How many poems were written, and in each of them the author wanted to convey a certain essence to the reader. It is not always immediately possible to understand what the meaning was laid, and this requires an analysis of the lyrical work, that is, it is necessary to conduct an analysis that will lead to an in-depth reading of the work.
Introduction
There is always a hero at the center of the lyric work, the meaning and essence of the poem must be sought in the "keywords", which are expressed in the feelings and thoughts of the hero. In this case, you must pay attention to metaphors, comparisons and other epithets in order to understand their role in the text, for which they are used by the author. Before analyzing the lyric work of Lermontov, Pushkin, Nekrasov, it is necessary to draw up a plan or diagram, following which it will be possible to divide the poem into parts, gain insight, make a conclusion, and then connect all the parts together to see the full picture and understand what the author wanted to tell his readers.
Sample plan for the analysis of the lyrical work
Many advise starting the analysis with the history and time of creation, that is, correlating the created poem with the period of the poet’s life, with historical events and cultural influences. Studying history will help to understand the poet’s intent, his mood and ideological and moral position.
For example, the poem by A. S. Pushkin, "In the depths of Siberian ores ..." was written after the uprising in 1825 in St. Petersburg and is dedicated to the Decembrists. And the work of A. A. Akhmatova "Petrograd, 1919" is devoted to the events of the October Revolution.
Here's what a lyric work analysis might look like:
- History of creation.
- The genre of the work.
- Ideological and thematic originality.
- Composition.
- Features of the lyrical hero.
- Artistic and expressive means.
- Lexical means.
- Use of syntactic figures and rhetorical phonetics.
- Determining the size of a poem.
- The place and role of the work in the work of the poet.
Features of the genre
The analysis of the lyric work includes such a stage as determining the genre, which expresses the poet’s attitude to the depicted and sets a certain mood. There are such genres as a poem, elegy, sonnet, song, anthem, ode, message.
Everyone knows that a hymn glorifies an event, a person or an image, which means that the work will be solemnity and admiration. But in the elegy, sad thoughts sound, a discussion about the meaning of life, about human existence.
Identification of topics (problems) in the work
How to identify a feature of a work? It is necessary to determine its pathos (translated from Greek - a strong feeling that permeates the entire poem). The following types of pathos are distinguished: heroic, lyrical, tragic, dramatic, satirical. This will be the definition of the subject, and therefore the expression of the inner world of the hero.
In addition to the subject matter, the plan of analysis of the lyrical work involves the study of problems where the individual approach of the author is manifested, this is, as it were, a characteristic feature of the poet. For example, Pushkin believed that the poet is a prophet, and Lermontov argued that the poet always remains a lonely person, and ordinary people will never understand him.
Features of the composition
The analysis scheme of a lyrical work consists of several points, one of which is a study of the composition of the work, i.e., the composition and arrangement of parts, where the sequence is never random and has a semantic load.
Very often, a technique such as repetition is used, which gives harmony to the work, for example, the beginning and end look the same - “Night, street, street lamp, pharmacy ...” (A. Blok).
Other compositional techniques are also distinguished: sound repetition, where at the end of the poetic lines there is a rhyme and contrasting, for example, of two images. The composition is built in such a way that with each line there is development and tension intensifies, and the author additionally uses reference points, where the most powerful artistic effects are.
Lyrical hero
The main thing in the lyric work is his hero, which means his experiences, emotions and feelings. It is through the inner world of the hero that one can understand the position of the author and the features of his worldview. However, one should not assume that the poet describes himself in the works, most likely, he conveys the characteristic state of people for a certain era. The image is created on the basis of the poet’s life experience, and the hero can be close in spirit, in outlook on life, in feelings, but has characteristic differences, and this is preserved in all verses. Therefore, before conducting an analysis of the lyrical work, examples can help to figure out which characters are found.
Nekrasov in his works defended citizenship and believed that through poetry it is possible to express the thoughts of society. However, this does not mean that he was such a fighter for freedom and the rights of society, but showed it in the poem “The Poet and the Citizen”, where there is a dialogue, and the citizen calls the poet to action, because now is not the time to lie “on the stove”, and the result it becomes the phrase “you may not be a poet, but you must be a citizen”, which says that you cannot be alien to the interests of society.
Analysis of art and vocabulary
In each poem, the author uses paths, i.e. words and expressions that are used not in the literal sense, but in the figurative. When analyzing the lyric work, it is important not only to find these paths, but also to understand why they are used in the text, why this particular type was chosen, and how typical this poet is. There are a large number of pathways, but the following are most often used: epithets, metaphors, oxymoron, comparisons, hyperbole, personification, irony.
In addition to such artistic means as trails, the works also use syntactic figures (techniques for constructing text to increase expressiveness and enhance emotional impact, such as an exclamation point or a rhetorical question), as well as sound combinations when, for example, several lines begin with single words, or words similar in sound are used.
Artistic means are widely used in poems, but they also use lexical ones to create a certain style and theme. For example, the use of archaisms, historicisms, lofty synonyms, where the word eyes is replaced with an apple, lips with a mouth, look - see, etc.
Definition of versification system and features of stanza
Yamb, trochee, dactyl - all these are the dimensions by which poems are written. It is imperative to understand the size when you need to analyze the lyric work, as it creates a certain mood and emotional state.
Lermontov's work “Prayer” is a four-foot iambic, written dynamically, clearly and harmoniously, like the prayer itself. The poem by L. Tolstoy “Kohl to love, so without reason ...” is written by the four-footed chorea, sets the mood of vivacity, fun, mischief and cheerfulness.
A stanza or stanza is a group of verses that is repeated in a work and united by a common rhyme. The following stanzas stand out:
- Couplet.
- Tertsina - consists of three verses.
- Quatrain.
- Five hundredth.
- Sextin.
- Celtic Verse.
- Octave.
- Nona.
- The ten-hundredth.
Lyrical work analysis: examples
By the example of poems, one can trace several topics that have been sung by poets in different centuries. The theme of love was often sounded in Pushkin's poems, the most famous of them is “I remember a wonderful moment ...”, which reveals the relationship between a man and a woman, where the poet tries to convey to everyone how fleeting love can be and that it will never happen again .
The theme of nature was often sung by Tyutchev and Yesenin. In the poem "Birch" Sergei Yesenin described landscapes, animals, the feelings of the hero, which he experiences when looking at nature.
Philosophical lyrics can be traced in the themes of the search for the meaning of life. So, for example, in A. Fet’s poem “We Can't Predict,” the problem of being, life and death, human existence and its purpose is investigated.
Understanding what topic the poet has chosen will help draw up an initial plan for the analysis of the lyric work and simplify its study. In addition to the above examples, the authors also created poems about friendship, loneliness, about the homeland and life of the people, about the freedom and purpose of the poet.
An essay-analysis of a lyrical work suggests that one who does this has certain knowledge in the literature, can distinguish iambic from the chorea, to understand where what artistic and lexical means are used to see the main essence of the work.
The analysis is not easy, and it takes time, but when you get to the true meaning that is in the poem, you better understand the poet and the time in which he lived.