Alexander Blok’s poem “I’m Scared to Meet You” is dedicated to his future wife (Lyubov Mendeleeva) and was written in 1902 almost exactly a year before their wedding in Boblovo. In the lines, the great symbolist conveys the feelings that he experiences in his relationship with his bride.

At this stage of the relationship, Blok has ambivalent feelings towards Mendeleeva. This is clearly visible from the first lines of the work:

It's worse not to meet you.

Cause of fear

When meeting, at first, Blok felt out of place, but separation frightened him even more. This is probably how real feelings should be born.

In the second quatrain, church steps come onto the scene, symbolizing an attempt to ask God for advice. The author turns to God, asking what he should do, what to do at this crossroads in life. The fear of looking back is also understandable - this is the fear of being left alone, which surrounded the poet until recently.

The third quatrain is interesting, where the poet’s “trademark” symbolism is clearly visible.

They put their hands on my shoulders,

But I don't remember the names.

Relations with Mendeleeva

Perhaps this is a memory of previous meetings with other ladies. Mendeleeva covered them up so much that the author of the poems does not even remember the names of her former friends. They have been buried in their souls for a long time, and the sprouts of new relationships are sprouting in their cemetery. It must be said that the new relationship will remain for life, Mendeleeva will be Blok’s faithful friend, and will remain faithful to him even after the poet’s death.

In the last column, the author returns to the theme of the beginning of the poem. At the beginning it was scary both with her and without her, in the end the heroine is simultaneously in the temple and outside it. Perhaps by this Blok shows the versatility of Love, the temple is the soul, beyond it are physical joys and suffering. The heroine is both distant from the author and close to him. This once again emphasizes the complexity of the relationship at this stage.

A beautiful example of Blok’s early love lyrics, in which one can already feel the hand of a master who is able to show the full depth of a relationship in a few lines.

I'm scared to meet you.
It's worse not to meet you.
I began to wonder at everything
I caught the stamp on everything.

Shadows walk along the street
I don’t understand - they are living or sleeping.
Clinging to the church steps,
I'm afraid to look back.

They put their hands on my shoulders,
But I don't remember the names.
There are sounds in my ears
The recent big funeral.

And the gloomy sky is low -
The temple itself was covered.
I know: You are here. You're close.
You are not here. Are you there.

Alexander Alexandrovich Blok

I'm scared to meet you.
It's worse not to meet you.
I began to wonder at everything
I caught the stamp on everything

Shadows walk along the street
I don’t understand - they are living or sleeping...
Clinging to the church steps,
I'm afraid to look back.

They put their hands on my shoulders,
But I don't remember the names.
There are sounds in my ears
The recent big funeral.

And the gloomy sky is low -
The temple itself was covered.
I know - You are here, You are close.
You are not here. Are you there.

Lyubov Dmitrievna Mendeleeva and Alexander Blok, 1903

Blok’s debut book “Poems about a Beautiful Lady,” created between 1901 and 1902 and in the spirit of symbolism, is dedicated to Lyubov Dmitrievna Mendeleeva. The poet met her as a child. Feelings arose much later - in the late 1890s. Their relationship initially resembled a game. Mendeleeva either reciprocated the fan's feelings, or pushed him away. Alexander Alexandrovich perceived her as the personification of Eternal Femininity, a Beautiful Lady. Worship of her is one of the main themes of the above-mentioned collection. Blok's courtship eventually bore fruit. In 1903, Mendeleeva married him.

The book includes the poem “I’m Scared to Meet You...”, dated December 5, 1902. The first two lines of the text are an antithesis. On the one hand, the lyrical hero is afraid to meet the object of his adoration. On the other hand, he is more frightened by the prospect of not seeing her. There are no specific signs in the work regarding the main female character. The poet does not describe her appearance or character. Moreover, all pronouns “you” and its derivatives are written with a capital letter, which is typical for “Poems about a Beautiful Lady” and part of Blok’s early love lyrics. From the opening lines of the text, the theme of fear becomes key. The hero is afraid of meeting the Beautiful Lady, as this may entail a change in her spiritual essence. In the finale, he comes to the understanding that he is not destined to see his beloved in earthly reality. It is in another dimension, although it seems incredibly close:

I know: You are here. You're close.
You are not here. Are you there.

In the poem “I'm scared to meet you...” there are no bright colors: shadows walk along the street, the gloomy sky is low. The poet paints a rather gloomy reality, into which even the mention of a temple does not bring light. His image in the work symbolizes a sacred place endowed with special power. It’s just that a big funeral was recently held in this temple.

The lyrical hero is confident in the existence of the ideal, although at the end of the work he realizes the impossibility of the earthly embodiment of Eternal Femininity. Thus, the theme of confrontation between reality and the world of beautiful illusions is revealed. Blok confronts the hero with a difficult choice - to surrender completely to earthly passions or to continue existing in the ideal dream space. In the poem under consideration, the answer is not given; the poet devotes an entire cycle to its search, called “Crossroads.”

The motive of expectation, which becomes more and more tense as the meeting approaches (“I anticipate you...”), is combined with fear (“But I’m scared...”), which gives the lyrical plot a special drama, which is emphasized by the repetition of the image-symbol “the whole horizon is on fire.” , epithets “unbearable”, “sorrowful”, “low”, contrasting with the words “clear”, “radiance”. Passionately yearning for the incarnation of the ideal, the lyrical hero is afraid of being disappointed, of being deceived, because, having acquired an earthly incarnation, the Beautiful Lady may turn out to be different from his ideas about her, she will lose her “ideality”, her divinity. Thus, along with the desire for a meeting, deep doubts arise about its feasibility, about the achievability of the reunification of the earthly and the heavenly.

Fire is a symbol of the Spirit, God... A symbol of the triumph of light and life over darkness and death, a symbol of universal purification.

But then Her appearance begins to double, for it itself is divided.

In spiritual terms, he is a devout and pure monk, living in a monastery and praying in a temple.

In the poem “I love high cathedrals, my soul humbles me to visit,” we read the confession: I am afraid of my two-faced soul... Thus, in “Poems” all the paths of Blok’s further poetic wanderings began. In this book, “great light and evil darkness” is the pinnacle of mystical ascent and vertigo over the abyss.

“I’m scared to meet you...”

I'm scared to meet you.

It's worse not to meet you.

I began to wonder at everything

I caught the stamp on everything.

There are shadows walking on the street

I don’t understand - they are living or sleeping.

Clinging to the church steps,

I'm afraid to look back.

They put their hands on my shoulders,

But I don't remember the names.

There are sounds in my ears

The recent big funeral.

And the gloomy sky is low -

The temple itself was covered.

I know: You are here. You're close.

You are not here. Are you there.

There is no color symbolism in this poem. But in comparison with the first poems of the cycle, the “entry” of the real world into the world of “The Beautiful Lady” is especially clear.

The poem begins with a sharp antithesis: “I’m scared to meet you // It’s scarier not to meet you,” and from the very first line the motive of fear begins to dominate in it. The figurative structure of this poem, one of the final ones of the cycle, is contrasted with the figurative structure of the poems “I enter dark temples...”, “I, a youth, light candles...”.

The color (“gloomy sky”), sound (sounds of funerals) change, and although the subject line associated with the images of the temple remains, it receives additional psychological coloring: instead of “the radiance of red lamps” - “the gloomy sky has covered the temple itself.” The line “You are here. You are close” expresses the hero’s confidence in the existence of an ideal, but in the final line (“You are not here. You are there”) there is despair, a feeling of the impossibility of the earthly embodiment of the Eternal Femininity. Short phrases and pauses that occur between them convey the utmost excitement of the lyrical hero. The lyrical plot is complicated by the appearance of shadows.

In other poems in the cycle, the hero’s gaze was directed into unearthly space, towards a higher reality. Here for the first time the still unclear outlines of earthly reality appear, which interferes with the desired meeting. The poet's gaze increasingly turns to the world around him; as a result, doubts are growing about the possibility of the rapid incarnation of the romantic ideal. The hero is faced with a choice: to remain in the world of ideal illusions or to plunge into the world of earthly elements.

Connected with this moment of choice is the cycle that concludes the first volume with the expressive title “Crossroads.”

Factory

In the neighboring house the windows are zsolt.

In the evenings - in the evenings

Thoughtful bolts creak,

People approach the gate.

And the gates are silently locked,

And on the wall - and on the wall

motionless someone, black someone

Counts people in silence.

I hear everything from my top:

Bend your weary backs

There are people gathered below.

They will come in and disperse,

The coolies will be piled on their backs,

And they will laugh in the yellow windows,

What did these beggars do?

If in “Poems about a Beautiful Lady” the poet’s gaze was directed upward, to the church vault, the sky, then in this poem he looks around him (“In the next house…”) and even as if from top to bottom, peering into the features of earthly reality (“ I hear everything from my top"). This determined a change in the subject range (bolts, gates, coolies) and color scheme (“zholty”, “black someone”). The epithet “yellow”, framing the poem, introduces into the created picture an association of morbidity, unhealthy feverishness, and thanks to the unusual spelling, the epithet acquires the meaning of a symbol of some sinister force. Another symbolic image is also associated with the world of evil - “someone motionless, someone black.” This symbol should not be interpreted literally. Of course, one can imagine a terrible factory building swallowing incoming workers, but this picture does not exhaust the entire content of the image. Rather, it is a symbol of some kind of world, mystical evil.

Calling the victims of this evil people, people, and beggars, Blok does not use the word “workers.” In general, turning to social reality at the end of the first volume, the poet does not give its phenomena social, realistic motivations.

The poem “Factory” can be seen as a symbolic depiction of the collision of a suffering, deceived person with the force of evil that has reigned in the world.

The “Crossroads” cycle marks Blok’s turn from the ideal world of the Beautiful Lady to the world of earthly elements.

General conclusions

Having analyzed the main poems of the cycle “Poems about a Beautiful Lady” in the context of the color symbolism used by Blok, I came to the conclusion that one of the main ways for Blok to express his views is color. With the help of a color palette, he conveys his opinion, his views, his understanding of a particular phenomenon, and expresses his attitude.

Basically, the meaning of flowers in the context of poems coincides with the most common interpretations of these same flowers. For example, the most commonly used white emphasizes the spiritual beauty, purity, innocence of the image of the Beautiful Lady, her divine origin, indicates her belonging to the other world, which the author strives for, but can never achieve.

Red, for Blok, is associated with Divine love, with the warmth that he hopes to receive from his Beautiful Lady, i.e. with reciprocity. Red is also used by Blok to denote something secret, intimate, very personal; most likely it is associated with dreams and hopes regarding the possibility of meeting the girl of his dreams, with the possibility of combining earthly and heavenly images in one woman. And this is the most important question that occupied Blok: will the image of the Beautiful Lady change? What will prevail in it - earthly or heavenly? Does this image have a right to exist in our cruel, dark, “scary” world?

As one of the shades of red, Blok often uses pink as the color of resurrection, the color of flesh, i.e. something tangible, something that really exists.

I also came to the conclusion that Blok built the entire cycle on contrasts and contrasts. Colors and images, feelings are contrasted. This reflects the world of Blok at the time of the creation of this cycle, because... Blok was in constant struggle with himself. This is probably why this cycle is considered autobiographical notes, because... everything that happened to Alexander Alexandrovich during the two years of creating the cycle was reflected in his poems. And every gesture of Lyudmila Dmitrievna Mendeleeva, her attitude, behavior - all this was reflected in the lyrics of that period.

It is to express this fear and uncertainty that Blok uses the blue color and its shades, each time shifting the balance to one of the worlds (a lighter shade is the suprareal world, a darker shade is the subreal world), thereby expressing his fears and sensations.

I'm scared to meet you.
It's worse not to meet you.
I began to wonder at everything
I caught the stamp on everything.

Shadows walk along the street
I don’t understand whether they are living or sleeping.
Clinging to the church steps,
I'm afraid to look back.

They put their hands on my shoulders,
But I don't remember the names.
There are sounds in my ears
The recent big funeral.

And the gloomy sky is low -
The temple itself was covered.
I know: You are here. You're close.
You are not here. Are you there.

Analysis of the poem “I'm Scared to Meet You” by Alexander Blok

The poem “I'm Scared to Meet You...” was written by Blok in 1902 and was included in the debut collection of his works. A characteristic feature is the poet’s excessive fascination with symbolism and admiration for the image of the Eternal Femininity.

In real life, L. D. Mendeleeva became the embodiment of the ideal female image for Blok. The relationship between them was quite strange, sometimes simply comical. Mendeleeva was an ordinary girl dreaming of true love. Blok was completely at the mercy of the images created in his own imagination. He considered his chosen one an unearthly creature; the laws of the real world should not apply to her. In fact, he forced Mendeleeva to marry him by threatening to commit suicide. The poem “I’m Scared to Meet You...” is written in this spirit.

Any man in love, to some extent, idolizes his beloved woman. The block goes to absolute extremes. The title itself contains an amazing statement: the fear of meeting your beloved. In the second line, with the help of antithesis, the poet softens the phrase: “It’s worse not to meet You.”

The “love” work as a whole is quite unusual. It does not contain any indication not only of the girl’s physical appearance, but even of her inner world. This is explained by Blok’s passion for the philosophy of V. Solovyov, which he reworked in accordance with his innate mysticism. Until 1905, Blok completely abstracted himself from the physical world and did not recognize it. Everything around him was presented in the form of vague symbols and images. The central part of the poem reflects these views: “shadows walk,” “I don’t remember names.” Quite unexpectedly for a person in love, “the sounds of... a big funeral are heard.” Even the sacred place near which the author is located is not associated in his mind with something bright. The temple is covered with a “gloomy sky”.

This mystical mood of Blok is confirmed in the finale of the work with the help of another antithesis: “You are close. You are not here". Even taking into account that at that time Mendeleeva did not reciprocate Blok’s feelings, the poem “I’m scared to meet you...” is far from love lyrics and makes a very difficult impression.

“I’m scared to meet you...” Alexander Blok

I'm scared to meet you.
It's worse not to rake you.
I began to wonder at everything
I caught the stamp on everything

Shadows walk along the street
I don’t understand - they are living or sleeping...
Clinging to the church steps,
I'm afraid to look back.

They put their hands on my shoulders,
But I don't remember the names.
There are sounds in my ears
The recent big funeral.

And the gloomy sky is low -
The temple itself was covered.
I know - You are here, You are close.
You are not here. Are you there.

Analysis of Blok’s poem “I’m scared to meet you...”

Blok’s debut book “Poems about a Beautiful Lady,” created between 1901 and 1902 and in the spirit of symbolism, is dedicated to Lyubov Dmitrievna Mendeleeva. The poet met her as a child. Feelings arose much later - in the late 1890s. Their relationship initially resembled a game. Mendeleeva either reciprocated the fan's feelings, or pushed him away. Alexander Alexandrovich perceived her as the personification of Eternal Femininity, a Beautiful Lady. Worship of her is one of the main themes of the above-mentioned collection. Blok's courtship eventually bore fruit. In 1903, Mendeleeva married him.

The book includes the poem “I’m Scared to Meet You...”, dated December 5, 1902. The first two lines of the text are an antithesis. On the one hand, the lyrical hero is afraid to meet the object of his adoration. On the other hand, he is more frightened by the prospect of not seeing her. There are no specific signs in the work regarding the main female character. The poet does not describe her appearance or character. Moreover, all pronouns “you” and its derivatives are written with a capital letter, which is typical for “Poems about a Beautiful Lady” and part of Blok’s early love lyrics. From the opening lines of the text, the theme of fear becomes key. The hero is afraid of meeting the Beautiful Lady, as this may entail a change in her spiritual essence. In the finale, he comes to the understanding that he is not destined to see his beloved in earthly reality. It is in another dimension, although it seems incredibly close:
I know: You are here. You're close.
You are not here. Are you there.
In the poem “I'm scared to meet you...” there are no bright colors: shadows walk along the street, the gloomy sky is low. The poet paints a rather gloomy reality, into which even the mention of a temple does not bring light. His image in the work symbolizes a sacred place endowed with special power. It’s just that a big funeral was recently held in this temple.

The lyrical hero is confident in the existence of the ideal, although at the end of the work he realizes the impossibility of the earthly embodiment of Eternal Femininity. Thus, the theme of the confrontation between reality and the world of beautiful illusions is revealed. Blok confronts the hero with a difficult choice - to surrender completely to earthly passions or to continue existing in the ideal dream space. In the poem under consideration, the answer is not given; the poet devotes an entire cycle to its search, called “Crossroads.”