I love my homeland, but it’s strange. Essay I love my fatherland, but with a strange love. Analysis of the poem “Motherland” by Lermontov

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I love my fatherland, but with a strange love!
My reason will not defeat her.
Nor glory bought with blood,
Nor the peace full of proud trust,

Nor the dark old treasured legends
No joyful dreams stir within me.
But I love - for what, I don’t know myself -
Its steppes are coldly silent,

Her boundless forests sway,
The floods of its rivers are like seas;
On a country road I like to ride in a cart
And, with a slow gaze piercing the shadow of the night,

Meet on the sides, sighing for an overnight stay,
The trembling lights of sad villages;
I love the smoke of burnt stubble,
A convoy spending the night in the steppe
And on a hill in the middle of a yellow field
A couple of white birches.
With joy unknown to many,
I see a complete threshing floor
A hut covered with straw
Window with carved shutters;
And on a holiday, on a dewy evening,
Ready to watch until midnight
To dance with stomping and whistling
Under the talk of drunken men.

Year of writing: 1841

Analysis of the poem "Motherland" by Lermontov

Analysis of the poem “Motherland” by Lermontov (2)

Lermontov's poem "Motherland" is studied in literature lessons in the 9th grade. In our article you can find a complete and brief analysis of "Motherland" according to plan.

History of creation - the poem was written as a declaration of love to the Motherland in 1841, a few months before the death of the poet.

The theme is love for the motherland, true patriotism, edged with pictures of native nature.

The composition is two stanzas of different lengths, containing philosophical reflections and a declaration of love for the motherland with a listing of pictures of native nature.

Genre – thought. The second stanza is very close to an elegy.

The poetic meter is iambic hexameter, turning into pentameter and tetrameter with cross rhyme (the work has both paired and ring rhyming methods). Female rhyme predominates.

Metaphors - “glory bought with blood”, “cold silence of the steppes”, “boundless swaying forests”, “a couple of birches”.

Epithets - “dark antiquity”, “cherished giving”, “pleasant dream”, “cold silence”, “sad villages”, “boundless forests”, “dewy evening”.

The simile is “the floods of its rivers are like seas.”

History of creation

In 1841, Lermontov returned from the Caucasus on vacation to resolve the issue of retirement and engage in literary creativity. The long absence from his homeland played a role, inspiring the poet to write a most beautiful poem - a declaration of love. The simple Russian beauty of nature was such a contrast to the Caucasian mountains that the poet created beautiful lines, piercing and sincere.

It was written on March 13 and was originally called “Fatherland,” but upon publication it was decided to replace the name with “Motherland” (it is devoid of civic pathos, softer and more melodic, which corresponds to the understanding of patriotism that permeates the poem). Longing for the homeland and awareness of its value and closeness sounds like the main motive in the poem. The poem combines both real landscapes and individual natural sketches taken by the poet from memories and impressions of another period.

Subject

The theme of love for the motherland, landscape and patriotism, deep, folk, personal, practically devoid of a state or civil component. Its traces are only at the beginning of the poem, then pictures of everyday life and native landscapes are pushed aside by pathos and a solemn tone.

Lermontov's love is very personal and sincere; he is fond of the lights in the windows of rural houses, the smells of fires, thatched huts, and birch trees that line the road. The author characterizes his love as “strange,” because he himself does not understand its roots and causes, but a strong all-consuming feeling shines through in every line of the poem. Only a pure mind, a huge talent, can write this. Lermontov has no love for social life, he I am disgusted with the “laws” of high society, intrigue, servility, rumors, the meaninglessness of the existence of the nobility and the empty Russian reality.

The main idea of ​​the poem– love for the homeland is a strong, incomprehensible feeling given from above. The idea of ​​the poem is to reveal the essence of a person - a patriot (the author himself), who devotedly loves his homeland, attached to it with all his soul. The lyrical hero presents his feeling as something personal: this is how one loves a loved one, despite his shortcomings, strongly and selflessly.

Composition

The first semantic part of the poem - the stanza - consists of 6 verses. They are philosophical in nature and clearly define the lack of connection between the lyrical hero’s attachment to the history of the country, its glory and heroism. He loves his homeland, not the country, not for something, but in spite of everything that it has done to the poet. The second stanza – 20 lines – is the lyrical hero’s confession of true filial love for his homeland. A kind of semantic antithesis is expressed by the selection of vocabulary: at the beginning of the poem - sublimely, solemnly, and in the second stanza - simple, colloquial, with everyday descriptions.

Genre

The lyrical poem is close to the duma genre, which was characteristic of the work of the Decembrists. The second stanza - the largest in volume - meets all the requirements of the elegy genre. In the first stanza, the author gives three negatives that could have been a reason for love for the homeland, but were not. The second stanza is a pure declaration of love with an amazing and very original in its simplicity description of native landscapes: there is no evidence or reason, only the “fact of love.” The poem combines iambic 6, 5 foot, at times turning into tetrameter, more traditional for the author.

Means of expression

Metaphors: ““glory bought with blood”, “cold silence of the steppes”, “boundless swaying of forests”, “couple of birches”.

Comparison: ""the floods of its rivers are like seas."

Anaphora in the first stanza makes the thoughts of the lyrical hero emotional and sublime: “Neither glory bought with blood, nor peace full of proud trust, nor cherished legends of dark antiquity...” The anaphora in the second stanza gives the poem a songlike and elegiac quality: “Her steppes are coldly silent , its boundless forests sway...”

The exclamatory sentence, which is the first verse of the work, expresses its central thought: “I love my fatherland, but with a strange love!”

In the era of the Nikolaev reaction, an important question that worried the minds of the Russian intelligentsia was the question of the fate of Russia, of the Russian national character. The same problem turns out to be the main one in Russian literature at the beginning of the 20th century, in the era of revolutions and upheavals, so the theme of Russia becomes predominant in the works of leading artists of both eras, such as M. Lermontov and A. Blok. Both poets, the romantic Lermontov and the symbolist Blok, create an original, unique image of their homeland, and each expresses their love for it in their own way. The basic principles of the image of Russia by the two poets are completely different: Lermontov is a romantic in his worldview, worldview, in relation to his homeland, but when revealing the image of Russia, he often gravitates towards the realistic method. Lermontov creates a concrete historical image of Russia; it is closely related to the theme of the “lost generation”, which is important for the poet’s work. The image of Russia and the feeling for it are twofold; in one poem he says:

I love my fatherland, but with a strange love! My reason will not defeat her, and in another she sharply shouts: “Farewell, unwashed Russia!”

- with obvious hatred. Lermontov seems to divide Russia into “past” and “present”, loves the former and hates the latter. Blok is a symbolist, a poet of another era, which is undoubtedly reflected in his understanding and disclosure of the image of Russia. For Blok, Russia inextricably merged with the image of a woman, a beloved wife: “Oh, my Rus'! My wife!" This symbol was transformed from Blok’s early image of the Beautiful Lady, the Eternal Femininity, which carries the divine principle. In the poem “On the Kulikovo Field,” the symbol of Rus' is a “steppe mare” that “rushes at a gallop.”

Both poets resort to a realistic landscape; for Lermontov it is “sad”, for Blok it is “sad”:

Its steppes are coldly silent, Her boundless forests are swaying, The floods of its rivers are like seas... ..The trembling lights of sad villages... Lermontov, “Motherland” The river spreads out. Flows, lazily sad And washes the banks. Above the meager clay of the yellow cliff, the haystacks are sad in the steppe. Blok, “On the Kulikovo Field”

Both poets turn to historical themes to reveal the image of Russia. Lermontov in the poem “Borodino” idealizes the historical past of Russia, the generation of people who fought in the War of 1812 and proved themselves as heroes, contrasting it with the modern “lost” generation:

Yes, there were people in our time, a mighty, dashing tribe: the heroes are not you.

Blok also refers to ancient history, to the Tatar invasion and the Battle of Kulikovo, but he projects the ancient battle onto modern times. His poem contains motifs of the inevitability of the “long journey” and “eternal battle”; his Rus' “rushes at a gallop.” This interpretation is due to the time of the poet’s life - an era of rapid changes and upheavals in the life of Russia. Lermontov in “Borodin” reveals the most valuable, in his opinion, qualities of the Russian national character: the ability to perform the feat of a simple soldier, self-sacrifice for the sake of his native land, daring and courage. Blok is attracted to the Russian folk character by “robber beauty” and “beautiful features”, two-facedness, a combination of loyalty to the precepts of Christian dogma and readiness for a daring, brave twist, for rebellion. His Russia will never “get lost, never perish”, it will find a way out (this is Blok’s attitude towards the revolution). It is full of secrets, witches, sorcerers.

Where sorcerers and sorcerers enchant the grains in the fields... “Rus” Lermontov depicts more real attributes of peasant life: I see a complete threshing floor, a hut covered with straw, a window with carved shutters... “Motherland”

Folk art appears in the works of both poets: songs and dances. For Lermontov it is “a dance with stomping and whistling to the chatter of drunken peasants,” for Blok it is a whirlwind whistling in the bare bars.

Sings ancient legends... “Rus” Your songs are windy to me - Like the first tears of love... “Russia”

Lermontov, who wrote under the existing serfdom, also addresses the theme of Russia from a social perspective, calling it “a country of slaves, a country of masters.”

Life there is hard for people early on. There, behind joys, reproach rushes, There a man groans from slavery and chains!.. “The Turk’s Complaints”

During the time of Blok, Russia was not at all the same as during the time of Lermontov. But Blok avoided describing inertia, savagery, ignorance, hunger, poverty and drunkenness, although he several times calls Russia “beggar”:

So - I recognized poverty in my slumber of my native land, And in the flaps of its rags I hide my soul's nakedness. "Rus"

Russia remains for Blok the ideal of purity and holiness, love for it is saving:

Rus' cradled the living soul, in its vastness you, And now - it did not stain the Original purity... “Rus”

The motif of the road is closely connected with the image of Russia, especially clearly in Blok (“Russia”, “On the Kulikovo Field”), but it is also present in Lermontov: “I like to ride in a cart along a country road” (“Motherland”). The image of the road symbolizes the eternal movement of Russia in a vast space, a movement that will sooner or later change its life. Lermontov's Russia, romantically idealized in its historical past and despised at a specific historical moment, and Blok's Russia, mysterious, crazy, beloved - two very different images. The differences in the depiction of Russia by each of the poets are due to the time of life of the authors, as well as the peculiarities of their personal worldview.

I love my fatherland, but with a strange love (M. Lermontov, A. Blok)

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"I love the Fatherland, but with a strange love"

Perhaps the theme of the homeland is the main one in the work of all great Russian writers. She finds a peculiar refraction in the lyrics of M. Yu. Lermontov. In some ways, his sincere thoughts about Russia coincide with Pushkin’s. Lermontov is also not satisfied with the present of his homeland; he also wishes her freedom. But his lyrics do not contain Pushkin’s ardent optimistic confidence that “she will rise, a star of captivating happiness.” His penetrating and merciless gaze as an artist reveals those negative aspects of Russian life that make the poet feel a sense of hatred towards them and part with his fatherland without any regret.

Goodbye, unwashed Russia,

Country of slaves, country of masters,

And you, blue uniforms,

And you, their devoted people.

In Lermontov’s well-honed, laconic lines, the evil that causes his anger and indignation is concentrated to the utmost. And this evil is slavery of the people, despotism of autocratic power, persecution of dissent, restriction of civil liberties.

A feeling of sorrow for the oppressed homeland permeates the poem "The Turk's Complaints." The acute political content forces the poet to resort to allegory. The title of the poem refers to the despotic state regime of Turkey, in which the national liberation struggle of the Greeks under its rule was carried out. These anti-Turkish sentiments found sympathy in Russian society. At the same time, progressively minded readers understood the true meaning of the poem, which was directed against the hated autocratic-serfdom regime of Russia.

Early life there is hard for people,

There, behind the joys comes reproach,

There a man groans from slavery and chains!..

Friend! this region... my homeland!

Yes, Lermontov was not satisfied with Nikolaev Russia in the 30s of the 19th century, which marked his creative maturity. What fueled Lermontov’s love for his homeland? Perhaps her glorious heroic past? Lermontov, like Pushkin, was admired by the courage, resilience, and patriotism of the Russian people, who defended the freedom of their native country in the terrible years of the Patriotic War of 1812. He dedicated the wonderful poem “Borodino” to the most striking heroic event of this war, which was already history for Lermontov. Admiring the feat of the Russian heroes of the past, the poet involuntarily recalls his generation, which passively endures oppression, making no attempt to change the life of its fatherland for the better.

Yes, there were people in our time

Not like the current tribe:

The heroes are not you!

They got a bad lot:

Not many returned from the field...

If it weren't God's will,

They wouldn't give up Moscow!

In the poem “Motherland,” Lermontov nevertheless says that this “glory bought with blood” cannot give him “a joyful dream.” But why is this poem filled with some kind of bright, Pushkin-like mood? There is no rebellious angry spirit characteristic of Lermontov. Everything is quiet, simple, peaceful. Even the poetic rhythm here gives the work smoothness, slowness and majesty. At the beginning of the poem, Lermontov talks about his “strange” love for his homeland. This oddity lies in the fact that he hates autocratic-serf Russia, the country of “blue uniforms,” and with all his heart he loves the people of Russia, its discreet but charming nature. In "Motherland" the poet paints a people's Russia. Pictures dear to the heart of every Russian person appear before the poet’s mind’s eye.

But I love - for what, I don’t know myself -

Its steppes are coldly silent,

Her boundless forests sway,

The floods of its rivers are like seas.

The artist paints here three successively changing landscape images: the steppe, the forest and the river, which are typical of Russian folklore. After all, in folk songs the steppe is always wide and free. With its immensity and infinity it attracts the poet. The image of a heroic, mighty forest enhances the impression of the power and scope of Russian nature. The third image is a river. Unlike the fast, impetuous mountain rivers of the Caucasus, they are majestic, calm, and full of water. Lermontov emphasizes their strength by comparing them with the seas. This means that the greatness, scope and breadth of his native nature evokes in the poet “pleasant dreams” about the great future of Russia and its people. These reflections of Lermontov echo the thoughts of other great Russian writers - Gogol and Chekhov, who saw in their native nature a reflection of the national spirit of their people. Lermontov's entire poem is permeated with ardent love for rural, rural Russia.

I love the smoke of burnt stubble,

A nomadic convoy in the steppe

And on a hill in the middle of a yellow field

A couple of white birches.

With joy unknown to many

I see a complete threshing floor

A hut covered with straw

Window with carved shutters...

The severity of the people's forced position makes the poet see with particular joy the few “traces of contentment and labor” that still exist in peasant life. He seems to lead the reader with him through the forest and steppes, along a country road to a village, to a simple hut and stops to admire the daring Russian dance “with stomping and whistling to the chatter of drunken peasants.” He is endlessly pleased by the sincere folk fun at the holiday. One can feel the poet’s ardent desire to see the Russian people happy and free. The poet considers only her, people's Russia, his real homeland.

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“I love my fatherland, but with a strange love!”

Poems by M.Yu. Lermontov is almost always an internal tense monologue, a sincere confession, questions asked to oneself, and answers to them. The poet feels his loneliness, melancholy, misunderstanding. One joy for him is his homeland. Many poetic lines of M.Yu. Lermontov are filled with sincere love for the Motherland. He endlessly loves his people, keenly feels the beauty of his native nature. In the poem “Motherland,” the poet clearly separates genuine patriotism from the imaginary, official patriotism of Nicholas Russia.

In the poem “When the Yellowing Field is Worried,” Lermontov continues to reflect on his “strange love” for the Motherland. It lies in the love of fields, forests, simple landscapes, and a couple of “sick birches.” Native spaces, nature seem to heal the poet, he feels his unity with God:

Then the souls of my anxiety are humbled,

Then the wrinkles on the forehead disperse,

And I can comprehend happiness on earth,

And in the heavens I see God.

But Lermontov’s Russia is not only landscape sketches, not only expanse, native endless expanses; Lermontov’s Russia also appears in another form, it is “... unwashed Russia, a country of slaves, a country of masters...”

Such a slavishly obedient country is hated by the poet; such a Motherland can only evoke contempt. It is precisely this mood that permeates the poem “Farewell, unwashed Russia...”

In the work “On the Death of a Poet,” endlessly mourning the untimely death of A.S. Pushkin, Lermontov clearly and clearly defined the poet’s place in life and literature. A true artist cannot be a lonely wanderer. He not only sees the problems of his country, he suffers from them. Lermontov is characterized by a sense of high responsibility to his readers. He did not understand literature that stood apart from the social life of Russia.

In the 30s, the poet began to be concerned with the historical theme, from which he draws strength and confidence in the greatness of the people and the country. He creates “Borodino” and “Song about Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich, the young guardsman and the daring merchant Kalashnikov.”

In the poem "Borodino" Lermontov glorifies the feat of the Russian soldiers, the "heroes" who won the War of 1812. And the Battle of Borodino was perceived by Lermontov’s contemporaries as a symbol of victory, as the main battle of the Patriotic War. The author admires the generation of the 10s of the 19th century, on whose shoulders the brunt of the war fell:

Yes! There were people in our time

Not like the current tribe,

The heroes are not you!

This generation is contrasted with the generation of the 30s, which “will pass by in a gloomy and soon forgotten crowd”, “not abandoning to the centuries either the fertile thought or the genius of the work begun.”

Lermontov is also interested in another era, the era of the reign of Ivan the Terrible. The historical poem “Song about Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich, the young guardsman and the daring merchant Kalashnikov” is dedicated to this era. But the real hero of the poem is not Tsar Ivan the Terrible, but the young merchant Kalashnikov. This hero is close to the heroes of Russian folk epic, for example, epic heroes.

Merchant Kalashnikov is noble and brave. He fights with the guardsman Kiribeevich in mortal combat, trying to defend his wife’s honor and defend his human dignity. The brave merchant took revenge for his insulted honor, killed his offender in a fair battle on the Moscow River, but he himself paid with his life. Merchant Kalashnikov did not even reveal to the Tsar himself, Ivan the Terrible, the true reason for his action, nor did he bow his proud head:

And the wild winds roar and roar

Over his nameless grave,

And good people pass by:

A man will pass by and cross himself,

A good fellow will pass - he will stop,

If a girl passes by, she will become sad,

And the guslar players will pass by and sing a song.

M.Yu. Lermontov was looking among his contemporaries for an active personality who could change the “imperfection” of the world, and did not find it, but the historical past was replete with such heroes. The poet keenly felt this dissonance, so he tried to evoke bright, ambiguous reactions from others with his patriotic lyrics.

Undoubtedly, Lermontov became a national poet. Many of his poems were set to music during the poet’s lifetime, and even more became songs and romances after his death. So the work of the great creator has not faded away, but continues to live and give birth to deep and strong feelings in the hearts of millions.

I love my fatherland, but with a strange love! ‎ My reason will not defeat her. ‎‎ ‎ Neither glory bought with blood, nor peace full of proud trust, nor cherished legends of dark antiquity stir in me a joyful dream. ‎‎ But I love - for what, I don’t know myself - ‎‎ Her steppes’ cold silence, ‎‎ Her boundless swaying forests, ‎‎ The floods of her rivers are like seas. On a country road I love to ride in a cart and, with my slow gaze piercing the shadows of the night, meet on the sides, sighing for an overnight stay, the trembling lights of sad villages. ‎‎ ‎ I love the smoke of burnt stubble, ‎‎‎ ‎ A convoy train spends the night in the steppe ‎‎‎ ‎ And on a hill in the middle of a yellow cornfield ‎‎‎ ‎ A pair of whitening birches. ‎‎‎ ‎ With joy, unfamiliar to many, ‎‎‎ ‎ I see a complete threshing floor, ‎‎‎ ‎ A hut covered with straw, ‎‎‎ ‎ A window with carved shutters. ‎‎‎ ‎ And on a holiday, in a dewy evening, ‎‎‎ ‎ I’m ready to watch until midnight ‎‎‎ ‎ To dance with stomping and whistling ‎‎‎ ‎ To the talking of drunken peasants.

The creative heritage of the Russian poet and writer Mikhail Lermontov includes many works that express the author’s civic position. However, the poem “Motherland,” written by Lermontov in 1941, shortly before his death, can be classified as one of the most striking examples of patriotic lyrics of the 19th century.

Writers who were contemporaries of Lermontov can be divided into two categories. Some of them sang the beauty of Russian nature, deliberately turning a blind eye to the problems of the village and serfdom. Others, on the contrary, tried to reveal the vices of society in their works and were known as rebels. Mikhail Lermontov, in turn, tried to find a golden mean in his work, and the poem “Motherland” is rightfully considered the crowning achievement of his desire to express his feelings towards Russia as fully and objectively as possible.

One consists of two parts, different not only in size, but also in concept. The solemn introduction, in which the author declares his love for the Fatherland, is replaced by stanzas that describe the beauty of Russian nature. The author admits that he loves Russia not for its military feats, but for the beauty of nature, originality and bright national color. He clearly distinguishes concepts such as homeland and state, noting that his love is strange and somewhat painful. On the one hand, he admires Russia, its steppes, meadows, rivers and forests. But at the same time, he is aware that the Russian people are still oppressed, and the stratification of society into rich and poor becomes more pronounced with each generation. And the beauty of the native land is not able to veil the “trembling lights of sad villages.”

Researchers of this poet's work are convinced that by nature Mikhail Lermontov was not a sentimental person. In his circle, the poet was known as a bully and a brawler, he loved to mock his fellow soldiers and resolved disputes with the help of a duel. Therefore, it is all the more strange that from his pen were born not bravura patriotic or accusatory lines, but subtle lyrics with a touch of slight sadness. However, there is a logical explanation for this, which some literary critics adhere to. It is believed that people of a creative nature have amazing intuition or, as it is commonly called in literary circles, the gift of foresight. Mikhail Lermontov was no exception and, according to Prince Peter Vyazemsky, he had a presentiment of his death in a duel. That is why he hastened to say goodbye to everything that was dear to him, taking off for a moment the mask of a jester and actor, without which he did not consider it necessary to appear in high society.

However, there is an alternative interpretation of this work, which, undoubtedly, is key in the poet’s work. According to the literary critic Vissarion Belinsky, Mikhail Lermontov not only advocated the need for government reforms, but also foresaw that very soon Russian society with its patriarchal way of life would change completely, completely and irrevocably. Therefore, in the poem “Motherland,” sad and even nostalgic notes slip through, and the main leitmotif of the work, if you read it between the lines, is an appeal to descendants to love Russia as it is. Do not exalt her achievements and merits, do not focus on social vices and imperfections of the political system. After all, homeland and state are two completely different concepts that should not be tried to be brought to a single denominator even with good intentions. Otherwise, love for the Motherland will be seasoned with the bitterness of disappointment, which is what the poet who experienced this feeling was so afraid of.