Polonsky, Yakov Petrovich

born December 6, 1820, Mr.. in Ryazan, the son of an official, he studied at the local high school, then at Moscow University, where his comrades were Fet and SM. Soloviev. Upon completing Polonsky, as a home teacher, spent several years in the Caucasus (1846 - 52), where he served as assistant editor of the Bulletin of the Transcaucasian and abroad. In 1857, Mr.. married, but soon became a widower, the second time in 1866. married Josephine Antonovna Ryulman (sculptor-lover, a well-known bust of Turgenev raised in Odessa). Upon his return to Russia he had long served as a censor of the committee of foreign censorship in 1896. is a board member of the main department of the Press. Together, poetry Polonsky is not that complete harmony between the inspiration and meditation and the belief in a living reality and the superiority of poetic truth, compared with deadening reflection, . how different, . example, . Goethe, . Pushkin, . Tyutchev,
. Polonsky was a very impressionable and to the movements of modern thought, . who had antipoetichesky character: in many of his poems, prose and rationality prevails, but there, . where he is given to pure inspiration we find in him a strong and distinctive designs of poetry,
. Typical poem Polonsky have the distinctive feature that the very process of inspiration - or a gust of transition from the usual physical and behavioral environment in the area of poetic truth - remains perceptible. Usually in poetry provides a ready result of inspiration, but not the recovery of his remains implicit, whereas Polonsky he feels sometimes in the very sound of his poems, for example:

. That was not the wind - a sigh of Aurora
. Stirred up the sea mist ..


. In one of the first time poems, Polonsky as if pre-delineated area and the nature of his poetry:

. Already over the tops of the firs spiny
. Shone gold evening clouds
. When I tore a dense network of floating oar
. Marsh grasses and water colors ..
.

From idle slander and malice of the mob secular
That evening, we were finally far
And you could easily with credulity child
Express himself freely and easily.
And your prophetic voice was sweet,
So much in it trembled secret tears,
And it seemed like a fascinating mess
Mourning clothes and light-brown braids.
But sadly, my breasts shrank involuntary,
I looked into the depths, where thousands of roots
Marsh grasses invisibly interwoven
Like thousands of living green snakes.
And another world flashed before me,
Not that wonderful world where you live ...
And life seemed to me harsh depth
On the surface, which is bright

. "Captivating disorder" distinguished works Polonsky; is in them, and "mourning" for the worldly evil and grief, . but the head of his muse shines a reflection of heavenly light, in her voice secret tears mixed with prophetic grief experienced by the sweetness of the best hopes; sensitive - perhaps, . even too much - to the bustle and fury of everyday, . it tends to leave them for the "prickly tops of Love" in the golden clouds, and there is expressed freely and easily with the gullibility of child,
. Based on the contrast between so beautiful and bright world, . where his muse, . and the "severe depth" real life, . where woven marsh plants their evil "snake root", . Polonsky is left (like Fet) in this dualism is not turning away from hopeless dark reality, . not leaving entirely in a world of purely poetic feelings and intuitions, . he finds the reconciliation between these two areas in the idea, . which has long been in the air, . but more inspired thinkers and public figures, . than poets,
. We Polonsky in the most artistic of his mood is an idea to improve or progress. Although he did not see in the history of those definite positive ideals (Christian kingdom), . in which he believed Tyutchev, . but it is not for him only a "market place dissolute crowd", . "violent crimes of hops": he hears it "a verb in the wilderness crying, . neumolkaemo calling: to lift their brow ..,
. that life was clear to you, go forward and not back and ... where in front of so many treasures hidden in God ". That serenely blissful beauty that opens the poetic contemplation of nature, must be open and in the life of humanity as an end to her struggles and anxieties, "Believe znamenovanyu - no end to desire, is an end of suffering!". Cheerful feeling of hope for a better future is inspired by Polonsky, not one "signs" of nature, but also historical changes (eg, the poem "On the ship", written in 1856). Hopes of saving the native craft, "the poet does not separate from faith in the overall global benefit. The broad spirit of universal humanity, excluding national enmity, more or less peculiar to all true poets, of all the Russian he resolutely and consciously expressed, and after a. Tolstoy, Polonsky, especially in the two poems dedicated to Schiller (1859) and Shakespeare (1864). Not adhering to the radical social movements of his time, Polonsky regarded them with a humane heart, especially to the victims of genuine enthusiasm (for example, the poem "What she told me - not my sister, not a mistress). Generally, keeping the best precepts of Pushkin, Polonsky awakening lyre good feelings "and" mercy for the fallen called ". - In the early years of the poet's hopes for a better future for humanity were linked to his youthful unaccountable faith in the omnipotence of science:

. Kingdom of science knows no limit
. Everywhere traces of his eternal victories --
. Reason word and deed,
. Power and light
.

The world as a new sun shines
Beacon of science, and only when it
Muse brow adorns
Fresh wreath

. But soon the poet abandoned the cult of science, . knowing something, . what happens, . not a creative, . what should be, his muse inspired him, . that "the world with the powerful and lie helpless love" can be reborn only "inoyu, . inspiring force "- the moral force of labor in the faith" in God's court or the Messiah ":,

. Since then, muzhaya heart,
. I began to comprehend, the Muse
. What happened to you without this faith
. No legitimate union
.

However, Polonsky resolutely continue to express the conviction that the true source of poetry is an objective beauty, which "shines with God" (poem "The Tsar Maiden"). The best and most typical of small poems Polonsky ( "The Winter Road, . "Pitching in a storm", . "Bell", . Return of the Caucasus ", . "They came and began to shadow the night", . "My fire in the fog shines", . "At night in the cradle of the infant and others) differ not so much ideological content, . how much power intimate lyricism direct,
. Individual features of this lyricism that can not be defined in terms of, you can specify only some general features, . what (other than mentioned in the beginning) the combination of fine and sounds the most realistic representations, . then the bold simplicity of expression, . Finally - transfer sleepy, . twilight, . slightly delusional sensations,
. In the larger works Polonsky (except perfect in all respects "Grasshopper-musician") is very weak architecture: some of his poems are not completed, cluttered porches and other add-ons. Plasticity is also relatively little in his works. But to a large extent they possess the properties of musicality and picturesque, the last - especially in the scenes of Caucasian life (past and present) who have Polonsky much brighter and more vivid than that of Pushkin and Lermontov. In addition to historical and narrative paintings, and the actual lyric poems, inspired by the Caucasus, the saturation in Polonsky these local color (eg, "After the holiday"). Noble, but the nameless Circassians old romantic pale before the less noble, but the natives living in Polonsky, like a Tartar Akbar or heroic robber Ta'mur-Hassan. Oriental women in Pushkin and Lermontov, colorless and say a dead literary language; have Polonsky their speech breathe a living artistic truth:

. It is a stone tower stood under the wall,
. And I remember: it was an expensive coat,
. I flashed a red cloth
. Blue shirt on it ..
.

Golden Pomegranate growing under the wall;
All fruit not get ye any hand;
All the beautiful men for what
Had I became bewitch!..

Separated, ruined our mountains, hills
Erivan! Always cold winter
Eternal snow covered them!
... Myself
In the country, my dear, do not forget thee?

Although life belongs to the Caucasian and personal recognition of the poet: "You, with which so much suffering to a patient, I lived the soul" and t. village, but as a result of his youth, he made a vigorous and clear sense of spiritual freedom:

Soul of the battles everyday ready
I'm for the snow bear the pass ...

All that was cheating, betrayal,
What was on me like a chain --
All disappeared from memory - with foam
Mountain rivers, running out into the steppe.

This feeling of intimate reconciliation that takes a "life's struggles, their sharp and gloomy character, remained in Polonsky for life and is the dominant tone of his poetry. Very sensitive to the negative side of life, he did not, however, pessimistic. During the darkest moments of personal and collective sorrow for him not close "the gap from darkness to light", . and through them, although sometimes seen "so little, . little rays of love over the abyss of evil ", . but these rays have never went out to him and not, . wickedness taking his satire, . enabled him to establish the originality of his work: "Grasshopper-musician",
. To more clearly present the essence of life, so you may continue its line in either direction. Thus, Dante exhausted all human evil in the nine circles of his grandiose hell; Polonsky, conversely, pulled and squeezed the usual content of human existence in a tight little world of insects. Dante had a hell of darkness to erect two huge world - Night of fire and light triumphant; Polonsky could house cleaning and enlightening moments in the same corner of the field and park. Empty existence in which everything is really small, and all the high is an illusion - the world of humanoid insects or nasekomoobraznyh people - transformed and enlightened by the power of pure love and unselfish sorrow. This sense of focus in the final scene (the funeral of a butterfly), producing, despite the microscopic fabric of the whole story, then purifying the soul the impression that Aristotle considered the appointment of tragedy. Among the best works Polonsky is "Cassandra" (with the exception of two extra explanatory verses - IV and V, weaken the impression). In a long poem Polonsky of modern life (humane and dog), generally speaking, the internal value does not match the volume. Some places here are excellent, such as: description of the southern night (in the poem "Mimi"), in particular the sound impression of the sea:

. And on the sandy shoals
. Similarly showering pearls
. Erratic, and imagine,
. Someone walks and fears
. Tears, only sharpens
. Tears were in someone's knocking on the door,
. That rustling, back dragging
. In the sand her skirt, then again
. Returned to the same ..
.

In later works Polonsky sounds distinctly religious motive, if not as positive assurance that as a desire and commitment to the faith: "Blessed are they who have been given two ears - and those who hear the church bells, and hear the eternal voice of the Spirit". Last collection of poems Polonsky worthy ends truthful poetic story: "Dreamer", whose meaning is that the poetic dream soon died a hero is something very real. Regardless of the desire for positive religion, Polonsky in his later works looks at the most fundamental questions of existence. So, . his poetic consciousness becomes clear the mystery of time - is the truth, . that time is not creating a new substantive content, . but only in a different permutation of the same essential meaning of life, . which in itself is eternity (poem "Allegory", . clearly - in the poem "What a dark abyss, . then in the bright abyss ", and most clearly and vividly - in the poem" Childhood tender, . fearful ").,