Pushkin's romantic lyrics are poems created during the period of southern exile. It was a difficult time for Alexander Sergeyevich. He was in the southern exile from 1820 to 1824. In May 1820, the poet was expelled from the capital. Officially, Alexander Sergeyevich was only sent to a new duty station, but in fact he became an exile. The period of southern exile is divided into 2 segments - before and after 1823. They are separated by the crisis that occurred in 1823.
The influence of Byron and Chenier
In these years, Pushkin's romantic lyrics are considered dominant. Alexander Sergeyevich in the south got acquainted with the works of Byron (his portrait is presented above), one of the best poets in this direction. Alexander Sergeevich began to embody in his lyrics the character of the so-called "Byron" type. This is a frustrated individualist and freedom-loving dreamer. It was Byronâs influence that determined the creative content of Pushkinâs poetry of the southern period. However, it is incorrect to associate this time solely with the influence of the English poet.
Pushkin in the south was influenced not only byron, but also Chenier (the portrait is presented above), who worked in the system of classicism. Therefore, the work of 1820-24. develops from the contradiction between these two areas. Alexander Sergeevich tried to reconcile them. In his poetic system, there is a synthesis of classicism and romanticism, the expression in a clear and precise word of psychological experiences, emotional subjectivity.
General characteristics of the work of Pushkin in the southern period
The works written in 1820-1824 are distinguished by frank lyricism. Pushkinâs romantic lyrics of the period of southern exile lose the onset of apprenticeship characteristic of the early period of his work. Didactism inherent in civilian poems also disappears. Genre normativity disappears from the works, and their structure is simplified. Features of Pushkin's romantic lyrics also relate to his attitude to his contemporary. Alexander Sergeevich draws his psychological portrait. He correlates the contemporary in emotional terms with his own character, poetically reproduced. Basically in the elegiac tonality appears the personality of the poet. The main themes that marked Pushkinâs romantic lyrics are a thirst for freedom, a sense of new impressions, a sense of will, a spontaneous and contrasting everyday life. Gradually, the main theme is the desire to show the internal stimuli of the behavior of a freedom-loving hero.
Two Exiles
Pushkin's romantic lyrics of the period of southern exile have other characteristic features. In particular, a concrete image (based on biographical circumstances) of the exile involuntarily appears in the elegies of Alexander Sergeyevich. However, a conditionally generalized image of a voluntary exile arises next to him. It is correlated with Ovid, the Roman poet, and with Chayrd-Harold (hero of Byron). Pushkin is rethinking his biography. Now he was no longer exiled to the south, but Alexander Sergeyevich himself left the stuffy society of the capital, following his own moral quests.
"The daylight has gone out ..."
The intonation of elegiac meditation, which will become dominant in all of Pushkin's romantic lyrics, is already observed in the first poem created in the south. This work of 1820, "The Daylight Has Faded ...". At the center of the elegy is the personality of the author, who is entering a new stage in his life. The main motive is the rebirth of the soul, which longs for moral purification and freedom.
The work sums up the poet's inner life in St. Petersburg. He interprets it as morally unsatisfactory, not free. From here a contrast arises between the former life and the expectation of freedom, which is compared with the terrible ocean element. The authorâs personality is placed between the âsad coastsâ and the âdistant coastâ. Pushkin's soul longs for elemental natural life. It is characterized by an active principle, personified in the image of the ocean.
The significance of this elegy is difficult to overestimate. For the first time, the lyrical character of a contemporary appears in the work, represented through self-knowledge, self-observation. This character is created in an emotional way. Pushkin builds on top of biographical facts a conditionally romantic biography, which in some ways coincides with the real, but in another it differs significantly from it.
Pushkin's spiritual crisis of 1823
The radicalism of public position, characteristic of the author in the early 20s, is replaced by a spiritual crisis. The reason for it is the events of Russian and European life. Pushkin's early romantic lyrics are characterized by a belief in revolution. However, in 1823, the poet had to endure a great disappointment. Alexander Sergeevich took hard the defeats of the revolutions that took place in Europe. Peering into the life of his country, he did not find opportunities for the victory of freedom-loving moods. In a new light, in the eyes of Pushkin appeared both "peoples", and "chosen" natures, and "leaders." He condemns all of them, however, it is the âleadersâ who gradually become the main target of the ironical thoughts of Alexander Sergeyevich. The crisis of 1823 was reflected mainly in the parting of the author with the illusions of enlightenment. Pushkinâs disappointment extended to the role of the chosen personality. She was unable to fix the environment. The meaning of the "elect" was not justified in another respect: the people did not follow the "enlighteners". However, Pushkin was dissatisfied with himself, and with "illusions" and "false ideals." The disappointment of Alexander Sergeyevich is especially pronounced in the poems "Demon" and "Liberty Desert Sower ...", which are analyzed especially often when the theme "Pushkin's Romantic Lyrics" is revealed.
"Daemon"
"Demon" - a poem written in 1823. At its center is a frustrated person who does not believe anything, doubts everything. A negative and gloomy lyrical hero is presented. In Demon, the author, with a spirit of doubt and denial attractive to him, combined a spiritual emptiness that did not satisfy him. A frustrated person who protests against the existing order is also untenable, since she does not have a positive ideal. A skeptical view of reality leads to the death of the soul.
"Liberty Sower Desert ..."
In 1823, the poem "The Desert Sower of Liberty ..." was created. The epigraph to this parable was taken by the author from the Gospel of Luke. It is he who tells the work eternity and universal significance, sets the scale of the poem. The sower of freedom is shown alone. Nobody responds to his calls and sermons. The desert of the world is dead. The peoples do not follow him, do not heed him. The image of the sower is tragic, since it came to the world too early. The word addressed to the peoples is thrown into the wind.
Romantic lyrics and romantic poems
Pushkinâs romantic lyrics were created at the same time as romantic poems. It is about the first half of the 1820s. However, her community with romantic poems is not limited to the fact that they were created in the same years. It manifests itself in the choice of life material by Alexander Sergeyevich, in the characters of the heroes, in the main themes, in the style and in the plot. Revealing the main romantic motives in the lyrics of Pushkin, one can not help but say about the motive of the "foggy homeland." He is one of the main, which is not surprising, because the author was in exile.
The motive of the "foggy homeland"
One of the most characteristic poems of Alexander Sergeyevich, relating to the romantic period, is "The daylight has gone out ...". In it, the motive of the âfoggy homelandâ is structurally important. We find him also in the work "The Prisoner of the Caucasus," the famous poem of Pushkin ("A long path leads to Russia ...").
The theme of the conviction of the crowd
In the poem "V.F. Raevsky", created in 1822, the theme of the denunciation of the crowd is characteristic of romantic poetry. Pushkin contrasts the lyrical hero, tall, able to feel and think, the lack of spirituality of people and the life surrounding him. For the âdeafâ and âinsignificantâ crowds, the ânobleâ âvoice of the heartâ is ridiculous.
After analyzing the romantic lyrics of Pushkin, you can see that similar thoughts exist in the poem of 1823, "My Careless Ignorance ...". Before the âfearful,â âcold,â âvain,â âcruelâ crowd, the ânobleâ voice of truth is ridiculous.
The same theme is revealed in the poem "Gypsies". The author puts his thoughts into Aleko's mouth. This hero says that people are ashamed of love, trade their will, bow their heads before idols, ask for chains and money.
Thus, the drama of the disappointed hero, the opposition to the inner freedom of manâs lack of freedom, as well as the rejection of the world with his slavish feelings and base vices - all these are motives and themes that equally highlight romantic poems and Pushkinâs romantic lyrics. We will briefly talk about how to explain the closeness of the works of Alexander Sergeyevich in a lyrical and epic kind.
Subjectivity and self-portrait in lyrics and in romantic poems
The lyrics, as V.G. Belinsky is mostly subjective, internal poetry. In it, the author himself expresses himself. Naturally, it was precisely this character that Pushkin's poems had. However, in the romantic, southern period, these features were characteristic not only of the lyrics. To the "subjective poetry" to a large extent belonged also romantic poems, which were also largely the expression of the author himself.
Self-portrait, as well as subjectivity, closely related to it, are visible not only in the work âThe Prisoner of the Caucasusâ, but also in âGypsiesâ and in other poems by Alexander Sergeyevich related to the southern period. This makes these creations close to the romantic lyrics of the author. Both the lyrics and the poems are largely the same. However, this does not mean that self-portraiture and subjectivity are equally important for these two genres in Pushkinâs work. Subjectivity in the epic is a specific sign of romanticism, but in the lyrics it is a generic sign, not a specific one: to some extent, any work of this genre is subjective.
Movement from Romanticism to Realism
The development of Alexander Sergeyevichâs work from romanticism to realism can be roughly, with some degree of approximation, presented as a movement towards the objective from the subjective, to the social-typical from self-portrait. However, this applies only to the epic, and not to the lyrics. As for the latter, Alexander Sergeevichâs departure from traditional romanticism in it is connected not with its excessive subjectivity, but with its âsystematic natureâ. The poet was not satisfied with a limited and closed system. Pushkinâs romantic lyrics do not fit into strict canons. However, by virtue of tradition, Alexander Sergeyevich had to obey them and did this, although by no means always and not in everything.
Features of systems of romanticism and realism
Romantic stylistics and poetics, unlike realistic ones, existed within the framework of an established art system, which was rather closed. In a fairly short time, stable concepts of a âromantic heroâ were developed (he had to be necessarily opposing the crowd, disappointed, elevated), the plot (usually exotic, non-everyday), landscape (elevated, intense, vast, stormy, gravitating to the mysterious and elemental) , style (with a repulsion from objective details, from everything purely concrete), etc. Realism, on the other hand, did not create equally stable and closed concepts. Within the framework of this system, the concepts of plot or hero sound very vague. Realism in relation to romanticism was not only a progressive, but also a liberating direction. The freedom declared in romanticism was fully expressed only in realism. This was reflected with particular clarity in the work of Pushkin.
The concept of "romanticism" in the works of Pushkin
Alexander Sergeevich was aware of the insufficiency of romantic poetics since the time when its patterns and norms began to constrain his creativity and poetic impulse. It is noteworthy that the author himself interpreted the movement toward realism as a path from a misunderstood romanticism to romantic "true." The freedom-loving declarations of this system were intrinsically close to him. Perhaps that is why he did not want to abandon the concept of "romanticism."