Analysis of the poem “I go out alone on the road”: genre features, theme and idea of ​​the work. M. Yu. Lermontov “I go out alone on the road”: analysis of the poem

Lermontov's late lyrics are filled with the deepest feeling of loneliness. Almost every line sounds the lyrical hero’s desire to finally find a kindred soul, to know him. The poem “I go out alone on the road” is one of the most recent. Its author wrote it already in 1841, on the eve of his death.

An analysis of the poem “I Go Out Alone on the Road” should be carried out in the context of Lermontov’s entire work, because, in essence, his lyrics are an expanded poetic diary.

Plan

To analyze any poetic text, you need to follow the plan. First, you should determine the theme and idea of ​​the work. Secondly, you need to pay attention to the history of the creation of the text, a dedication to someone. You also need to determine the genre and other formal features, such as meter, rhyme, and rhythm. The penultimate stage is the search and characterization of the style and language of the work. And in the final part of the analysis, you should express your attitude to the text, describe what feelings and emotions it evokes. the poem “I go out alone on the road” should be written in the form of a composition or an essay, and not just listed characteristics text point by point.

Theme and idea of ​​the work

The poem belongs to the category Its theme is human life, its meaning. In the center of the image are the emotional experiences of the lyrical hero. He asks himself questions about the life he has lived, about what was bad and good, what still awaits him. The idea of ​​the poem is that a lonely person, such as the lyrical hero, finds peace only when he connects with nature. His cherished dream- to find peace in which life would be hidden in all its colors and manifestations.

Genre features and other characteristics of the text

An analysis of the poem “I Go Out Alone on the Road” confirms that it belongs to the poem. Its meditative character brings it somewhat closer to elegy. The lines of the work sound smooth and melodic. Poetic size, chosen by Lermontov, is a trochee pentameter. Long lines give the text a special sound. In each stanza the author uses alternating masculine and feminine.

Semantic analysis of the poem “I go out alone on the road” (briefly). Means of artistic expression

Poem by M.Yu. Lermontov provides extensive fields for analysis, because it is full of meanings and symbols, the language of the work is very original, rich and rich in means of poetic expressiveness.

First stanza

In the first stanza of the text, the motif of loneliness immediately begins to sound clearly. The numeral “one” is found in many of the poet’s poems, and it is intended to show that on Earth, besides himself, there is no one else, no kindred spirit. The last two lines of this stanza sound very beautiful, showing that, unlike the soul of the lyrical hero, beauty and harmony reign in the world. If in the poet’s early lyrics there was no harmony even in nature, now the world appears before him (and the reader) as a single whole. The moon illuminates his path, the earth sleeps in the radiance of the heavens, and the stars communicate with each other. In order to enhance the effect of what has been said, the author uses a vivid personification: “The desert listens to God / And star speaks to star.” The image of the desert that appears at the beginning of the work is significant. The world is huge, and it is open to the hero.

Second stanza

In the second stanza, the lyrical hero draws a parallel between his feelings and what is happening in the world. Again the personification of nature: “The earth is sleeping.” The harmony of nature, its balance are opposed to what is in the poet’s soul. No, there is no storm there, as there was in the early lyrics. Now it is as calm there as in the natural world around him, but it is “painful and difficult” for him. Rhetorical questions addressed to oneself enhance the psychological component of the poem. An analysis of the poem “I Go Out Alone on the Road” by Lermontov confirms that the later lyrics are much more tragic than the youthful ones. After all, the hero does not challenge society and the world, he simply begins to realize that he does not expect anything more from life. It is the image of the road that prompts thoughts about his past and future for the lyrical hero.

Third stanza

Here the poet is completely immersed in his “I”. It is very important to follow the composition of the work, changes in mood, and the movement of the poet’s thoughts. Therefore, it is better to carry out a verse-by-strophe analysis of the poem “I Go Out Alone on the Road.” Lermontov in the third stanza of his work again turns to himself; many parallels can be drawn with the poet’s earlier poems. Expecting nothing, not regretting the past, he finally wants peace. But in his early work, the lyrical hero desired a “storm”, trying to find calm in it. What has changed now? Almost nothing, but we learn about this only in the fourth stanza. In the meantime, the poet’s freedom appears only as oblivion and sleep.

Fourth stanza

Here the author gives an idea of ​​what an ideal existence is for him. Lermontov skillfully focuses on his requirements for “sleep” by using anaphora in the last lines. Analysis of the poem “I go out alone on the road” (namely the fourth stanza) proves that only minor changes have occurred in the poet.

Fifth stanza

The finale of the work completes the picture of an ideal existence for the poet. All around him is peaceful nature, and he hears a pleasant voice singing to him about love. This is what Lermontov lacked throughout his life. Peace, in which there would be both movement and life itself in its main manifestation - love. With these words we can complete the analysis of the poem “I Go Out Alone on the Road.” Lermontov was able to fit into several stanzas the results of all his poetic creativity and express his ideas about ideal life. Nature, love, poetry - all of this for the author was a necessary component of life (this is what makes him in common with Pushkin).

Analysis of the poem “I go out alone on the road” by M.Yu. Lermontov’s work would not be complete without mentioning that the work contains stunning pictures of nature, deep philosophical thoughts, and a stylistically precise poetic language.

The fate of the Russian poet of the early 19th century, Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov, can hardly be called happy. At the age of three, left without a mother in his care dear grandmother Elizaveta Alekseevna Arsenyeva, he practically did not know family happiness, because the grandmother was sure that the young man simply needed to become a military man. Wandering around the barracks, the young man often experienced a feeling of loneliness, perhaps that is why the motive of loneliness becomes the leading one in his work. Almost every poem repeats the words "one", "lonely". They are also in the poem "I go out alone on the road", the analysis of which will be discussed below.

Such lyrics are usually called philosophical, and although there is a landscape here, the task of this poem is to emphasize the thoughts of the lyrical hero that disturb his soul and excite his heart. In nature, everything is calm, nothing disturbs the beauty of the night landscape:

It’s solemn and wonderful in heaven!
The earth sleeps in a blue glow...

And the hero not only cannot sleep - the hero “so painful and so difficult” that he goes out onto the road alone, apparently to enjoy the beauty of the night, to listen to how "star speaks to star", and get peace of mind. If in folk poetry the use of parallelism was adopted so that through the perception of the state of nature one could understand the state of the lyrical hero, then in the poetry of the 19th century, especially in the works of M. Lermontov, F. Tyutchev, A. Fet, another tendency manifests itself - to contrast harmony in nature and discord in the human soul.

A similar contrast is present in Lermontov’s work. The author admires the peaceful state of nature, while his hero is tormented by the eternal questions of existence:

Am I waiting for what? Do I regret anything?

Such questions are usually asked by people who have lived a long life, but it is at least strange to hear them from a person who is only 27 years old. However, the poem, written in 1841, three months before tragic death in a duel, is perceived as a prediction, as if providence itself was guiding the poet’s hand.

At the same time, it is important to note that the hero, although he no longer expects anything from life, does not regret the past at all. Will write similar lines almost verbatim in 100 seconds extra years Sergei Yesenin before he voluntarily dies: “I don’t feel sorry for the years wasted in vain...” He forever found freedom, but whether he found peace is unknown.

Lyrical hero Lermontov also craves "freedom and peace", and for this he wants "to forget and fall asleep". However, he wants to fall asleep forever "the cold sleep of the grave", and so,

So that the strength of life slumbers in the chest,
So that when breathing, your chest rises quietly.

Of course, this is physically impossible. Only those dead who are not buried truly cannot find peace, and their soul wanders restless. The poet had something else in mind. Perhaps it was necessary for him to remain alive in his poems, in his creativity. A similar idea of ​​a “monument not made by hands” has already been repeatedly used in the works of poets of different times, starting with Horace and ending with Pushkin. But this idea sounds too monumental.

The hero of the poem by Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov specially goes out alone on the road to be alone with God. Perhaps then his prayer will be heard and his ardent desire, expressed in the final lines of this work, will come true. The hero dreams that all night and all day, cherishing his hearing, “a sweet voice sang about love”, and above it “so that the ever green dark oak tree bends and makes noise”.

Still, it’s amazing how calmly discussions about death sound: the hero experiences neither fear nor horror - a similar state in poetry is usually called oxymoron"light sadness" This state is emphasized by the rhythmic organization of the poem: trochee pentameter slightly slows down the rhythm, and syllables with missing stress ( pyrrhic) convey a somewhat confused rhythm, as if imitating human breathing. The alternation of male and female rhymes completes the melody of the poem, as if sharpening all the remaining facets of the diamond before it turns into a diamond.

It is no coincidence that this poem is recognized as one of the best lyrical masterpieces of Russian poetry of the early 19th century.

• “Motherland”, analysis of Lermontov’s poem, essay
• “Sail”, analysis of Lermontov’s poem

The poem “I Go Out Alone on the Road” was written in the summer of 1841, a few days before the duel and death of the poet. Genre: lyrical monologue. Compositionally, it is divided into two parts. The poem begins with wonderful description nature - night landscape. The world depicted here is full of harmony. The landscape is simple and at the same time majestic:

The night is quiet. The desert listens to God
And star speaks to star...

The second part describes the feelings of the lyrical hero. These two parts are opposed, because there is no harmony in a person - he is full of anxiety, torment and even despair:
Why is it so painful and so difficult for me?
Am I waiting for what? Do I regret anything?

But the ending corresponds to the beginning - a harmonious, peaceful picture again appears there and speaks of the lyrical hero’s desire to merge with nature forever. Many of M. Yu. Lermontov’s poems contain motifs of sadness and loneliness: “The Cliff,” “It Stands Lonely in the Wild North,” “Sail,” “It’s Boring, and Sad, and There’s No One to Give a Hand to...”. But this motive is especially noticeable in the poem “I go out alone on the road...”. And the entire poem consists of motifs and symbols that are iconic for Lermontov.

In the first stanza there is a motive of loneliness, wandering. The road here is the hero’s life path, which is predetermined for everyone from above, and on this road every person is alone. The road of the lyrical hero is difficult - “the flinty path.” An alarming motif of the unknown and uncertainty is also noticeable - the hero sees his way “through the fog”. Next, the poet turns to the heavens, the “blue radiance”, and then to another cosmos - to his soul.

The last lines contain the motif of the past and the future. In the future, the lyrical hero would like only “freedom and peace,” which can be found by forgetting and falling asleep. This is how the theme of death is introduced into the poem. But this topic is not developed; it turns out that sleep is not death, but a bright and beautiful dream. And everything in this dream speaks of life, and not of death - a sweet voice singing about love, the quiet breathing of the hero, his sensitive hearing. In addition, the image of a green and mighty oak appears - a symbol of the strength of life and its eternity. The beauty and grace of nature in the first part are emphasized expressive means language.

Lermontov uses metaphors (star speaks to star); personifications (I listen to the desert. Vagu; the earth sleeps). The motive of the hero’s mental discord and loneliness is set by a chain of rhetorical questions: “Why is it so painful and so difficult for me? / Am I waiting for what? Do I regret anything?”; inversion: “I don’t expect anything from life”; exclamatory sentences and anaphora: “I am looking for freedom and peace! / I would like to forget myself and fall asleep! "; “So that the strength of life slumbers in the chest, / So that, breathing, the chest rises quietly.” The author uses assonance (but not that cold sleep of the grave) and alliteration (cherishing my hearing, / A sweet voice sang to me about love; I don’t expect anything from life, / and I don’t regret the past at all). The repetition of hissing sounds gives the story intimacy, imitates quiet speech, a whisper in the night.

The melody and rhythm of the poem are also determined by its caesura (the presence of pauses), which divide the poetic line into two halves: “The night is quiet. // The desert listens to God.” The poem is philosophical in nature, but it does not sound abstract. It is unusually lyrical - everything the poet talks about becomes close to the reader. The poem is written in trochee pentameter, with alternating masculine and feminine rhymes. The rhyme is cross. All this gives smoothness and musicality to the verse. Lermontov's poem attracted the attention of dozens of composers, but the most famous was the romance written in the 19th century by E. S. Shashina.

In many of Lermontov’s poems - “The Cliff”, “It Stands Lonely in the Wild North”, “Sail”, “It’s Boring, and Sad, and There’s No One to Give a Hand...” - there are motifs of sadness and loneliness. But this motif is especially noticeable in the poem “I Go Out Alone on the Road.”

Before the poet left for Pyatigorsk, V.F. Odoevsky gave him a notebook with the wish to write it all down. After Lermontov’s death, this book was discovered, among other poems there was “I Go Out Alone on the Road.”

From the very beginning, the poet’s tone amazes with its sublimity, even some kind of solemnity. A night landscape opens to our eyes, simple - and at the same time majestic.

I go out alone on the road;
Through the fog the flinty path shines;
The night is quiet. The desert listens to God,
And star speaks to star.

This sublime intonation of the poet hints at the deep meaning of this landscape. The road here is also the hero’s life path, the path that is predetermined from above and on which each of us is alone. Everyone has their own destiny, and only the person himself can fulfill what is destined for him. And already in the first quatrain, a still barely noticeable alarming, disturbing motif of the unknown, uncertainty arises: the hero sees his “path” “through the fog”, his life’s road is difficult (“the flinty path”).

Then this motive in the poem grows, begins to sound clearer and more definite: silence and peace reign in nature, but in the soul of the lyrical hero there is chaos, vague, unclear melancholy. He is “hurt” and “difficult,” but in his feelings and thoughts there is still the same uncertainty, “fog,” the hero cannot understand the reasons for his condition:

It’s solemn and wonderful in heaven!
The earth sleeps in a blue glow...
Why is it so painful and so difficult for me?
Am I waiting for what? Do I regret anything?

He associates his feelings with regrets about the past (“Do I regret anything?”) and an anxious premonition of the future (“Am I waiting for what?”). The life of the lyrical hero seems to focus this live connection times in the form of his feelings. The hero’s mind breaks this temporary connection:

I don't expect anything from life,

And I don’t regret the past at all;

I'm looking for freedom and peace!

I would like to forget myself and fall asleep!

The lyrical hero wants to escape reality into the world of “freedom and peace.” He would like to “forget himself and fall asleep.” Here the motif of oblivion, which runs through all of Lermontov’s work, seems very important. As D. P. Ovsyaniko-Kulikovsky notes, like Pechorin, who “does not forget anything and is always under the yoke of his past,” the poet also “remembers everything,” and everything he experienced resonates so painfully in his soul that he sees no other peace , as soon as in death."

However, in the poem “I Go Out Alone on the Road,” this motif does not merge with the motif of death. The dream here does not cause us associations with death, it is not the “cold sleep of the grave.” On the contrary, life in him seems stronger, more powerful and joyful than in the hero’s real life:

But not that cold sleep of the grave...

I would like to sleep like this forever,

So that the strength of life slumbers in the chest,

So that, breathing, your chest rises quietly;

So that all night, all day, cherishing my hearing,

Above me so that, forever green,

The dark oak bowed and made noise.

This image of the ever-greening mighty oak tree is especially significant here. Oak is a symbol of the strength of life, its eternity and inviolability. Everything in this dream speaks of life, and not of death: the “sweet voice” singing about love, and the quiet breathing of the hero, and his sensitive hearing. Here the hero is full of strength, energy, inspiration, there is no longer a tragic discord of feelings in his soul. At the beginning of the poem, he strives to “get away from life”; at the end, “life catches up with him”, and he trusts it.

Compositionally, the poem, written in trochee pentameter, is divided into two parts. The first part is a landscape, the second part is a description of the feelings of the lyrical hero. These parts are opposed. However, the ending of the poem corresponds to its beginning - there a harmonious, peaceful picture of nature again appears, and the sharpness of the contrast softens. The ending thus completes the circle here.

The beauty and grace that reign in nature in the first part are emphasized by epithets and metaphors (“the night is silent”, “the earth sleeps in a blue radiance”), and “lofty” vocabulary (“the desert listens to God”). At the same time, another epithet already here sets the motive for the hero’s spiritual disharmony - “the flint path” recalls the difficulties life path. In the second part, the hero’s feelings are emphasized by an epithet (“the cold sleep of the grave”), rhetorical questions (“Why is it so painful and so difficult for me? Am I waiting for something? Do I regret anything?”), inversion (“I don’t expect anything from life anymore.” "), anaphora ("I am looking for freedom and peace! I would like to forget myself and fall asleep!", "So that the strength of life slumbers in my chest, So that, breathing, my chest heaves quietly"), exclamatory sentences ("I am looking for freedom and peace!" ).

The melodiousness of the poem is facilitated by alliteration (“So that all night, all day, cherishing my ears, A sweet voice would sing to me about love”) and assonance (“But not that cold sleep of the grave”). The melody and rhythm of the poem are also determined by its caesura (the presence of pauses), which divide the poetic line into two halves (“The night is quiet. // The desert listens to God”). The poem was set to music and became a famous romance.

Thus, the lyrical hero finds the desired oblivion in the natural world. And this is a feature characteristic of many of the poet’s works. Lermontov “turned to nature in the same way as to the living principle, seeking in it an answer to the troubling questions of his spirit or sympathy for himself in moments of acute sensation and heartfelt anguish.”

One of the brightest and most insightful lyrical works Mikhail Lermontov is his poem “I Go Out Alone on the Road,” created in 1841, literally on the eve of the poet’s tragic death in a duel. Having appeared after the release of his only lifetime collection of poetry, it became a kind of result, the pinnacle of his poetic creativity. Its final stage took place under the motto of rethinking life values and summing up, realizing the inevitability of one’s fate. At that time, Lermontov, according to eyewitnesses, was in a state of prostration and detachment from everything that was happening around him, considering his fate already sealed. He considered death on the battlefield a worthy end to his life’s journey, and even he himself looked for some reason to quickly meet his death.

The main theme of the poem

During such a difficult period of life for the poet, the poem “I Go Out Alone on the Road” is created, the genre of which is a lyrical monologue, and the main theme is an acute feeling of personal loneliness, light and bright sadness about past important and significant events that did not leave any trace in the poet’s soul , slight thoughtfulness and reflections on the life lived. The mood of the poem is saturated with sadness and meditation about the meaning of life; the poet portrays himself as a tired wanderer, aimlessly wandering along a night road in an unknown direction. The description of the nature surrounding the wanderer is intended to once again emphasize the loneliness of the hero, his isolation from the whole world, emotional experiences and torment: in the night sky even “a star speaks to a star,” but the hero doesn’t even have anyone to talk to, he is alone in this world and he has no one to vent to. your emotional experiences.

The composition of the work is divided into two parts that are opposite in feelings: the first is a lyrical description of the simple, but certainly majestic and magnificent nature of the southern night, filled with peace, tranquility and harmony “The night is quiet, the desert listens to God”, the second part reveals to us the feelings and emotional experiences of the hero , full of despair and melancholy, torn apart by painful questions to which he himself does not know the answer. The ending of the work is consonant with the beginning: the hero strives to find peace in unity with nature, its beauty soothes his emotional wounds and gives him strength to move on. The work uses a contrasting contrast between the calm and tranquility of night nature with the mental torment of the hero, who no longer expects anything from life and has forgotten how to enjoy the simplest joys of life.

The restless and active nature of the great poet sees only one way out of this situation, this is death, but not an ordinary death filled with oblivion and decay, but a wondrous, deep sleep between life and death, which will allow him to defeat time and look at the fate of Russia and its people in future. The ending of the poem is marked by the appearance of a description of a mighty giant oak tree, symbolizing eternal life and strength, this image gives the poet hope for immortality, warms his rebellious soul, in the future he dreams of having such an oak tree as a living monument at his grave.

Structural analysis of the poem

To write the work, Lermontov used trochee pentameter; it involves alternating male and female rhymes, which give a special rhythm and amazing smoothness to this poetic narrative. Cross rhyme is used, the stanzas are presented in the form of clear quatrains. As a means of artistic expression, various metaphors, epithets (“sweet voice”, “dark oak”), antitheses and personifications (“star speaks to star”, “earth sleeps”) are used here. The constant repetition of fuzzy, hissing sounds that imitate light whispers in the night and quiet, leisurely conversations gives the work some intimacy and soulfulness.

Lermontov's late lyrics are filled with a calmness atypical for his creative heritage, which suggests that the matured poet became alien to youthful maximalism and rejection of half-measures, denial of the world around him and a challenge to society (although at that time he was only 25 years old) and this work became his final a trait that sums up his entire life. Delicate lyricism and deep philosophical meaning This work attracted the attention of many composers at one time, but one of the most famous and popular is the romance based on Lermontov’s poems by the Russian singer and composer Elizaveta Shashina, the music for which she created in 1861.