The work "Clouds" is a masterpiece of the poetic work of Mikhail Yurievich. We suggest you get to know him in more detail in this article. Conducting an analysis of the poem "Clouds" by Lermontov, one should talk about the history of the creation of this poem, about its compositional features, about the imaginative means used in the text. The portrait of Mikhail Yuryevich is presented below.
Verse size
This work consists of three quatrains. It is written in dactyl, while Lermontov used a cross-rhyme. This verse size in Lermontov’s poetry is quite common.
History of the work
In 1840 he wrote the poem "Clouds" Lermontov. The story of its creation is as follows. Mikhail Yuryevich was in Petersburg with his friends, whom he decided to visit before returning to the Caucasus to exile. The poet’s friends gathered to take him on a trip to the Karamzins’s apartment. Like Pushkin, Mikhail Yurievich was a supporter of justice, advocated freedom of speech. However, such behavior was unacceptable to the authorities. Many of those who opposed her were sent to exile at that time. This fate also did not bypass Lermontov.
Waiting for the upcoming road, as well as studying the cloudy gloomy sky of St. Petersburg, led to the birth of this poem. It is permeated with the motive of finding the path, exile, feelings of longing and loneliness. The poet stood at the window, touched by his attention to himself. He looked at the clouds crawling over the Summer Garden. So this poem was born .
Composition "Clouds", mood of the lyrical hero
As the analysis of Lermontov’s “Clouds” poem shows, it consists of three stanzas and two main parts, which coexist with each other on the basis of a detailed comparison used by the author. The wind-driven clouds rushing forward are compared in the work with the state of mind of a hero who does not know, like them, where his fate will bring him. The lyrical hero feels peace. At the same time, he feels alien to everything that he is observing around. He is free, lonely and calm, but he understands that calm is apparent and temporary.
Homeland Theme
The motive of homelessness and loneliness is combined in a poem with such motives as longing and love for the motherland, not ready to reciprocate the lyrical hero. In the last line, the poet says: "You have no homeland, you have no exile." A lyrical hero, she is seen as something elusive, inconstant. Homeland is like a woman demanding love, not always ready to give her love in return.
Two worlds: man and nature
Conducting an analysis of the poem "Clouds" by Lermontov, one can notice that two worlds are present in it: the ideal world of beauty and harmony of nature, and the human one, full of passions and imperfection. The lyrical hero longs to escape from this imperfection into the natural world. However, he realizes that this can be done only by dying. Given that the poet himself during the creation of the work left on earth a little more than a year, this poem takes on mystical meaning as a milestone in his life and career.
The epithets, inversions, metaphors and anaphors used by Mikhail Lermontov ("Clouds")
It should be noted that a variety of expressive means were used by the author in this poem. First of all, these are epithets: “sweet north”, “azure steppe”, “barren cornfields”, “poisonous slander”. The text also uses inversions. This gives the poem a special imagery ("pearl chain", "azure steppe"). The phrase "azure steppe" was used by the author in a figurative meaning. After all, if you think about it, it is a synonym for the vastness of the sky. This is a metaphor, since there is a similarity between the designated concepts - the vastness of the steppe and the vastness of the sky. The Pearl Chain is another metaphor. We imagine bright small clouds that glow matte from the inside. A string of their clouds resemble a string of pearls.
A wonderful, almost idyllic picture is drawn in the first stanza. Only one word violates it - "exiles". So the poet compares the fate of the clouds with his own unenviable fate. The philosophical meaning of the work is emphasized by the use of anaphore by Mikhail Yurievich, that is, repeats at the beginning of each row of the word "or" ("Or for you ... / Or friends ...").
Antithesis in the work
Analysis of the poem "Clouds" by Lermontov reveals other tricks used by the author. Mikhail Yuryevich, in particular, resorts to the antithesis characteristic of his entire work. The Clouds contrast, as we have already noted, the natural world and the human world. The eternal exiles in this case are the clouds of heaven, which rush into the unknown distance in the sky. They are compared with human searches, people's aspirations to learn the meaning of their own life, to find their own path.
The reception of avatars
Enhances the antithesis impersonation, which is used in the poem "Clouds" Lermontov. Analyzing it, it can be noted that Mikhail Yuryevich addresses the clouds as if living beings, and not natural phenomena, are in front of him.
Rhetorical issues
The author uses rhetorical questions in addressing the clouds. That is, addressing questions to them, in fact, he turns to himself in the work of Lermontov's “Clouds”. An analysis of the features of this technique helps to understand why Mikhail Yurievich uses it. Rhetorical questions, as you know, do not require an answer. They are used in speech in order to attract attention, sharpen the topic. A symbol of loneliness becomes a capacious and accurate image of the clouds of heaven. They symbolize restlessness, as well as the eternal search for the meaning of life. Thanks to this image, the poet manages to accurately convey in the poem the world of his own experiences, passions and doubts.
This concludes the analysis of Lermontov’s verse “Clouds”. Mikhail Yuryevich wanted to tell us that nature has no vices, unlike people who have a lot of them. Clouds float over all worldly vanity. Man, unfortunately, is not allowed to become as exalted as they are.