Analysis of the poem M.Yu. Lermontov "The Beggar"

Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov - a name known to everyonesince high school. And those who, in literature classes, raised their hands more often than others, now probably recall the textbook lines that Lermontov is a great representative of Russian romanticism. Perhaps, these words do not say anything to you, but this is the key to understanding Lermontov's works, including the poem Lermontov's “The Beggar”.

Fiery Passion and the Real World

The main condition of the romantic composition is the heroliving a double life. On the one hand, like each of us, he lives in a certain situation and is forced to follow certain rules. But on the other hand, in the soul of a romantic hero there is a dream, a guiding star, a "fiery passion." In romanticism, such a dream, most often, is unattainable (for example, the hero sees his ideal in the past). Therefore, the real world for him is terrible and disgusting. Only inside himself, alone with his guiding star, does the hero find comfort. From here there is a conflict between dream and reality, which becomes the basis of the plots of romantic works.

Poem "The Pauper": what colors are painted the images?

The poem "The Beggar" Lermontov wrote in 1830year when he was only sixteen. Nevertheless, the theme of loneliness already sounds in the work, one of the poet’s central ones (later it appears in such famous poems as “I am bored and sad”; “I go out alone on the road”). Lermontov does not always reflect on loneliness as such: in the poem “As often as the motley crowd is surrounded ...” loneliness in society is considered, and in the poem “The Pauper” the theme of loneliness is combined with a love theme.

The poem is built on the principle of comparison.They are identified, i.e. two images are compared with each other: a beggar (the first two stanzas) and an unrequited lyrical hero in love (the final quatrain). For the depiction of the unfortunate poor man, the poet used colorful definitions - epithets (“poor man, withered, slightly alive”; “living flour”) and word permutation - inversion:

Lermontov in the image of a beggar instantlyreaches the highest drama. The romantic conflict between dream and reality is evident here, because the mean, terrible, inhuman deception of a beggar takes place “at the gate of the holy monastery”. Where is this holiness? Instantly (which is natural for a small poem) a climax is reached. The author comes to her through the anaphor (the same beginning of the lines) in the second stanza:

And so, reaching a climax, keeping the reader on the crest of the climax wave, the poet abruptly switches him to the sphere of love experiences:

It also uses anaphora ("so" - "so"). In this stanza, she helps create a tone for a conclusion summarizing the utterance. To draw in the eyes of the reader a situation that cannot be changed.

Who is a beggar?

The poem depicts not just the endrelationship between a man and a woman. The author is not in vain talking about the "best feelings" lyrical hero. Something more than the hero’s personal life has been destroyed, his guiding star and the “fiery passion” that we talked about before we’ve begun to analyze the poem have been destroyed. Beggar in Lermontov - this is not a "poor man, withered, a little alive." No, this image, despite all its drama, was used only to draw a parallel with the true beggar. Real poverty according to Lermontov is the loss of the best part of your soul, your dream, your star. In this case - the love of a certain ideal that can not deceive. Now the hero is not only surrounded by a terrible world (this is clear to us from the first part of the poem), a terrible world inside of him, since his best feelings are "deceived forever." Soon, the dream will die in the chest of the famous Lermontov hero Mtsyri.

So, the poem "The Pauper" is a sample of an early Lermontov's romantic work in which the most important themes in the poet's work are touched upon.