"Mtsyri" is ... Lermontov, the poem "Mtsyri". Mtsyri - contents

“Mtsyri” is Lermontov’s lyric poem. It was written in 1839 and published a year later in a collection entitled "M.Lermontov's Poems." One of Mikhail Yuryevich’s contemporaries, critic V. Belinsky, wrote that this work reflects “our poet’s favorite ideal”. One of the finest examples of classical romantic Russian poetry - the poem "Mtsyri" - will be discussed in this article.

Writing history

“Mtsyri” is a work written under the impression of life in the Caucasus. The prototype of the plot of the poem was a story from the life of the highlanders, heard by Lermontov in 1837, during the first exile. Traveling along the Georgian Military Highway, Mikhail Yuryevich met in Mtskheta with a lonely monk. He told him the story of his life. As a child, the clergyman was captured by a Russian general and left in a local monastery, where he spent his whole life, despite longing for his homeland.

Some elements of Georgian folklore could be used in his work by M.Yu. Lermontov. The poem "Mtsyri" in its plot contains a central episode in which the hero fights with a leopard. In Georgian folk poetry there is a theme of the battle between a young man and a tiger, which is reflected in another famous poem - “The Knight in a Tiger Skin” by S. Rustaveli.

Title and Epigraph

Translated from Georgian, “mtsyri” is “non-serving monk”, “novice”. This word also has a second meaning: “alien”, “alien from foreign lands”. As we see, Lermontov chose the most appropriate name for his poem. It is interesting that initially Mikhail Yuryevich called his poem “Bery”, which means “monk” in Georgian. The epigraph to the work has also undergone changes. At first, Lermontov used the phrase: “On n'a qu'une seule patrie” (“Everyone has only one fatherland”), but later the poet chose an excerpt from the 1st Book of Kingdoms (chapter 14): “Tasting Tastes little honey, and I'm dying all over. ” These words symbolize a violation of the natural course of things.

The content of the work

In the poem "Mtsyri", the contents of which are known to many Russian readers, it tells about the tragic fate of a Caucasian boy captured and taken away by Russian general Ermolov from his native land. On the way, the child fell ill and was left in one of the local monasteries. Here the boy was forced to spend his life "away from the sunshine." The child all the time missed the expanses of the Caucasus, strove back to the mountains. After some time, he seemed to get used to the cramped living conditions in the monastery, learned a foreign language and was already preparing to be tonsured a monk. However, at the age of seventeen, the young man suddenly felt a strong emotional impulse that made him suddenly leave the monastery and escape to unknown lands. He felt free, the memory of his childhood returned to him. The guy remembered his native language, the faces of people who were once close to him. Intoxicated by the fresh air and childhood memories, the young man spent three days in the wild. In this short period, he saw everything that captivity had stripped him of. The guy admired the pictures of Georgian mighty nature, a beautiful girl, gracefully filling a jug with water. He defeated the leopard in mortal combat and attained the degree of his own strength and dexterity. For three days, the young man lived a whole life filled with vivid emotions and sensations. Found by accident in the vicinity of the monastery without a memory, the guy refused to eat because he realized that he would not be able to continue his former life in captivity. The path to the rebellious heart of Mtsyri was found only by the old monk who baptized him. Confessing the young man, the old man found out what the guy saw and felt in three days of his failed escape.

Genre and composition of the poem

Lermontov wrote many works about life in the Caucasus. The poem "Mtsyri" is one of them. The poet’s Caucasus is associated with a territory of unlimited liberty and freedom, where a person has the opportunity to prove himself in a fight with the elements, merge with nature and subordinate it to his own will, win a battle with himself.

The plot of the romantic poem is centered around the feelings and experiences of one lyrical hero - Mtsyri. The form of the work - confession - makes it possible to most truthfully and deeply reveal the spiritual image of a young man. The composition of the work is typical of this kind of poem - the hero is placed in unusual circumstances, the monologue-confession takes the main place, the person’s internal state is described, and not the external situation.

However, there are differences from a typical romantic piece. There is no understatement or understatement in the poem. The place of action is precisely indicated here, the poet informs the reader about the circumstances that led the young man to the monastery. Mtsyri’s excited speech contains a consistent and logical account of the events that happened to him.

Nature and reality

The poem “Mtsyri” is not only a psychologically reliable presentation of the inner experiences of the protagonist, but also a magnificent description of Georgian nature. It is a picturesque backdrop on which events unfold in the work, and also serves as a tool for characterizing Mtsyri. The young man’s reaction to the thunderstorm when he “would have been happy to embrace the storm,” describes him as a man of unbridled and courageous, ready to battle with the elements. The hero’s mental state on a quiet morning after a thunderstorm, his readiness to comprehend the secrets of “heaven and earth” characterizes the guy as a thin and sensitive person, able to see and understand the beautiful. Nature for Lermontov is a source of inner harmony. The monastery in the poem is a symbol of hostile reality, forcing a strong and extraordinary person to perish under the influence of unnecessary conventions.

Predecessors in the literature

The poem "Mtsyri", whose heroes are described in this article, has several literary predecessors. A similar story, telling about the fate of a young monk, is described in the poem “Czernets” by I. Kozlov. Despite the similar content, these works have a different ideological component. In the poem of Lermontov, the influence of the Decembrist literature and poetry of I.V. Goethe. “Mtsyri” carries the motives that already appeared in the poet’s early works: “Boyar Orsha” and “Confession”.

Lermontov’s contemporaries noticed the similarity between Mtsyri and Byron’s Prisoner of Chignon, translated into Russian by Zhukovsky. However, the hero of the English poet hates society and wants to remain alone, while Mtsyri seeks people.

Criticism

The most flattering reviews received from critics M. Lermontov. “Mtsyri” conquered literary scholars not only with its ideological content, but also with the form of presentation. Belinsky noted that the four-foot iambic rhyme with the male who wrote the work “sounds and falls abruptly like a blow of a sword”, and this verse is in harmony with “the indestructible power of a mighty nature and the tragic position of the hero of the poem.”

Lermontov’s contemporaries enthusiastically recall reading the Mtsyri by the author himself. A.N. In “Acquaintance with Russian Poets”, Muravyov described the strong impression he received from Mikhail Yurievich reading this poem in Tsarskoye Selo.

Conclusion

“Mtsyri” is the best poem by M.Yu. Lermontov. In it, the poet demonstrated his poetic mastery and expressed ideas that were close to his rebellious nature. The passion and strength with which Mikhail Yurievich described the sufferings of a young man, capable of great achievements, but forced to vegetate in the silence of the monastery walls, certainly express the innermost feelings of the author himself. Each of us can now re-read “Mtsyri”, imbued with the power and beauty of this amazing work and ... touch the beautiful.