Literary analysis of the poem "Prophet" by A. S.

"The Prophet" is a textbook poem that demonstrates the poet's filigree style, his ability to put ideas into metaphorical images. The poem is studied in the 9th grade. We invite you to familiarize yourself with brief analysis"Prophet" according to the plan.

Brief analysis

History of creation- the work was created in 1826, in the Mikhailovo estate, after the poet learned about the execution of his Decembrist friends.

Theme of the poem- the origin and purpose of the poet.

Composition- According to the meaning, the poem can be divided into two parts: the story of how the seraphim turned a man into a poet-prophet, the appeal of an angel to his creation. The work is not divided into stanzas.

Genre- elegy.

Poetic size- iambic tetrameter, all types of rhyme are used in the poem.

Metaphors- “We are tormented by spiritual thirst”, “I heard the shudder of the sky”, “he clung to my lips and pulled out my sinful tongue”, “coal, blazing with fire, pushed it into my chest”, “burn the hearts of people with a verb”.

epithets – “six-winged seraphim”, “mountain flight”, “valley vine”, “sinful language”, language “idle and crafty”.

Comparisons- “Fingers are light as a dream”, “prophetic eyes opened like those of a frightened eagle”, “I lay like a corpse in the desert”.

History of creation

The history of the creation of the work is connected with a sad event - the execution of Pushkin's friends, who were participants in the Decembrist movement. Under the impression of a bitter loss, in 1826 The Prophet was written. Apparently, those to whom the work is dedicated were associated by the author with the prophets.

Topic

In the poem rises the eternal philosophical problem purpose of the poet and poetic creativity. The researchers claim that the sources for its disclosure were the sixth chapter of the book of the prophet Isaiah and the Koran. Pushkin relied only on some details from the sacred books; we will not find references to a specific plot.

In the center of the poem is a lyrical hero. This image is complex, since the poet-prophet and the author himself were embodied in it. The hero tells how he wandered through the desert, where he met an angel. "Six-winged seraph" turned out to be a messenger of God. He turned a man into a prophet.

He started with the eyes. Through a light touch main character received the gift to see what is not hidden from ordinary eyes. After the touch of the Divine messenger to the ears, the man heard the voices of the sky, birds, underwater "reptiles" and plants. The tongue has been replaced with a snake sting. And this is not surprising, because it traditionally symbolizes wisdom. Finally, it came to the heart. In Pushkin's understanding, the prophet has a flaming coal instead.

After the reincarnation, the hero felt like a corpse, but the voice of God brought him back to life. He called to rise up and go to the people to bring them eternal truths. The fact that a poet is hiding under the image of the prophet becomes clear in the last line: “Burn the hearts of people with the verb.”

Thus, Pushkin interpreted the theme traditional for literature in his own way. A real master of the word should, in his opinion, hear and see everything that happens on earth, in the sky and under water. But even such a perception is not enough for him - you need to be able to pass everything through a fiery heart and convey to people without " idle and crafty" words. Only then can one call oneself a prophet.

Composition

The composition of the poem is simple. According to the meaning, it can be divided into two parts: the story of how the seraphim turned a man into a poet-prophet, the appeal of an angel to his creation. The work is not divided into stanzas, its lines are intertwined with an intricate rhyme. Due to the peculiarities of the plot, the author inserts direct speech into the monologue of the lyrical hero.

Genre

means of expression

To create the image of a prophet, reveal the stated theme and realize the idea, the author uses expressive means. They clearly show the biblical component. prevail in the poem metaphors: “we are languishing with spiritual thirst”, “I heard the shudder of heaven”, “he clung to my lips and tore out my sinful tongue”, “coal, blazing with fire, pushed it into my chest”, “burn the hearts of people with a verb”. Also in the text is epithets- "six-winged seraphim", "mountain flight", "valley vine", "sinful language", language "idle and crafty", comparisons- “fingers light as a dream”, “prophetic eyes opened like a frightened eagle”, “I lay like a corpse in the desert”.

The system of images determines the features of the lexical composition of the verses, therefore they contain a lot of church and Old Slavonic vocabulary: seraphim, right hand, voice, God, prophet, see, listen.

The link to Mikhailovskoye in 1824 was a difficult test for the poet. He could not see his friends and spent two years of a solitary life in Mikhailovsky. It was at this time that he wrote wonderful works, among which was the "Prophet", created by the poet after the news of the execution of the Decembrists.

History of writing

For several months, Pushkin waited for the emperor to decide his fate. And, when the courier unexpectedly took him away from Mikhailovsky, the poet managed to capture an anti-government essay, which he brought to Moscow. Going to the Kremlin Palace, in case of an unfavorable outcome, the poet wanted to give this poem to Nicholas I. But the favorable reception of the emperor made him forget about his intention.

Initially, the poem in the list of 1827 was listed as "We torment the Great Sorrow." Pushkin's work received the title "Prophet" when it was published in the Moscow Bulletin in 1828. As will become clear from the analysis, Pushkin's verse "Prophet" is a deep experience of the poet himself, when life confronted him with the need to choose his destiny, and not just a stylization of the Bible or the Koran. According to the poet himself, the poem embodies the image of a true poet and his highest calling.

The correlation of the poem with the Koran is obvious, where the archangel Gabriel appeared to Magomed and cleansed the prophet's heart from filth, taking it out and filling it with knowledge, faith and prophetic light. Some Pushkinists claim that the poem was based on the plot of the book of the prophet Isaiah. One thing is clear that the poet was greatly shocked by the brutal reprisals against the participants in the uprising, of which one hundred and twenty people were exiled to Siberia, and five people were hanged, including close friends of the poet Ryleev and Pestel. The execution took place on July 13, and the poem appeared on the 24th of the same month.

heaven's messenger

Starting the analysis of Pushkin's "Prophet", we note that the first lines of the poem describe a lonely half-dead traveler who "dragged in the desert." Then the saving "six-winged seraph" appeared to him, which transforms the traveler, cleansing from everything human: "the eyes opened," his ears "filled with noise and ringing." The heavenly messenger “teared out the sinful tongue” of the traveler and put the “sting of the wise snake” into his frozen lips, took out the “quivering heart” from his chest and instead plunged “flaming coal” into it. Suffering did not pass without a trace for a mere mortal, and he lay "like a corpse in the desert" until the voice of God called out: "Arise, prophet."

Further analysis of Pushkin's "Prophet" shows that the work has two themes: the transformation of the poet and the mission of the prophet. The author is so overwhelmed with emotions that he believes that the prophet who came to earth will punish the government for the unjustifiably cruel reprisal against the Decembrists. Pushkin expresses the feelings that overwhelmed him in an indirect form; the possible exposure and punishment for complicity with the Decembrists prevents them from expressing them directly.

Manifesto of a true poet

Continuing the analysis of Pushkin's poem "The Prophet", we see that the poet uses a lot of contrast: "like a corpse", "in the gloomy desert", "sinful language". To show the unity of what is happening, the poet uses repetitions of the union "and" at the beginning of the lines. He uses comparisons to more clearly show various images: "light as a dream", "like an eagle's", "like a corpse". “Listen”, “fingers”, “high”, “eyes” - Church Slavonicisms that the author uses in his work, indicate that when writing, he relied on Holy Scripture. But filled it philosophical sense and turned the work into a manifesto about the purpose of the poet.

Pushkin raised this topic in his writings before, using images ancient mythology, but there was no work comparable in strength emotional impact with the Prophet. The work was written in the odic genre and strikes with the brightness of images and the solemnity of style. The reader involuntarily associates the author with the hero, since the monologue in the work is conducted in the first person. Some contemporaries even accused the poet of imagining himself a "chosen one." An analysis of Pushkin's "Prophet" shows that the author merely declared the program of a real poet.

Frequent hissing sounds create an atmosphere of excruciating suffering, and the size of the poem - iambic tetrameter - also makes the work painfully slow. The author uses all kinds of rhyming, but this suggests that the poet does not pay much attention to this, and for the most part the poem itself occupies him. The purpose of the latter was to capture the difficult process of rebirth from a mere mortal into a prophet, a spokesman for the truth, doing the will of God who sent him.

Composition of the work

The transformation process is written in the form of a monologue, as can be seen from comparative analysis"Prophet". And Pushkin divided this transformation into three parts in the poem.

In the first part, the traveler, tormented by "spiritual thirst", drags himself in the "gloomy desert". He is in a creative search, but meets with a six-winged seraphim "at a crossroads", in a desert where there are no roads. It is clear that the "crossroads" is a symbol, a choice that the hero had. The meeting with the seraphim says a lot - he is God's messenger, and Pushkin emphasizes the importance of the poet, his election for an important mission.

The second part of the work tells about the rebirth of the hero. It occurs in stages, the first stage - as a result of a simple touch, the traveler opens his eyes and acquires a sensitive ear. But the next transformations are not so painless. For a real poet, it is not enough to see deeper and hear more subtle than an ordinary person. For a poet, “idle” and “sinful” language is not suitable to express wisdom, it should be changed to the “sting” of a wise serpent.

But just a "stinging" word does not create high art. Without a warm heart, both talent and observation are cold. Therefore, the seraphim plunges into the chest of the traveler "coal, blazing with fire." The transformed poet is worthy to carry the light of truth. In Pushkin's poem, the arsenal artistic means extraordinarily wide:

• metaphors - “burn with the verb”, “shudder of the sky”;
• epithets - "spiritual thirst", "idle language";
• comparisons - “like a corpse”, “like a dream”.

Concluding the analysis of Pushkin's The Prophet, I would like to note that the culmination of the transformation was the dramatic replacement of the heart with burning coal and the tongue with the sting of a snake. Then, from the third part, it is clear that such transformations did not pass without a trace - the poet lies "like a corpse." But God's voice calls out to him "arise" and communicates his will - go and "burn the hearts of people" with a word. So, using the biblical story, Pushkin clearly conveys main idea works: the true vocation of the poet is to, like a prophet, with the word "burn the hearts of people."

Pushkin's contemporary S. Bulgakov believes that for "there is no direct original in the Bible." However, if you read the 6th chapter of the Prophet Isaiah, then the analogies will declare themselves. These are the six-winged Seraphim, and the coal with which the Seraphim touched the lips of Isaiah, and the voice of God, asking: whom should I send? But if God asks in the Bible, then in Pushkin's poem He states: "Arise, prophet, and see, and listen."

Although, according to the poet himself, in the "Prophet" he paraphrased a chapter from Ezekiel.

At some point, Pushkin felt his destiny, felt that his talent should serve not only for the sake of writing epigrams or romantic poems. He is entrusted with the mission of "burning people's hearts with the verb." This feeling is conveyed in this work. Is the connection of the verse with the biblical story accidental? Let's try to answer this question by analyzing Pushkin's poem "The Prophet".

The work was written in 1826. It cannot be ruled out that the poet was inspired to create this poem by the Decembrist uprising and the execution that followed this event. Among the people exiled to Siberia and the Caucasus, there were many friends and associates of Pushkin. Setting himself the task of burning the hearts of people with a verb, the poet understood that he must show in his works the truth about the autocracy, about the life of serfs, and call people to Freedom.

Some literary critics classify it as a genre of spiritual ode, others recognize the poem as a philosophical parable. It contains elements of both genres. According to the composition, it can be divided into 3 parts.

The first part is the state of the poet before his meeting with Seraphim. It is short and consists of two lines. But these lines fit almost all past life poet.

The second part is the main idea of ​​the poem. This is a spiritual rebirth, a restructuring of the author's consciousness. It happens gradually. First, the eyes were opened, and the poet began to notice everything that other people in a hurry and bustle do not pay attention to. Then the angel touched his ears, and the poet began to hear the sky, the flight of angels, and perceive what was happening in the seas. Then the angel plucked out the poet's tongue and put in "the sting of the wise snake." Instead of a heart, Seraphim put in a burning coal.

Arise, prophet, and see, and listen,
Fulfill my will
And, bypassing the seas and lands,
Burn people's hearts with the verb.

The poem is written in iambic four- and five-foot iambic feet, which, with its unhurried rhythm, conveys with maximum completeness the suffering experienced by the poet in the process of spiritual rebirth,

In this poem, Pushkin actively uses artistic techniques. It -

• comparisons (light as a dream, fingers, lying like a corpse, pupils, like those of a frightened eagle);
• metaphors (spiritual thirst, mountain flight, light fingers, prophetic eyeballs);
• epithets (gloomy desert, idle and crafty tongue, frozen lips);
• Slavicisms (eye, mouth, right hand, see and listen).

The use of Slavicisms by Pushkin pursued a twofold goal. First, Slavicisms emphasized the genre of the ode, and second, they brought the verse closer to Holy Scripture, because the Old Testament and the Gospel, once translated from Greek into Old Church Slavonic, did not change over the centuries, and were not translated into modern language until the twentieth century.

According to the memoirs of contemporaries, Pushkin had 4 poems about the Prophet. Apparently, this topic was very exciting for the poet. But three poems were destroyed for reasons that we can guess, knowing the political situation in Russia and the desire of the autocracy to keep power in their hands. But the surviving "Prophet" is the creative program of the poet. Alexander Sergeevich took the biblical Prophet as an analogy, since this image turned out to be closest to his worldview and attitude, and most fully conveys the main idea of ​​the poem.

"Prophet" - a poem by A.S. Pushkin, written by him in Mikhailovsky, in 1826. This work is an important poetic declaration that directly reflects the author's view of the poet's vocation.

The main theme of the verse is the theme of the poet and poetry, the theme of the high appointment of the poet. The genre of poetic work is legend. The poem is based on an allegory: the poet is a prophet.

In the poem "The Prophet" A.S. Pushkin speaks of the qualities, properties that a poet must possess in comparison with an ordinary person in order to fully justify the high appointment of the poet. If in other poetic works, speaking about the mission of poetry and the poet, Alexander Sergeevich uses allegorical images of ancient mythology (Apollo, Parnassus ...), then here he turns to biblical mythology. In this work: not a poet, but a prophet, not Apollo, but a god, not a muse, but a six-winged seraphim (that is, an angel). The messenger of God, the seraphim, transforms the nature of man in order to make him a poet (prophet). And a person's eyes ("apple") open - he is able to see and understand everything, to look at the sun, like an eagle. He is able to see how angels fly in the sky and grass grows. All this sensitive and wise understanding and awareness of reality cannot be conveyed by ordinary speech - "both idle and crafty." And the seraphim gives the poet instead of the tongue the sting of the wise snake; and instead of the usual “quivering heart,” he puts “coal burning with fire” into his chest.

Indeed, only in an altered state, in the heat of feelings, the poet is ready to create, is able to create high works. But it's not just a complete transformation. There must be a goal, a lofty goal, in the name of which the poet creates, which will give meaning to the work, and the true content of everything that he so deeply believes in; and correctly sees, hears, feels, and knows how to convey in words. Such a “goal” is designated as “God’s voice” addressed to the “prophet” and calls him to “burn the hearts of people” with his wise word (“verb”). And to show people the true, unadorned, truth of life.

This image of Pushkin's poet-prophet goes back to the poetics of the Decembrists. The connection between the state of Pushkin, who sadly survived the news of the execution of his friends and comrades in Mikhailovsky, and his work "The Prophet" is unconditional. After all, this poem saw the light in the fall of 1826, after the ruthless reprisal against the Decembrists.

Analyzing the poem "Prophet" and comparing it with other poetic declarations, we can say that this work of the author is extremely important, since Pushkin defends the leading role of art in it. “Burning with a verb” the hearts of people - this is the true purpose of the poet-prophet, not to stand aside, to respond to what is happening in society.

To be a real poet means to bring people the true, true, unvarnished truth of life, to respond to the topic of the day, to understand what is happening in life and what worries people. The poet-prophet is above the ordinary.

What means of poetic expression does the author use? Metaphors - “shudder of the sky”, “burn the hearts of people with the verb”; epithets - “the sting of a wise snake”, “an idle-talking language”, “we are tormented by spiritual thirst”; comparisons - “like a dream”, “like a corpse in the desert I lay”, “prophetic eyes opened like a frightened eagle”; Old Slavonicisms - “eyes”, “fingers”, “heeded”.

The image of the prophet is also associated with the dominance of the biblical style in the poem "Prophet": "divine verb", "six-winged seraph", "light fingers", etc. We do not find such an abundance of Church Slavonicisms in any of Pushkin's poems. In this poetic work not only biblical imagery and vocabulary dominates, but also the solemnly severe intonation of the prophet's speeches, as well as the poor biblical syntax of small sentences. The list of signs and properties of the clairvoyance of the prophet is built on the principle of forcing intonation in sentences; he hypnotizes with the dominance of laconic phrases. The anaphoric biblical construction of the period with the help of the union "and" introduces emotional tension. Anaphora: lines begin with the union "And" 16 times. The poem is written in iambic tetrameter without division into stanzas.

In the "Prophet" the language system of the Bible is transmitted. There are "Biblicisms" used in Russian poetry since the time of Lomonosov and Derzhavin.

Analyzing the poem "Prophet", we understand that in its construction it is a monologue, it has a solemn oratorical style.

Among Pushkin's lyrical works, The Prophet occupies a special place. In difficult conditions of oppressive and vindictive reaction, he confirmed the correctness of the views of the executed, proclaimed loyalty to the ideals of the Decembrists.

The Prophet Alexander Pushkin

Spiritual thirst tormented,
In the gloomy desert I dragged myself
And a six-winged seraph
He appeared to me at a crossroads.
With fingers as light as a dream
He touched my apples:
Prophetic eyes opened,
Like a frightened eagle.
He touched my ears
And they were filled with noise and ringing:
And I heard the shudder of the sky,
And the heavenly angels flight,
And the reptile of the sea underwater course,
And the valley of the vine vegetation.
And he clung to my lips,
And tore out my sinful tongue,
And idle and crafty,
And the sting of the wise snake
In my frozen mouth
He invested it with a bloody right hand.
And he cut my chest with a sword,
And took out a trembling heart,
And coal burning with fire
He put a hole in his chest.
Like a corpse in the desert I lay,
And God's voice called out to me:
“Arise, prophet, and see, and listen,
Fulfill my will
And, bypassing the seas and lands,
Burn people's hearts with the verb."

Analysis of Pushkin's poem "The Prophet"

The philosophical theme of the search for the meaning of life is characteristic of the work of many writers, but not every one of them manages to clearly formulate the answer to the question posed. For some, creativity is one of the opportunities for self-expression, others see in their works the shortest path to fame, wealth and respect.

Sooner or later, any person associated with literature asks himself the question of what exactly he lives for and what he wants to say with his works. The poet Alexander Pushkin was no exception in this sense, and the theme of self-identification runs like a red thread not only in his prose, but also in poetry. The most characteristic work in this respect is the poem "Prophet", created in 1826 and became a kind of program of action not only for Pushkin, but also for many poets of subsequent generations. This is not surprising, since the work is really striking in its grandeur and metaphor. At the same time, the poem itself is a very capacious and accurate answer to the question of what exactly is the meaning of the life of a true poet, and what should he strive for when creating his works.

The poem "Prophet" was written by Pushkin in the genre of an ode which emphasizes the significance and weight of this work. After all, odes are created only in honor of the most extraordinary events that are important for the life of the author or the whole society. Many of Pushkin's predecessors, being court poets, wrote odes on the occasion of the coronation or marriage of crowned persons. Therefore, The Prophet, created by "high calm" according to all the canons of the genre, can be considered a kind of challenge that Alexander Pushkin threw to the world, defending his right to be a poet. By this, he emphasized that creativity is not only an attempt at self-expression, but must also have a specific goal, noble enough to devote his whole life to achieving it.

It is worth noting that, imitating the ancient Greek poets, in The Prophet Pushkin resorted to the technique of metaphor, creating an epic work of amazing beauty in which its main character, identified with the author, meets with the highest angel. And it is precisely the “six-winged seraphim” that points out to him the right way, revealing the true purpose of the poet, who must "burn the hearts of people with a verb." This means that any work that comes out from the pen of a writer has no right to be worthless and empty, with its help the poet must reach the heart and mind of every reader, convey his thoughts and ideas to him. Only in this case can we say that creative person took place as a person, and his works are, well, empty paperwork, but genuine gems of literature that make you think, empathize, feel and understand this complex and multifaceted world more sharply.

Many of Pushkin's contemporaries, after the publication of The Prophet, began to treat the poet with some prejudice., believing that with this work he tried to elevate himself to the level of a literary god who looks down on the world and is confident in his infallibility. In fact, such an impression is really created thanks to the grandiloquent style that Pushkin specially chose for this work. However, the meaning of the poem is not at all to exalt oneself, because in the "Prophet" there are lines that the angel forced the author to be reborn. This means that Alexander Pushkin is fully aware of his imperfection and strives to ensure that each of his works becomes that very pearl in literature. Meanwhile, a person who knows about his shortcomings and can openly declare this is alien to the feeling of arrogance. Therefore, the poem "Prophet" should be considered in the context of a message to future writers, to whom the author is trying to convey a simple truth: art for the sake of art and satisfaction of one's own ambitions is just as insignificant as grandiloquent odes praising autocrats and sent to the dustbin of history immediately after their public reading .