Farewell, free elements!
For the last time before me
You're rolling blue waves
And you shine with proud beauty.
Like a friend's mournful murmur,
Like his call at the farewell hour,
Your sad noise, your inviting noise
I heard it for the last time.
My soul's desired limit!
How often along your shores
I wandered silent and foggy,
We languish with cherished intentions!
I loved your reviews so much
Muffled sounds, abyssal voices
And silence in the evening hour,
And wayward impulses!
The humble sail of the fishermen,
Guarded by your whim,
Glides bravely among the swells:
But you jumped, irresistible,
And a flock of ships are sinking.
Couldn't leave it forever
I find the boring, motionless shore
Congratulate you with delight
And guide along your ridges
My poetic escape!
You waited, you called... I was chained;
My soul was torn in vain:
Enchanted by powerful passion,
I was left by the shores...
What to regret? Wherever now
Have I set out on a careless path?
One item in your desert
It would strike my soul.
One rock, a tomb of glory...
There they fell into a cold sleep
Majestic memories:
Napoleon was dying there.
There he rested amidst torment.
And after him, like the noise of a storm,
Another genius rushed away from us,
Another ruler of our thoughts.
Disappeared, mourned by freedom,
Leaving the world your crown.
Make noise, get excited by bad weather:
He was, O sea, your singer.
Your image was marked on it,
He was created by your spirit:
How powerful, deep and gloomy you are,
Like you, indomitable by nothing.
The world is empty... Now where to
Would you take me out, ocean?
The fate of people everywhere is the same:
Where there is a drop of good, there is on guard
Enlightenment or tyrant.
Goodbye sea! I won't forget
Your solemn beauty
And I will hear for a long, long time
Your hum in the evening hours.
In the forests, in the deserts are silent
I’ll bear it, I’m full of you,
Your rocks, your bays,
And the shine, and the shadow, and the sound of the waves.
Analysis of the poem “To the Sea” by Pushkin
A. S. Pushkin wrote the poem “To the Sea” under the impression of his stay in Odessa in Southern exile. Pushkin experienced enormous boredom and dissatisfaction from the petty clerical position assigned to him as punishment. He found a way out only in creative pursuits, for which he was inspired by the Black Sea. Parting with Odessa, Pushkin began work on his farewell work “To the Sea.” It was completed already in Mikhailovsky in 1824.
The poem is written in the genre of elegy. The first part is devoted exclusively to the beauty of the “free elements”. Pushkin is glad to escape from the imprisonment that burdened him, but feels sadness from saying goodbye to the sea. He compares the sounds of the sea surf with the farewell call of a faithful friend when parting. The poet indulges in happy memories of walks along the seashore. The “cherished intention” he mentions is Pushkin’s plans to escape abroad.
The poet is delighted with the greatness of the sea. He sees in him a manifestation of a higher power that does not care about the individual. In a calm state, the sea hospitably opens its expanses to numerous fishermen. But a fleeting whim of nature turns the sea into a powerful element that easily destroys a “flock of ships.”
Pushkin compares his escape plans to a call from the sea. In the fact that they did not come true, he sees the influence of “mighty passion.” This passion can be interpreted as love for the homeland, which did not allow the great poet to leave Russia. He doesn't regret the decision taken. Having left his Fatherland, Pushkin would have become like an eternal exile. In connection with this thought, he introduces into the poem the image of a romantic hero - Napoleon. The life path of the French emperor was a favorite theme for romanticism. His life imprisonment on a lost, lonely island was considered the real embodiment of the tragic fate of a genius misunderstood by the crowd.
In the poem, the image of “another ruler of our thoughts” appears, who died at the beginning of 1824. Pushkin highly valued the work of the English romantic and constantly turned to him in his works. He considered Byron the “singer” of freedom and justice. The image of the sea was closest to his powerful and indomitable spirit. Byron's tragic death was of great importance for Pushkin. It symbolized the defeat of freedom and the victory of tyranny, the triumph of reaction. The poet makes a pessimistic conclusion that the “fate of the earth” is the same everywhere. Escape from Russia, in essence, would not have changed anything.
In the final lines, Pushkin again turns to the sea with a promise to forever preserve its “solemn beauty” in memory, to convey the image of the sea to Russian fields and forests.
Farewell, free elements!
For the last time before me
You're rolling blue waves
And you shine with proud beauty.Like a friend's mournful murmur,
Like his call at the farewell hour,
Your sad noise, your inviting noise
I heard it for the last time.My soul's desired limit!
How often along your shores
I wandered silent and foggy,
We languish with cherished intentions!I loved your reviews so much
Muffled sounds, abyssal voices,
And silence in the evening hour,
And wayward impulses!The humble sail of the fishermen,
Guarded by your whim,
Glides bravely among the swells:
But you jumped, irresistible, -
And a flock of ships are sinking.Couldn't leave it forever
I find the boring, motionless shore
Congratulate you with delight
And guide along your ridges
My poetic escape.You waited, you called... I was chained;
My soul was torn in vain:
Enchanted by powerful passion,
I was left by the shores.What to regret? Wherever now
Have I set out on a careless path?
One item in your desert
It would strike my soul.One rock, a tomb of glory...
There they fell into a cold sleep
Majestic memories:
Napoleon was dying there.There he rested amidst torment.
And after him, like the noise of a storm,
Another genius rushed away from us,
Another ruler of our thoughts.Disappeared, mourned by freedom,
Leaving the world your crown.
Make noise, get excited by bad weather:
He was, O sea, your singer.Your image was marked on it,
He was created by your spirit:
How powerful, deep and gloomy you are,
Like you, indomitable by nothing.The world is empty... Now where to
Would you take me out, ocean?
The fate of people everywhere is the same:
Where there is a drop of good, there is on guard
Enlightenment or tyrant.Goodbye sea! I won't forget
Your solemn beauty
And I will hear for a long, long time
Your hum in the evening hours.In the forests, in the deserts are silent
I’ll bear it, I’m full of you,
Your rocks, your bays,
And the shine, and the shadow, and the sound of the waves.
Analysis of Pushkin's poem "To the Sea"
In 1820, Alexander Pushkin was sent into southern exile due to freethinking and an open call for the overthrow of the autocracy. The poet was ordered to go to the disposal of the Chairman of the Trustee Committee on Foreign Colonists of Southern Russia, General Ivan Inzov, whose headquarters was located in Chisinau. The dusty and provincial capital of Bessarabia made such a depressing impression on Pushkin that two years later, against the wishes of the Governor-General of St. Petersburg, the poet achieved a transfer to sunny Odessa. There Pushkin saw the sea for the first time and was amazed by its power, beauty and splendor.
In 1824, the poet was allowed to return to Moscow, but on the eve of his departure he sketched a draft of the poem “To the Sea”, work on which was completed several months later in Mikhailovsky. This work was the last in the poet’s cycle of romantic poems, amazingly imaginative, exciting and filled with special charm.
The poem “To the Sea” in its form resembles an elegy, but the content of the work is of a personal and philosophical nature. In its first lines, the author says goodbye to the sea, expressing admiration for the “free elements” and “proud waves.” It was precisely these qualities that Pushkin himself lacked during his southern exile, who was forced to perform routine work in the office, being under the constant control of higher officials. At the same time, the poet understood that expressing his progressive views in provincial society was not only pointless, but also quite dangerous - Count Vorontsov, who disliked the poet, periodically sent dispatches to St. Petersburg with denunciations of the freethinker, in which he characterized Pushkin as a very mediocre specialist who Every now and then he neglects his official duties.
Saying goodbye to the sea, the poet emphasizes that for many months in this alien and hostile world it remained his only friend. The author admires the sea element, which is beyond anyone’s control. And this is precisely what gives the poet a feeling of spiritual kinship with the expanses of the sea. In the sound of the waves, Alexander Pushkin hears a call to escape from a foreign land, but admits that he was not able to take such a step. “You waited, you called... I was shackled,” the poet writes, hinting that an attempt to return to Moscow or St. Petersburg without the appropriate permission from the authorities would have ended for him not in southern, but in Siberian exile. Nevertheless, Pushkin is still considering this option. However, thinking about escape, he believes that it would be much easier to leave Russia by sea.
Why didn’t the poet dare to do such an act? The answer can be found in the poem “To the Sea,” where the author confesses his boundless love for his homeland. Even exciting thoughts about freedom cannot make him leave Russia forever. In addition, Pushkin is aware that an unenviable fate awaits him in a foreign land, hinting that he will most likely share the fate of Napoleon, ending his life not in civilized Europe, from where he can be expelled at the first request of the Russian authorities, and on a remote island, among the sea and rocks. Turning to history, Pushkin notes that the French emperor was also a freedom-loving man and calls on the sea to give him posthumous honors - “make noise, be agitated by bad weather: he was, O sea, your singer.” After his death, the poet understands that escape loses all meaning. Therefore, the author can only come to terms with his own fate and wait for the moment when he can return home, preserving in his memories the beauty of the sea element - “your rocks, your bays, and the shine, and the shadow, and the sound of the waves.”
Epithets, metaphors, personifications...
There is a huge amount in the text expressive means, among them:
- appeals - “free element”, “the limit of desires”, “oh, sea”, “ocean”;
- personifications - “(you, sea) sparkle with beauty”, “the soul was torn”, “mourned by freedom”, “the talk of the waves”, “a flock of ships”;
- epithets - “free element “proud beauty”, “mourning murmur”, “sad, inviting noise”, “desired limit”, “humble sail”, “boring shore”, “poetic escape”, “mighty passion”, “cold dream” ", "solemn beauty";
- paraphrase – “the sea is a free element”, “waves - swells - ridges”;
- metaphors - “shine with beauty”, “voice of the abyss”, “kept by whim”, “tomb of glory (St. Helena Island)”, “Napoleon was fading away”, “we are tormented by intent”, “a drop of good”, “fascinated by passion (a hint of infatuation with his wife M. A. Vorontsova Elizaveta Ksaverevna)";
- comparison - “like a murmur, like a call - your noise”;
- polyunion - “both silence... and... gusts” reflects the volumetricity of the image of the sea;
- anaphora - “you waited, you called ...”, “another ... genius, another ruler (about Byron, who died in April 1924)”;
- syntactic parallelism - “how powerful you are, ... how indomitable you are”;
- Numerous examples of inversion - “I heard”, “the desired limit”, “my soul was torn” - help to implement harmonious rhyming;
- rhetorical questions - “What to regret?”, “Where would…the path…head?”, “…where…would you take…?” - reflect the uncertainty of a young man standing at a crossroads in life;
- omissions: “I stayed by the shores...” - the author hints that the alternative to escape was quite attractive; “the world is empty...” emphasizes the author’s confusion - he has lost his greatest literary authority;
- rhetorical exclamations - “...the limit of the soul...!”, “How often I wandered, ... we languish!”, “Farewell, sea!” reflect the emotional mood of the lyrical hero;
- the lexical repetition “I will listen for a long, long time” formalizes the promise to remember the sea (sea roar), even being far from it;
- rows of homogeneous members of the sentence - “reviews, sounds, voice, silence, gusts”, “rocks, bays, shine, shadow, talk” - relate exclusively to the sea element, describing it in many ways;
- Old Slavonicisms - “glas”, “breg”, “fishermen”, “in vain (in vain)”, “now”, “cold”, “rested (reposed)” add solemnity to speech and emphasize the importance of the moment.
The line “enlightenment or a tyrant is on guard there” is a reference to Rousseau’s thesis, taken up by the romantics, that enlightenment is the root of all evil, and salvation lies in a return to nature. The last three verses of this stanza never appeared in print during Pushkin’s lifetime.
The original version of the poem “To the Sea” was written by Pushkin in southern exile, in Odessa. The poet returned to this message in a “new” exile - in Mikhailovsky, in 1824. This poem completed the romantic period of Pushkin's work.
Elegiac motifs are very noticeable in this work. Moreover, as V. A. Grekhnev notes, in Pushkin’s elegiac disappointment three different spheres of life are combined - philosophical, historical and concrete biographical, and the interpenetration of these spheres is preserved in every line of the poem.
At the beginning of the poem, the personal, specific biographical aspect predominates. The poet has an elegiac motive of sadness when parting with the sea:
Farewell, free elements!
For the last time before me
You're rolling blue waves
And you shine with proud beauty.
Like a friend's mournful murmur,
Like his call at the farewell hour,
Your sad noise, your inviting noise
I heard it for the last time.
The sea is capricious and whimsical, just like human impulses. It is unpredictable, just like the secret desires of the soul. The sea can be quiet and peaceful, but it can also be formidable, bringing death to a person:
The humble sail of the fishermen,
Guarded by your whim,
Glides bravely among the swells:
But you jumped, irresistible,
And a flock of ships are sinking.
In exactly the same way, a person dies who surrenders to the power of the elements of passions, crazy desires, and impulsive impulses. However, the image of the sea here symbolizes not only peace human soul, but also fate. She also capriciously plays with people, bringing both joy and unexpected death. Pushkin compares love, passion, a strong feeling that subjugates all aspirations and actions with the unpredictable elements of the sea. However, love often fetters a person’s will and becomes a kind of captivity of the soul and inspiration:
You waited, you called... I was chained;
My soul was torn in vain:
Enchanted by powerful passion,
I was left by the shores...
Here again the author's emotions prevail, and then there is a transition to the historical plane. The romantic image of the sea, the free, free element gives birth in the poet’s mind to memories of a hero with an extraordinary fate - Napoleon, who found his death near the sea, on the island of St. Helena:
One item in your desert
It would strike my soul.
One rock, tomb of glory...
There they fell into a cold sleep
Majestic memories:
Napoleon was dying there.
Another romantic hero in the poem is the poet Byron. Napoleon and Byron... It is not without reason that Pushkin links these two images together. Byron wrote a lot about Napoleon, he was very interested in the personality of the commander.
Thus, the motif of sadness that appears at the beginning of the poem passes through the poet’s historical excursion: Pushkin remembers the death of Napoleon, the death of Byron. Then this motive, through personal experiences, reaches an extra-plot, extra-personal, philosophical level:
The world is empty... Now where to go
Would you take me out, ocean?
The fate of people everywhere is the same:
Where there is good, it is already on guard
Or enlightenment, or a tyrant.
It is noteworthy that the poet equates tyranny with enlightenment. However, here “enlightenment” means “culture”, the world of civilization, which has deprived a person of freedom and naturalness of mental movements. In the poet’s understanding, civilization is a “tyrant” that forcibly interferes with the free flow of human life. The opposition of civilized man to the natural world has always been characteristic of Pushkin’s work (The Prisoner and the Cherkeshenka, Aleko and the Old Gypsy, Onegin and Tatyana). In this poem, the motive of nature is only guessed at: it acts as an alternative to “enlightenment” and tyranny, that pipe dream about which the poet asks the ocean.
The poem ends in Pushkin's life-affirming way. Saying goodbye to the sea, the poet promises to keep the image of a free element in his soul, to correspond to the ideal of a natural, natural person:
In the forests, in the deserts are silent
I’ll bear it, I’m full of you,
Your rocks, your bays,
The composition of the poem is subordinated to the main idea, the idea of freedom. The first part is a description of the sea. Here Pushkin uses expressive epithets (“blue waves”, “proudly beautiful”), comparisons and anaphora (“Like a friend’s mournful murmur, Like his call at the farewell hour, Your sad noise, Your calling noise I heard for the last time”), periphrases (“Farewell, free element!”, “The desired limit of my soul!”), metaphors (“I was chained”), non-union (“How I loved your reviews, dull sounds, abyss voices”), inversion (“I stayed on the shores I..."). Appeals are also used here (“free element” “The desired limit of my soul”), thanks to which the impression of “a conversation with the sea” is created. The poet uses both common vocabulary and Slavicisms (“glas”, “fishermen”, “breg”, “in vain”).
The beginning of the first part is characterized by a simple syntax - simple sentences containing comparisons, homogeneous members, and participial phrases. At the end of the first part there is already complex sentences, allied compounds and non-union compounds. The complication of syntax here reflects the deepening of the main theme of the work.
The phonetic structure of the poem is also remarkable. Already in the first part we encounter alliteration (repetition by the author of consonant sounds) and assonance (repetition of vowels):
Farewell, free elements!
For the last time before me
You're rolling blue waves
And you shine with proud beauty.
In the second part of the poem, Pushkin develops the theme of a freedom-loving personality whose soul is like the sea element. Here images of Napoleon and Byron appear. The second part begins with rhetorical questions (“What should I regret? Where would I direct my careless path now?”). There are also precise, expressive epithets (“careless path”, “solemn beauty”), anaphors (“Like you, powerful, deep and gloomy, Like you, we cannot be tamed by anything”), periphrases (“tomb of glory”, “He was , O sea, your singer”), appeal (“O sea”), comparison (“the noise of a storm”), inversion (“He was created by your spirit”). In addition to common vocabulary, the poet uses words high style(“reposed”, “ruler of our thoughts”, “crown”) and Slavicisms (“cold”, “mighty”).
In the second part of the poem, alliteration and assonance are also found: the hissing “sh”, “sh>>”, “ch”, the drawn-out vowels “u” and “o”, and the sonorous “r” are often repeated here. As N.L. Stepanov notes, the roll call of these sounds resembles the monotonous, mournful murmur of the sea.
Researchers have repeatedly noted a violation of grammatical norms in the poet’s address to the sea. “You were waiting, you were calling...” - Pushkin refers “to the sea”, using the masculine gender, although the noun “sea” is neuter. A convincing explanation for this is given by E. Maimin. The researcher notes that the sea is associated in the poet’s mind with a friend “and is felt as a friend,” therefore the “incorrect” use of words is internally justified.
In this poem we can highlight the third part. The poet plunges into philosophical thoughts about human fate, and then again turns to the image of the sea. And the feeling of hopelessness here is balanced by this appeal. The third part uses appeals (“Now where would you take Me, ocean?”, “Farewell, sea!”), epithets (“silent deserts,” “solemn beauty”), polyunion (“Both shine and shadow, and the talk of the waves”), a rhetorical question (“Now where would you take Me, ocean?”). Pushkin uses high vocabulary (“tyrant”, “good”).
In addition, there are also alliterations and assonances:
In the forests, in the deserts are silent
I’ll bear it, I’m full of you,
Your rocks, your bays,
And the shine, and the shadow, and the sound of the waves.
Pushkin's poems, including "To the Sea", aroused Belinsky's admiration. Analyzing the poet’s romantic “plays,” the critic wrote: “Look and listen attentively to this verse, to this turn of thought, to this play of feeling: in everything you will find pure poetry, impeccable art, complete artistry, without the slightest admixture of prose, like old strong wine, without the slightest admixture of water." I think this assessment is still valid today.
Pushkin began to create this poem while still in exile in Odessa, and completed it on his parents’ estate in Mikhailovskoye in 1824. If before moving to Odessa, Pushkin did not feel so lonely during his exile, then in Odessa, when relations with the governor Vorontsov did not work out, these feelings intensified. It was in such a spiritual mood that the work was created.
The poet's attitude towards the sea is not clear. For him, the sea personifies the best impulses of the human soul: love of freedom and unpredictability. It reminds him of life before exile, when he was in the circle of relatives and friends, whose company he had lost. Hence the sad motives that dominate the poem. Farewell to the sea is farewell to the usual life.
One can view Pushkin’s farewell from another aspect. Pushkin says goodbye to his romantic ideals, which did not justify themselves. He began to move away from romanticism long ago, but he did not succeed completely:
“It was not possible to leave forever
I find the shore boring and motionless...”
The sea for Pushkin and the seething, alluring reality into which he will plunge sooner or later, that is, he is temporarily and not of his own free will removed from it while in exile:
“You waited, you called... I was left by the shores..."
The sea is also compared by the poet with fate. The sea, like fate, can give a person joyful moments, or it can destroy him:
“But you jumped, irresistible,
And the flock of ships are sinking.”
The poet is not sure what awaits him: to glide bravely across the waves or to drown in the depths of the sea.
Contemplation of the sea evokes in the poet thoughts of Napoleon and Byron. Representatives of revolutionary romanticism associated both of these names with the victories and defeats of the revolution. In addition, with their rebellious spirit they resemble the sea. The poet's sadness is intensified by the fact that
The fate of the earth is the same everywhere:
“Where there is a drop of good, there is on guard
Enlightenment or tyrant.”
Reading the poem, it seems that you really hear noise sea waves. The technique of alliteration is often used by the poet in his works. The feeling of the sea appears thanks to the hissing consonants in words “farewell”, “noise”, “roll”, “shine”, “signified” and etc.
The poet finished finishing the poem on his father’s estate. This is clearly manifested in the last stanza, in which the poet mentally transfers the sea cliffs and bays, the talk and shine of the waves into his native silent forests. Perhaps this is even an oath: the poet swears to remain faithful to the spirit of love of freedom, even if he has to part with the sea, and, allegorically, with his former romanticism.
The poem “To the Sea” by Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin absorbed all the best that is in his poetic baggage: rich content, phonetic skill, penetration, lyrical mood, high emotionality.
The poem was written in 1824. By its construction it is lyrical monologue, a conversation between a poet and the sea. The principle of the lyrical monologue, to which Pushkin often resorts, is close to him. Presenting the work in this form allows the author to reveal himself as much as possible and convey his thoughts and thoughts to the reader.
The genre of creation “To the Sea” is philosophical elegy. It is based on the experiences of the poet himself.
See the end of the article for the full text of the poem.
You can listen to the poem
Carrying out an analysis of the poem “To the Sea” by A.S. Pushkin, one can notice that main theme poetic work “To the Sea” » - the topic of interaction between the individual and society, free and oppressive people, problems of relationships between the individual and the authorities.
The development of the lyrical theme does not proceed progressively; it is not at all subject to a clear logical scheme. Heroes, themes, images “appear on stage” one after another, associated with the image of the sea, always capricious and “whimsical.”
The struggle, affirmation and glorification of spiritual freedom man - this is the ideological and thematic basis of this work of Pushkin. The very term “freedom” in the work is both private and universal. It has absorbed individual human, political and philosophical content. Freedom in the elegy is embodied primarily in the image of the sea.
The image of the sea is a symbol of unlimited freedom, which is given by nature, and not by man. Contemplation of the greatness of the sea makes Pushkin think of two serious personalities. They have something in common. This is Byron and Napoleon. With their rebellious, grandiose spirit, they are somewhat similar to the sea element.
Pushkin considered “To the Sea” as a tribute to memory, dedication to Byron, the news of whose death in Missalungi touched the deepest strings of the poet’s soul and greatly shocked him. In a letter to Pyotr Andreevich Vyazemsky, he called his elegy “a small memorial for the repose of the soul of God’s servant Byron.” But despite the importance of this fact, To the Sea is not only about Byron. It is also about Napoleon, and most importantly - about the poet himself, about Pushkin, his fate, thoughts, experiences. Alexander Sergeevich highly appreciated Byron, he understood his greatness. And the merciless death of the great English poet intensified Pushkin’s loneliness, stirred up the tragedy of his own fate and the situation in which he found himself. In the difficult environment of political reaction, pessimistic notes of this creation appeared.
As for Napoleon, the appeal to him by Pushkin and other romantic poets is associated with the unusual nature of his loud personality and fate. The image of Bonaparte in the elegy is most closely intertwined with the image of the sea. And, in general, not only because he whiled away his last days by the sea and was its prisoner. According to the laws of negative connection, the image of Napoleon in Pushkin's mind was associated with the sea-freedom. Alexander Sergeevich clearly outlined his attitude towards Napoleon. In his work “The motionless guard was dozing on the royal threshold”, written, by the way, also in 1824, as “To the Sea”, Napoleon is presented as a “rebellious heir and murderer”.
The presence of Byron and Napoleon in this work is not a lyrical digression, but a conscious step that enhances the original intent of the work. Two people who experienced serious ups and downs in their lives did not change the course of world history. And what's ahead? The departure of great people, the poet’s own experiences, the feeling of dependence on those in power, the inability to control his own destiny - all this worried Pushkin. " The world is empty...Now where to go…»
The image of the sea itself, as a reflection of free elements, is specific throughout the author’s work. “Rolling blue waves”, “wayward gusts”, “mournful murmur”, “dull sounds”. It’s also a poetic image.
The author constantly returns to the majestic, basic image of the sea. We can observe this return from the numerous appeals to the water element at the beginning of the stanzas. “Goodbye, sea!”, “But you jumped up...”, “You waited, you called...”, “Your sad noise...”, “Make noise, get excited by bad weather”, “Goodbye free elements”... These emotional appeals determine the main the leitmotif of this creation, its speech structure of dialogues.
The first part of the poem is a lyrical description of the water element, the second part is devoted to a large extent to personalities: Napoleon, Byron, and the author himself. In the work “To the Sea” two style directions : high, heroically solemn and lyrically personal, personal. To the first type we include themes: the sea, “majestic memories” of Napoleon and Byron, to the second - everything that is emphasized with romantic colors. The work begins in a calm, thoughtfully elegiac tone. But gradually the degree rises, oratorical pathos and high declamation prevail.
Pushkin is an undisputed master of fine literature and phonetic mastery. Starting from the first lines, we not only see a picture of “blue waves”, but also all the splendor of the “proud beauty” of the sea element. Sometimes it seems that you yourself hear the talk of these waves. This effect arises because sounds are combined in a certain way: “sh” - noise, heard, “sch” - goodbye, shine, “ch” - farewell hour, they echo “u” and “o”.
“Farewell, free elements!
For the last time before me
You're rolling blue waves
And you shine with proud beauty.”
The alternation of solemn “r” and hissing “sh” also resembles the sound of the sea, the roll call of waves. This sound tone does not disappear throughout the poem. In the lines about Byron, we see how the voiced and hissing consonants “z”, “ch” and the vowels “u”, “a”, “o” appear in time.
“Your image was marked on it,
He was created by your spirit:
How powerful, deep and dark you are,
Like you, we can’t be tamed by anything.”
In this work of Pushkin, farewell notes are palpably heard. Farewell to the romantic ideal, to “Byronism”, to the rebel Napoleon. All this is yesterday. A new stage in the poet’s life begins.
Pushkin completes his creation on an optimistic note. He promises to preserve the “solemn beauty” of the sea, to transfer it to the “silent deserts” (we are talking about exile in Mikhailovsky). What does it look like? An oath of allegiance to the free elements, the ideals of youth and freedom.
The poem “To the Sea” characterizes Pushkin as a singer of human freedom. This elegy is multifaceted and multifaceted, it shows the features of the era and reveals the thoughts and aspirations of the poet.
“To the Sea” completes the southern, romantic period in the work of A.S. Pushkin. The “rulers of thoughts” are becoming a thing of the past. Pushkin does not return to the image of Napoleon in the future. And with Byron, many differences emerge over time. The poet says goodbye to the “free” and “mighty” sea element, but not only to it. The romantic period in his work is over.
To sea
Farewell, free elements!
For the last time before me
You're rolling blue waves
And you shine with proud beauty.
Like a friend's mournful murmur,
Like his call at the farewell hour,
Your sad noise, your inviting noise
I heard it for the last time.
My soul's desired limit!
How often along your shores
I wandered silent and foggy,
We languish with cherished intentions!
I loved your reviews so much
Muffled sounds, abyssal voices
And silence in the evening hour,
And wayward impulses!
The humble sail of the fishermen,
Guarded by your whim,
Glides bravely among the swells:
But you jumped, irresistible,
And a flock of ships are sinking.
Couldn't leave it forever
I find the boring, motionless shore
Congratulate you with delight
And guide along your ridges
My poetic escape!
You waited, you called... I was chained;
My soul was torn in vain:
Enchanted by powerful passion,
I was left by the shores...
What is there to regret? Wherever now
Have I set out on a careless path?
One item in your desert
It would strike my soul.
One rock, a tomb of glory...
There they fell into a cold sleep
Majestic memories:
Napoleon was dying there.
There he rested amidst torment.
And after him, like the noise of a storm,
Another genius rushed away from us,
Another ruler of our thoughts.
Disappeared, mourned by freedom,
Leaving the world your crown.
Make noise, get excited by bad weather:
He was, O sea, your singer.
Your image was marked on it,
He was created by your spirit:
How powerful, deep and gloomy you are,
Like you, indomitable by nothing.
The world is empty... Now where to
Would you take me out, ocean?
The fate of people everywhere is the same:
Where there is a drop of good, there is on guard
Enlightenment or tyrant.
Goodbye sea! I won't forget
Your solemn beauty
And I will hear for a long, long time
Your hum in the evening hours.
In the forests, in the deserts are silent
I’ll bear it, I’m full of you,
Your rocks, your bays,
And the shine, and the shadow, and the sound of the waves.
