Syntax of poetic speech. Poetic syntax

Poetic syntax

The general nature of the writer’s creativity leaves a certain stamp on his poetic syntax, that is, on his manner of constructing phrases and sentences. It is in poetic syntax that the conditioning of the syntactic structure of poetic speech by the general nature of the writer’s creative talent is manifested.

Poetic figures of language are associated with the special role played by individual lexical resources and figurative means of language.

Rhetorical exclamations, appeals, questions are created by the author to focus readers' attention on the phenomenon or problem in question. Thus, they should draw attention to them, and not demand an answer (“Oh field, field, who strewn you with dead bones?” “Do you know the Ukrainian night?”, “Do you like theater?”, “Oh Rus'! Raspberry field...").

Repetitions: anaphora, epiphora, junction. They belong to figures of poetic speech and are syntactic constructions based on the repetition of individual words that carry the main semantic load.

Among the repetitions stand out anaphora, that is, repetition of initial words or phrases in sentences, poems or stanzas (“I loved you” - A.S. Pushkin;

I swear by the first day of creation,

I swear on his last day,

I swear by the shame of crime,

And eternal truth triumph. - M.Yu. Lermontov).

Epiphora is a repetition of final words or phrases in sentences or stanzas - “The master will come” N.A. Nekrasova.

Joint– a rhetorical figure in which a word or expression is repeated at the end of one phrase and at the beginning of the second. Most often found in folklore:

He fell on the cold snow

It's like a pine tree on the cold snow,

Like a pine tree in a damp forest... - (M.Yu. Lermontov).

Oh spring, without end and without edge,

A dream without end and without edge... - (A.A. Blok).

Gain represents the arrangement of words and expressions according to the principle of their increasing strength: “I spoke, convinced, demanded, ordered.” Authors require this figure of poetic speech for greater strength and expressiveness when conveying the image of an object, thought, feeling: “I knew him as a lover tenderly, passionately, madly, boldly, modestly...” - (I.S. Turgenev).

Default- a rhetorical device based on the omission of individual words or phrases in speech (most often this is used to emphasize the excitement or unpreparedness of speech). – “There are such moments, such feelings... You can only point to them... and pass by” - (I.S. Turgenev).

Parallelism- is a rhetorical device - a detailed comparison of two or more phenomena, given in similar syntactic structures. –

What is foggy, clear dawn,

Did it fall to the ground with dew?

What are you thinking, red maiden,

Are your eyes sparkling with tears? (A.N. Koltsov)

Parcellation– breaking down the unified syntactic structure of a sentence for the purpose of a more emotional, vivid perception of it by the reader – “A child must be taught to feel. Beauty. Of people. All living things are around.”

Antithesis(contrast, contrast) is a rhetorical device in which the disclosure of contradictions between phenomena is usually carried out using a number of antonymic words and expressions.-

Black evening, white snow... - (A.A. Blok).

My body is crumbling into dust,

I command thunder with my mind.

I am a king - I am a slave, I am a worm - I am a god! (A.N. Radishchev).

Inversion- unusual word order in a sentence. Despite the fact that in the Russian language there is no fixed word order once and for all, there is nevertheless a familiar order. For example, a definition comes before the word being defined. Then Lermontov’s “A lonely sail turns white in the blue fog of the sea” seems unusual and poetically sublime in comparison with the traditional: “A lonely sail turns white in the blue fog of the sea.” Or “The longed-for moment has come: My long-term work is finished” - A.S. Pushkin.

Unions can also serve to give expressiveness to speech. So, asyndeton usually used to convey the swiftness of action when depicting pictures or sensations: “Cannonballs are rolling, bullets are whistling, Cold bayonets are hanging...,” or “Lightlights are flashing by, Pharmacies, fashion stores... Lions on the gates...” - A. WITH. Pushkin.

Artistic speech requires attention to its shades and nuances. “In poetry, any speech element turns into a figure of poetic speech”158.

The imagery of literary speech depends not only on the choice of words, but also on how these words are combined in a sentence and other syntactic constructions, with what intonation they are pronounced and how they sound.

The figurative expressiveness of speech is facilitated by special techniques for constructing phrases and sentences, called syntactic figures.

Figure (from Latin figura - outline, image, appearance) (rhetorical figure, stylistic figure, figure of speech) is a generalized name for stylistic devices in which the word, unlike tropes, does not necessarily have a figurative meaning. Their identification and classification began with ancient rhetoric. The figures are built on special combinations of words that go beyond the usual “practical” use and are aimed at enhancing the expressiveness and figurativeness of the text. Since figures are formed by a combination of words, they use certain stylistic possibilities of syntax, but in all cases the meanings of the words forming the figure are very important.

Syntactic figures individualize speech and give it emotional overtones. We can talk about the organizational role of syntactic figures in a particular fragment of a work of art and even in the whole text. There are various classifications of syntactic figures. Nevertheless, with all the variety of approaches to their identification, two groups can be defined: 1)

figures of addition (decrease), which are associated with an increase (decrease) in the volume of the text and carry a certain semantic load; 2)

figures of strengthening, which are associated with increased emotionality and expansion of semantic content. Within this group, one can distinguish such subgroups as “pure” figures of amplification (gradation), rhetorical figures, figures of “displacement” (inversion), figures of “opposition” (antithesis).

Let's look at the figures of addition (decrease). These include all types of repetitions that serve to highlight and emphasize important points and links in the subject-speech fabric of the work.

R.O. Jacobson, referring to the ancient Indian treatise “Natyashastra”, where repetition, along with metaphor, is spoken of as one of the main figures of speech, argued: “The essence of poetic fabric consists of periodic returns”1. All kinds of returns to what has already been said and indicated are very diverse in lyrical works. Replicates were examined

V.M. Zhirmunsky in his work “Theory of Verse” (in the section “Composition of Lyrical Works”), because repetitions of various types are of great importance in the strophic composition of the poem, in creating a special melodic intonation.

Repetitions are very rare in business speech, frequent in oratorical and artistic prose, and quite common in poetry. Yu.M. Lotman, citing the lines of B. Okudzhava:

Do you hear the drum roaring,

Soldier, say goodbye to her, say goodbye to her...

writes: “The second verse does not at all mean an invitation to say goodbye twice. Depending on the intonation of the reading, it can mean: “Soldier, hurry up to say goodbye, and “the chud is already leaving”” or “Soldier, say goodbye to her, say goodbye forever...” But never: “Soldier, say goodbye to her, once again say goodbye to her." Thus, doubling a word does not mean a mechanical doubling of the concept, but a different, new, complicated content of it"159.

The word “contains its material content plus an expressive halo, more or less strongly expressed. It is obvious that when repeating the content, the material (subject, conceptual, logical) does not change, but the expression noticeably increases, even neutral words become emotional<...>a repeated word is always more expressively stronger than the previous one, creates the effect of gradation, emotional intensity, so important in the composition of both the whole lyric poem and its parts”160.

Repetition at a precisely fixed place in the poem has even greater compositional and expressive meaning. We are talking about such types of repetitions as refrain, anaphora, epiphora (they will be discussed below), junction or pickup, pleonasm, etc.

Repeating elements can be nearby and follow one another (constant repetition), or they can be separated by other text elements (distant repetition).

The general form of constant repetition is the doubling of the concept: It's time, it's time! Horns are blowing (A. Pushkin); For everything, for everything I thank you... (M. Lermontov); Every house is alien to me, every temple is empty to me, and it doesn’t matter, and everything is one (M. Tsvetaeva).

Ring, or prosapodosis (Greek rgovarosiosis, lit. - super increase) - repetition of a word or group of words at the beginning and end of the same verse or column: Horse, horse, half a kingdom for a horse! (W. Shakespeare); The sky is cloudy, the night is cloudy! (A. Pushkin).

Joint (pickup), or anadiplosis (Greek apasіірІозіБ - doubling) - repetition of a word (group of words) of a verse at the beginning of the next line:

Oh, spring, without end and without edge -

An endless and endless dream!

and at the end of the verse at the beginning of the next:

Why are you, little ray of light, not burning clearly?

Are you not burning clearly, are you not flaring up?

In book poetry, the junction is rare:

I caught the departing shadows with my dreams.

The fading shadows of the fading day...

(K. Balmont)

Pleonasm (from the Greek pleonasmos - excess) - verbosity, the use of words that are unnecessary both for semantic completeness and for stylistic expressiveness (adult man, path-road, sadness-longing). The extreme form of pleonasm is called tautology.

Amplification (lat. amplificatio - increase, distribution) - strengthening an argument by “piling up” equivalent expressions, excessive synonymy; in poetry it is used to enhance the expressiveness of speech:

Floats, flows, runs like a rook,

And how high above the ground!

(I. Bunin)

You are alive, you are in me, you are in my chest,

As a support, as a friend and as an opportunity.

(B. Pasternak)

Anaphora (Greek anaphora - carrying out) - unity of beginning - repetition of a word or group of words at the beginning of several verses, stanzas, columns or phrases:

The circus shines like a shield.

The circus squeals on its fingers,

The circus is howling on the pipe,

It hits the soul.

(V. Khlebnikov)

Daytime thoughts

Day showers - away:

Daytime thoughts have stepped into the night.

(V. Khodasevich)

Examples of verbal anaphora were given above, but it can also be sound, with the repetition of individual consonances:

Open the prison for me,

Give me the shine of the day

The black-eyed girl

Black-maned horse.

(M. Lermontov)

Anaphora can be syntactic:

We won't tell the commander

We won't tell anyone.

(M. Svetlov)

A. Fet in the poem “I came to you with greetings” uses anaphora at the beginning of the second, third, fourth stanzas. He starts like this:

I came to you with greetings,

Tell me that the sun has risen

That it fluttered through the sheets with hot light.

Tell that the forest has woken up;

Tell me that with the same passion,

Like yesterday, I came again,

Tell me that fun is blowing at me from everywhere.

The repetition of the verb “tell”, used by the poet in each stanza, allows him to smoothly and almost imperceptibly move from a description of nature to a description of the feelings of the lyrical hero. A. Fet uses anaphoric composition, which is one of the ways of semantic and aesthetic organization of speech and the development of a thematic image.

An entire poem can be built on anaphora:

Wait for me and I will come back,

Just wait a lot

Wait for the yellow rains to make you sad,

Wait for the snow to blow

Wait for it to be hot

Wait when others are not waiting,

Forgetting yesterday.

(K. Simonov)

V. Khlebnikov’s quatrain is filled with deep philosophical meaning:

When horses die, they breathe,

When the grasses die, they dry up,

When the suns die, they go out,

When people die, they sing songs. E pyphora (from the Greek epiphora - addition) - repetition of a word or group of words at the end of several poetic lines, stanzas:

Dear friend, even in this quiet house the fever strikes me.

I can’t find peace in a quiet house Near a peaceful fire.

The number of steppes and roads is not over:

No account found for stones and rapids.

(E. Bagritsky)

Epiphora can also be found in prose. In “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign,” the “golden word” of Svyatoslav, who addresses the Russian princes with the idea of unification, ends with a repetition of the call: Let us stand for the Russian land, for the wounds of Igor, dear Svyatoslavich! A.

S. Pushkin, with his characteristic irony, in the poem “My Genealogy” ends each stanza with the same word tradesman, varying it in different ways: I am a tradesman, I am a tradesman, / I, thank God, a tradesman, / Nizhny Novgorod tradesman.

Another type of repetition is a refrain (in translation from French - chorus) - a word, verse, or group of verses rhythmically repeated after a stanza, often differing in their metrical features (verse size) from the main text. For example, every sixth stanza of M. Svetlov’s poem “Grenada” ends with the refrain: Grenada, Grenada, / My Grenada! B.

M. Zhirmunsky in his article “Composition of Lyric Poems” defined the refrain as follows: these are “endings that are isolated from the rest of the poem in metrical, syntactic and thematic terms”1. In the presence of refrains, the thematic (compositional) closure of the stanza is enhanced. It is also strengthened by dividing the verse into stanzas, they are more clearly separated from each other; if the refrain is not in each stanza, but in a pair or three, then it thereby creates a larger compositional unit. Masterfully used the refrain in the ballad “The Triumph of the Winners” by V.A. Zhukovsky. After each stanza he gives different quatrains, “isolated” in metrical and thematic terms. Here are two of them:

The trial is over, the dispute is resolved; Happy is the one whose radiance The struggle has ceased; Being preserved

Fate fulfilled everything: He who is given to taste

The great city was crushed. Goodbye to my dear homeland!

But in “Song of the Wretched Wanderer” by N.A. Nekrasov, at the end of each stanza, two refrains are repeated alternately: It’s cold, wanderer, cold and Hungry, wanderer, hungry. They determine the emotional mood of the poem about the difficult life of the people.

M. Svetlov simultaneously uses several types of repetitions in one of his poems:

All jewelry stores -

they are yours.

All birthdays, all name days - they are yours.

All the aspirations of youth are yours.

And all happy lovers' lips - they are yours.

And all the military bands' trumpets are yours.

This whole city, all these buildings - they are yours.

All the bitterness of life and all the suffering are mine.

The poem by A.S. is also based on repetitions. Kochetkova “Don’t part with your loved ones!”:

Don't be separated from your loved ones!

Grow into them with all your blood -

And every time say goodbye forever!

And every time say goodbye forever,

When you leave for a moment!

Anaphoric connection is not external, it is not a simple decoration of speech. “Structural connections (repetitions of syntactic, intonation, verbal, sound) express and strengthen the semantic connections of poems and stanzas; it is they, in the initial composition, that make us understand that this is not a simple kaleidoscope of individual images, but the harmonious development of the theme, that the subsequent image follows from the previous one, and does not simply coexist with it”1. The repetition of a word or phrase can also be in prose. The heroine of Chekhov's story "The Jumper" Olga Ivanovna exaggerates her role in the life of the artist Ryabovsky. This is emphasized by the repetition in her improperly direct speech of the word “influence”: But this, she thought, he created under her influence, and in general, thanks to her influence, he changed greatly for the better. Her influence is so beneficial and significant that if she leaves him, he may perhaps die.

The expressiveness of speech also depends on how conjunctions and other function words are used. If sentences are constructed without conjunctions, then speech speeds up, and a deliberate increase in conjunctions makes speech slower and smoother, therefore polysyndeton is considered an addition figure.

Polysyndeton, or polyunion (Greek polysyndetos - multi-connected) - a structure of speech (mainly poetic) in which the number of conjunctions between words is increased; pauses between words emphasize individual words and enhance their expressiveness:

And the shine, and the noise, and the talk of the waves.

(A. Pushkin)

And deity and inspiration,

And life, and tears, and love.

(A. Pushkin)

I carved out the world with flint and saw,

And I brought a shaky smile to my lips,

And the house was lit up with smoke and haze,

And he lifted up the sweet smokiness of the former.

(V. Khlebnikov)

Decrease figures include asyndeton, default, ellipse (is).

Asyndeton, or non-union (Greek asyndeton - unconnected) is a structure of speech (mainly poetic) in which conjunctions connecting words are omitted. This is a figure that gives speech dynamism.

A.S. Pushkin uses it in “Poltava”, since he needs to show a quick change of actions during the battle:

Drumming, clicks, grinding,

The thunder of guns, stomping, neighing, groaning...

With the help of non-union N.A. Nekrasov in the poem “Railroad” enhances the expressiveness of the phrase:

Straight path, narrow embankments,

Columns, rails, bridges.

M. Tsvetaeva conveys a whole range of feelings with the help of non-union:

Here's the window again

Where they don't sleep again.

Maybe they drink wine

Maybe that's how they sit.

Or simply two people can’t separate their hands.

In every home, friend,

There is such a window.

Silence is a figure that makes it possible to guess what could be discussed in a suddenly interrupted statement.

The lines of I. Bunin awaken many thoughts:

I do not love, O Rus', your timid

Thousands of years of slavish poverty.

But this cross, but this white ladle...

Humble, dear features!

Bunin's view of the Russian national character was determined by the dual nature of the Russian person. In “Cursed Days” he defined this duality this way: There are two types among the people. In one, Rus' predominates, in the other - Chud, Merya. Bunin loved ancient Kievan Rus to the point of oblivion - hence the figure of silence in the above lines gives rise to so many thoughts.

An example of the use of this figure in prose is the dialogue between Anna Sergeevna and Gurov in Chekhov’s “The Lady with the Dog.” The silence here is completely justified by the fact that both heroes are overwhelmed with feelings, they want to say a lot, and the meetings are short. Anna Sergeevna recalls herself in her youth: When I married him, I was twenty years old, I was tormented by curiosity, I wanted something better, because there is, I told myself, another life. I wanted to live! To live and live... And curiosity burned me...

Gurov wants to be understood: But understand, Anna, understand... - he said in an undertone, in a hurry. - I beg you, understand...

Elli p s (is) (from the Greek eIeіrviz - omission, loss) - the main type of decreasing figures, based on the omission of an implied word, easily restored in meaning; one of the types of default. With the help of ellipsis, dynamic and emotional speech is achieved:

Whisper, timid breathing,

The trill of a nightingale,

Silver and the swaying of the Sleepy Brook...

Ellipse expresses the deformation of general language syntax. Here is an example of missing an implied word: ... and looked for the last [time] at how the legitimate [husband] lay, pressing the lapel [of his jacket] with his hand... (B. Slutsky).

In artistic literature, ellipsis acts as a figure with the help of which special expressiveness is achieved. Artistic ellipsis is associated with colloquial expressions. Most often, the verb is omitted, which makes the text dynamic:

Let... But chu! This is not the time to go for a walk!

To the horses, brother, and your foot in the stirrup,

My saber is out and I'll cut it! God gives us a different feast.

(D. Davydov)

In prose, ellipsis is mainly used in direct speech and in narration on behalf of the narrator. Maxim Maksimych in “Bel” talks about one episode from the life of Pechorin: Grigory Alexandrovich squealed no worse than any Chechen; the gun out of the case, and there I go with it.

Let us turn to the figures of intensification (gradation, rhetorical figures, inversion, antithesis).

“Pure” figures of amplification include gradation.

Gradation (lat. gradatio - gradual increase) is a syntactic construction in which each subsequent word or group of words strengthens or weakens the semantic and emotional meaning of the previous ones.

There is a distinction between ascending gradation (climax) and descending gradation (anti-climax). The first is used more often in Russian literature.

K l i m a s (from the Greek klimax - ladder) - a stylistic figure, a type of gradation, suggesting the arrangement of words or expressions related to one subject in ascending order: I don’t regret, I don’t call, I don’t cry (S. Yesenin) ; And where is Mazepa? Where is the villain? Where did Judas run in fear? (A. Pushkin); Neither call, nor shout, nor help (M. Voloshin); I called you, but you didn’t look back, / I cried, but you didn’t descend (A. Blok).

Anti-climax (Greek anti - against, klimax - ladder) is a stylistic figure, a type of gradation in which the significance of words gradually decreases:

He promises him half the world,

And France only for yourself.

(M. Lermontov)

All sides of feelings

All edges of truth have been erased

In worlds, in years, in hours.

(A. Bely)

like a bomb

like a razor

double-edged

like a rattlesnake

at twenty stings

two meters tall.

(V. Mayakovsky)

A multifaceted gradation lies in the composition of Pushkin’s “Tales of the Fisherman and the Fish,” built on the growing desires of an old woman who wanted to become a noblewoman, a queen, and then “the mistress of the sea.”

Strengthening figures include rhetorical figures. They give artistic speech emotionality and expressiveness. G.N. Pospelov calls them “emotional-rhetorical types of intonation”1, because in artistic speech no one answers emotional-rhetorical questions, but they arise to create emphatic intonation. The definition of “rhetorical” fixed in the names of these figures does not indicate that they developed in oratorical prose, and then in literary literature.

Rhetorical question (from Greek.

GleShe - speaker) - one of the syntactic figures; such a structure of speech, mainly poetic, in which a statement is expressed in the form of a question:

Who gallops, who rushes under the cold darkness?

(V. Zhukovsky)

And if this is so, then what is beauty?

And why do people deify her?

She is a vessel in which there is emptiness,

Or a fire flickering in a vessel?

(N. Zabolotsky)

In the above examples, rhetorical questions introduce an element of philosophy into the text, as in verses 3. Gippius:

The world is rich in triple bottomlessness.

Triple bottomlessness is given to poets.

But don't the poets say

Only about this?

Rhetorical exclamation increases emotional tension. With its help, concentration of attention on a specific subject is achieved. This or that concept is affirmed in the form of an exclamation:

How poor is our language!

(F. Tyutchev) -

Hey, watch out! don't play around under the forests... -

We know everything ourselves, shut up!

(V. Bryusov)

Rhetorical exclamations enhance the expression of feeling in a message:

1 Introduction to literary criticism / Ed. G.N. Pospelov. | \"How good, how fresh the roses were

In my garden! How they seduced my gaze!

(I. Myatlev)

Rhetorical appeal, being an appeal in form, is conditional in nature and gives poetic speech the necessary author’s intonation: intonation of anger, cordiality, solemnity, irony.

A writer (poet) can address readers, the heroes of his works, objects, phenomena:

Tatiana, dear Tatiana!

With you now I shed tears.

(A. Pushkin)

What do you know, boring whisper?

Reproach or murmur

My lost day?

What do you want from me?

(A. Pushkin)

Someday, lovely creature,

I will become a memory for you.

(M. Tsvetaeva)

Of the two functions inherent in an address - inviting and evaluative-characterizing (expressively expressive) - the latter predominates in rhetorical appeal: Mistress of the Earth! I bowed my forehead to you (V. Solovyov).

A rhetorical exclamation, a rhetorical question, a rhetorical appeal can be combined, which creates additional emotionality:

Youth! Oh my! Has she left?

You are not lost - you are dropped.

(K. Sluchevsky)

Where are you, my cherished star,

Crown of heavenly beauty?

(I. Bunin)

O cry of women of all times:

My dear, what have I done to you?!

(M. Tsvetaeva)

In artistic speech there is a rhetorical statement: Yes, there were people in our time -

A mighty, dashing tribe...

(M. Lermontov)

Yes, to love as our blood loves,

None of you have been in love for a long time!

and rhetorical negation:

No, I'm not Byron

I am different.

(M. Lermontov)

Rhetorical figures are also found in epic works: And what Russian doesn’t like driving fast? Is it his soul, striving to get dizzy, to go on a spree, to sometimes say “damn it all!” - Is it his soul not to love her?<...>Eh, three! Bird-three, who invented you? You know, you could only have been born among a lively people, in that land that does not like to joke, but has spread out smoothly across half the world, and go ahead and count the miles until it hits your eyes.

Is it not so for you, Rus', that you are rushing along like a brisk, unstoppable troika? Where are you going? Give an answer. Does not give an answer (N.V. Gogol).

In the above example there are rhetorical questions, rhetorical exclamations, and rhetorical appeals.

Figures of reinforcement include figures of “opposition”, which are based on a comparison of opposites.

Antithesis (Greek antithesis - opposition). This term in the “Literary Encyclopedic Dictionary” refers to two concepts: 1) a stylistic figure based on a sharp contrast of images and concepts; 2) the designation of any meaningfully significant contrast (which can be intentionally hidden), in contrast to which the antithesis is always demonstrated openly (often through layer-antonyms)1:

I am a king - I am a slave. I am a worm - I am a god!

(G. Derzhavin) You won’t be left behind. I am a prison guard.

You are a guard. There is only one destiny.

(A. Akhmatova)

Antithesis enhances the emotional coloring of speech and emphasizes the sharp opposition of concepts or phenomena. A convincing example is Lermontov’s poem “Duma”:

And we hate and we love by chance,

Without sacrificing anything, neither anger nor love.

And some secret cold reigns in the soul,

When fire boils in the blood.

The contrast can also be expressed descriptively: He once served in the hussars, and even happily; no one knew the reason that prompted him to resign and settle in a poor town, where he lived both poorly and wastefully: he always walked on foot, in a worn black frock coat, and kept an open table for all the officers of our regiment. True, his lunch consisted of two or three dishes prepared by a retired soldier, but the champagne flowed like a river (A.S. Pushkin).

In the examples given, antonyms are used. But the antithesis is based not simply on the use of the opposite meaning of words, but also on a detailed opposition of characters, phenomena, properties, images and concepts.

S.Ya. Marshak, translating an English folk song, emphasized in a humorous form two principles that distinguish boys and girls: mischievous, prickly in the former and tender, soft in the latter.

Boys and girls

What are boys made of?

From thorns, shells

And green frogs.

This is what boys are made of.

What are girls made of?

From sweets and cakes,

And all kinds of sweets.

This is what girls are made of.

The emergence of the concept of “antithesis” is associated with ancient times, when people began to realize the difference between such concepts as land/water, earth/sky, day/night, cold/heat, sleep/reality, etc.

The first antitheses are found in myths. Suffice it to recall the antipodean heroes: Zeus-Prometheus, Zeus-Typhon, Perseus-Atlas.

From mythology, the antithesis passed into folklore: into fairy tales (“Truth and Falsehood”), epics (Ilya Muromets - Nightingale the Robber), proverbs (Learning is light, and ignorance is darkness).

In literary works, where moral and idealistic problems are always comprehended (Good and Evil, Life and Death, Harmony and Chaos), there are almost always antipodean heroes (Don Quixote and Sancho Panzo in Cervantes, Merchant Kalashnikov and oprichnik Kiribeevich in M. Lermontov, Pontius Pilate and Yeshua Ha-Notsri by M. Bulgakov). In many works, the antithesis is already present in the titles: “The Wolf and the Lamb”, I. Krylova, “Mozart and Salieri” by A. Pushkin, “Wolves and Sheep” by A. Ostrovsky, “Fathers and Sons” by I. Turgenev, “Crime and Punishment” "F. Dostoevsky, "War and Peace" by L. Tostoy, "Thick and Thin" by M. Chekhov.

A type of antithesis is an oxymoron (oksimoron) (from the Greek oxymoron - witty-silly) - a stylistic device of combining words with opposite meanings for the purpose of an unusual, impressive expression of a new concept or idea. This figure is often used in Russian literature, for example, in the titles of works (“The Living Corpse” by L. Tolstoy, “Dead Souls” 11. Gogol, “Optimistic Tragedy” by V. Vishnevsky).

On the one hand, an oxymoron is a combination of antonymous

a) noun with adjective: I love nature’s lush withering (A.S. Pushkin); Poor luxury of attire (N.A. Nekrasov);

b) a noun with a noun: peasant young ladies (A.S. Pushkin);

c) adjective with adjective: bad good person (A.P. Chekhov);

d) a verb with an adverb and a participle with an adverb: It’s fun for her to be sad so elegantly naked (A. Akhmatova).

On the other hand, the antithesis, brought to the point of paradox, aims to enhance the meaning and emotional tension:

Oh, how painfully happy I am with you!

(A. Pushkin)

But their beauty is ugly

I soon comprehended the mystery.

(M. Lermontov)

And the impossible is possible

The long road is easy.

Sometimes “displacement” figures include inversion.

Inversion (lat. shuegeyu - rearrangement, turning over) is a stylistic figure consisting of a violation of the generally accepted grammatical sequence of speech.

Words placed in unusual places attract attention and acquire greater meaning. Rearranging parts of a phrase gives it a unique expressive tone. When A. Tvardovsky writes The battle is on, holy and right..., the inversion emphasizes the rightness of the people waging a war of liberation.

A common type of inversion is the placement of an emotional definition (epithet) in the form of an adjective (or adverb) after the word it defines. It is used by M. Lermontov in the poem “Sail”:

The lonely sail is white

In the blue sea fog!

What is he looking for in a distant land?

What is he looking for in his native land?

There are adjectives at the end of each verse. And this is no coincidence - they are the ones who determine the main semantic and emotional mood of M. Lermontov’s work. In addition, the author used another feature related to the verse in general: the end of the verse has an additional pause, which allows the word at the end of the verse to be especially highlighted.

In some cases, inversion means that words in a sentence are swapped, but those that should be next to each other are separated, and this gives the phrase semantic weight:

Where the light-winged one changed my joy.

(A. Pushkin)

Using inversion, poet A. Zhemchuzhnikov creates a poem in which tragic reflections about his homeland sound:

I know that country where the sun is already without power,

Where the shroud is waiting, the cold earth is waiting, And where the sad wind is blowing in the bare forests, -

Either my native land, or my fatherland.

There are two main types of inversion: anastrophe (rearrangement of adjacent words) and hyperbaton (separating them to highlight them in a phrase): And by the death of a land alien to this land, the guests were not calmed down (A. Pushkin) - that is, guests from a foreign land who were not even calmed down in death.

Many stylistic devices since Antiquity have raised doubts about whether they should be considered figures or tropes. Such techniques also include parallelism - a stylistic device of parallel construction of adjacent phrases, poetic lines or stanzas.

Parallelism (Greek paga11yo1oz - located, or going nearby) is an identical or similar arrangement of speech elements in adjacent parts of the text, which, when correlated, create a single poetic image161. Usually it is built on a comparison of actions, and on this basis - persons, objects, circumstances.

Figurative parallelism arose in oral syncretic creativity, which was characterized by parallels between relationships in nature and human life, because people were aware of the connection between nature and human life. Nature has always been in first place, human actions in second. Here is an example from a Russian folk song:

Don't tangle, don't tangle the grass with the dodder,

Don't get used to it, don't get used to the girl.

There are several types of figurative parallelism. “Psychological”162 was widely used in oral folk art:

It is not a falcon that flies across the sky,

It is not the falcon that drops its gray wings,

Well done galloping along the path,

Bitter tears flow from clear eyes.

This technique is also found in prose. For example, in two episodes from the novel by L.N. Tolstoy's "War and Peace" describes an oak tree (in the first - old, gnarled, in the second - covered with spring foliage, awakening to life). Each of the descriptions turns out to be correlated with the state of mind of Andrei Bolkonsky, who, having lost hope of happiness, returns to life after meeting Natasha Rostova in Otradnoye.

In Pushkin's novel Eugene Onegin, human life is closely connected with nature. In it, one or another landscape painting serves as a “screensaver” for a new stage in the life of the novel’s heroes and an expanded metaphor of his mental life. Spring is defined as “the time of love,” and the loss of the ability to love is compared to the “cold storm of autumn.” Human life is subject to the same universal laws as the life of nature; Constant parallels deepen the idea that the life of the novel’s heroes is “inscribed” in the life of nature.

Literature has mastered the ability not directly, but indirectly to correlate the mental movements of characters with one or another state of nature. However, they may coincide or not. Thus, in Turgenev’s novel “Fathers and Sons,” Chapter XI describes the melancholy mood of Nikolai Petrovich Kirsanov, who seems to be accompanied by nature and therefore he... was unable to part with the darkness, with the garden. With the feeling of fresh air on his face and with this sadness, with this anxiety... Unlike Nikolai Petrovich, his brother was not able to feel the beauty of the world: Pavel Petrovich reached the end of the garden, and also thought, and also raised his eyes to the sky. But his beautiful dark eyes reflected nothing but the light of the stars. He was not born a romantic, and his foppishly dry and passionate, in the French way, misanthropic soul did not know how to dream...

There is parallelism built on opposition:

From others I receive praise - what ashes,

From you and blasphemy - praise.

(A. Akhmatova)

Negative parallelism (antiparallelism) is distinguished, in which the negation emphasizes not the difference, but the coincidence of the main features of the compared phenomena:

It is not the wind that rages over the forest,

Streams did not run from the mountains,

Frost the voivode goes around his possessions on patrol.

(N. Nekrasov)

A.N. Veselovsky noted that “psychologically one can look at a negative formula as a way out of parallelism”163. Antiparallelism is often found in oral folk poetry and less often in literature. It cannot serve as an independent means of substantive representation, the basis for constructing an entire work, and is usually used at the beginning of works or in individual episodes.

Another type of parallelism - inverted (inverted) parallelism is designated by the term chiasmus (from the Greek sShaBtoe), in which the parts are arranged in the sequence AB - BA "A": Everything is in me, and I am in everything (F. Tyutchev); usually with the meaning of antithesis: We eat to live, and do not live to eat.

Parallelism can be based on the repetition of words (“verbal” parallelism), sentences (“syntactic” parallelism) and adjacent columns of speech (isocolons)164.

Syntactic parallelism, i.e., a detailed comparison of two or more phenomena given in similar syntactic constructions, belongs to syntactic figures and in its function is similar to comparison:

The stars shine in the blue sky,

The waves splash in the blue sea.

(A.S. Pushkin)

Where the wind blows in the sky,

The obedient clouds rush there too.

(M.Yu. Lermontov)

An equal number of adjacent columns of speech is designated by the term isocolon (from the Greek isokolon).

N.V. Gogol in “Notes of a Madman” in the first phrase creates an isocolon of two members, in the second - of three: Save me! take me! give me three horses as fast as a whirlwind! Sit down, my coachman, ring my bell, soar, horses, and carry me from this world!

The area of poetic syntax includes deviations from standard linguistic forms, expressed in the absence of grammatical connection or its violation.

Solecism (Greek soloikismos from the name of the city of Sola, whose inhabitants spoke uncleanly in Attic) is an incorrect linguistic turn as an element of style (usually “low”): the use of a non-literary word (dialectism, barbarism, vulgarism). The difference between solecism and figure is that figures are usually used to create a “high” style. Example of solecism: I am ashamed as an honest officer (A. Griboedov).

A special case of solecism is the omission of prepositions: Bowed hand; I'm flying through the window (V. Mayakovsky).

Enallaga (Greek ennalage - rotation, movement, substitution) - the use of one grammatical category instead of another:

Having fallen asleep, the creator will arise (instead of “having fallen asleep, he will arise”)

(G. Batenkov)

Enallaga has two meanings: 1) a type of solecism: incorrect use of grammatical categories (parts of speech, gender, person, number, case): There can be no talk of taking a walk (instead of: taking a walk); 2) type of metonymy - transfer of the definition to a word adjacent to the defined one:

A half-asleep flock of old men (instead of: “half-asleep”)

(N. Nekrasov)165

Sylleps (Greek syllepsis - capture) - stylistic figure: the union of heterogeneous members in a common syntactic or semantic subordination; syntactic alignment of heterogeneous members:

Don't wait for Sunday from the grave,

Substances lying in the dirt,

Hungering for fun in her And aloof from the deity.

(G. Batenkov)

Here are examples of sylleps with syntactic heterogeneity: We love fame, and drown profligate minds in a glass (A. Pushkin) - here: the additions expressed by a noun and an infinitive are combined; with phraseological heterogeneity: The gossip's eyes and teeth flared up (I. Krylov) - here: phraseological unit eyes flared up and the extra-phraseological word teeth; with semantic heterogeneity: Full of both sounds and confusion (A. Pushkin) - here: mental state and its cause166. Anakoluth (Greek anakoluthos - incorrect, inconsistent) - syntactic inconsistency of parts or members of sentences:

Who recognizes the new name,

Wearing seals, he is resurrected (instead of: “will rise again”) with the Myrrh-streaming head.

(O. Mandelstam)

Neva all night

Longing for the sea against the storm,

Without overcoming them (instead of: “her”) violent foolishness.

(A. Pushkin)

Anacoluth is one of the means of characterizing a character’s speech. For example, Smerdyakov’s phrase - This is so that it could be, sir, so, on the contrary, never at all, sir... (“The Brothers Karamazov” by Dostoevsky) - indicates uncertainty, inability to express thoughts, and the character’s poor vocabulary. Anacoluth is widely used as a means of satirical depiction: Approaching this station and looking at nature through the window, my hat flew off (A.P. Chekhov).

Parameter name	Meaning
Article topic:	Syntax of poetic speech.
Rubric (thematic category)	Literature

An equally significant area of study of expressive means is poetic syntax. The study of poetic syntax consists of analyzing the functions of each of the artistic techniques of selection and subsequent grouping of lexical elements into single syntactic constructions. If, when studying the vocabulary of a literary text, words act as the analyzed units, then when studying syntax - sentences and phrases. If, during the study of vocabulary, facts of deviation from the literary norm in the selection of words are established, as well as facts of transfer of word meanings (a word with a figurative meaning, that is, a trope, manifests itself only in context, only in semantic interaction with another word), then the study of syntax requires not only a typological consideration of syntactic unities and grammatical connections of words in a sentence, but also the identification of facts of adjustment or even change in the meaning of an entire phrase in the semantic relationship of its parts (which usually occurs as a result of the writer’s use of so-called figures).

“But what can we say about our writers who, considering it base to simply explain the most ordinary things, think to enliven children’s prose with additions and sluggish metaphors? These people will never say friendship without adding: this sacred feeling, whose noble flame, etc.
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One should say: early in the morning - but they write: as soon as the first rays of the rising sun illuminated the eastern edges of the azure sky - oh, how new and fresh all this is, is it better only because it is longer?<...>Precision and brevity are the first virtues of prose. It requires thoughts and thoughts - without them brilliant expressions serve no purpose. Poems are a different matter..." ("On Russian Prose")

Consequently, the “brilliant expressions” that the poet wrote about - namely, lexical “beauties” and the variety of rhetorical means, in general types of syntactic constructions - are not a necessary phenomenon in prose, but possible. And in poetry it is common, because the actual aesthetic function of a poetic text always significantly overshadows the informative function. This is proven by examples from the works of Pushkin himself. Pushkin the prose writer is syntactically brief:

“Finally, something began to turn black to the side. Vladimir turned there. As he approached, he saw a grove. Thank God, he thought, it’s close now.” ("Blizzard")

On the contrary, Pushkin the poet is often verbose, constructing long phrases with a series of periphrastic turns:

The philosopher is playful and drinks, The happy sloth of Parnassus, The pampered favorite is chariting, The confidant of the dear aonides, Why did the singer of joy fall silent on the golden-stringed harp? Have you, young dreamer, finally parted with Phoebus?

It should be clarified that lexical “beauty” and syntactic “length” are necessary in poetry only when they are semantically or compositionally motivated. Verbosity in poetry may be unjustified. And in prose, lexico-syntactic minimalism is equally unjustified if it is raised to an absolute degree:

“The donkey put on a lion’s skin, and everyone thought it was a lion. The people and the cattle ran. The wind blew, the skin opened, and the donkey became visible. The people came running: they beat the donkey.” ("Donkey in a Lion's Skin")

Sparing phrases give this finished work the appearance of a preliminary plot plan. The choice of constructions of the elliptical type (“and everyone thought - a lion”), the economy of significant words, leading to grammatical violations (“the people and the cattle ran”), and finally, the economy of function words (“the people came running: they beat the donkey”) determined excessive schematism the plot of this parable, and therefore weakened its aesthetic impact.

The other extreme is the overcomplication of constructions, the use of polynomial sentences with different types of logical and grammatical connections, with many methods of distribution.

In the field of Russian language research, there is no established idea of what maximum length a Russian phrase can reach. The author's desire for maximum detail when describing actions and mental states leads to violations of the logical connection of parts of the sentence (“she fell into despair, and a state of despair began to come over her”).

The study of poetic syntax also involves assessing the facts of compliance of the methods of grammatical connection used in the author’s phrases with the norms of the national literary style. Here we can draw a parallel with passive vocabulary of different styles as a significant part of the poetic vocabulary. In the sphere of syntax, as in the sphere of vocabulary, barbarisms, archaisms, dialectisms, etc. are possible, because these two spheres are interconnected: according to B.V. Tomashevsky, “each lexical environment has its own specific syntactic turns.”

In Russian literature, the most common syntactic barbarisms, archaisms, and vernaculars. Barbarism in syntax occurs if the phrase is constructed according to the rules of a foreign language. In prose, syntactic barbarisms are more often identified as speech errors: “Approaching this station and looking at nature through the window, my hat flew off” in A.P. Chekhov’s story “The Book of Complaints” - this gallicism is so obvious that it gives the reader a feeling of comedy . In Russian poetry, syntactical barbarisms were sometimes used as signs of high style. For example, in Pushkin’s ballad “Once upon a time there lived a poor knight...” the line “He had one vision...” is an example of such barbarism: the connective “he had a vision” appears instead of “he had a vision.” Here we also encounter syntactic archaism with the traditional function of increasing stylistic height: “There was no prayer to the Father, nor to the Son, / Nor to the Holy Spirit forever / Never happened to a paladin...” (it should be: “neither the Father nor the Son”). Syntactic vernaculars, as a rule, are present in epic and dramatic works in the speech of the characters for a realistic reflection of the individual speech style, for the self-characterization of the heroes. For this purpose, Chekhov resorted to using vernacular language: “Your dad told me that he is a court councilor, but now it turns out that he is only a titular one” (“Before the Wedding”), “Which Turkins are you talking about? This is about those who does your daughter play the piano?” ("Ionych").

Of particular importance for identifying the specifics of artistic speech is the study of stylistic figures (they are also called rhetorical - in relation to the private scientific discipline within which the theory of tropes and figures was first developed; syntactic - in relation to that side of the poetic text to characterize their description is required).

Today there are many classifications of stylistic figures, which are based on one or another - quantitative or qualitative - differentiating feature: the verbal composition of a phrase, the logical or psychological relationship of its parts, etc. Below we list particularly significant figures, taking into account three factors:

1. Unusual logical or grammatical connection of elements of syntactic structures.

2. Unusual relative arrangement of words in a phrase or phrases in a text, as well as elements that are part of different (adjacent) syntactic and rhythmic-syntactic structures (verses, columns), but have grammatical similarity.

3. Unusual ways of intonation marking of text using syntactic means.

Taking into account the dominance of a particular factor, we will highlight the corresponding groups of figures.
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TO group of techniques for non-standard connection of words into syntactic unities include ellipse, anacoluth, sylleps, alogism, amphiboly (figures characterized by an unusual grammatical connection), as well as catachresis, oxymoron, hendiadis, enallag (figures with an unusual semantic connection of elements).

1. One of the most common syntactic devices not only in fiction, but also in everyday speech is ellipse(Greek elleipsis - abandonment). This is an imitation of breaking a grammatical connection, which consists in omitting a word or a series of words in a sentence, in which the meaning of the missing members is easily restored from the general speech context. Elliptical speech in a literary text gives the impression of authenticity, because in a real-life conversation situation, the ellipse is one of the basic means of composition phrases: when exchanging remarks, it allows you to skip previously spoken words. Consequently, in colloquial speech ellipses are assigned purely practical function: the speaker conveys extremely important information to the interlocutor, using a minimum vocabulary.

2.Both in everyday life and in literature, a speech error is recognized anacoluthon(Greek anakoluthos - inconsistent) - incorrect use of grammatical forms in coordination and control: “The smell of shag and some sour cabbage soup felt from there made life in this place almost unbearable” (A.F. Pisemsky, “Senile Sin”). Moreover, its use should be justified in cases where the writer gives expression to the character’s speech: “Stop, brothers, stop! You’re not sitting like that!” (in Krylov's fable "Quartet").

3.If anacoluth is more often seen as a mistake than as an artistic device, and silleps and alogism- more often by technique than by mistake, then amphiboly(Greek amphibolia) is always perceived in two ways. Duality is in its very nature, since amphiboly is the syntactic indistinguishability of the subject and direct object, expressed by nouns in the same grammatical forms. “The sensitive sail strains the hearing...” in Mandelstam’s poem of the same name - a mistake or a technique? It can be understood as follows: “A sensitive hearing, if its owner desires to catch the rustle of the wind in the sails, magically acts on the sail, causing it to tense up,” or like this: “A wind-blown (ᴛ.ᴇ. tense) sail attracts attention, and a person strains his hearing.” . Amphiboly is justified only when it turns out to be compositionally significant. Thus, in D. Kharms’s miniature “The Chest,” the hero tests the possibility of life after death by self-suffocation in a locked chest. The ending for the reader, as the author planned, is unclear: either the hero did not suffocate, or he suffocated and was resurrected, since the hero ambiguously summarizes: “This means that life has defeated death in a way unknown to me.”

4. An unusual semantic connection between parts of a phrase or sentence is created catachresis And oxymoron(Greek oxymoron - witty-stupid). In both cases there is a logical contradiction between the members of a single structure. Catachresis arises as a result of the use of an erased metaphor or metonymy and, within the framework of “natural” speech, is assessed as an error: “sea voyage” is the contradiction between “sail on the sea” and “walk on land”, “oral prescription” - between “orally” and “ in writing", "Soviet champagne" - between "Soviet Union" and "Champagne". An oxymoron, on the contrary, is a planned consequence of the use of a fresh metaphor and even in everyday speech is perceived as an elegant figurative device. "Mom! Your son is very sick!" (V. Mayakovsky, “Cloud in Pants”) - here “sick” is a metaphorical replacement for “in love.”

5. Among the rare and therefore especially notable figures in Russian literature is Gendiadis(from the Greek hen dia dyoin - one through two), in which compound adjectives are divided into their original constituent parts: “road melancholy, iron” (A. Blok, “On the railway”). Here the word “railroad” was split, thanks to which the three words came into interaction - and the verse acquired additional meaning.

6. Words in a column or verse receive a special semantic connection when the writer uses enallagu(Greek enallage - moving) - transferring the definition to a word adjacent to the one being defined. Thus, in the line “Through the meat, fat trenches...” from N. Zabolotsky’s poem “Wedding,” the definition “fat” became a vivid epithet after being transferred from “meat” to “trenches.” Enallaga is a sign of verbose poetic speech. The use of this figure in an elliptical construction leads to a disastrous result: the verse “A familiar corpse lay in that valley...” in Lermontov’s ballad “The Dream” is an example of an unforeseen logical error. The combination “familiar corpse” was supposed to mean “the corpse of a familiar [person],” but for the reader it actually means: “This person has long been known to the heroine precisely as a corpse.”

The writer’s use of syntactic figures leaves an imprint of individuality on his author’s style. By the middle of the twentieth century, by the time when the concept of “creative individuality” had significantly depreciated, the study of figures ceased to be relevant.

Syntax of poetic speech. - concept and types. Classification and features of the category "Syntax of poetic speech." 2017, 2018.

Poetic figures of language are associated with the special role played by individual lexical resources and figurative means of language.

Repetitions: anaphora, epiphora, junction. They belong to figures of poetic speech and are syntactic constructions based on the repetition of individual words that carry the main semantic load.

Among the repetitions stand out anaphora, that is, repetition of initial words or phrases in sentences, poems or stanzas (“I loved you” - A.S. Pushkin;

I swear by the first day of creation,

I swear on his last day,

I swear by the shame of crime,

And eternal truth triumph. - M.Yu. Lermontov).

Epiphora is a repetition of final words or phrases in sentences or stanzas - “The master will come” N.A. Nekrasova.

Joint- a rhetorical figure in which a word or expression is repeated at the end of one phrase and at the beginning of the second. Most often found in folklore:

He fell on the cold snow

It's like a pine tree on the cold snow,

Like a pine tree in a damp forest... - (M.Yu. Lermontov).

Oh spring, without end and without edge,

A dream without end and without edge... - (A.A. Blok).

Gain represents the arrangement of words and expressions according to the principle of their increasing strength: “I spoke, convinced, demanded, ordered.” Authors require this figure of poetic speech for greater strength and expressiveness when conveying the image of an object, thought, feeling: “I knew him in love tenderly, passionately, madly, boldly, modestly...” - (I.S. Turgenev).

Default- a rhetorical device based on the omission of individual words or phrases in speech (most often this is used to emphasize the excitement or unpreparedness of speech). - “There are such moments, such feelings... You can only point to them... and pass by” - (I.S. Turgenev).

Parallelism- is a rhetorical device - a detailed comparison of two or more phenomena, given in similar syntactic structures. -

What is foggy, clear dawn,

Did it fall to the ground with dew?

What are you thinking, red maiden,

Are your eyes sparkling with tears? (A.N. Koltsov)

Parcellation- division of a single syntactic structure of a sentence for the purpose of a more emotional, vivid perception of it by the reader - “A child needs to be taught to feel. Beauty. People. All living things around.”

Antithesis(contrast, contrast) is a rhetorical device in which the disclosure of contradictions between phenomena is usually carried out using a number of antonymic words and expressions. -

Black evening, white snow... - (A.A. Blok).

My body is crumbling into dust,

I command thunder with my mind.

I am a king - I am a slave, I am a worm - I am a god! (A.N. Radishchev).

Multi-Union usually creates the impression of separate speech, emphasizing the significance of each word separated by a conjunction:

Oh! Summer is red! I would love you

If only it weren't for the heat, the dust, the mosquitoes, and the flies. - A.S. Pushkin.

And the cloak, and the arrow, and the crafty dagger -

The lord is protected by the years. - M.Yu. Lermontov.

The combination of non-union and multi-union- also a means of emotional expressiveness for the author:

The beat of drums, screams, grinding,

The thunder of guns, stomping, neighing, groaning,

And death and hell on all sides. - A.S. Pushkin.

Lecture 19

STYLISTICS. POETIC SYNTAX

Let us now turn to questions of poetic syntax, which concludes the section on stylistics.

First of all, the group of syntactic issues includes the use of parts of speech. In inflectional languages belonging to the Indo-European group, we distinguish between a noun, an adjective, a verb, an adverb and a whole group of formal and semi-formal words, which include pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, etc.

A noun basically means objects, an adjective means a quality, and a verb means an action. In languages of our type, this significance of one or another category of part of speech is given by its design. An adjective as a grammatical category means quality, but the quality “white” can be expressed not only in the form of an adjective. The presence of grammatically formed parts of speech allows, for example, what in content is a quality (“white”) to be expressed both as an object (“whiteness”) and as an action (“whitens”). We can think of an action (“fly”) as a quality (“flying”), an action as an object (“flying” is a verbal noun). Consequently, a certain contradiction between the form and content of a word is possible. This must be taken into account for a number of issues that are directly related to stylistics.

By expressing this or that concept with the help of a noun, we thereby objectify it. This is possible by abstracting the epithet: “white sail” or “silver stream” instead of “white sail” or “silver stream”. The same stylistic role is played by the verb in metaphorical or metonymic personification. When we say “the sun is rising” or “a cloud is flying by,” then the presence of a verb associated with the subject produces

This action, in our languages, by its very form, is personification. “The cloud flies by” in the same way as we would say “the bird flies by.” Or metonymic personification. If the subject is an abstract concept, for example:

...Hope for them

He lies with his baby talk...

(Pushkin)

or:

Hope deceived me... , -

then the abstract word “hope” becomes an active person in relation to the action (“lies”, “deceived”), and we enter the path of metonymic personification. These considerations show what significance the grammatical form of expression can have for poetic style.

When we approach a passage from a thematic point of view, from the point of view of content, when, for example, we characterize a description of nature from the point of view of what colors, what sounds are involved in this description of nature, then we do not care at all whether the poet says “pink” or “turns pink,” whether he says “white sail” or “white sail.” The thematic element here is the same. But if we approach the same topic from the point of view of how it is expressed: “the pleasantness of the evening crowded around me,” then it is very important here - “the pleasantness of the evening” as some personified abstract concept, or “pleasant evening,” where “pleasant” is expressed how is the quality.

Among the different grammatical categories, let us first highlight the adjective as a qualitative word. The entire descriptive side of poetry is closely connected with the presence of adjectives as qualitative words. Let’s take, for example, Turgenev’s description of nature, for example, the description of the night that I have already quoted (“Two Meetings”). Let's pay attention to the role that adjectives play in creating a picture: "Young apple trees towered over the clearing here and there; through them liquid the branches turned meekly blue night sky, poured drowsy moon light; in front of each apple tree lay on whitening her grass weak mottled shadow. On one side of the garden the linden trees were vaguely green, drenched motionless pale bright light, on the other - they all stood black And opaque, strange, discreet rustling arose from time to time in their continuous foliage; they seemed to be calling to the path that disappeared beneath them, as if they were beckoning under their deaf canopy The whole sky was dotted with stars; flowed mysteriously from the top of them blue, soft flickering...", etc.

The entire description is based on the presence of these defining qualitative words in objects.

Let's take another example, Tyutchev's poem:

There is in the initial autumn

A short but wonderful time -

The whole day is like crystal,

And the evenings are radiant...

Where the cheerful sickle walked and the ear fell,

Now everything is empty - space is everywhere, -

Only a web of thin hair

Glistens on the idle furrow...

And here is an excerpt from a poem by Balmont, who likes to pile up a number of adjectives and definitions that create the flavor of his descriptions of nature:

Pale, tenderly bashful,

Bloomed in the swamp wilderness

Silent white lily flowers...

Or:

Smooth, flat, single color,

Verbless, pointless,

Sun-scorched sand...

The question of adjectives has long been raised in stylistics precisely because of their great importance for describing the qualities of an object. This question was posed in connection with a poetic figure, which was called “epithet” (an adjective as an epithet).

Now in theories of literature, an epithet tends to mean any definition of an object, but, strictly speaking, an epithet as a poetic figure means some special use of adjectives, which was characteristic of folk poetry with its so-called “permanent” epithets, which later became widespread in the poetry of 17th century classicism -XVIII centuries. Using the example of the so-called “permanent” epithets of folk poetry, I would like to explain what an epithet represents as a poetic figure.

In the epic, for example in the Russian epic, we encounter “constant” epithets, or, as they said in ancient stylistics, “decorating” epithets: “oak tables”, “sugar dishes”, “silk stirrup”, “good fellow”, “red maiden”, etc. The same constant epithets exist in the Homeric epic, especially with the names of epic heroes: “swift-footed Achilles”, “cunning Odysseus”, etc. Constant epithets as a sign of the traditional style are found in the majority of folk poetry peoples Next to the Russians Examples such as “good squad” or “silk stirrup” can be given by epithets from an English folk ballad: true love - faithful beloved; green wood - green forest; milk-white steed - milky white horse; yellow hair - yellow, i.e. golden hair; white hand - white hand.

The consistency of the use of epithet in folk poetry and folklore is so great that the epithet as a typical feature may conflict with a specific situation. In the South Slavic epic it is always said “white hands”, and therefore a black blackamoor can raise his “white hands” to the sky. Or, say, the hero of the ancient Greek epic raises his hands to the “starry sky,” even if the action takes place during the day, because the sky is always “starry.”

These examples of the contradiction of constant epithets with a specific situation show the most essential thing about an epithet: that the epithet is thought of as a typical feature of a given object. When we say “good brave fellow” or “good fellow”, or “blue sea”, “silk occasion”, we do not take “good fellow” as opposed to the cowardly fellow or “good brave fellow” as opposed to the unsuccessful fellow, or “blue sea" as opposed to "green" or "black". We think of “blue” as a typical sign of the sea, “good” as a typical sign of a squad, “silk” as a typical sign of a rein or stirrup.

In conversation we can say “white paper” or “green paper”, “red cabinet” or “black cabinet”. These definitions limit the concept of an object: red cabinets as opposed to black cabinets; white paper as opposed to green paper. But when constant epithets are used in folk poetry, they do not narrow the concept, but are used in the sense of typical features, which, from the point of view of poetic folk consciousness, should be present as a norm in a given subject, i.e. every good fellow is a daring, good fellow , every squad is good. This is due to the poetic idealization inherent in the epic. The epic idealizes the heroes and the objects surrounding them. If he’s a good fellow, then he’s a good fellow or a daring, good fellow. If it’s a stirrup, it’s definitely made of silk. If there are tables, then by all means the best tables are white and oak. An epithet is a method of idealization characteristic of epic. A. N. Veselovsky speaks very well and in detail about these issues in his article “From the history of the epithet.”

Consequently, a permanent or decorative epithet of folk poetry, in particular folk epic, expresses a typical feature of the subject, without narrowing the meaning of the word to which it refers.

Definitions are also used in the poetry of French classicism of the 17th-18th centuries. And here the epithet has the meaning not of an individualized definition that narrows the meaning of an object, but of a decorative epithet that emphasizes the typical feature of a given object.

Let's say, English poets of the 18th century always say"gentle breeze" - “gentle breeze.” Word"breeze" (“breeze”) always goes hand in hand with the word"gentle" ("gentle"); they are always used together. Or"brown shades" (“brown shadows”). The shadows in English poetry of the 18th century are always brown, the moon is always pale -"pale moon", etc.

We know such epithets in Russian poetry of the 18th century: “hardworking bee”, “pale Diana”, “silver stream”, “white sail”. It is clear that in the poetry of the 17th-18th centuries such constant, decorative epithets could exist not because, as in folk poetry, they are traditional, but because the poetry of the 17th-18th centuries is associated with aesthetic rationalism, with typification, with generalization. It deals not with individual qualities, but with the typical qualities of an object, because it typifies and generalizes.

When romantic poetry at the beginning of the 19th century began to strive for greater individualization in description, for more characteristic words, it waged a struggle against the “constant epithet” of the classical style. She put forward a demand for an individual epithet, a characterizing epithet. The sail is not only “white”, but also “brown”, the sea is not “blue”, but with appropriate lighting “green”, etc.

After this romantic revolution, they began to use the word “epithet” in an expanded sense, understanding by it any artistic definition. But, in essence, it is more correct to say that the romantic revolution led to the removal of the epithet as a special poetic figure, as a special poetic device, because when we talk about some object, say, snow, not “white” snow, but “brown” “snow,” then there is no special usage of words specific to the language of poetry. We call snow brown in the same way as in prose we would say about a brown object. But, saying “white snow” as it is said in folk poetry, we are using the adjective as an epithet, that is, we are using the adjective in some special sense that is not characteristic of ordinary prosaic use. We use it as a typical, permanent sign of an object.

The next question we will focus on is the order of words in a sentence: how is the word order in the sentence?can be used for artistic purposes.

Here, as in all issues related to language, we must proceed from the characteristics of the language. There are languages in which the word order is strict, bound, and there are languages in which the word order is more free. In European languages, this depends on the degree of development of analysis, or the so-called analytical structure.

If a language belongs to the inflectional type, if it has retained rich case endings, then it does not need word order to express syntactic relations; word order in this language is much more free.

On the contrary, in languages of the analytical type (French, English) word order is largely related, because it is the word order that allows us to distinguish the accusative case from the nominative case, the subject from the object, since there are either no signs of inflection in these languages, or they are present in to a small extent. In French you can only say:"J'aime mon frere" (“I love my brother”), whereas in Russian much greater freedom is possible in the arrangement of words. It is against the background of the connected word order that what is called “inversion” in stylistics stands out especially clearly. Inversion is a rearrangement of words that deviates from the normal arrangement of words that grammar requires for prose speech. Inversion highlights words by their position, for example, putting first the word that requires the most attention.

In the poems of the young Goethe, brightly emotional, expressive, belonging to the period of “storm and stress”, one can often find a violation of the logical, grammatical arrangement of words:

Dich sah"ich, und die Freude

Floss aus dem lieben Blick auf mich...

(YouI saw, and joy came to me from your tender gaze).

An object in the accusative case opens a sentence. And further:

Ganz war mein Herz auf deiner Seite

Und jeder Atemzug fur dich...

(Completelymy heart was with you). The word “entirely” stands out due to the fact that it is placed not in its usual place, but at the beginning of the sentence.

This is not to say that word order is not important in Russian. The order of words in poetry is never indifferent, and in a number of casesTherefore, we do not feel that the words are not in the order that would be usual in prosaic language.

For example, from Pushkin:

Kochubey is rich and famous...

Quiet Ukrainian night...

Here the defining, predicative, predicate words are brought forward, since this is more expressive than if it were said:

Kochubey is rich and famous...

The Ukrainian night is quiet...

Now about the types of sentences, about the use of different types of sentences in poetic syntax. First of all, a few words about sentences of an unusual type. The usual type of sentence in our languages: subject, predicate, if necessary - addition, etc. But there are sentences of a special type - as if underdeveloped, archaic. For example, sentences that do not contain a verb are possible - verbless sentences.

Night. Street. Flashlight. Pharmacy.

Pointless and dim light.

This is how one of A. Blok’s poems begins.

And here is an example of a poem that is written entirely without verbs, the famous poem by Fet, which at one time caused great controversy precisely because of its unusual construction:

Whisper, timid breathing,

The trill of a nightingale,

Silver and sway

Sleepy stream,

Night light, night shadows,

Endless shadows

A series of magical changes

Sweet face

There are purple roses in the smoky clouds,

The reflection of amber

And kisses and tears,

And dawn, dawn!..

The entire poem is built on verbless sentences, although it not only describes the night, but also gives a story about a night date in artistic form.

What artistic purpose could such a way of expressing oneself in poetry without verbs serve? From such a poem we get the impression as if it were a series of beautifuljuicy spots that are not related to each other. This is the same as in an impressionist painting, where visual sensations are conveyed by unrelated colorful spots. In this sense, Fet opens the line of impressionistic lyrics. Balmont adopted this manner from Fet:

Rustle of leaves. Whisper of herbs.

The splash of a river wave.

The murmur of the wind, the roar of the oak forests,

The even, pale shine of the moon.

Or:

Lilies of the valley, buttercups. Love caresses.

Swallows babble. Kissing rays.

The forest is green. Blooming meadow.

A bright, free babbling stream.

Here there are only nouns with corresponding qualitative definitions, like a series of spots sketched without connection or with a purely emotional, lyrical connection, conveying the poet’s impressions of the world around him.

In our language there are other sentences of a special type - impersonal sentences, subjectless sentences in which there is no clearly defined subject, or, in any case, an indefinite subject.

The use of impersonal or vaguely personal sentences may be a feature of poetic style. You can use these forms of language to convey the impression of actions whose speaker is unclear.

Something mysterious, uncertain, enigmatic is happening. “And just imagine, gentlemen: as soon as I blew out the candle, there was a fuss under my bed. I think: rat? No, not a rat; scratching, fiddling, itching. Finally, my ears started flapping!”

Schiller’s ballad “The Cup” (translated into Russian by Zhukovsky) describes how a young man rushes after the cup into the abyss and disappears into it. Then he swims out, holding a cup in his hand. The poem is structured very dramatically. It does not tell what happens to the young man when he disappears, but depicts the king, his retinue, and ladies; They, excited, look into the abyss and see how the abyss is raging and how suddenly something rises up from the abyss, something turns white, a hand appears, then a man, and then he comes out. In German, this moment when something suddenly turns white is conveyed through an impersonal or vaguely personal sentence:

Und sieh! aus dem finster flutenden Scho ß ,

Da hebet sich’s schwanenwei ß,

Und ein Arm und ein glänzender Nacken wird bloß,

Und es rudert mit Kraft und mit emsigen Fleiß,

Und er ist's...

(Look, something swan-white in color rises from the turbulent abyss... A hand is visible... A shoulder... and someone is swimming... And finally - it’s him!..)

The poet first uses an impersonal or indefinite form, and when it is already clear who is swimming, he switches to the personal form.

Let me give you another example, a famous poem by the French symbolist poet Verlaine, which begins like this:

II pleure dans:mon coeur Comme il pleut sur la ville.

Quelle est cette langueur Qui penetre mon coeur? ..

(Crying in my heart, like rain over the city. What is this yearning that permeates my heart?..). In Russian we would say: “Something is crying in my heart, like the rain falling over the city.”

Interrogative and exclamatory sentences play a special role in the emotional poetic style. These sentences have varying degrees of emotional coloring, and this can play a significant role in the poet’s emotional style.

Let's start with the address, as it most noticeably deviates from prosaic speech. Appeals may be of different nature. Sometimes the poet in a solemn ode makes an apostrophe and turns to abstract concepts. Examples from Derzhavin:

Until dominion and glory,

Deceit! will you appropriate it? ..

Hear, hear me, O Happiness!..

There may also be an appeal to a specific person, often absent, to an imaginary interlocutor:

Give me some instruction, Felida!..

You are immortal, great Peter!..

Rise, Paleologus, defeated by the Moon!..

These are rhetorical appeals; they do not imply a conversation between the poet and a real person; this is a conversation at a great distance, in a loud voice, with an invocation of the person to whom the poet’s rhetorical statement is addressed.

We can find other types of appeals in lyrical poems by Byron, Pushkin,. Lermontov as an expression of the poet’s emotional participation in the fate of his heroes:

You recognized them, maiden of the mountains,

The delights of the heart, the sweetness of life;

Your fiery innocent gaze

Expressed love and joy.

When your friend is in the dark of night

I kissed you with a silent kiss,

Burning with bliss and desire,

You forgot the earthly world,

You said... (IV, 93)

This is how Pushkin addresses the Circassian woman. He doesn't just talk about her love experiences as an objective fact. Talking to her, addressing her lyrically, he shows his participation in her fate.

Or Pushkin describes the oriental beauty Zarema in “The Bakhchisarai Fountain”:

He changed!,. But who's with you?

Georgian, equal in beauty?

Around the lily brow

You twisted your braid twice;

Your captivating eyes

Clearer than day, blacker than night... (IV, 135)

This is not just a description of beauty; it is given in the form of an address and thereby acquires a lyrical character.

Now about the exclamations. Exclamations in poetry are also of two kinds. There are exclamations of a rhetorical nature, in which we are primarily dealing with intensification, emphasis (emphasis - emphasis, intensification), and there are exclamations of an emotional-lyrical nature. Let's start with rhetorical exclamations.

An example of this kind of rhetorical exclamation can be found in the poems of Byron or Lermontov. For example:

The face - previously gentle - was more terrible

Everything that is scary for people!

(Lermontov. “Angel of Death”)

Lermontov puts an exclamation point here. This sign means that something extraordinary, out of the ordinary, hyperbolic is being communicated here. This emphatic expression, this emphasis on tension and unusualness, is expressed by intonation, which is indicated by an exclamation mark.

That is the angel of death, perishable death

Freed from earthly bonds! ..

Byron's youthful poem tells how his only lover cheated on him:

And fiends might pity what I feel,-

To know that thou art lost for ever.

(And even demons can sympathize with me when they see what I am going through, knowing that you are lost to me forever).

But the exclamation does not necessarily have a rhetorical character, the character of emphasis. Here are examples of lyrical exclamations that are common in excited, emotional lyric poems.

Let's compare Tyutchev:

How good you are, O night sea, -

It's radiant here, dark gray there...

How sweetly the dark green garden slumbers,

Embraced by the blue bliss of the night,

Through the apple trees, whitened with flowers,

How sweetly the golden month shines!..

Or from Fet:

How tender you are, silver night,

There is a flowering of silent and secret power in the soul!

Oh, inspired - and let me overcome

All this decay is soulless and dull!..

What a night! The transparent air is constrained;

The aroma swirls above the ground.

Oh now I'm happy, I'm excited

Oh, now I'm glad to speak!

Let us also compare Fet’s poem, which consists entirely of lyrical exclamations:

What a night! How clean the air is

Like a silver leaf slumbering,

Like the shadow of the coastal willows,

How serenely the bay sleeps,

How a wave will not breathe anywhere,

How the chest is filled with silence!..

All this can be told simply as a description of the night, but due to the fact that the description is given in the form of lyrical exclamations, it takes on a distinctly emotional character. The same applies to the lyrical poems of Pushkin, LerMontov and, of course, Byron (who in this sense was their teacher).

Let's compare the lyrical description:

How sweet the dark beauties are

Nights of the luxurious East!

How sweetly their hours flow

For the admirers of the Prophet!.. (IV, 138)

Oh my God! If Giray

In her distant dungeon

I forgot the unfortunate woman forever,

Or an accelerated demise

Disappointing are her days!

With what joy Mary

Left a sad light!

Moments of life are precious

Long gone, long gone! (IV, 142)

Here, Mary’s state of mind is conveyed by a series of exclamations, which give the story of the poem not an objective character, but a lyrical coloring.

We have already said how exclamation, along with a number of other techniques, contributes to the emotional coloring of the story in the lyric poem of Byron, Pushkin, Lermontov. But the same applies to lyrical prose. Let us recall the lyrical passages in Gogol’s “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka”: “How intoxicating, how luxurious a summer day in Little Russia! How languidly hot are those hours when midday shines in silence and heat... How full of voluptuousness and bliss is the Little Russian summer!”

Or a lyrical passage in “Dead Souls”: “How strange, and alluring, and carrying, and wonderful in the word: road! and how wonderful this road itself is! .. And the night! heavenly powers! what a night is taking place on high! And the air, and the sky, distant, high, there, in its inaccessible depths, so vastly, sonorously and clearly spread out!..”

The presence of such exclamations in descriptions is a feature of the romantic style and gives a lyrical character to these passages of artistic prose.

The question can also be rhetorical. Such rhetorical questions coupled with appeals are common in the style of a solemn ode. Let us recall Pushkin’s patriotic poem “To the Slanderers of Russia”:

What are you making noise about, people?

Why are you threatening Russia with anathema? .. (III, 209)

Questions of this kind have long been called rhetorical questions in stylistics, and they usually say that rhetoricA Chinese question is a question that does not require an answer. The question is not asked in order to get an answer, it is a poetic device. In the form of a question, it is said that the “people's revolutions” are attacking Russia for suppressing the Polish uprising. Of course, such a message in the form of a question does not require any answer.

Isn't copper neighing in the belly of Etna?

And, boiling with sulfur, bubbling?

Isn't it hell that breaks the heavy bonds?

And he wants to open his jaws? ..

But the question in the poem is not necessarily rhetorical in nature. This can be an emotional, lyrical question. When some lyrical description is given in poetry, say, a description of a beautiful night and the experiences associated with it, then usually at the top of the poem a questioning intonation appears, as a breakthrough of feeling, as a way to emotionally lift the poem. Let us cite a poem by Fet that is very typical in this sense:

Let's go out with you to wander

In the moonlight!

How long does it take to languish the soul?

In dark silence!

Pond like shiny steel

The grass is crying

Mill, river and distance

In the moonlight.

Is it possible to grieve and not live?

Are we in fascination?

Let's go out and wander quietly

In the moonlight!

Lyrical question: “Is it possible to grieve and not live in charm?” The passage emotionally lifts, sounds like the excited voice of a poet.

Sometimes a poem is built entirely on lyrical questions. Zhukovsky knew how to write such lyrical poems, the whole emotionality of which lies in questions that give a kind of mystery to what, in essence, does not represent any secret.

Light, light breeze,

What is it? sweet, are you blowing quietly?

What are you playing, what are you brightening up,

Enchanted stream?

What is the soul full of again?

What has awakened in her again?

Something mysterious arises in the soul, which is not said. This has its own widespread tradition in Western European poetry. Goethe, describing the emergence of love in the soul, begins one of his early poems like this:

Herz, mein Herz, was soli das geben?

Was bedranget dich so sehr?

Welch ein fremdes, neues Leben!

Ich erkenne dich nicht mehr.

(Heart, my heart, what would this mean? What oppresses you so much? What an alien, new life! I don’t recognize you anymore).

Something incomprehensible has appeared in the soul, and the poet turns to the heart with such a rhetorical question. Many of Heine's poems can also serve as examples of this use of questions.

Warum sind denn die Rosen so bl and ß,

O sprich, mein Lieb, warum?

Warum sind denn im grinen Gras

Die blauen Veilchen so stumm?

(Why are the roses so pale, oh tell me, my love, why? Why are the blue violets in the green grass so mute?).

Again, if we turn to the lyrical poems of Pushkin, Lermontov, Byron, then next to the address, with the exclamation, questions play a big role here as a way of expressing the narrator’s interest in what he is talking about, as if the narrator himself is asking, interested, would like know.

Who is under the stars and under the moon

Riding a horse so late?

Whose tireless horse is this?

Running in the vast steppe? (IV, 189)

This is not just a story about a race, but a story that presents a mystery, mystery, and interest to the storyteller.

... But who is with you,

Georgian, equal in beauty? (IV, 135)

Questions of this kind in the story are a feature not only of the lyrical style. In folk epic storytelling, a question often appears, perhaps arose as a way to interest the listener. I will give the beginning of a Serbian epic tale in prose translation: “What is white there on the mountain? Is it snow or white swans? If it were snow, it would have melted. If there were swans, they would fly away. No, it's not snow and not swans, these are Asan-Aga’s tents.” (Asan-Aga lies seriously ill and is waiting for his young wife to come and visit him.)

In German and English ballads we constantly encounter questions of this kind.

Es reit der Herr von Falkenstein

Wohl fiber ein breite Heide.

Was sieht er an dem Wege stehn?

Ein Madel mit weiSem Kleide.

(Count Falkenstein is driving through a wide field. Who does he see in the middle of the road? A girl in a white dress).

The narrator, a folk singer, seems to stop for a minute, interest the listener in a question, and then gives an answer to this question.

Lyrical questions, together with lyrical exclamations, color special romantic prose.

“What was this warm, this sleepless night waiting for? She was waiting for the sound...” (Turgenev).

“But what incomprehensible, secret force attracts you? Why is your melancholy song, rushing along your entire length and width, from sea to sea, heard and heard incessantly in your ears? What's in it, in this song? What calls and cries and grabs your heart? What sounds painfully kiss and strive into the soul and curl around my heart? Rus! what do you want from me? what incomprehensible connection lies between us? ("Dead Souls").

The question of the connection between sentences can also be significant for the construction of a poetic work. Sentences can be connected to each other in different ways. From grammar it is known that sentences can be combined using composition (composed sentences) and using various forms of subordination (subordinate sentences). Compose or subordination can play a prominent role in the artistic style of a poem.The simplest narrative is usually built on elementary forms of composition. We find such an elementary narrative in the biblical story of the Old Testament: "AND God said: let there be light! AND there was light. AND God saw the light that he was good. . . AND It was evening, And It was morning: one day" (Genesis 1:1-4).

In the Old Testament, which is a translation from the Hebrew, the narrative is constructed by simply joining one sentence to another with an “and.”

Let's take an example from a Russian fairy tale, where the story is told in a completely similar way, using a simple additionrelationship of one element to another. “They are approaching the city. They pulled up to the pier. And so this merchant went to the city. And so he bought a vacant store from a merchant, and became He trades in this store with his son. I traded well with them. I So that we lived in this city for about a year...” (Accurate recording of the storyteller in “Tales and Songs of the Belozersky Territory by the Sokolov Brothers”).

The storyteller strings one sentence onto another, combining them with the word “and” or “and so.”

There is no need to think, however, what “and” is, joining one sentence to another, which certainly gives the story a naive epic character. Everything depends, as always in style, on the context, on the general meaning of the whole.

In a lyrical poem in which such a chain of sentences is given, united with the help of “and”, “and” can contribute to lyrical intensity, enhancing the emotional impression. We see this in “The Stranger” by A. Blok:

And every evening, at the appointed hour

(Or am I just dreaming?),

The girl's figure, captured by silks,

A window moves through a foggy window.

And slowly, walking between the drunken,

Always without companions, alone,

Breathing spirits and mists,

She sits by the window.

And they breathe ancient beliefs

Her elastic silks

And a hat with mourning feathers,

And in the rings there is a narrow hand.

And chained by a strange intimacy,

I look behind the dark veil,

And I see the enchanted shore

And the enchanted distance...

Connecting successive elements with the conjunction “and” gives this lyrical story greater emotional strength and intensity. This will be opposed to the style of the poet, who uses adversative conjunctions. If the poet says “but” or “a” (a softer opposition), then he thereby gives a logical opposition: one is opposed to the other according to the logical course of thought.

In the poem “For the Shores of the Distant Fatherland...” everything is built on contrasting one stanza with another, the next stanza with the help of a logical, adversative “but”:

But you are from a bitter kiss

She tore off her lips;

From the edge of dark exile

You called me to another land...

But there, alas, where the vaults of the sky

Shining in a brilliant blue...

And the last thing:

And kiss them goodbye...

But I'm waiting for him; he's behind you... (III, 193)

Here there is a clear division of the internal movement of thought, a story built on the opposition of the subsequent link to the previous one.

Anna Akhmatova readily uses such contrasts in her poems:

I'll wake up my daughter now,

I'll look into her gray eyes.

And outside the window the poplars rustle:

"Your king is not on earth..."

Or:

Ah, the travel bags are empty,

And the next day hunger and bad weather...

With the conjunction "but":

You breathe the sun, I breathe the moon

But we are alive by love alone..

The poem is deeply lyrical, but the moment of opposition appears here as a logically clear moment.

Of course, complex forms of subordination, especially logical subordination, are unusual in poetry. By logical forms of subordination of sentences I understand causal, target, consequential, conditional, concessional. These are all sentences that express logical relationships between thoughts, and these types of sentences are relatively late in the development of language. They are developed primarily in prosaic language, one might even say in clerical, legal language. You can see how this happens in the French or German languages in the 14th-15th centuries or in the Russian language in the Peter the Great era. Of course, this type of logical connection is unusual in poetry. But there are also lyrical poems, like Byron’s famous poem “Farewell to his Wife” (when he leaves England), which sounds like a kind of rhetorical judgment. The poet accuses someone justifies itself, and this is given in the form of a logical connection between individual statements:

Fare thee well, and if for ever

Still for ever fare well.

(Farewell! And if our separation is forever, still, at least forever, goodbye! ..).

In this sense, the colloquial prosaisms in Akhmatova’s poems are very characteristic:

And if you knock on my door,

I don't think I'll even hear...

If you stay with me any longer...

Because the air was not ours at all,

And what a wonderful gift it was from God...

To make it clearer and clearer

You were visible to them, wise and brave.

In Akhmatova’s poems, “so that,” “if,” etc. are often found.

But there is no need to approach these things formalistically, there is no need to be deceived by the external form of the statement. I will give as an example one of Akhmatova’s best poems:

The sun filled the room

Yellow and through dust,

I woke up and remembered:

Darling, today is your holiday.

That's why it's snowy

The distance outside the windows is bright,

That's why I'm sleepless

How the communicant slept.

Formally, “because” speaks of a logical connection. But this is emotional logic (as they used to say in the old days, “female logic”). There is no doubt that a sunny day is not because that today is someone’s name day. This is an external form of expression, behind which stands an essentially irrational connection, a connection prompted by a feeling of love. Therefore, it is not a real logical connection, as we would have it in prose.

I will dwell on one more question, which, although it belongs to the field of syntax, partially goes beyond the field of syntax - the question of the role of repetitions in artistic language.

Repetitions are also found in ordinary speech: high-high; long-long; runs-runs - in the sense: very highcue, very long, runs for a long time. In emotional speech, repetitions are especially frequent: “Didn’t I tell you? Didn’t I warn you?”

Repetitions can be viewed from different perspectives. The syntactic point of view is only one side of the issue. First of all, in repetition we have a repetition of meaning: the meaning of a word or group of words is repeated twice or several times, and thereby emotional intensification occurs.

With the repetition of meaning, since the same word is repeated, sound repetition is also associated. This means that repetition has its own sound side. In poetry, and sometimes in rhythmic prose, this kind of sound repetition can be associated with rhythmic parallelism, that is, some repeated sound elements are repeated as rhythmic series. And not only rhythmic parallelism, but also syntactic, i.e. the same arrangement of syntactic elements: subject and predicate, subject and predicate; or noun and adjective (definition), noun and adjective.

In an unforgettable hour, in a sad hour...

(Pushkin)

We have here rhythmic and syntactic parallelism of hemistiches. In this case, we are talking about rhythmic-syntactic parallelism of hemistiches.

Thus, repetition is a complex set of phenomena, and the syntactic side is only one of the sides of repetition.

From a purely descriptive - morphological, formal point of view, several different types of repetitions can be distinguished. In old stylistics it is this descriptive, formal side that is most studied. Without going into detail, I will give a few examples. There may be simple repetition of words, which usually serves as reinforcement. “Come to me, here, here!”; “I’m going, I’m going alone”; "I'll follow him, follow him." “Dear, dear, we are close again” (Bryusov).

The repetition may not be direct, but at some distance, so to speak, picking up the word.

The shoulder masters enter again,

Work has begun again...

(A.K. Tolstoy)

Dusk comes again

Dusk with a crimson glow,

Is it fire, is it blood.

Blood flowing from wounds?

(V. Bryusov)

When repeated or picked up, the word may change and appear in a different case. Another word derived from the same root was called “annomination” in the old style.

Bryusov:

To your feet whiter than white lilies...

I am a slave and was a submissive slave...

Lermontov:

Blackening on a black rock...

The most significant significance is the location of the repetition in the rhythmic matter, the place of repetition in the verse. There are four ways in which repeating words can be arranged. Repeated words at the beginning of rows are called “anaphora”. This is the most common type of repetition in poetry and rhythmic prose.

I swear by the first day of creation.

I swear on his last day,

I swear by the shame of crime

And eternal truth triumph...

(Lermontov. “Demon”)

The last words of two passages may be repeated. In the old style this is called “epiphora” (in Russian “ending”).

More rare cases are when repetition occurs at the end of one verse and at the beginning of the next. Compare with Balmont:

I caught the departing shadows with my dreams.

The fading shadows of the fading day,

I climbed the tower, and the steps trembled,

And the steps trembled under my feet...

In Greek stylistics this had its own name, but in Russian it is called a joint.

Finally, repetition is possible, in which the repeated element appears at the beginning of one group and at the end of another. Then we get what is called a “ring” in Russian. For example, Sologub’s poem:

The star Mair shines above me,

Star Mair...

It was said above that repetitions are very often associated with syntactic parallelism (“In an unforgettable hour, in a sad hour...”). But rhythmic-syntactic parallelism can arise without repetition. Wed. in hemistichs:

Renegade of light, friend of nature...

These can also be verses constructed in parallel:

I'm on fire and burning

I rush and soar...

There is also a rhyming roll call of parallel verses.

With such rhythmic-syntactic parallelism, a reverse order of repeating elements can exist.

In a shaggy hat, in a black burka...

(Pushkin. “Prisoner of the Caucasus”)

“In a shaggy hat” - definition - definable; “in a black burka” - definable - definition. In the old style this was called “chiasmus” (from the Greek letter “chi”).

In lyrical poems, repetitions occur very often; here they are an element of emotional musical impact. The more emotional tension there is in the poems, the more often repetitions occur in them. Of course, this largely depends on the poet's style. Pushkin, for example, did not overuse repetition, because the emotionality of his poems rests primarily on the emotionality of the meaning, the semantic significance of the poem. But in Lermontov and Fet this kind of repetition occurs often, since these are poets of an emotional-lyrical style.

Repetition plays a very important role in lyric poems. The emotional coloring of the lyrical narrative in Pushkin, Lermontov, and in the lyrical poems of Byron is largely associated with a combination of repetitions, exclamations, and questions. This is what gives the impression of the poet's emotional participation in the story.

A long way leads to Russia,

To the country where fiery youth

He began proudly without worries;

Where did he first know joy?

Where I loved a lot of sweet things,

Where I embraced terrible suffering,

Where the stormy life ruined

Hope, joy and desire... (IV,84)

So in “Prisoner of the Caucasus” a memory of the hero’s past is given. It does not just tell the biography of a Caucasian prisoner; its lyricism is emphasized by the repeated “where.”

Recently young Mary saw strange skies;

Recently with sweet beauty

She bloomed in her native country... (IV, 135)

(story about Maria Pototskaya in “The Bakhchisarai Fountain”).

The same applies to lyrical prose in the romantic style of Turgenev and Gogol.

"Notlook back Not remember Not strive to where there is light, Where youth laughs, Where hope is crowned with the flowers of spring, Where the dove of joy beats with azure wings, Where love, like dew at dawn, sows tears of delight - don’t look there, Where Faith and strength are “blessed” - that’s not where we belong!” (Turgenev).

In this case, the presence of a significant group of repeated words is not required; it is enough, as in this case, one repeated word “where”. The syntactic parallelism of subordinate clauses, which is introduced by the same conjunction, gives us the impression of rhythmic speech, since we relate these parallel subordinate clauses or parts of one whole.

In this regard, I would like to characterize the compositional role of repetition.

Repetition in general, syntactic repetition in particular, can play a significant role in the composition of a lyric poem. It forms a period built on the principle of repetition of parallel syntactic elements. A classic example is Lermontov’s poem “When the yellowing field is agitated...”. How is the poem as a whole structured? It consists of four stanzas. The three stanzas beginning with the word “when” represent three subordinate clauses that form, as it were, a ladder of ascension. Then comes the fourth stanza, beginning with the word “then”, the main clause that forms the descending part is the conclusion of the poem. The entire composition consists of three expanded subordinate clauses with a final main clause.

Let me remind you of Fet’s famous poem, also built on the principle of expanded subordinate clauses, also occupying four stanzas, but here also with repetition of the word:

I came to you with greetings,

Tell me that the sun has risen

What is it with hot light

The sheets began to flutter;

Tell me that the forest has woken up,

All woke up, every branch,

Every bird was startled

And full of thirst in spring;

Tell me that with the same passion,

Like yesterday, I came again,

That the soul is still the same happiness

And I’m ready to serve you;

Tell me that from everywhere

It blows over me with joy,

That I don’t know myself that I will

Sing - but only the song is ripening.

“Tell that...” determines the content of each stanza, and within the stanza the second period also begins with the word “what.” This gives a certain intensification, tension, lyrical character and movement to the entire poem. It is not necessary that the stanzas of a poem, connected by repetition and parallelism, will necessarily form subordinate clauses that are part of an expanded complex sentence. Such cases are much rarer than the simple repetition of syntactic verses located in parallel places, independent of each other. An example of such repetition is the poem by Vl. Solovyov, built on the technique of anaphora, the same beginning of the first three verses in each stanza:

Dear friend, don’t you see,

That everything we see

Only a reflection, only shadows

From the invisible with your eyes?

Dear friend, don’t you hear?

That everyday noise is crackling

Only the response is distorted

Triumphant harmonies?

Dear friend, don’t you hear,

What is one thing in the whole world -

Only what is heart to heart

Says in a silent hello?

Thanks to such repeated and varied repetition, the poem acquires a song and musical style.

Now the question is about the compositional use of the ending, about the same ending of the stanzas. To quote Fet:

We met again after a long separation,

Waking up from the hard winter;

We shook each other's cold hands

And we cried, we cried.

But in strong, invisible shackles they managed

Keep us people's minds;

How often have we looked into each other's eyes,

And we cried, we cried!

But then it began to shine above the black cloud

And the sun looked out of the darkness;

Spring, - we sat under the weeping willow,

And we cried, we cried.

“And we cried, we cried” forms the ending, which compositionally unites the entire poem with a single leitmotif. This is close to what we call a chorus. The chorus in folk poetry is an ending that is more or less independent in compositional and metrical terms. Let us recall Goethe's poem, written in the spirit of a folk song -"Heidenroslein":

Roslein, Roslein, Roslein rot,

Roslein auf der Heiden!..

In Russian translation:

Rose, rose, scarlet color!

Rose in an open field!..

The chorus is rhythmically emphasized, and in the folk song tradition this is associated with a choral performance of the song. The chorus is repeated by the choir, and then it becomes a special compositional device.

The last compositional technique is the ring. We very often come across lyric poems closed in a ring of repeating stanzas.

Don't sing, beauty, in front of me

You are the songs of sad Georgia:

Remind me of her

Another life and a distant shore.

Alas, they remind me

Your cruel tunes

And now, and at night, and in the moonlight

Features of a distant, poor maiden!..

I am a dear, fatal ghost,

When I see you, I forget:

But you sing - and in front of me

I imagine him again.

Don't sing, beauty, in front of me

You are the songs of sad Georgia:

Remind me of her

Another life and a distant shore. (III, 64)

At the end, the same words return as at the beginning, closing the poem, as often happens in romances, but the repeated stanza, upon its return, takes on a new meaning. The first stanza is the thesis. Then this thesis develops, and when at the end the first stanza appears again, it sounds something like if we said: “That’s why don’t sing, beauty, in front of me...” (i.e., as a result of everything that has been said). Ring construction is usually found in lyrics, especially in song and musical style lyrics.