Composition

Indeed, the image of the Devil in Milton’s epic, contrary to its biblical interpretation, looks so majestic and attractive that next to him all the other characters in the poem become lost and dim. The titanic passion of Satan's nature, his proud and rebellious spirit, love of freedom and strong will, courage and stoicism almost invariably aroused the admiration of readers and critics.

On the other hand, God, called to become the embodiment of Reason and Good, appears in the poem as an insidious and vengeful monarch, who, according to Satan, “alone reigns like a despot in heaven.”

A witness and participant in a grandiose social revolution, Milton, when creating an epic poem, was inspired by the atmosphere of the civil war, which, in his opinion, was a reflection of the universal collision of Good and Evil. Painting scenes of a fierce battle between the forces of Heaven and Hell, the poet used the colors that the era of revolutionary disruption supplied for his palette, and, willingly or unwillingly, filled the poem with its heroic spirit. This so transformed his original plan, so undermined its very foundation, that the entire edifice of the author's conscientious religious abstractions tilted dangerously. “Milton’s poetry,” Belinsky wrote, “is clearly a product of his era: without suspecting it, he, in the person of his proud and gloomy Satan, wrote the apotheosis of rebellion against authority, although he was thinking of doing something completely different.”

Working on the epic during the years of reaction, Milton considered it necessary to depict the Evil that destroyed the revolution in all its royal splendor and dangerous attractiveness: a caricature of the Evil Spirit as a repulsive and weak creature, distorting the truth, could, in the poet’s opinion, harm the reader’s virtue.

According to Milton, Satan, who dared to oppose the omnipotent God, could not help but be a titanic figure. Wanting to paint a vivid and convincing portrait of Satan, the poet relied on the tradition of depicting tragic heroes - “villains with a powerful soul” - characteristic of the Elizabethan playwrights, Marlowe and especially Shakespeare. Like the humanists of the Renaissance, Milton believed that Good and Evil are so closely intertwined that they are sometimes difficult to distinguish from each other. This also influenced the characterization of the Archenemy, whose greatness so insidiously obscures the Evil embodied in him.

It would be wrong, of course, to see in Paradise Lost an allegorical history of the English bourgeois revolution, to draw direct parallels between the revolt of the fallen angels in Milton's poem and the “great rebellion” of the Puritans. In accordance with Christian ideals, Milton conceived the poem as a justification of the ways of God, but the letter of biblical teaching caused him, like the best representatives of his class, certain doubts; It was they who led to the fact that Satan, who rebelled against God, although condemned by the author, is not deprived of his sympathy and absorbs the features of a brave Protestant against the world order. Paradise Lost is the work of a great rebellious spirit. It could not help but express a man who devoted his whole life to the fight against despotism.

There is no doubt that it was psychologically easier for the revolutionary poet, who experienced the bitterness of defeat during the Restoration, to “get used to” the role of a defeated angel rather than the image of a victorious God. Drawing the appearance of a lost battle, but not a conquered Spirit, the author sometimes endowed him with traits - and, moreover, the best - of his own nature. Is it not because the speech of Satan addressed to his comrades in the poem sounds so heartfelt because the thoughts and feelings of the hero were well known to his creator?

...We unsuccessfully tried to shake His throne and lost the battle. So what? Not everything perished: the fuse of the indomitable will was preserved, along with immeasurable hatred, the thirst for revenge and the courage to never give in. Isn't this a victory?

The presence of a rebellious principle, rebellious to despotism in Milton’s worldview, the humanistic traditions in his work, colored by the political experience of his turning point, allowed him, instead of the conventional figure immortalized by biblical tradition, to create in the person of Satan a bright and living individuality, in which, at the same time, the typical features of his contemporaries were unmistakably discerned poet. The militant individualism of Milton's hero had something undeniably beneficial on its flip side: an unwillingness to blindly obey authority, seething energy, an eternal search and dissatisfaction.

Another part of the Old Testament legend, dedicated to the first people, also acquired a new, unusual sound under the artist’s pen. The myth of Adam and Eve serves as Milton's starting point for philosophical and poetic reflections on the meaning of life, the nature of man, his desire for knowledge, his place under the sun.

Man is depicted in Paradise Lost as a being standing at the center of the universe: on the “ladder of Nature” he occupies a middle position between the sensory, animal world and the world of angels. He is the highest of earthly beings, God’s deputy on earth, he brings together the lower and higher spheres of existence. A bright path of spiritual elevation opens before Adam and Eve, while a dark abyss opens up behind them, threatening to swallow them if they betray God. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil, growing in the heart of Eden, is a symbol of the freedom of choice granted to the first people. Its purpose is to test people's faith in the Creator.

Organically included in the general indestructible order, Man becomes a point of refraction of opposing influences emitted by powerful cosmic forces. The poet places his heroes - both spatially and in life-ethical terms - in the very center of the Universe, halfway between the Empyrean and Hell. According to Milton, people themselves are responsible for their own destiny: endowed with reason and free will, they must choose every moment of their lives between God and Satan, good and evil, creation and destruction, spiritual greatness and moral baseness.

According to the poet, Man is initially beautiful. It was created by an all-good and wise deity; there are no and cannot be flaws in it. Adam is the embodiment of strength, courage and profundity, Eve - feminine perfection and charm. The love of Adam and Eve is the perfect combination of spiritual intimacy and physical attraction. The life of the first people in the earthly Paradise is simple, abundant and beautiful. Generous nature abundantly gifts them with everything they need. Only by violating God's commandment by eating the forbidden fruit, Adam and Eve are deprived of the immortality and bliss given to them at creation, and doom the human race to severe trials.

It is easy to see that the images of the first people were conceived by Milton as the embodiment of a religious and humanistic ideal, that is, as ideal images of people, since they appear as inhabitants of paradise obedient to God. However, in the end, in the poet’s portrayal, they turn out to be more humane, closer to the humanistic norm, precisely after the Fall and expulsion from the heavenly abode.

The serene picture of the existence of the first people in paradise is expressively contrasted in the poem with the picture of a stormy, confused, dramatically shocked world. Adam and Eve, in the role of sinless inhabitants of Eden, are unknown to contradictions, enmity, and mental torment. They do not know the burden of overwork and death. But their bliss is based on submission to the will of God, involves the rejection of the temptations of knowledge and is inextricably linked with the limitations of the heavenly idyll. The idyllic world collapses as soon as Satan invades it.

In the tempting speeches of Satan and in Eve’s doubts regarding the sinfulness of knowledge, echoes of the author’s own doubts are heard:

What did he prohibit? Knowledge! Banned the Good! He forbade us to gain Wisdom... ...What is the meaning of our Freedom?

Milton, a humanist thinker, was convinced of the benefits of knowledge and could not reconcile the biblical legend with his attitude towards knowledge: for him it is not a sin, but a blessing, although sometimes one has to pay a high price for it.

Notable in the poem are the motives for the first people’s disobedience to the right hand of God: Eve’s insatiable thirst for knowledge prompts her to taste the forbidden fruit. Adam takes the fatal step out of compassion and love for Eve, although he is aware that by his action he places the “human” above the “divine.” No less selflessly, Eve, after Adam’s fall, offers to fully take upon herself the punishment that threatens the two of them. The first people are truly great at that moment when, on the eve of the tragic changes that await them, in splendid isolation they confront all the forces of Heaven and Hell. While depicting the scene of the Fall with sympathy, Milton comes close to justifying the actions of his heroes, which are not consistent with the church concept.

Adam is not afraid of the trials that await him in a new, unknown life. His image is undoubtedly heroic. But unlike the epic poets of the past, who portrayed warrior heroes, Milton depicts on the pages of his poem a hero who sees the meaning of life in work. Labor, hardships and trials must, according to the poet, atone for the “original sin” of man.

Before the expulsion of the first people from the paradise monastery, Archangel Michael, at the behest of God, shows Adam the future of humanity. Pictures of human history unfold before the shocked hero - needs, disasters, wars, catastrophes. However, as Michael explains to Adam, the atoning sacrifice of Christ will open the path to salvation for people, the path to spiritual perfection. Man can ultimately become even better than he was before the Fall.

Through the mouth of Adam, an unwitting spectator of the formidable “film of the centuries” (V. Ya. Bryusov), Milton condemns the social disasters that corrupt the human soul: wars, despotism, feudal inequality. Although the poet, describing the prophetic visions of the hero, formally remains within the framework of biblical legends, he essentially develops in the last books of the poem his concept of the historical process - a spontaneous process, full of tragedy and internal contradictions, but steadily making its way forward.
Milton puts his philosophy into a religious form, but this should not obscure from us the novelty and historical and literary significance of his concepts: the poet was the closest predecessor of the Enlightenment in glorifying work as the main purpose of human existence, and in defending the rights of reason and the pursuit of knowledge, and in affirming the ideas of freedom and humanity.

For many generations of readers, “Paradise Lost” has become a philosophical and poetic summary of the dramatic experience of a person who, in agony, finds his true nature and moves, among disasters and catastrophes, towards spiritual enlightenment, towards the cherished ideals of freedom and justice.

Milton's poem was the largest and perhaps the most talented of the numerous attempts of writers of the 16th-17th centuries. to revive the epic in its classical form. The epic poets of antiquity - Homer and Virgil - served as the highest example for Milton. Following them, the author sought to paint a universal picture of existence in “Paradise Lost”: battles that decide the fate of nations, the sublime faces of celestial beings and human faces, as well as various everyday details. The poet scrupulously reproduces the composition of ancient examples, widely uses the techniques of hyperbolization characteristic of epic, constant epithets, and extended comparisons.

The grandeur of the plot corresponds to the sublime structure of poetic speech. The poem is written in blank verse, which sounds sometimes melodious and smooth, sometimes energetic and passionate, sometimes stern and gloomy. Milton gives his speech the solemn intonations of a rhapsodist and at the same time the pathos of a biblical prophet.

“Paradise Lost” was created in an era separated by many centuries from the “childhood of human society,” along with which the spontaneity of the worldview characteristic of the creators of the ancient epic, their sincere, unreasoning belief in the otherworldly, irrevocably receded into the past. Having decided to glorify the events of the Old Testament legend in the form of a heroic epic, Milton deliberately doomed himself to insurmountable difficulties. “Such a poem,” according to Belinsky, “could only have been written by a Jew of biblical times, and not by a Puritan of the Cromwellian era, when a free mental (and, moreover, purely rational) element entered into belief.” This “rational element” determined the artificiality of Milton’s religious epic.

We must not forget, however, that the same “free mental element” gave Milton’s work a philosophical depth and scope inaccessible to the epic of antiquity. We must not forget that when creating “Paradise Lost”, the poet was inspired not only by literary examples, but also by the heroic atmosphere of his turning point - the time when the edifice of the feudal monarchy, which had been built over centuries, was thrown into the dust.

Unlike his teachers, Homer and Virgil, the poet wanted to create a work that was not limited to specific historical themes, but had a universal, universal scale. In this regard, Milton's plan was consonant with the plan of his other predecessor - the great Dante, like him, who worked at the turn of two eras, who, like him, devoted his life to struggle and poetry. Like the author of the Divine Comedy, the poet sought to give his work the character of a comprehensive symbolic image suitable for all times of what was, is and will be.

Features of the so-called “literary” epic and glimpses of a philosophical poem are combined in Paradise Lost with elements of drama and lyricism. The very plot of the poem is dramatic, as is the nature of its numerous dialogues and monologues. Also noteworthy is the lyricism manifested in the introductions to the books that make up the poem: in them the personality of the poet himself emerges, blind and persecuted, but even in the “evil days” he retained the inflexibility of his soul. Although the epic beginning is predominant in Paradise Lost, it appears in a complex relationship with the dramatic and lyrical; Thus, Milton's poem in terms of genre is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon.

The creative method underlying the poem is no less complex and original. Its versatility reflects the diversity of artistic and aesthetic trends in English literature of the 17th century. The author's attraction to the rationalistic regulation of poetic form, the desire for harmony and orderliness, and a stable orientation towards the ancient heritage unmistakably testify to Milton's classicist sympathies. On the other hand, the author’s passion for depicting dramatic collisions, for dynamics, the abundance of contrasts and dissonances in the poem, the antinomy of its figurative structure, emotional expressiveness and allegorical nature bring “Paradise Lost” closer to Baroque literature.

The poem thus combines baroque and classicist tendencies. It is their synthesis, and not one of these that dominated in the 17th century. artistic systems, was most adequate to Milton’s creative needs and mindset in the difficult years for him, preceding and contemporary with the writing of the poem. The poet's synthesizing literary method, formed during the period of revolutionary disruption, most fully corresponded to the spirit of the era that gave birth to it. The cosmic scope of Paradise Lost, its monumentality and philosophy, civic spirit and heroic spirit, tragic pathos and optimism, dynamics and severity of form, richness and brightness of colors testify to the effectiveness of the author’s creative principles.

Milton's second major creation - the poem "Paradise Regained" (1671) - is to some extent related to the themes of the previous poem, but differs unfavorably from it in its abstractness and religious-moralistic intonations. 1671) - to some extent comes into contact with the themes of the previous poem, but differs unfavorably from it in its abstractness and religious-moralistic intonations. The titanic heroism that inspires Paradise Lost is almost absent here. The poem is based on the Gospel legend about the temptation of Christ by Satan, according to which the duel between the heroes ends with the complete defeat of Satan: Christ without hesitation rejects the honors, power and wealth that the insidious tempter promises him.

Satan in Milton's new poem only vaguely resembles the proud rebel from Paradise Lost; his image loses its former attractiveness. The interest is centered on the person of Christ; his appearance embodies the author’s ideas about an ideal human citizen who, despite loneliness and general misunderstanding, finds the strength to resist the evil reigning in the world and does not deviate one step from his principles. In this sense, the story of the temptations of Christ is a parallel to the position of Milton himself and his associates, who remained faithful to republican ideals during the years of reaction.

Paradise Regained makes clear Milton's disappointment not in the revolution, but in the people who, in his opinion, betrayed the revolution by easily reconciling themselves with the Stuart restoration. “The tribes languishing in chains,” he concludes bitterly, “subjected themselves to this voluntarily.” After the collapse of the republic, the poet comes to the conclusion that the path to freedom runs through long-term spiritual improvement, and sets as his goal

To conquer the hearts of people with words And to enlighten their lost souls, Who do not know what they are doing. (Translated by O. Chumina)

“In Paradise” Marina Tsvetaeva

I will cry for earthly things in heaven too,
I used old words at our new meeting
I won't hide it.

Where hosts of angels fly in order,
Where are the harps, lilies and children's choir,
Where everything is calm, I will be restless
To catch your eye.

Seeing off visions of heaven with a smile,
Alone in a circle of innocently strict maidens,
I will sing, earthly and alien,
Earthly tune!

The memory puts too much pressure on my shoulders,
The moment will come - I will not hide my tears...
Neither here nor there, there is no need to meet anywhere,
And we won’t wake up in paradise for meetings!

Analysis of Tsvetaeva’s poem “In Paradise”

The theme of life after death runs through the works of Marina Tsvetaeva. As a teenager, the poetess lost her mother, and for some time she believed that she would certainly meet her in that other world. However, as she grew older, Tsvetaeva began to realize that perhaps the afterlife was a fiction. Gradually, the poetess became imbued with agnostic views, not rejecting the existence of another world, but not completely believing in it. Therefore, it is not surprising that in her works she either acknowledges life after death or claims that this is a myth.

In 1910, Marina Tsvetaeva wrote the poem “In Paradise” to participate in a poetry competition organized by Valery Bryusov. The eminent writer invited aspiring poets to reveal the theme of the eternity of love in one of their works and show that this feeling can overcome death. However, Tsvetaeva refused to accept this concept and showed in her poem that love is an earthly feeling, and it has no place in the afterlife.

The poetess begins her work with the fact that worldly existence personally brought her a lot of sadness and disappointment. Therefore, she writes that “I will cry for what is on earth in paradise.” These lines, apparently, are addressed to her husband, with whom Tsvetaeva’s relationship is not as smooth and serene as it seems from the outside. The poetess loves Sergei Efront, but feels unhappy next to him. At the same time, she claims that she does not give up her feelings and notes that even in heaven she will “restlessly catch your gaze.”

Being a passionate person who despises conventions, Marina Tsvetaeva admits that she has no place at all where “hosts of angels fly in order.” In this world she feels like a stranger, and she does not at all like the company of “innocently strict maidens” whom she is going to shock with earthly melodies. At the same time, the poetess emphasizes that life after death does not matter to her personally. What is much more important is what is happening to her now, at this moment. And if she is unhappy on earth, then she is unlikely to find spiritual harmony in paradise. Tsvetaeva also rejects the very concept of the eternity of love, believing that together with a person, his feelings, thoughts and desires leave this world. “And we will not wake up in paradise for meetings,” notes the poetess, convinced that death can separate lovers. Especially if during their lifetime their relationship was far from ideal.

He dreamed of creating an epic poem that would glorify the English people. He originally thought of writing a religious epic. The very idea of ​​the poem was closely connected with puritanical religious art.

In the 1630s, the plan for the epic canvas conceived by Milton changed. This reflected the ideological development of the poet: the plan took on a more specific national character. Milton wanted to create "Arturiad" - an epic that would revive the plots of the novels of the "Round Table" and would glorify the exploits of the legendary King Arthur- leader of the British tribes in their struggle against the Anglo-Saxon invasion.

However, neither in the 1630s nor in the 1640s was John Milton able to begin to implement the idea of ​​​​an epic poem. Only the experience of the 1650s - 1660s helped him create (1658-1667) the poem “Paradise Lost”, which he thought about for many years.

John Milton. Portrait ca. 1629

The poem “Paradise Lost” analyzed here consists of 12 cantos (Milton calls them books) and contains about 11 thousand verses. It is written in so-called “blank verse”, close to Russian iambic pentameter.

In the 1660s, after the end of the English Revolution and the Stuart restoration, Milton wanted to call for the whole idea of ​​his poem not to rebel against reaction, but to gather spiritual strength, moral, moral improvement.

The Russian critic Belinsky called John Milton's poem “the apotheosis of rebellion against authority,” emphasizing that the revolutionary pathos of the poem is most clearly expressed in the image of Satan. This was the contradiction of the poem: the rebel and proud Satan, defeated, but continuing to take revenge on God, was supposed to become a repulsive character, was supposed to cause condemnation of the reader, and he undoubtedly turned out to be the most powerful image of the poem. Milton wanted to poeticize the idea of ​​moral improvement, but Paradise Lost was perceived as a call to take courage and continue the fight.

Milton's poem also has a peculiar sense of historicism. Milton shows that people, having left paradise and deprived of those idyllic happy conditions in which they lived before the “Fall,” entered a new, higher period of their development. The carefree inhabitants of “God’s garden” became thinking, working, developing people.

Milton "Paradise Lost". Satan descends to earth. Artist G. Dore

Analysis shows that “Paradise Lost” is primarily a poem of struggle. It is not for nothing that Milton, at the beginning of the ninth book, confidently says that he chose a plot more significant and heroic than any of his predecessors who turned to the epic genre. Indeed, “Paradise Lost” is a heroic epic created by a poet who, although he did not personally participate in the wars of his time, managed to show the formidable elements of war, its terrible and bloody work, and not just the ceremonial battles of heroes, and sang the courage and valor of his contemporaries .

The epic features of Paradise Lost lie not only in the lengthy description of the weapons and clothing of the fighting parties, but also in a certain hyperbolism (this especially applies to Satan), and in parallelism (God, his peers, his army - and Satan, his peers, his army ), and in how three times Satan begins to speak, addressing the army, and three times he becomes silent.

In Paradise Lost the system of comparisons is also epic. When characterizing his heroes, John Milton more than once resorts to extensive epic comparisons, which are widely used in the poems of Homer and Virgil. So, in the second book of the poem, Satan is compared with the fleet, the griffin, the ship Argo, Ulysses (Odysseus), and again with the ship.

But it was not just the gigantic battle scenes that fascinated Milton. For all their effectiveness, they were only ingenious versions of already existing battle scenes, known from other epics. Having brought Paradise Lost to the decisive battle of “good and evil” in the ninth book, Milton abandoned the epic battle poetics and showed this battle not in the form of a new cosmic battle, but in the dialogues and monologues of people. The battlefield is the sun-drenched meadows of Eden, and it is heard not by the trumpets of the seraphim, not by the roar of rushing chariots, but by the chirping of birds.

Moving from cosmic scales to a description of human psychology, making the analysis of the spiritual world of the heroes the main object of the image, John Milton took Paradise Lost out of the mainstream of the epic. Until now, as befits an epic, events have prevailed over characters. But in the ninth book, a lot changes. The epic backstory (for after all, Raphael's story about Satan is only a backstory) gives way to an acute dramatic conflict, during which the very essence of man changes. The hero of the epics of the 16th - 17th centuries does not tend to change. This is a holistic, complete image, an expression of an established social tradition. But Milton strives precisely to show how the heroes of the poem have changed as a result of the events taking place. Adam and Eve, expelled from paradise, rise to a new, higher level of humanity.

In the ninth and partly the tenth book of Paradise Lost, the dramatic element prevails over the epic. The rebirth of an idyllic man into a tragic hero, an exit from the pastoral to harsh reality (and this is the main theme of Milton’s epic) occurs precisely here. At the same time, Milton pays special attention to describing the experiences of Adam and Eve at the moment of acute crisis.

The speech characteristics of the characters are closely related to the dramatic beginning of Paradise Lost. The presence of such characteristics makes Milton's portraiture even more unique.

Speaking about Satan's oratorical abilities, John Milton accuses him of deceitful sophistry of speech. This is evidenced not only by Satan’s magnificent political philippics, purposeful and fiery, but also by his conversation with Eve; the tempter’s speech is clothed in an impeccable secular form. Satan in every possible way emphasizes his admiration for Eve - a woman, a “lady”. He surrounds Eve with mystical eroticism, calls her “mistress,” “the sky of tenderness,” “a goddess among gods,” “a lady above all.”

A well-known contrast between the oratorically and literaryly organized speech of Satan is in Paradise Lost the speech of Adam - relatively poor in vocabulary, but laconic and expressive. In it, Milton tries to analyze the spiritual world of that sincere and still inexperienced being that his man was before the “fall.”

But the special expressiveness of the speech portrait of Satan once again proves that, despite Milton’s plan, it was Satan who was the most poetic character in the poem and gave the author the material to create a truly significant artistic image.

It's not just humans who struggle in Paradise Lost. The forces of nature constantly collide with each other.

When analyzing the poem, it immediately strikes the eye that her poems and nature are closely related to each other. The heroes are acutely aware of nature all the time: for example, Satan suffers in the flames of hell and becomes even darker among the dull expanses and mountains of the underworld. Straining all his strength, he overcomes the cosmic spaces of chaos in order to defeat nature, and softens at the sight of Eden, the charm of which is constantly praised by the first people.

Nature in Milton's Paradise Lost is not just a backdrop against which the characters act; it changes along with the moods and feelings of the characters in the poem. Thus, in accordance with the chaos of passions boiling in the soul of Satan, the world of chaos is revealed, which he overcomes on the way to Eden. The pastoral harmony surrounding still sinless people is replaced by a tragic picture of turmoil and destruction bursting into the world after the “fall” of the first people - this is a cosmic parallel to the deplorable and humiliating strife between Adam and Eve, reproaching each other.

As diverse and concrete as the gloomy landscapes of hell and the fantastic tabernacles of heaven are in Paradise Lost, so colorless are the scenery of the sky, against which the Puritan abstractions of God and his son move. No astronomical or cosmogonic tricks helped John Milton make these settings majestic. Their artificiality becomes especially noticeable next to the picturesque gloom of hell and the lush abundance of Eden.

Along with elements of epic and drama, the author's digressions play a large role in Paradise Lost. They express the personality of the poet, a participant in brutal class battles; they dissect the flow of epic descriptions, emphasizing the ideological significance of certain parts of the poem in the development of the overall concept.

The poet's worldview was formed in the fire of the revolutionary struggle. The revolutionary era also determined the features of his epic: a variegated style that tends to synthesize genres. However, Milton's attempts to create a new synthetic genre were not completely successful.

The religious and historical content of Paradise Lost are in irreconcilable contradiction. This is reflected in the sharp difference between images based on reality and allegorical images expressing a religious and ethical idea. The latter are close to the complex allegories characteristic of the analytical prose of John Milton.

Taking care that the abstract concept materializes as visibly and realistically as possible, Milton piled comparisons on comparisons in Paradise Lost.

So, for example, he considered the comparison of the defeated armies of Satan falling from the sky with leaves torn by the autumn wind to be insufficiently expressive, and strengthened it with a comparison with the Egyptian hordes that perished in the Red Sea. Satan himself is a comet, a thundercloud, a wolf, and a thief. The same Satan, having reached Eden and rejoicing at the end of the journey, makes several cheerful voltes before descending - somersaults before committing an atrocity! One of his sudden magical transformations is likened to the explosion of a gunpowder warehouse.

The theme of life after death runs through the works of Marina Tsvetaeva. As a teenager, the poetess lost her mother, and for some time she believed that she would certainly meet her in that other world. However, as she grew older, Tsvetaeva began to realize that perhaps the afterlife was a fiction. Gradually, the poetess became imbued with agnostic views, not rejecting the existence of another world, but not completely believing in it. Therefore, it is not surprising that in her works she either recognizes life after death or claims that this is

In 1910, Marina Tsvetaeva wrote the poem “In Paradise” to participate in a poetry competition organized by Valery Bryusov. The eminent writer invited aspiring poets to reveal the theme of the eternity of love in one of their works and show that this feeling can overcome death. However, Tsvetaeva refused to accept this concept and showed in her poem that love is an earthly feeling and has no place in the afterlife.

The poetess begins her work with the fact that worldly existence personally brought her a lot of sadness and disappointment. Therefore, she writes that “about earthly

I’ll pay in heaven too.” These lines, apparently, are addressed to her husband, with whom Tsvetaeva’s relationship is not as smooth and serene as it seems from the outside. The poetess loves Sergei Efront, but feels unhappy next to him. At the same time, she claims that she does not give up her feelings and notes that even in heaven she will “restlessly catch your gaze.”

Being a passionate nature and despising convention, Marina Tsvetaeva admits that she has no place at all where “hosts of angels fly in order.” In this world she feels like a stranger, and she does not at all like the company of “innocently strict maidens” whom she is going to shock with earthly melodies. At the same time, the poetess emphasizes that life after death does not matter to her personally. What is much more important is what is happening to her now, at this moment. And if she is unhappy on earth, then she is unlikely to find spiritual harmony in paradise. Tsvetaeva also rejects the very concept of the eternity of love, believing that together with a person, his feelings, thoughts and desires leave this world. “And we will not wake up in paradise for meetings,” notes the poetess, convinced that death can separate lovers. Especially if during their lifetime their relationship was far from ideal.

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Analysis of Tsvetaeva’s poem “In Paradise”

I will cry for earthly things in heaven too,
I used old words at our new meeting
I won't hide it.

Where hosts of angels fly in order,
Where are the harps, lilies and children's choir,
Where everything is calm, I will be restless
To catch your eye.

Seeing off visions of heaven with a smile,
Alone in a circle of innocently strict maidens,
I will sing, earthly and alien,
Earthly tune!

The memory puts too much pressure on my shoulders,
The moment will come - I will not hide my tears...
Neither here nor there, there is no need to meet anywhere,
And we won’t wake up in paradise for meetings!

Analysis of the poem “In Paradise” by Tsvetaeva

The early lyrics of Marina Ivanovna Tsvetaeva are uncompromising and categorical. She places her own feelings above all else; earthly things are definitely dearer to her than heavenly things.

The poem was written in 1910. The poetess is 18 years old at this time; her debut collection has already been published, attracting the sympathetic attention of V. Bryusov. By the way, it was he who advised her to take part in a literary competition. By genre - love lyrics with philosophical overtones, by size - iambic with cross rhyme, 4 stanzas. The lyrical heroine is the author herself. The composition is ring-shaped. The intonation, as always, is rebellious. Nothing is known about any strong love interest of M. Tsvetaeva at that time; perhaps this was getting used to the image of a passionately loving woman, a mask that was almost fused to the girl’s face.

In each stanza there is a refrain with variations: “I will cry for earthly things in paradise.” Earthly, old, from mortal life - this is what she knows, understands, loves. Here and now. "Harps, Lilies and a Children's Choir": a Catholic idea of ​​heaven. However, she studied for some time at a Catholic school in Europe. Popular, sugary images. But is heaven to blame for being presented like this? “Catch your gaze”: a passionate nature greedily seeks mutual absorption, dissolution in each other. Constant stubborn antithesis: everything is calm, I will be restless. “Seeing off visions of heaven with a smile”: she secured the supernatural world for herself, and therefore she is bold. He even believes that heaven is a passageway where everyone is taken and everyone is left to their own devices. “Earthly and alien”: why does she place herself here? Perhaps the heroine is sure that her chosen one will definitely be in heaven, which means she is his beloved. “I will not hide my tears”: it seems that her hero hurt her. Therefore, “there is no need to meet anywhere.” The motive of death as a dream. And the final chord: we will not wake up in paradise for meetings. For what? The poetess doesn’t explain; she probably had to think about it carefully herself. Most likely, the resentment of a wounded heart simply speaks here. There is a curious parallel with K. Balmont’s poem “I would not like to live in paradise.” Similar moods and views are set forth, but the poet honestly names his own. Anaphora: lines 1 and 13, where. Epithets: innocently strict, harmonious. Metaphor: catching the eye. A couple of exclamations and a plaintive line with an ellipsis.

The work “In Paradise” by M. Tsvetaeva participated in a creative competition organized by V. Bryusov in 1910.