The main idea of Pushkin's "Song of the Prophetic Oleg". A
Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin is the greatest Russian poet and writer. The Russian spirit is always present in his works; he shows the Russian man in development.
The name of Prince Oleg, to whom the “Song…” is dedicated, has been etched in history since ancient times. There are many songs, legends and stories about him. He was a wise, talented, fearless and resourceful military leader.
Pushkin loved and knew history. In "Song of prophetic Oleg“He reflected the theme of fate, the inevitability of fate. The author admires the strength and courage of the prince:
How the prophetic Oleg is getting ready now
To take revenge on the foolish Khazars:
Their villages and fields for a violent raid
He condemned him to swords and fires;
With his squad, in Tsaregrad armor,
The prince rides across the field on a faithful horse.
Oleg is shown in “Song...” as a hero who is not afraid of anything, makes raids, and always wins. But not everything in life depends on his talent and strength. The truth is that if something is supposed to come true, then it will definitely come true, there is no hiding from it. It was this warning of the “wise old man” that Oleg did not believe:
Now remember my words:
Glory to the warrior is joy;
Glorified by victory your name:
Your shield is on the gates of Constantinople;
Both the waves and the land are submissive to you;
The enemy is jealous of such a wondrous fate.
...Your horse is not afraid of dangerous work;
He, sensing the master's will,
Then the humble one stands under the arrows of enemies,
Then he rushes across the battlefield.
And the cold and slashing are nothing to him...
But you will receive death from your horse.
The fortuneteller is “an inspired magician, an old man obedient to Perun alone,” he appears before the reader as a person who always tells the truth and does not depend on anyone’s opinion. He has nothing to fear, he has seen a lot in the world:
The Magi are not afraid of mighty rulers,
But they don’t need a princely gift;
Their prophetic language is truthful and free
And friendly with the will of heaven.
The coming years lurk in darkness;
But I see your lot on your bright brow...
It seems to Oleg that he can get away from evil fate, and he sends his horse away, trying to get rid of the threat of death:
Farewell, my comrade, my faithful servant,
The time has come for us to part:
Now rest! I won't set foot anymore
Into your gilded stirrup.
Farewell, be comforted - and remember me.
You, fellow youths, take a horse...
But many years later, when the prince thinks that the danger has passed because his horse is dead, fate overtakes Oleg:
So this is where my destruction was hidden!
The bone threatened me with death!
From the dead head of the grave serpent,
Hissing, meanwhile she crawled out;
Like a black ribbon wrapped around my legs,
And the suddenly stung prince cried out.
Pushkin imagines the horse to be as strong and brave as his owner. He is loyal to Oleg, who appreciates his devotion:
And a faithful friend with a farewell hand
And the cool guy strokes and pats his neck...
...Where is my friend? - said Oleg, -
Tell me, where is my zealous horse?
A.S. Pushkin shows that every person in life has his own purpose, everyone has his own destiny. But friends need to be loved and respected during life, so that later it will not be sad and painful. After all, friends will always help, they won’t leave you in trouble, you should value real friends.
The plot and language of “The Song of the Prophetic Oleg” is fascinating, memorable, remaining in the hearts of readers for a long time, and leads to serious thoughts about the meaning of life, about the role of man.
The great Russian poet Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin was the founder of Russian realistic literature. With his poetry, he brings out the best in people and makes them forget about the little things and worries of life. But to comprehend the full meaning of his thoughts...
From the chronicles it is known that at the beginning of the 10th century Prince Oleg ruled in Kyiv. He made a successful campaign against Constantinople and concluded a trade agreement with Byzantium that was beneficial for Russian merchants. In response to the raids of nomadic tribes from the east, Oleg and his army committed...
I like to read Pushkin's poems. But it becomes especially interesting if you learn about the events from them Russian history, about “deeds of bygone days, legends of deep antiquity.” After reading "The Song of the Prophetic Oleg", I learned one...
Old Russian chronicles mention that Oleg ruled in Kyiv. He made successful campaigns against Tsar Grad, towards the Caspian Sea, liberating the lands from the Khazars’ raids, and concluded a profitable trade agreement with Byzantium for Russian merchants.
About the prince...
The basis of the poem “Song of the Prophetic Oleg” by Pushkin was the chronicle story about the fate of the first prince of Kyiv (reigned 879 - 912), which the poet became acquainted with from Karamzin’s “History of the Russian State”. Pushkin recreates the event outline of the chronicle, however, the figurative system of the poem includes a larger number of images, although, of course, two remain central: the image of Prince Oleg and the “wise old man” who revealed his fate to the prince. But great importance also have images of the Russian squad, created in, and the horse - this image is created by showing how the magician describes the behavior of the horse in battle, as well as by describing Oleg’s attitude towards his “comrade”, the feelings that the prince experiences when he learns that he is destined to “accept death” from "his horse."
Oleg is shown as a powerful, brave warrior who thinks not about himself, but about the interests of the Motherland, his “revenge” on the “unwise Khazars” is a response to the “violent raid”, it is fair in its very essence. His attitude towards the sorcerer is respectful, he himself drives up to him, asks him to “tell” “what will come true in life for me,” while promising that he will accept any prediction as a manifestation of the highest will. This behavior of the prince demonstrates his dignity, ability to appreciate another person and the higher powers, the messenger of which this person is on earth.
The “elder” also behaves with great dignity, he feels strong because he feels he is a messenger of the “heavenly will”: “The Magi are not afraid of mighty rulers, And they do not need a princely gift; Their prophetic language is truthful and free...”. Saying that Oleg is invulnerable in battle, the elder explains this not so much by the undoubted personal courage and victories of the prince (“Your name is glorified by victory”), but again by a higher will: “An invisible guardian has been given to the mighty.” And this same “invisible guardian” turns out to be powerless before the “lot” that is destined for the prince: “But you will receive death from your horse”...
It is noteworthy that the words of the elder were received by Oleg with distrust - “Oleg grinned” - but even the prince cannot disobey the higher will, so he says goodbye to the horse, hoping in this way to avoid the fate prepared for him. Oleg is a warrior, therefore he believes that “death by his horse” means death in battle, when the horse does not help out its owner. The first part of the work “Song of the Prophetic Oleg” ends with the scene of the prince’s touching farewell to the “faithful horse,” who will now have to live far from battles and dangers, because Oleg orders that everything be done so that the horse does not need anything, expressing such care gratitude to him for his faithful service.
The second part of the poem begins with a scene of a feast, at which the prince, whose “curls” are “white as snow” (with the help of this image, the author shows that a lot of time has passed since the prediction) remembers his “zealous horse,” his “comrade.” The news of the horse's death causes a bitter feeling in the prince; he blames the old man for being a “stupid, crazy old man,” regrets that he believed his prediction, and “he wants to see the bones of the horse.”
Seeing the “noble bones” of his “lonely friend,” Oleg turns to them with words of reassurance and regret, but, as it turns out, right now the time has come for the prediction to be fulfilled: “So this is where my destruction lurks! The bone threatened my death! From the dead head The grave snake, hissing, meanwhile crawled out; like a black ribbon wrapped around his legs, and the stung prince suddenly cried out... The denouement came when a mortal, thinking in earthly categories, could not expect it - but the prediction of the “wise old man” came true, because he just voiced the will of “Perun” - the supreme pagan deity of the Slavs.
The poem “Song of the Prophetic Oleg,” which we analyzed, affirms the inviolability of the world order, in which practically nothing depends on the person himself, when only the highest will determines the fate of everyone - from the prince to the last living creature. A special kind of pagan fatalism, the belief in fate inherent in the ancient Slavs, is expressed in this poem, which is very unusual in its genre (“song”), in which Pushkin the romantic fully manifested himself.
Mayorova Irina, group 201
“Song about the prophetic Oleg” by V.S. Vysotsky and “Song about the prophetic Oleg” by A.S. Pushkin in a comparative aspect.
The text of V. S. Vysotsky “Song of the Prophetic Oleg” is very different from the work of A. S. Pushkin. The first writes his “Song...” in the mid-twentieth century, while A.S. Pushkin wrote “The Song...” at the beginning of the nineteenth century (the difference is almost a century and a half). The result of this difference is completely different goals and objectives set by the authors. Both works are based on the chronicle code called “The Tale of Bygone Years.”
A. S. Pushkin sought to guess “the way of thinking and the language of those times,” to bring the text closer to reality, to make it as reliable as possible, carefully drawing out the details. The author also follows the traditions of romanticism, as evidenced by the pomp of the narrative.
In V.S. Vysotsky, first of all, the image of the sorcerer is desacralized. “The Magician, the Favorite of the Gods” appears before the listener either as a lisping old man, or as a bunch of drunkards, or as one drunken old man. But at the same time, the main plot idea remains unchanged.
Oleg at A.S. Pushkin not only listened carefully to the elder’s words, but also took them for granted:
Oleg grinned; however the brow
And the gaze was darkened by thoughts.
The poet's old man is wise and, following the concept of romanticism, free. Pushkin’s Magi “are not afraid of mighty rulers”; the old man himself can only submit to the god Perun. Their language is “truthful, free and friendly with the heavenly will.” People turn to them in difficult moments of life and on the most exciting issues.
In V.S. Vysotsky’s song, Oleg, not only does he see in the old man nothing more than a crowd of drunkards, but he also takes his words with hostility, and, using his will without any hesitation, deals with the wise men with the help of his squad.
In A.S. Pushkin, Oleg, with great difficulty, gives the horse to the squad, when parting he calls him “comrade and faithful servant,” orders him to be taken care of, fed with “selected grain” and given “spring water” to drink.
After the death of A.S. Pushkin’s horse, Oleg quietly steps on the horse’s skull, as if trying not to damage the remains. For him, this trip is, first of all, the purpose of saying goodbye to an old and faithful friend, and not an opportunity to be convinced of the elder’s “lies.” In Vysotsky, the prince openly mocks: “Oleg calmly laid his foot down.” That is, he shows disrespect for his faithful comrade.
In V.S. Vysotsky’s song, nothing is said at all about Oleg’s parting with the horse; he is mentioned already in the finale in a posthumous form. Actually, the horse from V.S. Vysotsky’s song disappears altogether. For an ancient Russian prince, a horse was a faithful friend and helper, and when a warrior died, his horse was buried next to him. All this, of course, we do not find in V.S. Vysotsky’s “Song...”, since other goals are pursued.
Not only the image of the sorcerer, but also the prince is desacralized. The epithet “prophetic”, i.e. wise, becomes just a sarcastic definition that no longer carries any meaning. Numerous satirical elements appear.
Why does Vysotsky write such a “Song...”? Firstly, the topic of social inequality is raised: “You can’t joke with princes.” Vysotsky's sorcerer becomes on the same level as the black-growing peasant, while in Pushkin the sorcerer is respected and revered by the prince himself. It is quite possible that in the image of the prince who “pushes his line so that no one makes a word” there is an allegory to Soviet power. Accordingly, the Magi are the voice of the people in Vysotsky’s song.
Every sorcerer strives to punish, -
If not, listen, right?
Oleg would listen - one more shield
I would nail it to the gates of Constantinople.
This conclusion also has an allegorical overtone: it’s good to sometimes listen to the “voice of the people.” If Pushkin had this conclusion, it would be possible to interpret the work in the context of romanticism: visions and predictions should be trusted. But Pushkin’s ballad ends with a funeral feast for Oleg:
Circular buckets, foaming, hissing
At the mournful funeral of Oleg:
Prince Igor and Olga are sitting on a hill;
The squad is feasting on the shore;
Soldiers remember days gone by
And the battles where they fought together.
Vysotsky’s song, thanks to the abundance of colloquial vocabulary (necha, can’t, ish, bit, etc.), becomes a fable due to the fact that at the end there is a moralizing conclusion. And if this is a fable, then there must be an allegory, which was mentioned above.
Summarizing all of the above, V. S. Vysotsky’s text cannot be called a parody, since he does not pursue the goal of ridiculing the original text. V. S. Vysotsky uses only the plot and some “supporting phrases” in order, as the poet himself admits, to look at “The Song...” from the “other side.”
Every poet throughout his life, and especially in his mature years, is concerned with the theme of the historical past of his country, his people. For Pushkin, poetry has always been art, the highest manifestation of the creative spirit. Required condition creative activity, he considered the freedom of creativity, the independence of the poet’s personality.
In “The Song of the Prophetic Oleg,” there is some space between the hero and fate, which leaves the possibility of choice, the opportunity to push back or bring forward fatal events.
Prince Oleg is a winner who emerged alive from the most difficult and the most dangerous situations and received death from his horse. The author admires the strength and courage of the prince:
How the prophetic Oleg is getting ready now
To take revenge on the foolish Khazars:
Their villages and fields for a violent raid
He condemned him to swords and fires;
With his squad, in Tsaregrad armor,
The prince rides across the field on a faithful horse.
Oleg is shown in “Song...” as a hero who is not afraid of anything, makes raids, and always wins.
A.S. Pushkin, not remembering the real death of the mighty Oleg, added a folklore motif to the prince’s biography, complementing the image of the prophetic hero in his own way. “The Song of the Prophetic Oleg” is a poetic story based on a plot given in conjunction with a lyrical disclosure of the material.
As a rule, time correlates with the fateful moment, it determines the appointed period, at the same time, it is precisely it that correlates with happiness. Fate seems to connect the past and the future.
The fortuneteller appears before the reader as a person who always tells the truth, who does not depend on anyone’s opinion, he has nothing to fear, he has seen a lot in the world:
The Magi are not afraid of mighty rulers,
But they don’t need a princely gift;
Their prophetic language is truthful and free
And am friendly with the will of heaven.
The coming years lurk in darkness;
But I see your lot on your bright brow.
The cause of Oleg's death was the skull of his beloved horse, which was disturbed by its former owner. A famous symbol played a role here. The skull is a symbol of death and mortality. The snake is also, as a rule, a negative character. It usually predetermines evil, deception, temptation, sin.
Oleg, having heard the prediction, did not believe it at first:
Oleg grinned - but
And the gaze was darkened by thoughts.
In silence, leaning his hand on the saddle,
He gets off his horse gloomily...
But still he abandoned his horse and replaced it with another. After the hike, the prince remembered his favorite horse, but it was too late. It seems that the prophecies turned out to be false: the prince is alive, but the horse is no longer there. But you can't escape fate:
“So this is where my destruction was hidden!
The bone threatened me with death!”
From the dead head of the grave serpent
Hissing, meanwhile she crawled out;
Like a black ribbon wrapped around my legs:
And the suddenly stung prince cried out.
The idea of fatal predetermination permeates the entire poem and shows that no precautions can avert the sign of fate.
Fate determines people’s ideas about the power of the influence of words on a person’s life and its values. The idea of fate is one of the main ones in human life. It arose a long time ago, when a person was just beginning to understand the meaning of his life and his purpose in it. Fate has always been one of the objects of study in the philosophy of life, since human life is filled with feelings, emotions and worries. Mythological fate leaves no room for freedom. It is not a person who chooses, but he is chosen.
A. S. Pushkin in “The Song of the Prophetic Oleg” tries to convey to the reader that each person in life has his own purpose, each has his own destiny. But friends need to be loved and respected during life, so that later it will not be sad and painful.
- Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin is the greatest Russian poet and writer. The Russian spirit is always present in his works; he shows the Russian man in development. The name of Prince Oleg, to whom the “Song…” is dedicated, has been etched in history since ancient times. There are many songs, legends and stories about him. He was a wise, talented, fearless and resourceful military leader. Pushkin loved and knew history. In “Song of the Prophetic Oleg” he reflected the theme of fate, the inevitability of fate. The author admires the strength and courage [...]
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Literary heritage is one of the ways through which a Russian person can get in touch with culture and traditions own people. That is why the article will present an analysis of the “Song of the Prophetic Oleg”. This is a work created by Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin in 1822 in line with artistic treatment historical material.
“Song of the Prophetic Oleg”: analysis of the work from the point of view of the author’s concept
Real historical events, which Pushkin addressed in his own ballad, repeatedly served as material for artistic transformation. An equally famous work after Alexander Sergeevich’s “Song...” is the thought of Kondraty Ryleev “Oleg the Prophet”. It also takes as the basis for the plot one of the episodes in the life of a real-life prince from the Rurik dynasty - Oleg. However, the emphasis here is on something different than in Pushkin. Being an ardent supporter of Decembrism, Ryleev took as his main storyline Oleg's legendary campaign against Constantinople, the capital of Byzantium, to reflect the warlike, heroic spirit that has long been inherent in the Russian people, and to awaken in his compatriots the patriotism necessary to fight tyranny.
What does the analysis of the song about “Prophetic Oleg” show? Pushkin paints a completely different picture. The author focuses on describing the sorcerer's prediction and subsequent events when the prophecy comes true and the prince actually accepts death from a horse. A snake appears in the skull of a deceased comrade, which treacherously crawls out and bites Rurikovich. It would seem that what is hidden in this unremarkable episode of death, albeit not entirely ordinary, and why devote an entire ballad to this? In fact, the author’s idea is extremely deep: against the broad background of historical reality and the life of the Russian people, he portrayed the prince as a person with his inherent weaknesses and passions, unable to resist the fate prescribed from above and fatal predestination. Thus, the motives of the ballad seem to unfold into eternity and ascend to a completely new limit.
Poetic form: rhythm, rhyme and meter
An analysis of the poem “Song of the Prophetic Oleg” allows us to establish that the work was written in stanzas characteristic of the romantic period of the poet’s work. This is an alternating tetrameter and trimeter amphibrachium. This meter was most actively used for writing ballads, for example, by V. A. Zhukovsky, whose original and translated works Pushkin turned to more than once. However, Vasily Andreevich was still a supporter of European subjects. In the traditional ballad form, he liked to put mainly motives that had distant origins from truly Russian and truly folk. Alexander Sergeevich became the founder of a different trend: having borrowed the “frame” from Zhukovsky, he for the first time filled the content with qualitatively new material, taken from the treasury of Russian history.
Each stanza of the poem consists of six lines with the following rhyme system: ababcc. Male and female rhymes alternate with each other. The ballad is characterized by melodiousness and a characteristic slowness with a solemnity and elation of sound appearing in the background.
Ballad genre
In addition, the analysis of “Song of the Prophetic Oleg” implies an analysis of genre characteristics. Formally, the work belongs to the class of ballads. This genre is defined in literary criticism as a work that combines the features of a story and a song, connected by the unity of content and form with folk tales, legends and tales. Distinctive features ballads are:
- depiction of a mysterious, enigmatic world; laconicism; interweaving of lyrical and epic components; the presence of a developing plot with a beginning, climax and denouement; depiction of the feelings of the heroes and the author’s attitude towards the characters; possible replacement of the plot with a dialogue between the characters; a combination of fantasy and reality; depiction of an unusual, semi-mystical landscape .
However, despite this, it was no coincidence that Alexander Sergeevich himself described his work as a “song” in the title. By this he wanted to emphasize the unity of his creation with oral folk art.
Using tropes within a text canvas
Analysis of the “Song of the Prophetic Oleg” reveals that the main technique of the ballad is contrast: the magician and the prince, life and death, earthly power and divine power, forest and field, knowledge and the unknown are contrasted. The abundance of verbal forms shows that the sorcerer and Oleg exist not only in different spaces, but also in different times: the messenger of the gods is outside of time, while Oleg, being a mere mortal, lives in the present and partly in the future (“he is going to take revenge”, “ rides across the field").
An episode of the prince’s life unfolds against the broad background of everyday reality Ancient Rus', the colorfulness of which is recreated through the use of bright epithets (“faithful horse”, “violent raid”, “ wise old man"), many archaic words and their forms ("slash", "sling", "gate"), the author's attention to the details of the world of that time. However, at the same time, the poet does not limit himself in the freedom of creative activity. The independence of the author’s personality, so dear to Pushkin, reveals itself not in violating the logic of the narrative or ignoring the chronicle sources that served as the basis for the ballad, but in the fact that through inconspicuous, at first glance, expressions, Alexander Sergeevich shows his attitude towards the hero and his sad fate.