A prominent place among the poems of Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin belongs to those in which he draws pictures of nature with love and great poetic power. Alexander Sergeyevich perceived her not only as a poet, but also as an ardent patriot who is not indifferent to the fate of his homeland. One of his poems devoted to nature, we will analyze in this article, after analyzing it.
Pushkin wrote "To the Sea" in 1824. However, the theme of nature arose in his work before. Briefly describe its features in the poet's lyrics.
Nature in the lyrics of Pushkin
From childhood, love of nature entered the soul of Alexander Sergeyevich. Gradually, this feeling expanded and grew stronger, and then found expression in poems, poems, and the novel Eugene Onegin. Pushkin conveyed the moods that excited him with the help of remarkable artistic images. They enrich the reader’s thought, develop in us the ability to hear, see and feel our native nature, which is close to the heart of Russian people.
However, Pushkin did not immediately come to a realistic image. His poems, relating to the period of southern exile, are romantic in nature. One of the poems in which nature is presented in a romantic way is the one to which our analysis is devoted ("To the Sea"). Pushkin created it before his departure from Odessa. We can judge this on the basis that the work was processed and completed in early October 1824. However, it should be noted that the original edition was created in Odessa. Already in Mikhailovsky, Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin wrote stanzas about Byron and Napoleon. "To the Sea," the story of which we briefly described, is a poem first published in 1825.
Why is the sea so expensive to the poet
In this work, his poetic image is combined with the author’s thoughts about the fate of peoples, as well as about his own fate as an exile. The sea is so expensive and close to Alexander Sergeyevich because for him it is the personification of a free and rebellious element, proud beauty and power, that is, qualities that especially attract the author. These qualities were possessed in the perception of the romantics, contemporary to Pushkin, by two “rulers of thoughts” of the young generation of those times - Napoleon and Byron.
Image of Napoleon
Alexander Sergeevich, in stanzas devoted to Bonaparte, does not express directly his attitude to him, as analysis shows. "To the Sea" (Pushkin) is a work in which a clear assessment of his personality is not given. However, earlier, in the poem "Napoleon" created in 1821, the author characterized this historical figure as a tyrant who despises humanity. Bonaparte was introduced as the "suppressor" of freedom and revolution.
Byron Characteristic
In Byron (his portrait is presented above), Alexander Sergeevich is attracted by such features as freedom of love, genius, indomitable spirit of a fighter. A freedom-loving fighter fighting for the good of mankind in a "desolate world" feels lonely. In the poem that interests us, the theme of the poet’s loneliness inherent in romantic lyrics is revealed.
Reflections on the fate of people
Protest and bitterness are heard in the lines devoted to the thoughts of Alexander Sergeyevich about the fate of people. He writes that their fate is the same everywhere: where there is good, there is a tyrant on guard, or enlightenment. Thus, tyrants or a false culture created by the ruling classes block the path to freedom.
Means of Expression
Briefly describe the means of expression, conducting an analysis of Pushkin’s poem "To the Sea." The general romantic nature of this work corresponds to speech, which is filled with rhetorical questions, appeals, exclamations, evaluative metaphors and epithets. One cannot fail to notice the general uplift of tone that these expressive means create.
Farewell to Pushkin
The lyrical hero already in the first stanza says: "Farewell, free element!" It should be noted that in 1824 Pushkin was sent to Mikhailovskoye from Odessa. Thus he said goodbye to the Black Sea.
As the analysis shows, “To the Sea” (Pushkin) is the farewell of Alexander Sergeyevich, not only with his beloved element, but also with all the romantic lyrics. The nature of Pushkin's image of nature is changing along with his transition to realistic creativity. The sea in the last two verses of the poem that interests us ceases to be a romantic symbol. It becomes just a landscape. An analysis of Pushkin's elegy "To the Sea" allows us to understand what nature meant to the romantic poet.
In the landscape lyrics of the following years, the poet draws nature, outwardly modest, but sweet to the heart of a Russian person. It is presented in poems such as "Winter Evening", "Winter Road", "Cloud", "Winter Morning", "Once Again I Visited", etc.
The effect of the work on readers
The poem "To the Sea", strong in poetic depth, bright and original, excited the hearts and minds of both contemporaries of Alexander Sergeyevich and his followers. For example, Marina Tsvetaeva in her essay entitled “My Pushkin” described the impression that this work made on her. Being a little girl who never saw the sea, Tsvetaeva fell in love with him with all her heart, having become acquainted with this poem.
Finally
You can include in the analysis of Pushkin’s poem “To the Sea” a short discussion about the fact that Alexander Sergeevich was waiting for a rather closed life in Mikhailovsky. He filled it with creativity and reading. However, in his thoughts, Pushkin repeatedly returned to the sea. We conclude our brief analysis of the poem by the fact that the image sung in it helped the author not to become discouraged in difficult times for him. Thanks to this, he was able to realize new ideas.