Many poets addressed the image of the sea in their works. The ancient authors sang it for the first time. So, the verse size hexameter that came from Ancient Greece is associated with the way the incoming waves make noise. The image of the sea in poetry has changed over time and the development of literature. Most important to him were romantic poets. The sea at them symbolized the ideal of romantic freedom. Pushkin’s work was also not without the use of this image.
The poet wrote the poem "To the Sea" in 1824, at a turning point for himself. At this time, the poetry of Alexander Sergeevich underwent changes and passed from romanticism to realism. We can say that this work just completed the romantic period in the poet's work.
Genre Affiliation
Before analyzing Pushkin’s poem “To the Sea”, it is necessary to understand what genre it belongs to. This creation has incorporated all the best of Alexander Sergeyevich’s poetic baggage: phonetic skill, and full content, and lyrical mood, and penetration, and high emotionality. The poem “To the Sea” by its construction is a lyrical monologue - the reader seems to listen to the author’s conversation with the sea. I must say that Pushkin resorted to submitting a work in this form quite often. This manner gave him the opportunity to open up and convey to the addressees all his thoughts and thoughts. As to the literary genre the work “To the Sea” belongs to, an analysis of the poem by literary scholars has led to the conclusion that this is a philosophical elegy, since it is based on the poet’s own experiences.
Content
Pushkin’s poem “To the Sea” begins with the parting of the lyrical hero with the “free element”, which makes him feel sad. The first part of the work is dominated by a concrete biographical, personal aspect. Then, the readers' perceptions of the author are revealed. For him, the sea is the same as the world of the human soul, therefore it is so attractive. The water element is whimsical and capricious, like the impulses of a person, unpredictable, as well as his secret desires. The sea can be peaceful, quiet or, on the contrary, formidable, promising death to people. But in the same way, people can die, surrendering to the power of impulsive impulses and crazy passions.
Not only the world of the human soul, but also fate itself concluded in the image of the "free element" Pushkin. “To the Sea” is a poem, which refers to the unpredictability of the water element: it willfully plays with people and can bring both joy and unexpected death. The author also compares love with unpredictable sea waters - a feeling that subjugates any aspirations and actions, which at the same time can bind a person’s will and become a kind of “captivity of the soul”.
At one time, various literary scholars studied the work “To the Sea”. An analysis of the poem by them pointed out to readers that Pushkin had violated grammatical norms. The fact is that when a poet turns to the sea, he uses masculine verbs: "You waited, you called ...". Although any student knows that the word "sea" is a noun of a secondary gender.
Napoleon and Byron
Further in the historical plan Pushkin directs his thoughts. “To the Sea” (poem) is continued by the author’s recollections of Napoleon - a man of extraordinary fate who found his death on the island of St. Helena, near the sea. In the work, another romantic hero emerges - the poet Byron. These two images - Napoleon and Byron - are linked by Pushkin for a reason. The English lord wrote a lot about the prominent French commander, he was very interested in his personality.
Civilization and nature in the work “To the Sea”
Analysis of the poem allows us to trace the motive of sadness in it. He appears at the very beginning of the story, when the lyrical hero is sad when parting with the sea, then he goes through the author’s recollections of Napoleon’s death and Byron’s death and goes on an impersonal, extra-plot, philosophical plan: “The fate of people everywhere is the same: where it’s good, there’s already on guard il enlightenment, il tyrant. " A characteristic feature is that Pushkin equates tyranny with enlightenment. In the poet’s understanding, civilization, which forcibly deprives a person of freedom and interferes in the natural course of his life, is a “tyrant”. The contrast between the natural world and the civilization world has always been traced in Pushkin’s work (remember Onegin and Tatyana, the old gypsy and Aleko). In the same poem, the natural motive is not brought to the fore; it is only guessed, it is an alternative to tyranny and enlightenment.
The work ends in a life-affirming way. The author, saying goodbye to the sea, promises to preserve in her soul the image of the “free element” and live in accordance with the ideal of a natural, natural person.
“To the Sea” - analysis of the poem. Art tools
Pushkin in his creation uses a variety of means of expression. These are epithets (“proud beauty”, “deserts are silent”, “careless way”), and metaphors (“I was chained”), and rhetorical questions (“What to regret?”) There are also anaphors, comparisons, inversions, periphrase, treatment, due to which the impression of an emotional conversation of the author with the sea is created. In the work, the poet resorts to Slavs (“Breg”, “voice”, “fishermen”) and high-style words (“good”, “sovereign”, “crown”, “tyrant”).
Phonetic system
There is no doubt that Alexander Pushkin is a master of fine literature. From the first lines of the poem “Toward the Sea”, we are not only presented with a picture where both the “blue waves” and the “proud beauty” of the sea element, but it seems as though the sound of waves is really heard. This effect is achieved due to a certain combination of sounds “u” - “sparkle”, “goodbye”, “w” - “heard”, “noise”, “h” - “hour”. Also, an association with the sound of the sea is created through the alternation of hissing "w" and solemn "r". This sound tonality can be traced throughout the poem.
Finally
The work "To the Sea" reveals Pushkin as a singer of freedom. This elegy is multifaceted and multifaceted, it demonstrates the aspirations of the poet, shows the features of his era. In this poem, Alexander Sergeevich says goodbye to a romantic ideal. For him, all this is already yesterday. After the elegy “To the Sea” a new stage began in Pushkin’s life.