The favorite genre of Vasily Andreevich Zhukovsky was ballads. His works written in this poetic style (“Svetlana”, “Lyudmila”, “Forest Tsar” and others) made a real revolution in the literary life of the country. Before the release of the famous ballads, Zhukovsky was considered a poet who "did not reach" the work of Derzhavin or Dmitriev. What new did Vasily Andreyevich bring to this romantic genre? How did the work "Forest Tsar" Zhukovsky? Analysis of the poem will make it clear.
"Forest King" - a vivid example of a classic ballad
Before talking about a specific poem, you need to understand this genre, highlight the main features. The ballad stood at the origins of Russian romanticism, it was a narrative in poetic form with a sudden denouement.
The basis of the plots of ballads is ancient legends and traditions, therefore in the works there is a lot of fantastic, otherworldly. This genre fully conveys the flavor of folklore of a country. This appears the ballad written by Vasily Zhukovsky. “Forest King” is the author’s translation of Goethe. The gloomy (now we would say - Gothic) color of the legends of the German people is pronounced.
Content
1818 - it was then that Zhukovsky wrote the ballad "Forest Tsar". We begin the analysis of the poem by describing what it is about. We will say right away that the Russian poet has moved away from the plot of the original, adding his own vision of history. Vasily Andreyevich himself noted that the translator of poems competes with their author.
So, Zhukovsky "Forest Tsar" (a summary of the ballad): a coachman and his son are traveling through the forest. The child froze, he pressed against his father to warm himself. The boy sees a fantastic creature - the Forest King. He beckons the boy to his halls, promises wealth, affection. The old man-father is trying to bring the child back to reality, explaining everything with quite ordinary things: a blow of wind, flickering branches of trees. However, in the last quatrains, the reader learns that the boy died: "In the hands of his dead baby lay."
Content Analysis
Now we will analyze in detail the plot and characters of the ballad "Forest King". Zhukovsky, whose analysis of the poem is given here, as the author is very tangible in the story: he sympathizes with the freezing child and father, who understands the whole tragedy of what is happening.
Until the very end of the ballad, Zhukovsky keeps the reader in alarm and fear. The "Forest King", a brief summary of which is presented above, in different interpretations reveals excellent images. Zhukovsky depicts the image of evil in a ballad by a powerful ruler, who was seduced by the beauty of a child. The king wants to take him to himself, in his "halls." The reader does not fully understand whether the Forest King was just the delirium of a dying boy or existed in reality. Zhukovsky’s conclusion is especially frightening that evil defeats the one in whom there is no strength to repulse him. There is no justice in the world - the poet comes to this conclusion.
Artistic and expressive means
Extraordinarily lyrical, Zhukovsky created his ballad “Forest Tsar”. An analysis of the poem in terms of expressiveness allows us to draw this conclusion. The author truly sympathizes with the dying child, such words as "baby", "baby", "child" speak about this.
A special role in the narrative is played by the dialogues between the father and the child and the Forest King. All tragedy is transmitted through them. Actually, the whole action is built precisely through conversation. The dialogues used by Zhukovsky are unusually soulful, the reader involuntarily begins to empathize with his father, feels the extreme degree of his despair.
A special role is played by the emotional component. It is conveyed by the words “darling”, “child”, “my baby”. It is interesting that the Forest King is trying to veil his evil plans: he calls the boy the same words as his father: “child”, “baby”.
Drama grows to the last stanza, the reader here senses an acceleration of action, achieved by the abundant use of verbs expressing swiftness: “flies,” “screams,” “gallops,” then everything seems to break off, and a terrible denouement appears before the reader - “In his hands is a dead baby lay. " The word “orbited” is also used for good reason - it indicates the extreme degree of despair of a father whose child is dying in his arms.
Comparison with the source
It should nevertheless be said that Zhukovsky’s work “The Forest Tsar” is more humane than Goethe’s original source. At one time, M. Tsvetaeva conducted a comparative analysis of ballads.
As a result, the work “Two Forest Kings” was written. According to her findings, the child dies of Zhukovsky from an illness, but Goethe's work clearly indicates that the boy was killed by the Forest Tsar himself in order to get him into his palaces.