How many poems have been written, and in each of them the author wanted to convey a certain essence to the reader. It is not always possible to immediately understand what meaning was laid down, and this requires an analysis of the lyrical work, that is, it is necessary to conduct an analysis that will lead to an in-depth reading of the work.
Introduction
There is always a hero in the center of a lyrical work, the meaning and essence of the poem must be sought in the "key words" that are expressed in the feelings and thoughts of the hero. At the same time, it is imperative to pay attention to metaphors, comparisons and other epithets in order to understand their role in the text, for which they are used by the author. Before analyzing the lyrical work of Lermontov, Pushkin, Nekrasov, it is necessary to draw up a plan or scheme, following which it will be possible to divide the poem into parts, penetrate into the essence, draw a conclusion, and then connect all the parts together in order to see the full picture and understand what wanted to tell the author to his readers.
An approximate plan for the analysis of the lyricalworks
Many advise to start the analysis with the history and time of creation, that is, to correlate the created poem with the period of the poet's life, with historical events and cultural influences. The study of history will help to understand the poet's intention, his mood and ideological and moral position.
For example, A. S. Pushkin's poem "In the depths of Siberian ores…" was written after the uprising in 1825 in St. Petersburg and is dedicated to the Decembrists. And the work of A. A. Akhmatova "Petrograd, 1919" is dedicated to the events of the October Revolution.
Here's what a lyrical work analysis scheme might look like:
- History of creation.
- Genre of the work.
- Ideological and thematic originality.
- Composition.
- Features of the lyrical hero.
- Artistic and expressive means.
- Lexical means.
- Using syntactic figures and rhetorical phonetics.
- Determining the size of a poem.
- The place and role of the work in the work of the poet.
Features of the genre
Analysis of a lyrical work includes such a stage as the definition of a genre that expresses the attitude of the poet to the depicted and sets a certain mood. There are such genres as a poem, elegy, sonnet, song, hymn, ode, message.
Everyone knows that the anthem glorifies some event, person or image, which means that there will be solemnity and admiration in the work. But in the elegy there are sad thoughts, reasoning about the meaninglife, about human existence.
Identification of themes (problematics) in the work
How to identify the feature of the work? It is necessary to determine its pathos (translated from Greek - a strong feeling that permeates the entire poem). There are the following types of pathos: heroic, lyrical, tragic, dramatic, satirical. This will be the definition of the subject, and hence the expression of the inner world of the hero.
In addition to the themes, the analysis plan of the lyrical work involves the study of issues where the author's individual approach is manifested, this is, as it were, a characteristic feature of the poet. For example, Pushkin believed that a poet is a prophet, and Lermontov argued that a poet always remains a lonely person, and ordinary people will never understand him.
Features of composition
The analysis scheme of a lyrical work consists of several points, one of which is the study of the composition of the work, i.e. the composition and arrangement of parts, where the sequence is never random and has a semantic load.
Very often, such a technique as repetition is used, which gives harmony to the work, for example, the beginning and end look the same - "Night, street, lamp, pharmacy …" (A. Blok).
There are also other compositional techniques: sound repetition, where at the end of poetic lines there is a rhyme and opposition, for example, of two images. The composition is built in such a way that with each line there is development and tension intensifies, and the authoradditionally uses anchor points where artistic effects are strongest.
Lyric hero
The main thing in a lyrical work is its hero, which means his experiences, emotions and feelings. It is through the inner world of the hero that one can understand the position of the author and the peculiarities of his worldview. However, one should not assume that the poet describes himself in the works, most likely, he conveys the characteristic state of people for a certain era. The image is created on the basis of the poet's life experience, and the hero may be close in spirit, in outlook on life, in experiences, but has characteristic differences, and this is preserved in all poems. Therefore, before analyzing a lyrical work, examples can help you figure out which characters are encountered.
Nekrasov in his works defended citizenship and believed that through poetry one can express the thoughts of society. However, this does not mean that he was such a fighter for the freedom and rights of society, but showed this in the poem "The Poet and the Citizen", where there is a dialogue, and the citizen calls the poet to action, because now is not the time to lie "on the stove", and as a result the phrase “you may not be a poet, but you must be a citizen” becomes, which says that one cannot be alien to the interests of society.
Analysis of artistic and lexical means
In each poem, the author uses tropes, i.e. words and expressions that are used not literally, but figuratively. When analyzing a lyrical work, it is important not only to find thesetropes, but also to understand why they are used in the text, why this particular type was chosen, and how typical this is for this poet. There are a large number of tropes, but the following are most often used: epithets, metaphors, oxymoron, comparisons, hyperbole, personification, irony.
In addition to such artistic means as tropes, syntactic figures are also used in works (techniques for constructing text to increase expressiveness and enhance emotional impact, such as an exclamation point or a rhetorical question), as well as sound combinations, when, for example,, multiple lines start with the same word, or words that sound similar are used.
Artistic means are widely used in poems, but they also use lexical means to create a certain style and theme. For example, the use of archaisms, historicisms, sublime synonyms, where the word eyes are replaced with pupils, lips with lips, look - see, etc.
Definition of the system of versification and features of stanza
Iamb, trochee, dactyl - all these are the sizes in which poems are written. It is imperative to understand the size when you need to analyze a lyrical work, as it creates a certain mood and emotional state.
Lermontov's work "Prayer" - iambic tetrameter, is written dynamically, clearly and harmoniously, like the prayer itself. L. Tolstoy's poem “Kohl to love,so without reason … "written in four-foot trochaic, sets the mood of cheerfulness, fun, mischief and cheerfulness.
Strophic or stanza - a group of verses that is repeated in a work and united by a common rhyme. The following stanzas stand out:
- Couple.
- Tercine - consists of three lines.
- Katren.
- Pentative.
- Sextina.
- Seltpoem.
- Octave.
- Nona.
- Ten lines.
Analysis of a lyrical work: examples
On the example of poems, one can trace several themes that were sung by poets in different centuries. The theme of love often sounded in Pushkin's poems, the most famous of them is "I remember a wonderful moment …", which reveals the problem of the relationship between a man and a woman, where the poet tries to convey to everyone how fleeting love can be, and that it will never happen again.
The theme of nature was often sung by Tyutchev and Yesenin. In the poem "Birch" Sergei Yesenin described landscapes, animals, the feelings of the hero that he experiences when looking at nature.
Philosophical lyrics were traced in the themes of the search for the meaning of life. For example, A. Fet's poem "We Can't Foresee" explores the problem of being, life and death, human existence and its purpose.
Understanding what subject the poet has chosen will help to draw up an initial plan for analyzing a lyrical work and make it easier to study it. In addition to the aboveexamples, the authors also created poems about friendship, loneliness, about the homeland and the life of the people, about the freedom and purpose of the poet.
Composition-analysis of a lyrical work assumes that the one who does this has certain knowledge in literature, can distinguish iambic from chorea, understand where which artistic and lexical means are used in order to see the main essence of the work.
Analysis is not easy, and it takes time, but when you get to the true meaning that lies in the poem, you better understand the poet and the time in which he lived.
