Prophetic Oleg, according to various legends, is buried near Staraya Ladoga. As the locals say, one of the ancient hills is the grave of the illustrious prince. Why "prophetic"? So he was named for his brilliant quality of anticipating the situation. It especially manifested itself in the capture of Constantinople, when, having deployed the sails and putting the ships on wheels, he reached the designated goal, one might say, rapidly. It is not for nothing that the Pushkin ballad “A Song about the Thing Oleg” according to the school curriculum comes after studying the “Tale of Bygone Years” - this makes it possible to compare two identical events described by different sources.
History of creation
Why does Pushkin even turn to such distant events? The analysis of “Songs about the Prophetic Oleg” cannot be carried out without delving into the poet’s goals.
The freedom-loving poems of Pushkin served as the reason for the decree of Alexander I to send the poet to exile to the south. He visits many ancient cities, including Kiev. Here the poet was interested in one of the ancient mounds. Local residents claimed that this was the grave of Prince Oleg, who died a very mysterious death.
Pushkin studies the works of Karamzin, where he retells the plot of "The Tale of Bygone Years" about the death of the glorious ruler.
And so his "Song of the Prophetic Oleg" is born. The year of its writing is 1822.
Do not forget that Pushkin was a true connoisseur of history. His works on the "affairs of bygone days" are very numerous. In Oleg, he saw, above all, a hero capable of uniting Russia and raising patriotic feelings.
Legend and plot
Any literary work of a historical nature is based, first of all, on historical facts. However, the vision of the writer or poet may differ from the original source: he can bring his own assessment, give events vividness, even embellish them somewhere.
The plot of Pushkin's ballad is similar to what the "Tale of Bygone Years" represents . During the next campaign, the sorcerer, magician, turns to the Grand Duke, the Prophetic Oleg. He predicts that the master will meet death from his beloved horse, with whom he fought many battles.
Immediately Oleg orders to take his faithful friend away, but orders that he be taken care of well.
Next, we see Oleg already bleached gray hair. During the feast, he recalls his faithful friend - the horse. He is informed that the animal has died. Oleg decides to visit the resting place of a faithful friend and ask for forgiveness. The prince comes to the bones of a horse, sad, lamented. At this time, a snake crawls out of the skull and inflicts a mortal bite.
The work ends with Oleg's funeral.
Features of the genre
If you conduct a genre analysis of "Songs about the Prophetic Oleg", it becomes clear that this is a ballad. By definition, this is a poetic work based on some historical or other event. Often its plot is fantastic.
Another feature of the ballad is the drama of the events depicted and the unexpected ending. Pushkin embodied all this in his work. The “Song of the Thing Oleg” contains many fantastic things, starting with the old wizard, his prophecy, and ending with the death of the prince.
The poet himself, immediately reading about this event, saw in it a plot for his future work. He wrote about this to Alexander Bestuzhev, noting “a lot of the poetic” in the story of the death of the illustrious prince.
Theme
Consider what constitutes a “Song of the Prophetic Oleg” at the semantic level. The theme of the work does not fit into any one concept. Pushkin raises various topics:
- Theme of rock. No matter what the prince does, in order to avoid the predicted fate, she overtakes him. Oleg sends the horse as far as possible. It would seem that all: the threat is eliminated, but no, the evil rock overtakes him even after the death of the horse. He finds death just as it was foretold.
- The theme of the poet-prophet, the broadcaster of the will of higher powers. Pushkin equates the sorcerer with himself. Let us prove it. The sorcerer is called "inspired", like the poet himself. In addition, the true poet and the magician are related by the fact that they are not subordinate to the will of the king and prince: "The Magi are not afraid of powerful lords, and they don’t need a princely gift." Recall that in a link for freedom-loving poetry, Pushkin writes "A Song about the Prophetic Oleg." The theme therefore reflects the feelings and views of the poet.
- Theme of friendship. No wonder at the beginning of the ballad the horse is called "faithful." This reflects the animal’s devotion to its master. It is noteworthy that initially, in drafts, the epithet "meek" appears. In the final version, it is replaced. This truly emphasizes friendship, loyalty. The prince does not forget about the friend devoted to them, he asks to take care of him, remembers many years later and greatly laments the death of the devoted intelligent animal.
Idea
Analysis of "Songs about the Prophetic Oleg" is impossible without an ideological outline. What does Pushkin want to say with his work? First of all, about the predetermination of what is happening with a person. No matter how we try to push the evil rock - it will still overtake us.
Yes, Oleg was able to delay the moment of death by removing the horse from himself and without contacting him. However, the death still overtakes the prince. Thus, Pushkin is trying to uncover a very important philosophical problem, over which great minds have thought. Fate and freedom: how are these concepts related? Does man really choose his own fate (Oleg sends his horse away) or is it impossible to deceive fate (the death of the prince), according to Pushkin? The “Song of the Prophetic Oleg” unequivocally answers: everything that happens to people and is destined for them from above cannot be changed. The poet was convinced of this.
Artistic and expressive means
Let us analyze the “Songs about the Prophetic Oleg” based on the means of expression used. Pushkin gave the legend from The Tale of Bygone Years his vision, revived it, made it sparkle with all its facets. At the same time, he conveyed the verbal flavor of Russia of the X century.
Even the name itself is already poetic. "Song" is a way of worship, dating back to ancient times. Folklore works that came to us through the centuries immediately come to mind.
To convey the flavor of that era, special syntactic constructions were used in the speech, the poet's speech is replete with archaisms ("trisny") and archaic turns ("feather grass").
In the text, in Pushkin's style, there are a lot of well-defined epithets on which he worked carefully (there were draft copies of the poet). So, the original epithet “proud” as applied to the old man-sorcerer was replaced by “wise”. This is true, because Oleg is proud and arrogant, and the magician is calm and majestic. We will point out even the most striking epithets: “the glorious head of the mound”, “inspired wizard”, “prophetic Oleg”. Metaphors are abundant in ballad: “years lurk in the gloom”, personifications: “buckets are noisy”.
The poem is written by an even and calm amphibrach, characteristic of lyro-epic works. It leisurely tells of the sad fate of Prince Oleg.