The girl sang the story of creation in the church choir. Analysis of the poem "The Girl Sang in the Church Choir" by Blok

In August 1905, Alexander Blok wrote the poem "The Girl Sang in the Church Choir":

The girl sang in the church choir
About all the tired in a foreign land,
About all the ships that have gone to sea,
About all those who have forgotten their joy.

And it seemed to everyone that there would be joy,
That in a quiet backwater all the ships
That in a foreign land tired people
They got a bright life.

This poem is about the death of the Russian squadron in the Battle of Tsushima in 1905. The first stanza refers us to the litany, a prayer for those who swim and travel. The Royal Doors are the entrance to the altar of the Orthodox Church, and the child involved in the Mysteries is, apparently, the image of the Savior.

The Tsushima battle for Blok is a hot topic, a fact of his contemporary reality, it is no coincidence that he writes about these events using dolnik, a poetic meter that became popular already in the 20th century (in the 19th century, few people dared to use it).

In the dolnik, the correct alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables is disrupted, and the sound creates a special, individual rhythm. Blok once admitted: "Every poem is a veil stretched out on the points of a few words." These key words are symbolic words, in this poem - “sang” or “sang”, “white”. The distance between keywords is filled with sound, music. “The white dress sang in the beam,” it is important for Blok to keep the combination of the labial [b] or [p] and the sound [l] throughout the entire poem: “sang”, “white”, “dress”. This sound stream creates the music of the poem.

“There will be joy” is a quote from the Gospel of John, chapter 15, verse 11: “This I have said to you, that My joy may be in you, and your joy may be full.” “There will be joy” are the words of Christ, but in Blok they are framed by the words “And it seemed to everyone ...” And the Savior himself, the baby, knows that no one will come back. The departed and not returning ships are a very stable motif in Blok's poetry of 1905-1907, it is in the poem "Seaside", there is in "Dead old age wanders around", there is in the drama "The King in the Square", where it is directly said: "Ships do not will come. The storm will destroy them. The hot wind carries death.

Thus, we are faced with the question of how the real fact - the death of the squadron in the battle of Tsushima - is comprehended in Blok's poetry, which is not for nothing called symbolist poetry. For Blok, a symbol is always an earthly sign of another, unearthly world, always a sign of some high value that we on Earth can guess, or we can not notice. A ray, a storm, a snowstorm can become a symbol - everything can become a symbol and acquire a generalized historiosophical meaning.

The girl sang in the church choir
About all the tired in a foreign land,
About all the ships that have gone to sea,
About all those who have forgotten their joy.

And it seemed to everyone that there would be joy,
That in a quiet backwater all the ships
That in a foreign land tired people
They got a bright life.

And the voice was sweet, and the beam was thin,
And only high, at the Royal Doors,
Involved in Mysteries, the child cried
That no one will come back.
1905
from the first collection of A. Blok "Poems about the Beautiful Lady"

Alexander Blok's poem "The Girl Sang in the Church Choir" was written in August 1905. The reason for the creation of the poem was: 1) the execution by government troops of a peaceful procession of St. Petersburg workers to the Winter Palace to submit a petition to Tsar Nicholas II in January 1905, which went down in history as "Bloody Sunday"; and 2) the memory of the Battle of Tsushima (May 1905) and the death of the Russian squadron during the war with Japan.

The poem contrasts the illusions associated with faith in a happy future; hope given by prayer and all the real horror, pain, hopeless truth of war. The poem is built on the antithesis of two compositional and semantic parts: in the first, Alexander Blok draws a temple, where in the twilight a girl, beautiful as an angel, sings about everyone who was forced by the war to go to foreign lands and forget the joy of a peaceful life: the ship symbolizes those who have gone to sea; and prayer - hope for a bright and joyful future; the sorrow of those who remained in desperate and anxious expectation. The sanctity of the temple, the songs and the beauty of the girl give the illusion that everything will be fine; the singer is so beautiful that it seems as if there can be nothing bad in the world. The second part: "And only high, at the Royal Doors, / Involved in the Secrets, - the child cried / That no one will come back," - reveals the whole hopeless truth. There is no place for illusions in this lamentation; a small child symbolizes divine truth, the sorrow of God himself. The cry of a baby leaves a feeling of uncomplicated illusions, naked pain and truth. Understanding the world around them in their own way, not being able to explain what they feel, children are able to predict events. And the child is given the knowledge that "no one will come back." In the first movement, combined with the literal 'l' and 'r', the soft hissing sounds and the silence that is part of the atmosphere of the temple, the accent verse evokes a sense of eternity, melodic melodiousness. In the last part, one can clearly feel allericium for voiced consonants, which creates a feeling of anguish. In the poem “the girl sang in the church choir…” A. Blok reveals the world in all its inconsistency. On the one hand, we see the holiness of prayer and great sorrow. On the other hand, people are capable of such a bloody and cruel action as war. And this is a contradiction cannot be resolved, it can only be grasped with a single glance.

The poem “The Girl Sang in the Church Choir”, like other works of Blok, is fully consistent with the foundations of symbolism. At the same time, it is imbued with a bitter sense of loss - these are lines dedicated to revolutionary uprisings and executions. A brief analysis of “The girl sang in the church choir” according to the plan, used in the literature lesson, will help 11th grade students better understand the poet and the mood of his era.

Brief analysis

History of creation- the poem was written in 1905 and is closely connected with the bloody events - the suppression of revolutionary uprisings in the country. The poet was also influenced by stories about the Tsushima battle, since it was at this time that the Russo-Japanese war ended in defeat.

Theme of the poem- faith in a bright future, embodied in the prayer of an innocent girl, and the deliberate doom of this prayer.

Composition- two-part. In the first part, Blok shows hope for a bright and clean future, embodied in the image of a girl with a pure soul. The second part is completely opposite to it: in it the poet demonstrates the cruelty of mortal life, which stands on blood and suffering.

Genre- a lyric poem.

Poetic size- dolnik.

epithets“foreign land”, “white dress”, “quiet backwater”.

History of creation

Blok's early poetry is imbued with revolutionary ideas and a rebellious spirit. The poem "The Girl Sang in the Church Choir", written in 1905, was no exception. It is based on the emotions that the poet experienced in connection with the massacre of revolutionary-minded workers.

At the same time, the history of the creation of this work is somewhat more complicated: the author also veiledly talks about the Battle of Tsushima, in which the Russian squadron suffered a crushing defeat. Being a patriot, Blok was very upset not only by the defeat of the fleet, but also by the death of a huge number of Russian soldiers.

Subject

The main idea of ​​the poem is hope and its futility. The first is expressed in the image of an innocent girl who prays so sincerely that everyone who listens to her begins to believe in grace and in the successful outcome of even obviously tragic situations. The idea of ​​futility is expressed by an infant who is close to God, so that he knows for sure that the bloody sacrifice has already been made and none of those who are prayed for will return.

Composition

The verse can be easily divided into two parts, defining the main theme and mood of each. Thus, the first is imbued with the light of hope. It feels the opposition of an angel-like girl singing about hope and peace, a cruel reality with its bloody and merciless events. The sincerity and purity of the singer make people in the church believe in the best.

But already in the second part, Blok points out the futility of their faith, ending the poem with the words “no one will come back.” The image of a child he used is as much a symbol as a beautiful girl. Children are the creatures closest to God, so it is as if the Lord himself expresses regret with his tears. In addition, for the author, this is a child-prophet who cries in advance over the sad outcome of the war for Russia and its difficult future.

Genre

This is a lyrical poem in which the poet expresses his own emotions associated with the cruelty of life and people who wage senseless wars, although they could be free and live in peace. Poetic size - dolnik.

means of expression

The block emphasizes the emotional content with the help of such expressive means as:

  • epithets- “foreign land”, “white dress”, “quiet backwater”.
  • Metaphors- “her voice sang”, “ships that went to sea”, “the dress sang in the beam”.

But he also uses other techniques, such as sound recording. Anaphoras give the text euphony and increase its emotionality, and polyunion only increases emotional tension due to the stringing effect it creates.

The gentle image of the girl, whose purity is repeatedly emphasized by the epithet “white”, leaves a strong impression.

All means of expression work for the idea, expressing the inconsistency of the world, which Blok himself acutely felt: it has bright, tender hope on the one hand and ruthless cruelty on the other.

Poem Test

Analysis Rating

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The poem "The girl sang in the church choir ..." is written in the manner traditional for Blok's early poetry. The lines of the poem flow like a melody-song aspiring upward: in the first stanza, the theme grows thanks to the triple anaphora “about everyone”, the second stanza is united by the consonance of the unions “so - and - and - how”, the girl’s voice “flies into the dome”, a ray of light connects her height, in the third line the union “what” is anaphorically repeated, in the last line the union “and” is repeated three times, preparing the result, like the final musical chord of the girl’s song.

The poem is divided into three parts, represented by three symbolic images-pictures. The girl touches hearts with her "sweet voice" - a request for people who wander and have lost faith in life. Her request flies high, into the dome in the light of the beam. People "out of darkness" in hope listen to the miracle and want to believe in the power of the "thin ray" that lifts their hope up. They read in their hearts, as in a mirror, the reflected hopes, and it seems to them that the hopes will come true. To create this effect, Blok resorts to the technique of reverse reflection: the girl sings about tired wanderers, gone ships who have lost their joy, and it seems to the parishioners in the church that there will be joy, that the ships have reached the harbor, tired people have found a bright life.

Thus, in the poem "The girl sang in the church choir ..." Blok symbolically conveys the ratio of feelings "anxiety - hope". Man always hopes and is deceived in his hope. However, the thirst to pacify the anxiety of the soul is stronger than the fear of being deceived, and therefore even the bright dome of the temple inspires people with hope. The third facet of the meaning of the poem is truth, that is, a mystery incomprehensible to a person, known only to an infant. The fact that “no one will come back” should not be seen as the destruction of hopes or the cruel truth of reality - in the crying of a child, the lyrical hero hears mercy and compassion for people, and hence the true hope for happiness.

The experience of a holistic analysis of the poem

A.A. Blok "The girl sang in the church choir ..."

The girl sang in the church choir

About all the tired in a foreign land,

About all the ships that have gone to sea,

About all those who have forgotten their joy.

And the beam shone on a white shoulder,

And each of the darkness looked and listened,

How the white dress sang in the beam.

And it seemed to everyone that there would be joy,

That in a quiet backwater all the ships

That in a foreign land tired people

They got a bright life.

And only high, at the Royal Doors,

Involved in Mysteries, the child cried

That no one will come back.

August 1905

This poem was written in August 1905, during the bloody time of the first Russian revolution. Alexander Blok took the execution at the Winter Palace, the barricades and the rallies very painfully, and even on one of the fateful days he himself carried the red flag in front of the demonstration. Perhaps the lines of the poem became the poet's prayer, filled with sincere sympathy for losses and victims. A contemporary of Blok Izmailov connects this work with the tragedy of Tsushima, considering the key image of the ships as a lively response to the death of the Russian squadron.

The poem contrasts the illusions associated with faith in a happy future; hope given by prayer and all the real horror, pain, hopeless truth of war.This poem is among other works that reflected Blok's disappointment not only in the "light goals" themselves, but in the opportunity to see their signs in a person's real life. The discrepancy between the ideal and reality in them turns into an antithesis, the meaning of which is revealed on the basis of an emotional assessment of its subject level.

Deceived expectations - the problem of the poem "The girl sang in the church choir ...".The poem is built on the antithesis of two compositional and semantic parts: in the first, Alexander Blokbased on a number of details (church choir, dome, Royal Doors) creates a picture of a church service,draws a temple where in the twilight a girl, beautiful as an angel, sings about all those whom the war forced to go to foreign lands and forget the joy of a peaceful life: the ship symbolizesgone to sea; and prayer - hope for a bright and joyful future; the sorrow of those who remained in desperate and anxious expectation.

The sanctity of the temple, the songs and the beauty of the girl give the illusion that everything will be fine; the singer is so beautiful that it seems as if there can be nothing bad in the world.But, as always in lyrics, the description of the objective world serves subjective purposes: in the subtext, the lyrical hero rethinks Christian morality. In the first three stanzas, a metaphor unfolds, the meaning of which is not clear enough at first. Waves of sound rise higher and higher, and towards the Voice flying into the dome, the heavenly “beam” strives, embracing the “white dress” with radiance. An extraordinary sound and visual impression concentrates the attention of all those who “looked and listened from the darkness”, evoking numerous evangelical associations in their memory.

The image created in the last stanza allows the lyrical hero to become one of the spectators and participants in what is happening, along with other enchanted “voices” and “rays”. The disclosure of "mysteries" does not belong to him, but to the "child", "baby", who knows the truth, which makes it possible to impart an objective character to the debunking of the "sweet", "disastrous" illusion.There is no place for illusions in this lamentation; a small child symbolizes divine truth, the sorrow of God himself. The cry of a baby leavesa feeling of pure illusions, naked pain and truth. Understanding the world around them in their own way, not being able to explain what they feel, children are able to predict events. And the child is given the knowledge that "no one will come back."

The truth is more tragic than lies. And in this antithesis it is difficult to determine the positive and negative, since the centuries-old fairy tale is beautiful, bright, comforting for everyone, except for those who want to be "involved" in the truth.

There are several symbols that stand out clearly in the poem.Ships as a symbol of renewal, faith in the coming of better times, play a big role in Blok's lyrics. In the poem "The girl sang in the church choir ..." the motive of the ships is also significant and determines the pathos of the entire text. They are associated with the idea of ​​leaving and returning to the “backwater” as an eternal life path. Without a journey to the new, there will be no aching joy of finding a home.

The beam is a symbol of the spirit, it is "thin", but "everyone" sees it. The white color, to which the author constantly draws our attention when describing the appearance of the heroine, is the color of holiness and purity, purity and innocence. Only she is entrusted to sing "About all the tired in a foreign land, / About all the ships that have gone to sea, / About all those who have forgotten their joy." However, people see a ray of hope "from the darkness", parishioners hear only the voice of the "white dress".

For a more accurate description of the images of the poem, it is appropriate to make associative chains, since the poem evokes very strong emotional experiences in readers, but they are difficult to describe in words, and even more so on paper. Let's try to trace their nature.

The first image is the image of a girl, it is associated with the words of the sang and the church choir. All this evokes associations with beauty, innocence, youth, faith, salvation of the soul, poetry, music, unity, harmony, sound.

Dress - white, sang. Covered nudity, purity, modesty, purity, perfection, music are associated with it.

The beam is thin, shining. The ray is the sun, light, warmth, life, happiness, delight, grace, insecurity, fragility.

Shoulder - white, purity, perfection, support, support, dove.

The transition from a real concrete level to a symbolic rethinking is made on the basis of the liberation of the central image from objective features (“the girl sang” - “her voice sang” - “the white dress sang in the beam” - “the voice was sweet, and the beam was thin”). Over the course of the first three stanzas, the sphere covered by the voice expands more and more (the girl sang about everyone - the voice flew into the dome - everyone listened to it from the darkness - everyone believed). At the same time, both melodies merge, and suddenly the polyphony is interrupted by a barely audible sound: “high, at the Royal Doors, a child was crying ...”, returning to the real plan and forming a compositional ring.

The same complexity as the semantic and figurative levels of the poem is distinguished by its poetic size. Dolnik becomes a common meter in Russian lyrics at the beginning of the 20th century, starting precisely with the works of Blok, and then Akhmatova. In addition to rhythmic complexity, phonics and its main element, sound repetition, play an important role in creating the special musicality of Blok's verse. The impression of the sound of the voice is transmitted not only at the semantic level - the music is heard in the verse itself. In the second stanza, this happens due to the assonance (her, shone), as well as the alliterative sound l. Lines 1, 2 and 4 of the second stanza are a lipogram - there is no p sound, which makes it possible to single out the words containing it, primarily the word darkness, as antithetical. Against the backdrop of a complex rhythmic organization, the unusual calmness and smoothness of the verse is created with the help of a female cross rhyme. Important semantic centers in the lines are shifted to the last place and rhyme, this gives the poem an extraordinary harmony and ease of pronunciation.

The poem "The girl sang in the church choir ..." represents a new stage in Blok's journey. Light is no longer identified with truth, on the contrary, a ray shone over illusion. Disappointment in the ability of the individual to penetrate the secrets led to the fact that the picture of the world fell apart, and at the same time, the psychological balance was disturbed. Many of the subsequent poems recorded the painful experiences of the lyrical hero caused by such a breakdown of consciousness.