” “From the very minute I saw her, love took possession of my heart to such an extent that I had no strength to resist her and, trembling with excitement , heard a secret voice: Here is a deity that is stronger than you and will own you.

Ten years later, Beatrice appears to him again, this time dressed in white. She walks down the street, accompanied by two other women, raises her eyes to him and, thanks to her “indescribable grace”, bows to him so modestly and charmingly that it seems to him that he has seen the “highest degree of bliss”. Intoxicated with delight, the poet runs away from the noise of people, retires to his room to dream of his beloved, falls asleep and has a dream. When he wakes up, he writes it down in verse. This is an allegory in the form of a vision: love, with Dante's heart in her hands, at the same time carries in her arms "a lady asleep and wrapped in a veil." Cupid wakes her up, gives her Dante's heart and then runs away crying. This sonnet of the 18-year-old Dante, in which he addresses the poets, asking them for an explanation of his dream, drew the attention of many to him, by the way, Guido Cavalcanti, who congratulated the new poet from the bottom of his heart. Thus their friendship, which has never weakened since then, was supposed to be shaken. In his first poetic works, in sonnets and canzones, surrounding the image of Beatrice with bright radiance and a poetic halo, Dante already surpasses all his contemporaries with the power of poetic talent, the ability to speak the language, as well as sincerity, seriousness and depth of feeling. Although he, too, still adheres to the same conventionality of form, the content is new: it is experienced, it comes from the heart. Dante soon abandoned the form and manner that had been handed down to him and took a new path. He contrasted the traditional feeling of worshiping the Madonna of the troubadours with real, but spiritual, holy, pure love. He himself considers the truth and sincerity of his feelings to be the "powerful lever" of his poetry.

The poet's love story is very simple. All events are the smallest. Beatrice passes him down the street and bows to him; he meets her unexpectedly at a wedding celebration and comes into such indescribable excitement and embarrassment that those present, and even Beatrice herself, make fun of him, and his friend must take him away from there. One of Beatrice's friends dies, and Dante composes two sonnets on this occasion; he hears from other women how much Beatrice grieves for the death of her father ... These are the events; but for such a high cult, for such love, which the sensitive heart of a poet of genius was capable of, this is a whole inner story, touching in its purity, sincerity and deep religiosity.,

This so pure love is timid, the poet hides it from prying eyes, and his feeling remains a mystery for a long time. In order to prevent other people's eyes from penetrating into the sanctuary of the soul, he pretends to be in love with another, writes poetry to her. Gossip begins, and, apparently, Beatrice is jealous and does not return his bow.
Some biographers not so long ago doubted the real existence of Beatrice and tried to consider her just an allegory, without real content. But now it is documented that Beatrice, whom Dante loved, glorified, mourned and exalted as the ideal of the highest moral and physical perfection, is undoubtedly a historical figure, the daughter of Folco Portinari, who lived in the neighborhood of the Alighieri family and was born in April 1267, In January 1287, she married Sismon di Bardi, and on June 9, 1290, she died at the age of 23, shortly after her father.

Dante himself tells about his love in Vita nuova (New Life), a collection of prose mixed with poems, which was dedicated by the poet Guido Cavalcanti.
Under the clothes of a scientist, Dante beats a pure, young, sensitive heart, open to all impressions, easily inclined to adoration and despair; he is gifted with a fiery imagination that takes him high above the earth, into the realm of dreams. His love for Beatrice is distinguished by all the signs of the first youthful love. This is a spiritual, holy worship of a woman, and not a passionate love for her. Beatrice is for Dante a whiter angel than a woman; she, as if on wings, flies through this world, barely touching it, until she returns to the best one, from where she came, and therefore love for her is “the road to goodness, to God.” This love of Dante for Beatrice realizes in itself the ideal of Platonic, spiritual love in its highest development. Those who asked why the poet did not marry Beatrice did not understand this feeling. Dante did not seek the possession of his beloved; her presence, bowing to i - that's all he wants, which fills him with bliss. Only once, in the verse-creation "Guido, I would like ...", fantasy captivates him, he dreams of fabulous happiness, of leaving with his sweetheart far from cold people, staying with her in the middle of the sea in a boat, only with a few, dearest friends. But this beautiful poem, where the mystical veil rises and the sweetheart becomes close, desired, Dante excluded from the collection Vita nuova: it would be a dissonance in his general tone.

One might think that Dante, worshiping Beatrice, led an inactive, dreamy life. Not at all - pure, high love only gives a new, amazing strength. Thanks to Beatrice, Dante tells us, he stepped out of the ranks of ordinary people. He began to write early, and she was the impetus for his writing. “I had no other teacher in poetry,” he says in Vita nuova, “except myself and the most powerful teacher - love.” All the lyrics of "Vita nuova" are imbued with a tone of deep sincerity and truth, but its true muse is sorrow. Indeed, Dante's brief love story has rare glimpses of clear, contemplative joy; the death of Beatrice's father, her sadness, the premonition of her death and her death - all these are tragic motives. The premonition of Beatrice's death runs through the entire collection. Already in the first sonnet, in the first vision, Cupid's short joy turns into bitter lamentation, Beatrice is carried to heaven. Then, when Death abducts Beatrice's friend, the blessed spirits express the desire to have her sooner in their midst.

When Beatrice died, the poet was 25 years old. Death, dear, was a heavy blow to him. His grief borders on despair - he himself wishes to die, and only in death does he seek consolation. Life, homeland - everything suddenly turned into a desert for him. Dante is crying about the dead Beatrice like a paradise lost. But his nature was too healthy and strong for him to die of grief. From his great sorrow, the poet seeks solace in the pursuit of science.

As a rule, the ideas of great poetic works do not appear suddenly and are not immediately realized; the thought of them lurks before that for a long time in the soul of the poet, develops little by little, takes root deeper and deeper, expands and transforms, until, finally, the mature product of a long, invisible inner work comes into the light of God. So it was with the Divine Comedy. The first thought about his great poem was born, apparently, in the mind of Dante very early. Already the "New Life" serves as a prelude to the "Divine Comedy".
The name "Comedy" was given to his poem by Dante himself, and the epithet "Divine" was added by admiring posterity later, in the 16th century, not because of the content of the poem, but as a designation of the highest degree of perfection of Dante's great work. 1 The Divine Comedy does not belong to any particular kind of poetry: it is a completely peculiar, one-of-a-kind mixture of all the elements of various kinds of poetry.
The continuation of the story of Dante's love for Beatrice in the Divine Comedy, and there this love takes on a new level - love-immortality.

Dante and Virgil

Meeting with Beatrice after death

Dante and Beatrice in Paradise

In continuation, I want to bring to your attention a few sonnets written in honor of this beautiful love.
In her eyes she keeps Love;
Blessed is everything she looks at;
She goes - everyone hurries to her;
Will he greet - his heart will tremble.

So, all confused, he bows down his face
And he sighs about his sinfulness.
Haughtiness and anger melt before her.
O donnas, who will not praise her?

All the sweetness and all the humility of thoughts
Knows the one who hears her word.
Blessed is he who is destined to meet her.

The way she smiles
Speech does not speak and the mind does not remember:
So this miracle is blissful and new.

So noble, so modest
Madonna, answering the bow,
That near her the language is silent, embarrassed,
And the eye does not dare to rise to it.

She goes, does not heed the enthusiasm,
And become her humility clothed,
And it seems: brought down from the sky
This ghost to us, but a miracle here is.

She brings such delight to her eyes,
That when you meet her, you find joy,
Which the ignorant will not understand,

And as if from her mouth comes
Love spirit pouring sweetness into the heart,
Firmly to the soul: "Breathe ..." - and sigh

Whose spirit is captivated, whose heart is full of light,
To all those before whom my sonnet appears,
Who will reveal to me the meaning of his deaf,
In the name of the Lady of Love, - hello to them!

Already a third of the hours when it is given to the planets
Shine stronger, making your way,
When love appeared before me
Such that it is terrible for me to remember this:

In fun was Love; and in the palm of your hand
My heart was holding; but in the hands
She carried the Madonna, sleeping humbly;

And, having awakened, gave the Madonna a taste
From the heart, - and she ate in confusion.
Then Love disappeared, all in tears.

You laughed at me among your friends,
But did you know, Madonna, why
You can't recognize my face
When I stand before your beauty?

Oh, if you knew - with the usual kindness
You could not contain your feelings:
After all, Love, captivating me all,
Tyrannizing with such cruelty,

That, reigning among my timid feelings,
Executing others, sending others into exile,
She alone has her eyes on you.

That's why my unusual appearance!
But even then their exiles
So clearly I hear grief.

I heard how I woke up in my heart
The loving spirit that slumbered there;
Then in the distance I saw love
So happy that I doubted her.

She said: "Time to bow
You are in front of me ... ”- and laughter sounded in the speech.
But only the mistress I heeded,
Her dear gaze fixed on mine.

And monna Vannu with monna Bice I
I saw those going to these lands -
Behind a marvelous miracle, a miracle without an example;

And, as is stored in my memory,
Love said: "This is Primavera,
And that one is Love, we are so similar to it.

One of the features of E. Raevsky's poetry is that it often relies on the achievements of the classics, as they say now, stands "on the shoulders of giants." Adherence to traditions is reflected not only in following the themes and motives of predecessors, but also in the development of traditional forms, which include the sonnet.
The name of this poetic form comes from the Italian word sonare, which emphasizes the peculiarity of the sound of the verse. After all, in Italian this word means “to sound”. In the same way, having appeared in Germany, this poetic type was called Klieggedicht, which means “ringing verses” in translation. Both names convey the sound originality of the sonnet, its musicality and sonority of its rhymes. At the same time, a sonnet is a work of especially clear form, mainly consisting of fourteen lines, organized in a peculiar way into stanzas. But this form has its own flexibility. As the researcher writes, "the variety of rhymes, the rarity and value of all the visual means of verse, the flexibility of its rhythms, the ability to obey various strophic types - all this appears with exceptional completeness in this most demanding of poetic forms" 42.
The sonnet, as is known, originated in Sicily in the thirteenth century, when European culture was preparing to enter the period of the Renaissance. Dante already knew the sonnet well and used it quite generously in his La Vita Nuova. So, in the sonnet "To souls in love ..." you can see the first part, in which great poet sends his greetings to the bearers of nobility, asking for an answer, and the second part, where the author indicates what he is waiting for an answer to 43 . In the corpus of poems of the Florentine period, we also find sonnets addressed to contemporaries (Guido Cavalcanti, Lippo, etc.) or glorifying the beautiful lady of the heart. Here is an example of a Dante sonnet:

Beloved eyes radiate light
So noble that before them
Objects become different
And it is impossible to describe such an object.
I see these eyes, and in response
I repeat, trembling, plunged into horror by them:
"From now on, they will not meet mine!",
But soon I forget my vow;
And again I go, inspiring the guilty
My eyes are confident, there,
Where defeated, but, alas, I will close them
From fear where it melts without a trace
The desire that serves as their guide,
Amora decide how to be with me 44 .

Dante's sonnets are not yet divided into separate quatrains and terzets, although they actually consist of them. Most of the works of this form by the creator of the Divine Comedy are correct sonnets (I, III, VI, VIII, etc.), there are already free and complicated ones (IV, V, XIII), not subject to strict rules. Dante's best sonnet is the one that begins with the lines: Tanto gentile e tanto onesta pare:

So noble, so modest
Madonna, answering the bow,
That near her the language is silent, embarrassed,
And the eye does not dare to rise to her ... 45

It is no coincidence that Pushkin will say that "severe Dante did not despise the sonnet ...". In Dante, works of this form usually include two quatrains (first movement) and two tercetes (second movement). Poems are written in iambic pentameter; the construction is characterized by the fact that first in quatrains there follows a girdle rhyme, then in tercetes two or three rhymes are given that bind them into a single complex, for example:

She brings such delight to her eyes,
That when you meet her, you find joy,
Which the ignorant will not understand.

And as if coming from her mouth
Love spirit pouring sweetness into the heart,
Firmly to the soul: "sigh" - and sigh 46 .

At the same time, sonorous, sonorous rhymes are chosen so that they fully correspond to the name of this poetic form. These are “carries” - “understands” - “goes” - “breathes” and “joy” - “sweetness” in the above example.
The work of Dante was continued by Petrarch, the first humanist of the Renaissance, with his passionate interest in the problems of the individual and in the culture of antiquity. His love for Laura, combined with the same adoration of fame, he strives to present as ideal, and for this, the sonnet serves him to the greatest extent. Petrarch made the sonnet perfect both in content and in formal terms. In his sonnets, Petrarch finds special words to glorify his beloved and at the same time convey the ardor of his own feelings. Laura, according to Petrarch, not only surpasses all other women in her beauty, but, like the Sun, outshines the small stars with her radiance. Very precisely the essence of the “Book of Songs” was designated by the literary historian Fr. De Sanctis: “Dante elevated Beatrice to the Universe, became her conscience and herald; Petrarch concentrated the whole Universe in Laura, created his own world from her and from himself. At first glance, this is a step back, but in reality it is a step forward. This world is much smaller, it is only a small fragment of a huge generalization of Dante, but a fragment that has turned into something complete: a full-fledged, concrete, given in development, analyzed, explored to the innermost recesses” 47 .
Francesco Petrarch conveyed the content and originality of the construction of his book of lyrics in the first sonnet, which must be quoted here:

In a collection of songs true to youthful passion,
The aching echo of sighs has not died away
Since the first time I made a mistake
Unaware of your future part.

In vain dreams and vain torments in power,
My voice breaks at times
For which I ask not for your forgiveness,
Lovers, but only about participation.
After all, the fact that everyone laughed at me,
Didn't mean the judges were too strict:
I see myself today that I was ridiculous.

And for the former thirst for vain blessings
I'm executing myself now, realizing in the end,
That worldly joys are a brief dream 48 .

It follows from this text that the book of sonnets is a collection of love songs, that the voice of young passion will be interrupted from time to time in it, and that, finally, the author will appeal to readers, calling for participation. The range of feelings is set as follows: "from vain dreams" to "vain torments." The result of love, it is said in the final part of the sonnet, will be repentance and understanding that "worldly joys are a short dream."
Nevertheless, the poet does not reject his deep feeling, inspired by Cupid, and does not regret it. He will remember his birth, maturation, deepening, his reflection, split feelings and unfulfilled hopes, counting on the transfer of his sad experience to others. Laura appears in these lyrics as a completely real, albeit slightly idealized, woman. Just as alive and real is her lyrical hero, identified with a new humanist who knows how to analyze his love. The new understanding of love was a whole revelation that "beckoned to a new social ideal," as A. N. Veselovsky noted 49 .
Each sonnet by Petrarch is something complete, and at the same time it is introduced into the artistic space of the book of love songs and is perceived as one of the links of the whole. Now the appearance of the sonnet has also changed. It consists of two quatrains separated from each other (connected by two sonorous rhymes) and two independent tercetes, soldered by three rhymes. All 365 sonnets of Petrarch are written in the Italian vernacular. They contain echoes of the poetry of the troubadours, the influence of Dante's lyrics, reminiscences from Roman poets (Ovid), but basically they are truly original. Their confessional language is enriched with personifications, subtle allegories, mythological comparisons, but this language is devoid of any philosophical abstractions and symbols and is truly accessible to readers. Sometimes Petrarch plays in the name of his beloved (Laura, Cauro, laura), is fond of these harmonies, as well as combinations of rhythms and rhymes, which gives his lyrics some artistry, grace 50, but these hobbies are not frequent with the poet.
Petrarch's sonnets had a powerful influence on world poetry. It is noteworthy that Boccaccio included Petrarch's sonnet "Blessed is the day, month, summer, hour ..." in his poem "Filostrato", and Poliziano began one of his poems with this Petrarchian phrase. The style of Petrarch became the style of the Renaissance. All the great lyric poets of France, England, Spain, Portugal, and also the countries of the Slavic world 52 passed through the school of Petrarchism.
A new page in the history of the sonnet is associated with the name of Pierre Ronsard. In the new historical conditions, this French poet continued the traditions of Petrarch. In imitation of the Italian lyricist, Ronsard created in 1552 a collection of sonnets, Love Poems for Cassandra. The young girl Cassandra Salviati, whom Ronsard met at court in the castle of Blois and passionately fell in love, became for the poet a source of creation poetic image, sublime to the ideal, similar to Petrarch's Laura. Here is one of these sonnets translated by S. Shervinsky:

Kohl, mistress, in your hands I will die,
I rejoice: I do not want to have
Worthy of honor than to die,
Leaning towards you in the moment of a kiss.
Others, stirring their breasts with Mars,
Let them go to war, wishing in the future
Rattle with power and armor,
The Spanish steel in the chest seeking itself.

And I have no other desires:
Without glory to die, having lived a hundred years,
And in idleness - at your feet, Cassandra!
Although it may be my mistake,
For this death I would sacrifice
The might of Caesar and the violence of Alexander 53 .

It is easy to see that Ronsard, a deep connoisseur of antiquity, saturates his sonnet with the names of Greek and Roman rulers and mythological heroes, sharply contrasting the exploits on the battlefield with the knightly service of his beloved in an atmosphere of idleness and peace. In its structure, Ronsard's sonnet is original: it pulls together both quatrains into a kind of integrity, building them on two rhymes, but separates both tercets from each other, voicing them with different adjacent rhymes and uniting the third ("Cassandra" - "Alexandra"). The sonnet is written in the spirit of sublime Platonism. The spirit of Petrarchism is still felt here, but it is overcome in the Continuation of Love Poems (1555) and the New Continuation of Love Poems (1556), whose sonnets are dedicated to Marie Dupin. A distinctive feature of these poems is the simplicity and naturalness of the "low style" 54 , which was chosen for sonnets, since the addressee of these poems was a simple peasant woman, cheerful, crafty and earthly. And love for her is just as simple.
The highest achievement of Ronsard in the field of the sonnet was the late cycle of "Sonnets to Helena" (1578), which is distinguished by classic clarity. The addressee of this collection, this "Third Book of Love", was Helena de Surger, the young maid of honor of Catherine de Medici, distinguished by her virtue and beauty. She attracted the attention of the poet and aroused his later feeling. As Z. V. Gukovskaya notes, the third and last cycle of Ronsard's lyrical sonnets was fanned by the sad charm of the love of an almost old man for a young and proud girl. These sonnets “stand out for their calm and majestic simplicity: after all, it was during these years that Ronsard came to a certain unified style in his poems, sublime and clear:

Not too low, not too pompous style:
Horace wrote thus, and Virgil wrote thus.

Here is a sample of Ronsard's sonnets presented in his late cycle, which became the last major event in poetic life. French author, which united around itself a group of poets of the Pleiades and, in general, France of the 16th century:

When already old, with a candle, before the heat
You will twist and spin in the evening hour, -
Having sung my verses, you will say, marveling:
I was glorified by Ronsard in my youth!

Then the last maid in the old house,
Half asleep, working a long day,
At my name, driving drowsiness from my eyes,
Immortal praise will surround you not in vain.

I'll be underground and - a ghost without a bone -
I will be able to find my peace under the shadow of myrtle.
Near the coals you will be an old woman you bent

To regret that I loved, that your refusal was proud ...
Live, believe me, catch every hour
Roses of life immediately pluck the color instant 56 .

Such a historical fact is very curious: when Mary Stuart, being in the Tower of London, was awaiting her execution, she comforted herself by singing the sonnets of the great Ronsard. The best achievements of the poet were continued by the Pleiades, created by him.
A significant milestone in the development of the sonnet form was the work of Shakespeare. Published at the very beginning of the 17th century, in 1609, by the publisher T. Thorp, the sonnets of the great playwright became one of the pinnacle creations of English poetry. All 154 of Shakespeare's sonnets depict the image of such a lyrical hero who knows how to appreciate devoted friendship and experience a complex, painful love for a mysterious heroine. Lyrical excitement is combined in these works with the drama of feelings and the philosophical depth of thought. Most of Shakespeare's sonnets are addressed to a nameless young man. A smaller part of them is devoted to a woman, who in Shakespeare studies was assigned the designation "Dark Lady". Shakespeare scholars identify the young man, the poet's friend, with Henry Risley, Earl of Southampton or William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke. In the sonnets addressed to one of these addressees, the themes of the transience of time, beauty as the eternal value of life and the philosophy of Neoplatonism are developed. At the same time, the author believes in the indissolubility of beauty, goodness and truth. As for the "Swarty Lady", after revealing harmonious relations with her, love-hate towards the woman who allowed infidelity and treason gradually begins to dominate in the poems. World poetry before Shakespeare did not know the disclosure of such circumstances and feelings in sonnet form. However, when analyzing Shakespeare's sonnets, the least of all is to search for biographical and near-literary facts, which was correctly noted by V. S. Florova 57 . Thus, the characterized works of Shakespeare consist of two parts: sonnets 1-126 constitute a cycle addressed to a friend; sonnets 127-154 form a cycle dedicated to the Swarthy Lady. But since the hero and heroine are closely interconnected, entering into a love triangle with the author, all 154 sonnets represent a holistic unity.
Speaking about the construction of Shakespeare's sonnets, it should be noted that their author sometimes reproduced the structure of the Italian sonnet, but more often resorted to his own composition, called "dramatic". The third quatrain was his culmination in the development of the theme, followed by the final couplet - the denouement, often unexpected. This can be seen by reading sonnets 30, 34 and 66 58. Such a structure was most suitable for the playwright-poet for his lyrical confession, the life of the heart, for the angry denunciation of deceit, hypocrisy, cruelty, characteristic of the then society. Such, for example, is sonnet 66, which speaks of the ulcers of reality and echoes the monologues of Hamlet.
The perfection of Shakespeare's sonnet is manifested in its conciseness, in its thoughtful rhyming according to the scheme: ABAB, CBSS, EFEF, GG. The dramatic development of the theme is conveyed with the help of oppositions, antitheses, contrasts, clashes of motives. The final distich usually aphoristically conveys a significant, as a rule, philosophical thought.
The language of Shakespeare's sonnets is based on the alternation of assonances and alliterations. Their vocabulary includes such layers that are able to capture the contradictions of reality. There are also bookstores. lofty words, and expressions from the everyday sphere of life, and even rude "cottage" sayings necessary for expressing anger. So, in the famous 130th sonnet, Shakespeare not only refuses euphuistic (mannered, sophisticated) comparisons, but also resorts to such "indecent" words as English verb reek. Neither the translations of N. Gerbel, O. Rumer, A. Finkel, nor the classical translation of S. Marshak convey the nature of this sonnet, which paints a portrait of “my lady”. That is why R. Kushnerovich calls this sonnet by Shakespeare still untranslated 59 .
What was created by the genius of Shakespeare became the property of subsequent poetry. Sonnet writers often referred to its dramatic form. True, Edmund Spenser (1552-1599), a contemporary of the tragedian, invented for his sonnets a very complex system of rhyming and the "Spencer stanza". But they did not take root in the work of poets of new generations, and Shakespeare himself did not use these wisdoms without needing them.
The art of the sonnet was also developed in Germany. True, Schiller did not use this art form, but Schlegel, Werner, Zacharius and Goethe turned to it.
Goethe's sonnets are the most significant. The poet creates them in the late period of his life, starting from 1807. The choice of this form is connected with the passion for the poetry of Petrarch. Goethe's sonnets are autobiographical in nature. It is no coincidence that in the IV sonnet the heroine, referring to the lyrical hero, expresses her reproach in the following words:

You are so harsh, my love! With a statue
You are like an icy posture with your ...

These sonnets are mainly dedicated to Minna Herzlieb, an eighteen-year-old girl, for whom the already middle-aged poet had a love feeling. For the author, his love languor is “so nice to throw out another into a song.” Goethe's sonnets became such songs at this stage.
These works have pronounced features. First of all, a large cycle of seventeen sonnets is based on a single plot. Against a typically romantic background of towering rocks and roaring streams, he meets a young girl whom he once knew as a child. Confessions and hugs are replaced by separation, lamentations of the beloved, new meetings, cooling. Another feature of this form in Goethe is their internal and external dramatization. Internal - stems from the collision of sensual attraction and fettering restraint, looseness of behavior and a warning prohibition. External dramatization is conveyed by a dialogue between skeptics and lovers (sonnet XIV), a girl and a poet (sonnet XV). Another feature of Goethe's sonnets is the combination of a lyrical expression of feelings with an epistolary form: individual fragments of the cycle are letters from a girl to her lover. These are sonnets VIII, IX and X. Finally, in his works of this cycle, the poet managed to bring together and simultaneously oppose two poetic eras: the time of Petrarch (it is his sonnet form that he inherits) and his time, which the poet counts "from one thousand eight hundred and seventh year" ( sonnet XVI). Therefore, Goethe's sonnets significantly outgrow the boundaries of the lyrical "I" and include the experiences of others and the signs of the era. As the researcher notes, “the confrontation between closeness and detachment, familiarity without novelty fits well into the rigid form of a sonnet. The form enhances frank sensuality, at the same time turns reality into a romantic episode ‹…›. Sonnets are the link between the past and the present of the poet” 60 . The sonnets turned out to be so capacious and important for Goethe that, to a certain extent, they prepared his "Affinity of Souls", "Mignon" and individual scenes of "Faust".
For some time in the 18th century, the sonnet was forgotten: the ideological struggles of this century had no time for its cultivation. But the Romantic movement returned to this form again. The French poet Augustin de Sainte-Beuve summed up everything done by sonnet authors over the course of several centuries. He wrote:

Do not blaspheme the sonnet, mocking Zoil!
He once captivated the great Shakespeare,
He served Petrarch like a mournful lyre,
And Tass, bound, relieved their souls.

Camões shortened his exile,
Singing in sonnets the power of a love idol,
For Dante, he sounded more solemn than the clergy,
And he covered the poet's forehead with myrtle.

Im Spencer clothed magical visions
And in slow stanzas he exhausted his languor,
Milton in them revived the fire that had died out in the heart.
Well, I want to revive their unexpected system with us.
Du Bellay brought them to us first from Tuscany,
And how many of them our forgotten Ronsard sang.

It is noteworthy that it was this sonnet of Sainte-Beuve that A. S. Pushkin was guided by when creating his famous masterpiece “Severe Dante did not despise the sonnet ...”. Pushkin, of course, took into account the achievements in the development of this form not only by European authors, but also by domestic ones: he completely devoted the last tercet to Delvig, the author of six magnificent sonnets. Speaking of this poetic form, Pushkin remarks:

Our maidens did not know him yet,
How did Delvig forget for him
Hexameter sacred tunes.

Pushkin himself was an adherent of sonnets to a lesser extent than his friend who died early. He owns only three works of this form: "Sonnet", "To the Poet" and "Madonna", but they contain the richest content and are distinguished by their unusual harmony and sonority of strophic rhythms. At the same time, Pushkin did not take too much into account the canon that arose around this poetic form. True, he observes the external drawing of the sonnet, builds it from 14 verses, breaks it into two quatrains and two tercetes in the spirit of Petrarch and especially Wordsworth, whose words became the epigraph of the Sonnet and to whom the entire second quatrain is dedicated:

And today he captivates the poet:
Wordsworth chose him as an instrument,
When away from the vain light
Nature he draws an ideal.

However, Pushkin does not accept some other rules of sonnet poetic practice. He innovatively rejects encircling rhymes in the first two quatrains and uses cross rhymes, as in the second tercet above. Pushkin also does not respond to the demand to use rich or varied rhymes in the sonnet: his “Severe Dante ...” is based on five verbal rhymes (“poured out” - “clothed” - “chosen” - “concluded” - “forgotten”), supplemented by the noun “ ideal". At the same time, the rhymes of quatrains were used in the tercetes, which was considered undesirable.
In the sonnet “To the Poet”, Pushkin mixes the cross-rhyming of the first quatrain with the encircling one in the second, although he retains the unity of the rhyme here. In the sonnet "Madonna" he returns to such a mixture and uniformity of rhymes and himself introduces a transfer (enjambement) forbidden for a sonnet from the second quatrain to the first tercet. As the theorist of the sonnet writes, “the severity of the form does not accept even such common combinations as “the heat of love”, “vain light”, “enthusiastic praises”. It is permissible to question in this form, the essential sign of which is impeccability, such clearly “filling” lines as: Our virgins did not know him yet ‹…› All this, quite acceptable in an ordinary poem, is intolerable in a sonnet, which resolutely takes away from oneself every poetic liberties, deliberately increasing and complicating the difficulties” 61 . In addition, Pushkin often allows in the sonnet the forbidden technique of repeating words, which is found both in Madonna and in the sonnet To the Poet.
However, it should be said that with Pushkin, who was excellent in the theory of verse and the practice of versification, these liberties are by no means a manifestation of negligence, but a conscious innovation, an expression of Pushkin's constant innovation. For a great poet, freedom is important, including in conveying the content that is significant for him, contained in these three sonnets, which affirms the independence of the Creator from praise, and the judgment of fools, and from the laughter of a cold crowd, and from the rules that constrain him:

You are the king: live alone. By the road of the free
Go where your free mind takes you
Improving the fruits of your favorite thoughts...

It can be argued that Pushkin's innovations in his sonnets are also their emancipation and improvement. After all, it is important for the poet in Madonna to emphasize that he dreamed of only one picture, and therefore he repeats this word. It is important for him to highlight and glorify the purity of his Madonna, and he repeats this word in superlatives:

The purest beauty, the purest example.

This repetition is necessary. Its use is a manifestation of Pushkin's "free mind" and his own "highest court" 62 .
In parallel with Pushkin, the Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz (“Crimean Sonnets”) gave brilliant samples of the sonnet.
Following Delvig and Pushkin, such Russian poets as P. Katenin, E. Baratynsky, N. Shcherbina, A. Fet, M. Lermontov, V. Benediktov, Ya. Polonsky, K. Pavlova, A. Grigoriev turned to the sonnet form, P. Buturlin, V. Bryusov, Vyach. Ivanov, M. Kuzmin, N. Gumilyov, M. Voloshin, I. Annensky, O. Mandelstam, Yu. Verkhovsky.
In Soviet times, the sonnet form was cultivated by L. Vysheslavsky. His works of the 1960s, such as “The Sonnet of Wine” and “The Sonnet of the Garden Knife”, reproduce the structure developed by Petrarch: two quatrains are replaced by two tercets, although the rhyming characteristic of the canon he established is not sustained: first, a cross-rhyme is given, and then - in tercetes - adjacent. A special cycle in the lyrics of L. Vysheslavsky was "Star Sonnets", which includes 22 works. The same structure is used here as in the already named poems. Hooked on space theme, the poet varies it in many aspects in “Sonnet of My Star”, “Chief Designer”, “Sonnet of Sleep”, “One Hundred and Eight Minutes” (in memory of Yu. A. Gagarin), “Sonnet of the Path”, etc., and pays less attention to versification rules, sonority and completeness of rhymes and legitimacy of rhyme. Only in the sonnets "Soldier" and "Obelisk in the Field" he used encircling rhyme in quatrains, but the accuracy and fullness of rhymes ("obelisk" - "embraced") leaves much to be desired. Both the themes and the construction of L. Vysheslavsky's sonnets turn out to be quite monotonous, being devoted to a single star theme 63 .
A review of the development of sonnet art naturally leads us to the work of Evgeny Raevsky. Our poet pays the closest attention to this poetic form. From collection to collection, he improves his ability to build a sonnet and subordinate its form to the intended content.
We remember that already his first collection proclaimed "Power to sonnets." His very first work of this form (“On Myself and on the Sonnet”) was devoted to understanding his commitment to the sonnet; it persistently attracts readers to listen to the aphorism of the lines:

Whoever is in voice has no right to remain silent;
Listen to my sonnet.

It is noteworthy that the poet mentions a special "magic of fourteen lines." This magic fascinates even Evgeny Raevsky himself.
The subsequent sonnets of the first collection adopt the structure that was characteristic of Shakespeare's reformist art: the sonnets include three quatrains and one final couplet. The poet adheres to this scheme in the future. It allows E. Raevsky to thoroughly develop his theme in three quatrains, in order to then complete the sonnet with a clear and capacious couplet in its aphorism. So, the sonnet "On the outraged faith" is crowned with a biting maxim:

Only meanness rich fools
They burn the temples where their fathers prayed.

And the sonnet "On old age" ends with a wise conclusion from what has been said:

Only then will we honor her,
When we appreciate the brilliance of our gray hairs.

Usually such final lines in Raevsky are not something unexpected, as is observed in the practice of many sonnetists. On the contrary, these maxims naturally follow from the content of the main body of the sonnet. Thus, the sonnet "On the Mercilessness of Drunkenness" very naturally ends with this reflection, filled with doubt and based on a hypothesis:

Wine sang tempting Khayyam,
But he probably drank too much himself.

And thinking about the intensity of poetic work, about the high degree of suffering that a true artist experiences, ends with a confession:

But here I was looking for a draft -
All over again, did not suffer, did not penetrate.

As for the construction of the three main quatrains, Raevsky often maintains the well-known requirement to build them on encircling rhymes. This is how the sonnets “To the Poet”, “On the mercilessness of drunkenness”, “On a person’s faith in one’s own strength”, “On jealousy”, “On blind love” and others are organized. The poet is also faithful to another requirement: he uses voiced, filled, inherent in the sonnet rhymes: "knife" - "similar", "dog" - "fight", "in a hurry" - "in chains" ("About the reigning slave"), "errors" - "unsteady", "passions" - "parts" ("About blind love").
One of the features of Rayevsky's sonnets is their predetermined tonality. For example, in the first collection we meet the "Winter Sonnet". Having received such a definition in the title, this work strives to withstand the minor key and programmed coldness to the end. Motifs of cold, cold and darkness run through the entire poem. They sound in the first line (“Why in the midst of cold and darkness ...”) and the last two: “The cold mocks, the darkness splashes ... Winter will repay me in full.” But the central verses also speak of such phenomena that inevitably tune in a minor key: mistakes, inevitable worries, shame, fatigue, everyday phrases, doubts, a sad outcome, frank conversation, reproaches, loss of tenderness, strife. All this is quite consistent with the winter cold and the accompanying darkness. So the content justifies the designation that is given in the title of the sonnet.
“Sonnet Confusion” is the name of one of the miniatures of the second collection. And here the unusual title of the poem is justified by its tone. Everything gloomy that the author wants to tell about, which made up the content of his experiences (boredom, fatigue, mental pain, anxiety, impotence of songs, dislike, suffering, sadness, a feeling of impotence, flattery) - all this makes up such a range of feelings that clearly does not correspond to the major mood of the poet, conveyed in the collection about a bright beginning in life. Hence the confusion that becomes inevitable for the author and which is carried into the title of the sonnet.
Another sonnet, included in the second collection, is called "Peaceful". To what extent is this definition justified? It's like talking about war. The vocabulary of this work is made up of words as prickly as bayonets: “pierced”, “shouting”, “war”, “bayonets”, “nightmare”, “brutal”, “freak”, “hostile”, “recklessness”, “violence” , "captive". It would seem that the content of the poem clearly contradicts the title. But the tone of the poem is by no means cheerful, its pathos is by no means militant. Although it is loud, it cries out about the inadmissibility of war, about its inadmissibility. In contrast to the “prickly” words, the poet imperceptibly introduces “soft”, “quiet”, peaceful, and they sound insistent in their own way: “sadness”, “peace”, “rest”, “bed”, “I regret”, “I live” , "family", "common sense", God, "living names", "churches". The peaceful beginning prevails, and the poet intends to "captivate the war" in the name of the coming Fatherland. This justifies the definition next to the word "sonnet" - "Peaceful sonnet".
“Light Sonnet” is the name of one of the poems included in the collection “My Love is a Magical Child”. The title here is supported by a variety of motifs and various imagery. It begins with the word "candles" and ends with the image of "candles of love." The light of these candles vibrates in each fragment of the text, in each of the three quatrains and in the final couplet. Light "dances", poetry is also accompanied by light, the heroine is "light-tongue", and the hero tries to hold back his light, although he penetrates into the dance art of his friend and illuminates it, becoming "a pledge of reward". How can you not call the sonnet "light"? The most appropriate definition.
Another sonnet of this book is called "Rowan ...". And again, not randomly. The image of mountain ash is central in the poem. Bunches it - like "merry harmonies" of melodies. The ruby ​​lips of the beloved are compared with the harmony of mountain ash. To what extent is the title of another poem justified - "Pure Sonnet"? After all, it does not speak at all about the platonic relationship of a man and a woman ... Here, "dreams and hands sensually closed." But who said that the union of lovers cannot be pure? And in the work of E. Raevsky, it is purity that appears before the reader. Not only because pure white snow accompanies the music of love outside the window. And not only because, as the sonnet says, “the secret of pure music” is felt. But also because the very feeling of those who love is conveyed as pure, devoid of rudeness, tactlessness, impermissibility. Fatigue has gone, the charm of peace has set in, the characters of the sonnet are fettered by an affectionate dream, silence is enveloping, a gentle and silent “romantic snow scherzo” and other sounds whispering riddles. Finally, everything depicted and expressed in the sonnet overshadows with goodness. That is why the sonnet itself is named precisely and wisely - “pure”.
"Instructive sonnet" is also named after its own name not by chance. From the point of view of form, not everything is perfect in it. If the first quatrain is shackled by a girdle rhyme, then the second and third quatrains are built on cross rhymes, and “beauty” - “height” cannot be called a pair of fresh consonances. But for the poet, the expression of a number of thoughts he has borne about the inadmissibility of the slavish submission of one of the lovers, about the humiliation of beauty kneeling on its knees, about the inadmissibility of lies and insincerity in human relationships becomes significant and paramount here. And all these thoughts here take the form of maxims, didactic instructions of a person who has known life, wise edifications. It is their substantive form that is essential here, and by no means ossified canonical. That is why the sonnet received by no means a winning, but justified definition.
It may seem inappropriate to address Sergei Yesenin in the form of a sonnet. The author of "Anna Snegina" and "Letter to a Woman" did not compose sonnets. In addition, he, completely free and uninhibited, seems to be alien to the constricting regularity of the form of the sonnet. Raevsky himself recalls how the "singer of the earth" "hooliganized and frolicked", drank wine and "scandalized with the invisible God." But Yesenin is our author's favorite poet. In an interview, Raevsky spoke with admiration that “Yesenin was an educated, advanced person of his time. Then five classes of the parochial school were probably equal to ten classes. modern school. He was very inquisitive, like a sponge, absorbed all the innovations of Russian versification, was aware of Russian and foreign literary life. He was constantly improving." For this reason, Yesenin is by no means contraindicated in the form born of high European and Russian culture. In addition, the poet wrote about love, and this theme often asks to be embodied in the sonnet form intended for this, which Yevgeny Raevsky took into account. Yesenin, along with Pushkin, is a longtime idol of our author. “To the song of a dream / I got drunk with you to boyishness,” Raevsky admits in his sonnet addressed to Yesenin. It is no coincidence that he participated in the Yesenin poetry competition and is proud of the poet's medal. That is why the sonnet in memory of the great poet is internally justified. Its author finds heartfelt words to express his love for his predecessor:

... you are the singer of the earth and eternal here, like a cross,
Like a temple, like everything sacred and dear.

Another feature of Rayevsky's sonnets is their predominant dedication to the theme of love. In this he is a follower of the great predecessors - Dante, Petrarch, Ronsard, Goethe, Pushkin. As Sergei Novikov notes, “like the sonnets of Petrarch imperishable in their poetic grandeur, the sonnets of Yevgeny Raevsky are addressed to the woman he loves. Its image is invariably reflected in the soul of the poet, but we, the readers, are unable to concretize this image in our minds, and we perceive it as a reflection distant stars reaching the poetic world of the poet…” 65 .
That is why the motif of stars is connected with the sky and space, where the lyrical hero of Raevsky's poems often soars, which often sounds in the poet's poems. Lyrical hero intends to fly "to the fabulous stars." If in Lermontov’s poems “a star speaks to a star”, without making contact with a lonely person, then our author establishes other, special relationships with the stars: “I am blissfully friendly with every star” (“You listen to the dreams of my silences ...”). “I believed every morning star,” the poet recalls in The Blues Sonnet. He notices how "the star touches the window" of his beloved ("Dream"). The poet is inclined to liken the life of people to the life of the luminaries: “And we will remain, like stars, imperishable” (“Voice of Light”). The noted figurativeness gives Rayevsky's sonnets a sublimity of sound.
Friends and like-minded poets, appreciating the work of Yevgeny Raevsky, invariably linger on his sonnets. Alexander Ozhegov believes that it was not by chance that the poet "chosen a clear canonized sonnet, which arose seven and a half centuries ago and has come down to our time of troubles" as the form of his work.
Ozhegov does not explain why this appeal to the sonnet was not accidental. I think that this is due to the fact that the bright emotionality of Raevsky's poems paradoxically combines with sober rationality, rationality. The poet himself feels this synthesis, this amplitude of fluctuations “from love to the boiling of consciousness” (“Autumn Joy”). Sometimes this conjugation is introduced by him in order to give verses about the experiences of feelings philosophical. “Reasonable is the simplicity of evening fantasy,” we read, for example, in Videosonnet. That is why the strict, rationally meaningful, clear form of the sonnet turned out to be close to E. Raevsky as a poet.
Yevgeny Ilyin rightly believes that Rayevsky's sonnets are innovative, because they are liberated and synthesize different intonations, styles, eras 67 . This is a correct observation. For example, in the sonnet of civil sounding “Wherever you look!..”, included in the collection “Thank you”, next to the very specific phenomena captured by the poet (“cries of the poor”, “shamelessness of power”, “wars success”, “sin of violence”) abstract categories coexist (“obviousness of Truth”, “the absolute of the unrecognized”, “the fate of misfortune”). Equally polar are the conclusions in the final couplet:

To get away from thought into delirium is an abyss in darkness.
My country! Are you in your mind?

If the first verse is philosophical and abstract in nature, then the second is frankly journalistic. This contraction of opposite phenomena is the originality of a number of E. Raevsky's sonnets.
The lexical richness of our author's sonnets is beyond doubt. Sergey Skachenkov finds in it unborrowed words full of freshness and purity, and in support of this judgment he cites “Sonnet-Awakening” 68 .
Evgeny Raevsky boldly masters various varieties of sonnet form. The "Rainbow Duet" is a shortened sonnet: it contains two quatrains with paired rhymes and one final couplet. The same scheme in "Flight". The Crystal Garden increases the number of quatrains from three to four and at the same time changes the traditional iambic pentameter to a four-foot trochee. The same elongated sonnet is presented in the "Key of the Wind ...". The so-called "Long Sonnet" consists of six quatrains and one couplet.
Raevsky also dared to create a wreath of sonnets that demanded from the author greater ingenuity and craftsmanship: this is the “Necklace of free erotic sonnets”, which we meet in the collection “Thank you”. Here the first line of the next sonnet "clings" to the similar last line of the previous sonnet. Thus, the works are united by a related rhyme. Sometimes Raevsky alternates quatrains and tercetes with one unrealized line. That is why one must agree with D. Kirshin, who writes: “Indeed, Evgeny Raevsky is the master of the sonnet. I think here we can say about the author's "innate" understanding of this complex form, its technical, rhythmic, sensual laws - Evgeny Raevsky's sonnets are so original and diverse. One can find social and even civic themes in them (“A slave who gained power through the stupidity of slaves…”), but still, most of the sonnets are dedicated to love” 69 .
E. Raevsky himself, realizing that sonnets are not fashionable today due to their too strict form and loftiness of content, nevertheless, highly appreciates this kind of strophic construction. “I tried myself in different rhythms and sizes,” the poet said in an interview. - And suddenly I realized that 14 lines of a sonnet is perfect. Everything can be said in them. And this form has its own mysticism. The sonnet dictates its own conditions - simplicity, conciseness" 70 .
Distinguished by these properties noted by the author, Rayevsky's sonnets help him discipline his thought, introduce capacious content into 14 lines, and complete it with an aphoristic ending of two lines. In this regard, he cultivates the structure not of Petrarch's, but of Shakespeare's sonnet, which always, as we remember, ended in two shock verses. But Rayevsky never copies the creator of Hamlet and the famous sonnets, its content differs significantly from what Shakespeare put in, referring to the Friend and the Swarthy Lady. Raevsky has his own language, his own structure of thoughts and his addressees, he has his own springiness of the lyrical plot and his own, excellent conciseness. S. Makarov is right when he remarked that "Evgeny Raevsky, an obvious supporter of both the classical and free sonnet, never forgets that brevity is the sister of talent" 71 .
Such is the magic of Rayevsky's sonnet, which never leaves the poet and keeps him in its beneficial captivity.

Dante stands on the threshold of the Renaissance, on the threshold of an era "... which needed titans and which gave birth to titans in terms of the power of thought, passion and character, in versatility and learning." Dante can be safely attributed to one of these titans, whose works are classics of Italian creativity and the property of the people.

According to family tradition, Dante's ancestors came from the Roman family of the Elisei, who participated in the founding of Florence. Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) appears in his life as a typical representative of his time, a comprehensively educated, active, strongly connected with local cultural traditions and public interests of the intelligentsia.

As you know, the formation of Dante as a poet takes place in conditions of critical and transitional from the literary Middle Ages to new creative aspirations. Since the poet was very religious, so he was very upset by this turning point.

In addition, Dante began by imitating the most influential lyric poet in Italy at that time, Gwittone d'Arezzo, but soon changed poetics and, together with his older friend Guido Cavalcanti, became the founder of a special poetic school, Dante himself called the school of the "sweet new style" ("Dolce style nuovo").

By his own admission, Dante, the impetus for the awakening of the poet in him was a reverent and noble love for the daughter of his father's friend Folco Portinari, the young and beautiful Beatrice. The poetic confirmation of this love was the autobiographical confession "New Life" ("Vita nuova"), written at the fresh grave of her beloved, who died in 1290. Two dozen sonnets, several canzones and a ballad, which are part of the New Life, contain a vivid reflection of an experienced and flaming feeling.

In form, "New Life" is a complexly constructed text, written interspersed with poetry and prose, saturated with symbols and allegories that are difficult to interpret. From his youthful lyrics, Dante selected 25 sonnets, 3 canzones, 1 ballad and 2 poetic fragments for the New Life.

Love is conceived by the poet as an elemental force, "penetrating through the eyes into the heart" and inflaming it with the desire of the one "that came down to earth from heaven - to show a miracle." It should be noted that for Dante, love was akin to science, which prepares the human soul for communion with God. In the New Life, Dante spoke of his great love for Beatrice Portinari, a young Florentine lady who was married to Simone dei Bardi and died in June 1290, when she was not even twenty-five years old.

I would like to note that the poet fell in love with a lady whom he saw three times in his life - in a scarlet dress, when she, the same age as the poet, was 9 years old, in white, when they were 18 - Betrice answered his bow with a smile - and soon the last time when Dante bowed to her but met with no response. I can say that this color scheme was not chosen by chance, because the red color of the dress symbolizes the joy of the first years of life, white - purity and chastity.

A. Dante notes how sweet these minute meetings were, which trembled his soul after a while:

In her eyes she keeps Love;

Blessed is everything she looks at;

She goes - everyone hurries to her;

Will he greet - his heart will tremble.

All the sweetness and all the humility of thoughts

Knows the one who hears her word.

Blessed is he who is destined to meet her.

Dante wrote " new life"either in 1292 or at the beginning of 1293. The era was intensely looking for new ways in public life, poetry, art, and philosophy. Speaking of the "New Life", Dante had in mind his love, but this love was also interpreted by him as a huge objective force that renews the world and all of humanity.

Of course, many studied the compositional structure of this work, having studied these materials, I came to the conclusion that all the poems were collected around the second canzone, which is the compositional center:

Young donna, in a blaze of compassion,

In the radiance of all earthly virtues,

I sat where I called Death all the time;

And looking into eyes full of torment,

And listening to the sounds of my violent words,

She herself sobbed passionately in confusion.

Other donnas, hastening sympathetically

To weep into her rest where I lay,

Seeing how I suffered -

Having sent her away, they bowed severely to me.

One ad: "Keep a little awake"

And she: "Do not cry in vain."

When did my delirium begin to dissipate,

I called Madonna by name.

In addition, the poet focuses on the mystical symbolism of the number 9, which characterizes important events in the writer's life.

The famous writer and critic Alekseev M.P. considers that “The number 3 is the root of the number 9, so without the help of another number it produces 9; for obviously 3 x 3 is nine. Thus, if 3 is able to work 9, and the miracle worker in itself is the Trinity, that is, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are three in one, then it should be concluded that this lady (Beatrice) was accompanied by the number 9, so that everyone would understand that she herself 9, that is, a miracle, and that the root of this miracle is the only miraculous Trinity. In my opinion, such symbolism of the number 9 is easy to explain by paying attention to the era to which Dante belonged. As you know, such symbolism was an integral element of the works of the Middle Ages.

It is noteworthy that the end of the "New Life" contains an allusion to the "Divine Comedy", which seems to the poet an undertaking undertaken to glorify Beatrice. The image of the beloved continues to inspire the poet throughout his life, supporting a great idea in him.

As O. Mandelstam wrote: "... one emotional event was enough for Dante for the rest of his life."

Lesson layout.

The topic of the lesson is written on the board and portraits of Dante, Michelangelo, Petrarch, Ronsard, Shakespeare are placed, the words “sonnet” and “sonata”, composition and rhyming schemes of the classical sonnet and Shakespeare’s sonnet are written.

A handout has been prepared for each student: Shakespeare's unfinished sonnet No. 65 and Petrarch's 13th sonnet.

During the classes

Sounds like a fragment from the "Pathetic" sonata

Beethoven

- Why do you think the lesson on the sonnet - one of the poetic forms - we started with the Beethoven sonata? Is there anything in common between a sonata and a sonnet?

- Yes, you are absolutely right, the words “sonnet” and “sonata” are of the same root and originated from the Latin word “SONARE”, which means “to sound”, “to ring” In poetry, this peculiar poetic form of 14 lines originated in Sicily in 13th century. As a canonical form, the sonnet reached its perfection in the Renaissance in the work of Dante and especially Petrarch. Michelangelo also wrote wonderful sonnets. From Italy, the sonnet came to France, where it established itself as a classical form of verse in the poetry of Ronsard in the 12th century. Almost at the same time, Shakespeare was writing sonnets in England.

Now we will hear several sonnets of the poets we have named. Let's start with the sonnet of Dante Alighieri, who is called the last poet of the Middle Ages and the first poet of the Renaissance. He dedicated most of his sonnets to Beatrice Portinari, for whom Dante began to love when he was a nine-year-old boy and lasted all his life. It was love from afar. Deeply concealed, she ate only rare chance meetings, a fleeting glance of her beloved, her cursory bow. And after the death of Beatrice (she died very young in 1290), love becomes a tragedy. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

(Student reads Dante's 15th sonnet)

No less beautiful image of the beloved Laura is created in his sonnets by Francesco Petrarch. Twenty-three-year-old Petrarch met twenty-year-old Laura in the spring of 1327. She was married to another man. Twenty-one years after this meeting, the poet sang Laura in his sonnets and canzones. He divided the poems in which the poet sang of his passion for Laura into 2 cycles: the first cycle “On the Life of the Madonna Laura”, the second “On the Death of the Madonna Laura”. In the image of this woman, for Petrarch, all beauty, all perfection, all the wisdom of the world merged. She is both the woman whom the poet selflessly loves, and the symbol of glory that he dreams of, and the highest expression of poetry, which he serves. In the poems of Petrarch, a Renaissance understanding of love is born - a powerful force capable of revealing all the riches of the individual, filling all life, bringing joy and torment. Such is it - the love of a new era. Sensual and spiritual, formidable and merciful, giving light and bringing suffering, different for everyone, each time unique, individual, but always triumphant.

(The student reads the 13th sonnet of Petrarch, then the students are given his text)

Blessed is the year, and the day, and the hour,

And that time, and time, and moment,

And that beautiful land, and that village,

Where was I taken in full of two sweet eyes;

Blessed is the secret excitement,

When the voice of love overtook me,

And the arrow that pierced my heart

And this wound burning languor.

Tirelessly calling the name of Donna,

And sighs, and sorrows, and desires;

Blessed are all my writings

To her glory, and the thought that adamantly

He tells me about her - about her alone!

- Let's try, based on the text of Petrarch's sonnet, to determine the features of the composition and rhyming of the classic Italian sonnet.

So, the sonnet consists of 14 lines, divided into 2 quatrains (quatrain) and 2 tercet (tercet). The verse is most often eleven-syllable (less often ten-syllable). Quatrains are built on two quadruples of rhyme, usually located like this: abba / abba. Tercetes are most often built on three pairs of rhymes with the following scheme: vvg / dgd

Moreover, if a is a feminine rhyme, then b is masculine, c is masculine, d is feminine, e is masculine. If a is male, then vice versa.

Thus, an impeccable and thoughtful structure of the sonnet is created. In quatrains, with inclusive rhyming, the same rhymes either approach or diverge, giving a harmonious play of “expectations”. In tercetes, the structure changes, which creates diversity. The unity of rhyme in quatrains emphasizes the unity of the theme, which should be set in the first quatrain, developed in the second, so that in the first tercet a “contradiction” is given, and in the second “resolution”, a synthesis of a thought or image, crowned with a final formula, the last line, the "lock" of the sonnet.

Shakespeare modified the classic sonnet somewhat. Keeping in general the internal sonnet composition, he wrote sonnets from three quatrains and completed them with one couplet containing the main idea. Their rhyming scheme is also different. Having written 154 sonnets, Shakespeare seemed to be in competition with the great masters of lyrics. He strove not so much to catch up with them, but to distinguish himself from them by the novelty and originality of situations and images. Written over a period of years, apparently between the ages of twenty-eight and thirty-four, the Sonnets are heterogeneous. Many of them, especially the initial ones dedicated to a friend, bear the stamp of obvious idealization, while the later ones amaze with the same force of psychological truth that is characteristic of Shakespeare's best dramas. But with all the internal differences between the individual groups of sonnets, they are united by the commonality of the poetic principle. Having gained complete control over the form of these little lyrical poems, Shakespeare boldly introduces into them images and comparisons drawn from all spheres of life, including prose everyday life. Shakespeare intensified the drama of sonnet poetry and, more than his predecessors, brought the lyrics closer to the real feelings of people.

(Prepared students read several of Shakespeare's sonnets: 90, 91, 130.)

- Well, now that we have got acquainted with the basic principles of constructing a sonnet, let's test our creative possibilities- we will add Shakespeare's unfinished sonnet, we will create a “castle” of the sonnet, the final two lines, which should contain main idea poems.

(The children are given sheets with Shakespeare's unfinished sonnet (No. 65) and they work on its completion)

If copper, granite, land and sea

They won't stand when their time comes

How can it survive, arguing with death,

Is your beauty a helpless flower?

When the siege is hard times

Unshakable crushes the rocks

And destroys the bronze statues and columns?

Oh bitter thought! Where, what

Find a refuge for beauty?

How, stopping the pendulum with your hand,

Color time from time to save?

Conclusion

In the work, we considered the topic "Studying lyrics at school on the examples of Shakespeare's sonnets".

The analysis of a lyrical text at school is a difficult problem, since the study of lyric poetry, a kind of highly conventional, subtle literature, unfortunately, is often only superficial.

In the worst case, a lyrical poem is retelling at a literature lesson, at best, they analyze the composition and figurative and expressive means of the language of the lyrical text, often without thinking about their functional purpose. But the student will only reach the depths of the perception of lyrics when he understands its generic specificity.