Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov is a name known to everyone since high school. And those who raised their hand more often than others in literature lessons now probably recall the lines of the textbook that Lermontov is a great representative of Russian romanticism. Perhaps these words do not tell you anything yet, but this is the key to understanding Lermontov’s works, including Lermontov’s poorer, “Beggar”.
"Flaming passion" and the real world
The main condition for a romantic composition is a hero living a double life. On the one hand, like each of us, he lives in a certain environment and is forced to abide by certain rules. But on the other hand, in the soul of a romantic hero there is a dream, a guiding star, "fiery passion." In romanticism, such a dream is most often unattainable (for example, the hero sees his ideal in the past). Therefore, the real world for him is terrible and disgusting. Only within himself, alone with his guiding star, does the hero find solace. From here a conflict arises between a dream and reality, which becomes the basis of plots of romantic works.
The poem "Beggar": what colors painted images?
The beggar Lermontov wrote the poem in 1830, when he was only sixteen. Nevertheless, the theme of loneliness is already mentioned in the work, one of the central themes of the poet (later it appears in such famous poems as “Both boring and sad”; “I will go out alone on the road”). Not always Lermontov reflects on loneliness as such: in the poem "How often, surrounded by a motley crowd ..." addresses loneliness in society, and in the poem "Beggar" the theme of loneliness is combined with a love theme.
The poem is built on the principle of comparison. Identified, i.e. two images are compared with each other: a beggar (the first two stanzas) and an unrequited love lyric hero (the final quatrain). The poet used colorful definitions to depict the unfortunate poor man - epithets ("poor man withered, a little alive"; "living flour") and a permutation of words - inversion:
He asked for a piece of bread
Lermontov in the image of a beggar instantly reaches the highest drama. There is a romantic conflict of dreams and reality, because the vile, terrible, inhuman deceit of a beggar is committed "at the gates of the holy monastery." Where is this holiness? Instantly (which is natural for a small poem) a climax is reached. The author comes to her through anaphora (the same beginning of lines) in the second stanza:
He asked for a piece of bread,
And the gaze showed living flour
And someone put a stone
In his outstretched hand.
And so, having reached a climax, keeping the reader on the crest of a climax wave, the poet abruptly switches him into the sphere of love experiences:
So I prayed for your love
With bitter tears, with longing;
So my best feelings
You have been deceived forever!
Anaphora is also used here (“tak” - “tak”). In this stanza, it helps create a tone of conclusion that summarizes the statement. Draw in the eyes of the reader a situation that cannot be changed.
Who is the beggar?
The poem depicts more than just the end of a relationship between a man and a woman. The author is not in vain talking about the "best feelings" of the lyrical hero. Destroyed something more than the personal life of the hero, destroyed his very guiding star and "fiery passion", which we talked about, not yet proceeding with the analysis of the poem. The beggar of Lermontov is not "a withered poor, a little alive." No, this image, despite all its drama, was used only to draw a parallel with a true beggar. Real poverty according to Lermontov is the loss of the best part of his soul, his dream, his little star. In this case, the love of a certain ideal that cannot be deceived. Now the hero is not only surrounded by a terrible world (this is clear to us from the first part of the poem), a terrible world inside himself, as his best feelings are "deceived forever." Also, later, a dream will die in the chest of the famous Lermontov hero Mtsyri.
So, the poem "Beggar" - an example of an early Lermontov romantic work, which touched on the most important topics in the poet's work.