When the yellowing field is worried, a theme and an idea. Analysis of Lermontov’s poem “When the yellowing field is agitated...”
The poem “When the yellowing field is agitated” was written in 1837. It's hard to believe that these lines about nature were born in prison. Lermontov was arrested for the poem “The Death of a Poet” and spent several weeks before his exile while the investigation lasted in prison. The poet had neither pen nor paper. He wrote the text with burnt matches and pieces of coal on the wrapper in which his food, brought by a servant, was wrapped.
Literary direction, genre
“When the yellowing field is agitated” at first glance can be attributed to landscape lyrics. The first three stanzas, containing the anaphora “when,” are a description of nature. But the last stanza is that only by observing free nature, a person is happy. It contains the idea of the poem, nature - only an impetus for philosophical reflection. Therefore, some researchers classify the poem as philosophical lyrics.
Lermontov is traditionally considered a romantic poet; at the time of writing the poem he was 24 years old. The lyrical hero is lonely, cut off from the world of people. He enters into a dialogue with nature as with a divine plan, and in this dialogue he finds both himself and God.
Theme, main idea and composition
The poem represents a period. This is one sentence that expresses a complex but complete thought. The period is always rhythmic. The first three stanzas, beginning with the conjunction “when,” are themselves complex sentences (the first and third stanzas) or a simple sentence complicated by a participial phrase and numerous homogeneous members (the second stanza). All three stanzas describe nature in different ways. The first stanza describes three “habits” of humans in nature: a cornfield (field), a forest and a garden. They delight the lyrical hero. In the second stanza, the lyrical hero peers at a single, but perfect natural phenomenon - a tiny lily of the valley. The third stanza is dynamic. It reveals the inner world of the lyrical hero watching the flow of the spring. Nature is only a reason for further reflection.
The main idea in a period is always contained in the last part. Only observation of nature gives a person happiness and brings him closer to God. But you can understand Lermontov’s intention even more deeply if you know the history of the poem. Sitting in prison, Lermontov realized the happiness of freedom as never before, because only it gives the opportunity to see the whole world and be grateful to God.
Meter and rhyme
The poem is written in different iambic feet, mostly in hexameter, with pyrrhic rhymes. Lermontov uses long words in the poem, which is why some of the iambic stress is dropped, resulting in an uneven rhythm reminiscent of tango. The entire poem is filled with movement: in the first stanza the lyrical hero rushes through familiar places, in the second he bends down, in the third he is carried away with the key to a distant peaceful land, and in the last his horizontal movement on the ground stops and his vertical movement begins - into the heavens. The last shortened line of iambic tetrameter stops the movement, because the thought is brought to its logical conclusion.
The last stanza is also different in rhyme. The first three have a cross rhyme, and the fourth has a ring rhyme. Throughout the poem, feminine and masculine rhymes alternate.
Paths and images
Pictures of nature in each stanza draw epithets. In the first stanza, images of summer nature are created using bright color epithets: yellowing cornfield, crimson plum, green leaf. The sounds in this stanza are also loud and real: the sound of a fresh forest.
In the second stanza, the colors of late spring become softer and duller: ruddy evening, golden hour of the morning, silver lily of the valley. Odors appear: fragrant dew.
The epithets of the third stanza relate to the inner world, the feelings of the lyrical hero: a vague dream, a mysterious saga, a peaceful land. Only the epithet icy key correlates with nature. It fades into the background, the author does not care about detail, neither the season nor the time of day is indicated, nature becomes conditional.
In each stanza, personifications bring nature to life: a plum tree hides in the garden, a lily of the valley nods its head, a key babbles a mysterious saga, plays through a ravine.
In the last stanza, metaphors depict the inner world: anxiety is subdued, wrinkles on the brow disperse.
In the last stanza, the poet uses syntactic parallelism (first and second lines). An image of a harmonious personality is created, which draws strength from nature to restore mental balance.
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The landscapes of M. Yu. Lermontov are mostly filled with a bitter feeling of loneliness. He grew up near Penza, and the modest Russian landscape always evoked in his heart, wherever he was, a nagging feeling of love and abandonment. Only one work falls out of this series. We will analyze Lermontov’s poem “When the yellowing field is agitated...”, tell you how it was created and what techniques the author used.
Time and place of its creation
After the tragic duel and the death of the “sun of our poetry,” the 23-year-old poet began to be strangled by hatred of the killers of a genius, of the entire high society. Twelve days later, the poem “Death of the Poet” was already circulating in the capital. A criminal case was opened, and six days later the troublemaker was put in a prison cell.
During the investigation, the poet was comforted by memories of his small homeland. M. Yu. Lermontov gave himself to them with all his soul. “When the yellowing field is agitated...”, which appeared as a result, brought comfort to the restless heart of the poet and left an indelible mark on Russian landscape and philosophical lyrics.
The poet did not have paper, pens or ink - he wrote with coals on food wrappers. After prison, house arrest awaited him, and then his first exile to the Caucasus.
Genre of the poem
The first three stanzas can clearly be attributed to the lyrical landscape. A complete analysis of Lermontov’s poem “When the yellowing field is agitated...” allows the reader to understand that it is also of a philosophical nature.
Thus, the last stanza shows where peace flows into the soul of the lyrical hero and why the sad wrinkles disperse: only God in heaven gives happiness on earth. The hero, observing the perfect creation of the Creator - nature, involuntarily humbles his anxiety and finds peace and quiet, otherwise - happiness.
Composition and disclosure of the main idea
Let us continue the analysis of Lermontov’s poem “When the yellowing field is agitated...”. The first stanza shows how the poet carefully peers into the cornfield, fresh forest and garden. It's the end of summer. The second stanza, the spring one, is dedicated to a silver lily of the valley sprinkled with fragrant dew.
He comes into contact with the lyrical hero when he nods his small white head in a friendly manner. The third stanza shows an icy spring giving rise to a stream and singing a mysterious legend. Water enters into dialogue with a person. The key babbles about the peaceful land where he was born. Dynamics and movement are already visible here.
The lyrical hero watches the flow of cold water, which leads him to further thoughts. That is, the three stanzas create not a real corner of nature, but its image in full.
And in the last stanza Lermontov concludes his main idea (“When the yellowing field is agitated...”). The theme of the poem takes on a general meaning. Only in imprisonment and prison does a person learn how beautiful freedom is and the whole of God’s world, created without chaos, but according to uniform laws and plans.
Rhyme and meter used by the author
The poet used iambic in his work. Mostly hexameter. The words used are long. All this creates, together with pyrrhichias, an uneven rhythm. The first three stanzas have cross rhyme. This is how the verse “When the yellowing field is agitated...” is constructed in the first three parts.
First, the lyrical hero walks through places familiar from childhood, then bends down to look at the lily of the valley under a bush, then stops at the key. His gaze suddenly changes direction and rushes upward, into the heavens, towards God.
And it is here, in the fourth stanza, that the verse “When the yellowing field is agitated...” changes its meter to iambic, consisting of four feet, and the rhyme, unlike the previous ones, becomes circular.
Artistic and expressive means: images and tropes
One can only be amazed at what a colorful picture of nature is revealed to a person sitting within four walls in prison. We continue the analysis of Lermontov’s poem “When the yellowing field is agitated...”.
The poet uses vivid epithets in the first stanza: his field is yellowing, the forest is fresh, the plum is crimson, the leaf is green, the shadow is sweet. Everything is filled with the sounds of rustling fields, the noise of the forest and the silence of the midday garden.
The second stanza is no less picturesque. The evening is ruddy, the morning is golden, the lily of the valley is friendly and silvery. We feel its aroma, as well as the smell of the fragrant dew with which it is sprinkled.
The third stanza touches on the inner life of the lyrical hero, his feelings that are not associated with a specific time. His mind plunges into a vague sleep, he hears the key's story about his peaceful native land.
This is how the transition to the fourth stanza is made: the humility of anxiety in the soul is revealed through metaphors. This ends the poet's lyrical miniature.
Each stanza uses personifications that enliven the world around us: a plum tree is hiding in the garden, a lily of the valley is nodding its head, playing, a key is babbling in a ravine.
The lyrical hero did not place himself in this world. He admires it a little distantly and looks for his place, which will be in harmony with him. He finds happiness only by seeing God in the heavens - the Creator of the existing world and all others, about whom one can only guess. This is the infinity and greatness of the aspirations of his soul.
When the yellowing field is agitated,
And the fresh forest rustles with the sound of the breeze,
And the raspberry plum is hiding in the garden
Under the sweet shade of the green leaf;When, sprinkled with fragrant dew,
On a ruddy evening or morning at the golden hour,
From under a bush I get a silver lily of the valley
Nods his head affably;When the icy spring plays along the ravine
And, plunging my thoughts into some kind of vague dream,
Babbles a mysterious saga to me
About the peaceful land from which he rushes, -Then the anxiety of my soul is humbled,
Then the wrinkles on the forehead disperse, -
And I can comprehend happiness on earth,
And in the heavens I see God...
Analysis of Lermontov’s poem “When the yellowing field is agitated...”
The lyrics of Mikhail Lermontov's early and late periods of creativity are significantly different. If in his youth the poet wrote enthusiastic poems, praising the beauty of his native fields, meadows, forests and rivers, then in the last years of his life the author addressed this topic quite rarely. Lermontov was more interested in social and political issues, for which he was recognized as a troublemaker and gained fame as a poet who harmed the tsarist regime with his works.
In 1837, Lermontov was arrested and spent several weeks in a St. Petersburg prison while proceedings were ongoing regarding his poem “,” dedicated to the death of Pushkin. The harsh tone that Lermontov allowed himself in relation to high society, which actually killed Pushkin, caused the displeasure of many officials. As a result, before the degree of revolutionism of the poem “Death of a Poet” was clarified, it was decided to take Lermontov into custody. It was in prison, without ink and paper, that the poet wrote one of his last lyric poems entitled “When the yellowing field is agitated...”. According to eyewitnesses, the poet used charred matches as a pen, and the paper was a food wrapper that an old servant brought him to prison every day. Why did the author, in a rather difficult period of his life, decide to turn specifically to the topic of nature?
It should be noted that at the age of 24, Mikhail Lermontov was known as a skeptic and a realist, who perfectly understood that the previous foundations of society had completely outlived their usefulness. However, the poet was also aware of the fact that society itself was not yet ready for change. An example of this was the Decembrist uprising, which was brutally suppressed due to the fact that the people did not support a handful of nobles who spoke out for the abolition of serfdom and the overthrow of the autocracy. Therefore, Lermontov understood perfectly well that during his lifetime in Russia it was unlikely that anything would change, and the situation would only worsen, deepening the gap between classes. That is why, feeling his powerlessness and the impossibility of changing anything, the poet in the last years of his life was very often in a bad mood. He knew that with his poems he would not be able to inspire the bright minds of his fatherland to repeat the feat of the Decembrists, but he was also unable to come to terms with the surrounding reality.
The poem “When the yellowing field is agitated...”, at first glance, is dedicated to the beauties of his native land, which Lermontov glorifies with his characteristic tenderness and admiration. However the last stanza of this work fully reveals the author's intentions. In it he admits: when communication with nature occurs, “then the anxiety of my soul is humbled, then the wrinkles on my forehead disappear.” And it is the landscapes familiar from childhood that give Lermontov the strength to live, believing that his work is not in vain and will be appreciated by his descendants in the future.
It is noteworthy that the poem “When the yellowing field is agitated” has a very unusual structure. It contains four stanzas that are written in one sentence. This technique, atypical for a poet, creates the feeling that the author wrote this work in one breath, fearing that he would not be able to convey his thoughts and feelings to the readers correctly and as accurately as possible. That’s why I didn’t bother myself with such trifles as breaking phrases into sentences. Moreover, such a structure of the poem gives it a special integrity and melody, which is characteristic of many songs with figurative and vivid content. It is precisely such works that are very often found in Russian folklore, which the poet knew and loved from childhood.
1. History of creation. The poem “When the yellowing field is agitated...” Lermontov wrote in 1837, after being arrested for his Protestant poem “The Death of a Poet.”
2. Topic. The poem belongs to Lermontov's landscape lyrics, since most of the poem is filled with landscape images.
Main thought. In my opinion, Lermontov shows in this poem the role of nature in the spiritual world of man, since this is what the last stanza of the work is dedicated to.
4. Composition. The poem consists of four lines of four verses. But what is interesting is that the poem consists of just one exclamatory sentence. We can say that in the first three stanzas a description of nature is given, and in the last the author makes a conclusion.
5. Rhythm, rhyme, meter. The poetic meter is iambic in different feet, mostly six-foot. The first three stanzas have a cross rhyme, and the fourth has a ring rhyme. The poem is quite melodic.
6. Mood. This poem differs from other poems by Lermontov in its mood. When reading the poem, I had only positive emotions. I didn't feel sad or sad. This is not typical of Lermontov's poems.
7. Lyrical hero. The lyrical hero is calm, he does not feel anxiety or fear. The hero is left alone with nature, which prompts him to think.
But nature still occupies the main place in the poem. In the first stanza it is generalized, as the author talks about fields, forests, and gardens. In the second stanza we see only one element of nature - the lily of the valley:
“From under the bush I got a silver lily of the valley
Nods his head affably.”
In the third stanza, nature helps the lyrical hero to calm down, gives him the opportunity to think:
“And, we plunge the thought into some kind of vague dream,
He babbles a mysterious saga to me.”
So we returned to the lyrical hero. It is in the last stanza that all his feelings are revealed. Looking at the calm and peaceful nature, the hero’s anxiety disappears, and finally he realizes that he is happy:
“And I can comprehend happiness on earth.”
8. Artistic media. And of course, how can one describe nature without using means of artistic expression? They are here at every step, in every verse there is at least one epithet. Epithets: “sweet shadow of a green leaf”, “silver lily of the valley”, “golden hour of the morning” -, metaphors: “the key plays along the ravine, babbling to me a mysterious saga”, “the forest is rustling” -, personifications: “the plum is hiding”, “lily of the valley” nods his head” - all this gives the poem expressiveness, fills it with images of Russian peaceful nature.
9. My opinion. I admire the way Lermontov describes nature. I believe he is a master at this as he spent a lot of time alone with nature as a child. I also really liked the philosophical ending of the poem. I agree with Lermontov, because only alone with nature and with yourself can you understand what happiness is and how to achieve it. In my opinion, in this poem Lermontov presented himself to us from a different perspective. He showed that he can not only be sad, but also love and appreciate moments spent in nature. Well, it cannot be mentioned that the poem “When the yellowing field is agitated…” is recognized as a masterpiece of Lermontov’s landscape lyricism.