Mikhail Lermontov - From under a mysterious, cold half mask: Verse

Sections of the site

Editor's Choice:

Advertising

home - Family holiday

Your captivating eyes shone on me

And the wicked lips smiled.

Through the light haze I involuntarily noticed

And virgin cheeks, and white necks.

Lucky! I also saw a willful lock of hair,

The native curls who left the wave!..

And then I created in my imagination

By slight signs of my beauty;

And from then on, an ethereal vision

I carry it in my soul, caress it and love it.

And everything seems to me: these speeches are alive

In the years gone by I once heard;

And someone whispers to me that after this meeting

We will see each other again, like old friends.

Analysis:The poem was supposedly written in 1841. Central subject- theme of love. Unlike the early love cycles, the mature poet’s attention is focused not on the history of his own feelings, but on female images.

In the first half of the poem (stanzas 1 and 2), the appearance of the beloved is formed: “cold half-mask” (a symbolic sign of spiritual closeness and challenge), “captivating eyes,” “cunning lips.” In the last two stanzas, an “ethereal vision” of a beauty appears, woven from “light signs,” among which the heroine’s “pleasant, like a dream” voice is especially highlighted. This in Lermontov's lyrics was usually associated with the sublime and secret essence of love. However, the final "old friends" defines the relationship as one that excludes unconditional worship and romantic distance.

Size: iambic (but not exactly)

SAIL

The lonely sail turns white

In the blue sea fog!..

What is he looking for in a distant land?

What did he throw in his native land?..

The waves are playing, the wind is whistling,

And the mast bends and creaks...

Alas! he is not looking for happiness

And he’s not running out of happiness!

Below him is a stream of lighter azure,

Above him is a golden ray of sun...

And he, the rebellious one, asks for a storm,

As if there is peace in the storms!

Analysis: M.Yu. Lermontov began writing unusually early. The famous “Sail” is the creation of a seventeen-year-old poet.
Images of a storm, sea and sail are characteristic of Lermontov’s early lyrics, where freedom is poetically associated with loneliness and rebellious elements.
“Sail” is a poem with deep implications. The development of poetic thought in it is unique and reflected in the special composition of the work: the reader always sees seascape with a sail and the author reflecting on them. Moreover, in the first two lines of each quatrain a picture of the changing sea appears, and in the last two the feeling evoked by it is conveyed. The composition "Sails" clearly shows the division of the sail and lyrical hero poems.
Central image the poem is also of two levels: it is both a real sail that “glows white in the fog of the blue sea,” and at the same time a person with a certain fate and character.
A double movement is felt in the composition: the sail goes deeper into the expanses of the sea element. This is the external plot of the poem. Another movement is connected with our understanding of the mystery of the sail: from the questions of the 1st stanza to the sympathetic exclamations of the second, from them to the recognition of the most passionate and cherished desire sails and the assessment of this desire.
In stanza 1, the poet’s gaze stops at the fog-shrouded sea with a lonely sail that turns white without merging with the sea. How many people have seen such a landscape more than once in their lives, but Lermontov has poetic reflection associated with it. Questions arise:
What is he looking for in a distant land?
What did he throw in his native land?
The antithesis seeks - threw, distant - native introduces contrast into the poem, which serves as the basis of the composition in this work.
The verse sounds light and smooth, the abundance of sounds L, R, N, M and the omission of the same stress in the first two lines convey the slight swaying of the sea wave during a calm.
But the sea is changing. The rushing wind raised the waves, and they seemed ready to crush the sail, “the mast bends and creaks.” The whistle of the wind and the sound of the sea are conveyed by a new sound scale: S, T, Ch, Shch become predominant. The feeling of vague anxiety at the sight of this picture turns into sad hopelessness from the consciousness that there was no happiness for the sail and that happiness is generally impossible for him:
Alas! He's not looking for happiness
And he’s not running out of happiness.
Loneliness and space do not bring freedom from painful questions; facing a storm does not bring happiness. The storm does not relieve the sail from the tedium of existence, but the storm is still preferable to peace and harmony. This idea is heard in the last stanza of the poem.
And again the sea calms down and turns blue, the sun shines. But this picture, pleasing to the eyes, calms down for only a short time. The author’s thought is in contrast to her mood and sounds like a challenge to all calm:
And he, the rebellious one, asks for a storm,
As if there is peace in the storms!
Sharp transitions from one state to another, changes in contrasting landscapes emphasize the multi-temporality of events, their dissimilarity from each other. The sail, however, in all cases resists its surroundings. The contrasts of the landscapes reveal the opposition of the sail to any environment, reveal its rebellion, the tirelessness of its movement, the eternal disagreement of the sail with the world.
Nature in “Sail,” as in many of the poet’s poems, is picturesque. Here is a whole palette of bright and joyful colors: blue (fog), azure (sea), gold (rays of the sun), white (sail).
The poet characterizes the main character of the poem with two epithets: “lonely” and “rebellious.” For Lermontov, loneliness is associated with the impossibility of happiness, hence the slight sadness at the very beginning of the poem. But the sail is not afraid of storms, is strong in spirit and unyielding to fate - rebellious!
For many generations, the poem “Sail” became not only a poetic recognition of Lermontov, but also a symbol of anxious restlessness, eternal searches, and courageous opposition of a high soul to an insignificant world.

Size: 4 iambic

DEATH OF POET

Vengeance, sir, vengeance!

I will fall at your feet:

Be fair and punish the murderer

So that his execution in later centuries

Your rightful judgment was announced to posterity,

So that the villains can see her as an example.

The poet died! - a slave of honor -

Fell, slandered by rumor,

With lead in my chest and a thirst for revenge,

Hanging his proud head!..

The poet's soul could not bear it

The shame of petty grievances,

He rebelled against the opinions of the world

Alone, as before... and killed!

Killed!.. Why sobs now,

Empty praise unnecessary chorus

And the pathetic babble of excuses?

Fate has reached its conclusion!

Weren't you the one who persecuted me so viciously at first?

His free, bold gift

And they inflated it for fun

A slightly hidden fire?

Well? have fun... He's tormenting

I couldn't stand the last ones:

The ceremonial wreath has faded.

His killer in cold blood

Strike... there is no escape:

An empty heart beats evenly,

The pistol did not waver in his hand.

And what a miracle?... from afar,

Like hundreds of fugitives,

To catch happiness and ranks

Thrown to us by the will of fate;

Laughing, he boldly despised

The land has a foreign language and customs;

He could not spare our glory;

I couldn’t understand at this bloody moment,

On Thu O he raised his hand!..

And he is killed - and taken by the grave,

The prey of deaf jealousy,

Sung by him with such wonderful power,

Struck down, like him, by a merciless hand.

Why from peaceful bliss and simple-minded friendship

He entered this envious and stuffy world

For a free heart and fiery passions?

Why did he give his hand to insignificant slanderers,

Why did he believe false words and caresses,

He is with youth who has comprehended people?..

And having removed the former wreath, they crown of thorns,

Entwined with laurels, they put on him:

But the secret needles are harsh

They wounded the glorious brow;

His last moments were poisoned

The insidious whispers of mocking ignoramuses,

And he died - with a vain thirst for vengeance,

With annoyance and the secret of disappointed hopes.

The sounds of wonderful songs have fallen silent,

Do not give them away again:

The singer's shelter is gloomy and cramped,

And his seal is on his lips.

_____________________

And you, arrogant descendants

The famous meanness of the illustrious fathers,

The fifth slave trampled the wreckage

The game of happiness of offended births!

You, standing in a greedy crowd at the throne,

Executioners of Freedom, Genius and Glory!

You are hiding under the shadow of the law,

There is a trial before you and the truth - keep quiet!..

But there is also God's judgment, confidants of debauchery!

There is a terrible judgment: it awaits;

It is not accessible to the ringing of gold,

He knows both thoughts and deeds in advance.

Then in vain you will resort to slander:

It won't help you again

And you won't wash away with all your black blood

Poet's righteous blood!

Analysis:The poem “Death of a Poet” was written in 1837. This poem is associated with the death of A.S. Pushkin. When Pushkin was dying, Lermontov was ill. Lermontov was the first to write the truth about the death of A.S. Pushkin. Even Pushkin's friends were afraid to do this.
The poem “Death of a Poet” consists of two parts. The first part is an elegy, and the second is a satire. In this poem, Lermontov blames not only Dantes for Pushkin’s death, but the entire society. According to Lermontov, the reason for Pushkin’s death is that the poet was doomed to loneliness and could not bear it. He rushes into a world alien to him and dies.
Pushkin died because “he rebelled against the opinions of the world...”. Secular society does not understand “his free, bold gift.” Lermontov compares Pushkin with Lensky from A.S. Pushkin’s novel “Eugene Onegin”:

... And he was killed - and taken by the grave,
Like that singer, unknown but sweet,
The prey of deaf jealousy...

Lermontov wants to show with this poem that secular society is to blame for Pushkin’s death, which did not understand Pushkin when he was still alive. But then Lermontov writes:

Killed!.. why sobs now,
Empty praise unnecessary chorus
And the pathetic babble of excuses?
Fate has reached its conclusion!

In the first part of the poem, Lermontov takes several lines from other writers and changes them slightly.
The second part of the poem is a response to the judgments of those who justified the poet’s killers:

And you, arrogant descendants
The famous meanness of the illustrious fathers...

Lermontov believes that if not earthly court, then “God’s court” will punish those who justified the poet’s murderers:

There is a terrible judgment: it awaits;

In his poem, Lermontov uses comparisons:

The wondrous genius has faded away like a torch,
The ceremonial wreath has faded.

Pushkin is like a candle that lights the way, and like a “solemn wreath” that decorates.

Size: 4iamb

Afanasy Afanasyevich Fet

"Dawn bids farewell to the earth"

Analysis: Already in the first lines the main antithesis is given on which the entire poem is built: the evening dawn over the earth and the darkening foggy valleys.

To read the verse “From under the mysterious cold half mask..." Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov with the correct intonations, it is important to understand that he refers to love lyrics. It is believed that the poem, supposedly created in 1841, hides the image of Varvara Lopukhina, with whose brother and sisters the poet was very friendly. Despite mutual sympathy, relations between the young people could not develop (the Lopukhins family was against it). The beloved married someone else. Lermontov did not dare to compromise the girl. All that remained for him was brief meetings and admiration from the outside. There are no exact facts confirming the addressee of the lyrics. There is only a statement that Varvara was not indifferent to the poet until the end of his life.

The work introduces readers to a mysterious beauty whose face is hidden by a half-mask. But even in this form, in the smallest detail, the author recreates the image of the girl, declaring his love for her. He is happy simply because he can store a beautiful ethereal vision in his soul.

The text of Lermontov's poem “From under the mysterious cold half-mask...” is an ideal example of intimate poetry, suitable for in-depth analysis in a literature lesson (grades 10-11). On our website you can simply download the poems in full or study them online.

From under a mysterious, cold half mask
Your voice sounded joyful to me, like a dream.
Your captivating eyes shone on me
And the wicked lips smiled.

Through the light haze I involuntarily noticed
And virgin cheeks, and white necks.
Lucky! I also saw a willful lock of hair,
The native curls who left the wave!..

And then I created in my imagination
By slight signs of my beauty;
And from then on, an ethereal vision
I carry it in my soul, caress it and love it.

And everything seems to me: these speeches are alive
In the years gone by I once heard;
And someone whispers to me that after this meeting
We will see each other again, like old friends.

The poem “From Under a Mysterious, Cold Half-Mask” amazes with its beauty in a feminine way. Schoolchildren study a poem in 5th grade. We invite you to learn more about the work by reading brief analysis“From under a mysterious, cold half-mask” according to plan.

Brief Analysis

History of creation- the work was written in 1841 under the impression of meeting Varvara Lopukhina at a ball. It was first published in the magazine " Domestic notes"for 1843

Theme of the poem- warm feelings for the mysterious beauty.

Composition– The analyzed poem is conventionally divided into semantic parts: a portrait of a woman created on the basis of what she saw, a story about the image of a beauty created in the imagination of the lyrical hero. The work consists of four quatrains.

Genre- elegy.

Poetic size– iambic hexameter, cross rhyme ABAB.

Metaphors – “Your captivating eyes shone for me,” “a willful lock of hair that left the wave of native curls,” “I carry an ethereal vision in my soul.”

Epithets – "mysterious, cold half mask", “pleasant voice”, “captivating eyes”, “cunning lips”, “virgin cheeks”, “old friends”.

History of creation

The analyzed poem belongs to the late period of creativity of M. Yu. Lermontov. It was created in 1841. It is still unknown exactly to whom it is dedicated. Most researchers believe that the portrait of a beautiful woman was copied from Varvara Lopukhina. It was with her that the poet was in love during this period.

In 1841, Mikhail Yuryevich arrived in St. Petersburg to resign. The young officer did not receive it, but the opportunity arose to spend a vacation in the capital. It turned out to be the last in the poet’s life. M. Lermontov spent his free days from service in secular society. He attended balls and salons to see Lopukhina. The woman felt sympathy for the poet, but was already married, so she could not openly show her feelings. According to the etiquette of Lermontov's era, a married woman social events could only talk to her husband. That is why the heroine of the poem is silent, and the lyrical hero only catches her glance.

The work saw the world in the journal Otechestvennye zapiski in 1843.

Subject

The poem reveals the theme of love. It differs significantly from the poet’s early love works. If during the time of his love for E. Sushkova, Mikhail Yuryevich expressed his feelings in passionate lines, then in the analyzed work the love is calm, moderate.

In the center of the poems are two images - a lyrical hero and a stranger in a mask. The man remembers how he once listened to in a pleasant voice women. The beauty's face was hidden under a mask, but even she could not hide the heroine's beauty. The admirer notices captivating eyes and “cunning lips”, “virgin cheeks” and a white neck. The lyrical hero feels truly lucky when he sees a curl of hair straying from his hair. This artistic detail created in a romantic way.

A beautiful woman in a mask became the standard of beauty for the lyrical hero. Her image settled in the man’s soul. The hero admits that he loves and caresses this image. It is not difficult to guess that the hero in love does not have the opportunity to show his feelings in life. In the last quatrain, the man expresses hope that someday he will be able to meet the beauty again. He knows what to hope for love relationship in vain, so he says that they will see each other “like old friends.”

Composition

The analyzed poem is conventionally divided into two semantic parts: a portrait of a woman, reproduced after a meeting with a beauty, a story about an image created in the imagination of the lyrical hero. These parts are equal in volume. The work consists of four quatrains.

Genre

The genre of the poem is elegy, as in it the poet enthusiastically describes beautiful woman. The work also conveys an undisguised sadness caused by the understanding of the impossibility of developing relationships. The poetic meter is iambic hexameter. The text uses ABAB cross rhyme, masculine and feminine rhymes.

Means of expression

The artistic means used in the work serve to create the image of a beautiful woman and convey the feelings of the lyrical hero. The linguistic means in this poem are distinguished by the sophistication characteristic of secular society and love literature from the time of Lermontov.

The poet weaves into each stanza metaphor: your captivating eyes shone for me”, “a willful curl that left the wave of my native curls”, “I carry an ethereal vision in my soul”, “these speeches are living”. The main tool for creating a portrait of a beauty is epithets: “mysterious, cold half-mask”, “pleasant voice”, “captivating eyes”, “cunning lips”, “virgin cheeks”, “old friends”. Comparison the text contains only one thing: “your voice is joyful, like a dream.”

What do you think of the lyrical heroine in Lermontov's poem?

From under a mysterious, cold half mask