A poem by A.A. Akhmatova "Native Land" (perception, interpretation, evaluation)

Analysis of the poem Motherland»

A. Akhmatova's poem "Native Land" reflects the theme of the Motherland, which very keenly worried the poetess. IN this work she created the image of her native land not as an exalted, holy concept, but as something ordinary, self-evident, something that is used as a kind of object for life.

The poem is philosophical. The name goes against the content, and only the ending calls for thinking about what the word "native" means. "We lie down in it and become it," the author writes. "Becoming" means to merge with her into one whole, as people were, not yet born, one with their own mother in her womb. But until this merging with the earth comes, humanity does not see itself as a part of it. A person lives without noticing what should be dear to the heart. And Akhmatova does not judge a person for this. She writes “we”, she does not elevate herself above everyone, as if the thought of her native land for the first time made her write a poem, call on everyone else to stop the course of her everyday thoughts and think that the Motherland is the same as her mother . And if so, then why “We don’t wear it on our chests in treasured amulets”, i.e. land is not accepted as sacred, valuable?

With pain in her heart, A. Akhmatova describes the human attitude to the earth: "for us it is dirt on galoshes." How is it considered mud that with which humanity will merge at the end of life? Does that mean that a person will also become dirt? The earth is not only dirt underfoot, the earth is something that should be dear, and everyone should find a place for it in their hearts!

In addition to the analysis of "Native Land", read other works:

"Requiem", analysis of Akhmatova's poem
"Courage", analysis of Akhmatova's poem
“She squeezed her hands under a dark veil ...”, analysis of Akhmatova’s poem
"The Gray-Eyed King", analysis of Akhmatova's poem
"Twenty first. Night. Monday", analysis of Akhmatova's poem
"Garden", analysis of the poem by Anna Akhmatova
"Song of the last meeting", analysis of Akhmatova's poem

The theme of the Motherland is traditional in the work of Russian poets. The image of Russia is connected with the images of infinite space, eternity, the road.

endless road,

Like eternity on earth.

You go, you go, you go, you go

Days and miles are nothing.

These lines, taken from a poem by P. Vyazemsky, can be considered a poetic formula of Russia, where space, time and road have merged into one. The antithesis in the image of Russia is also traditional: the greatness of the country, felt in its vast space, and the poverty and misery of Russian villages and fields. Poems about the Motherland are imbued with admiration, and aching pain, and sadness, but all these feelings can be called only in one word - love. Homeland in the lyrics of Russian poets and mother, and wife, and bride, and the sphinx.

Anna Akhmatova has her own vision of the Motherland and her own special attitude towards it.

For her, Motherland is her native land. It is the word "land" in combination with the epithet "native" that Akhmatova most often uses to name the Motherland.

In the poem "Native Land", written in 1061, the word "land" appears in different meanings. First of all, "earth" is one of the significant constants in the human world, earth as a "loose dark brown substance" (Ozhegov's dictionary). It is with this image that the poem begins:

We don’t wear it on our chests in treasured amulets…

The image of the earth is deliberately prosaic, everyday - "this is dirt on galoshes", "this is a crunch on the teeth." The earth is dust.

And we grind, and knead, and crumble

That unmixed dust.

These lines echo O. Mandelstam's "Poems about the Unknown Soldier", written in 1938:

Arabian mess, crumbly

Millions killed cheaply...

The essence of this poem by Mandelstam is in his humanistic pathos, in protest against the murders. The phrase "Arabian mess, crumbly" refers to the battle of Napoleon in Egypt. The final lines of Akhmatova's poem echo those of Mandelstam:

But we lay down in it and become it,

That is why we call so freely ours.

YES, the earth is dust, the dust from which, according to the Bible, man was created and into which he will turn after death. Thus, the main idea of the poem is the assertion of a deep, indissoluble connection between the earth and man. But this connection is tragic - it is in suffering and death.

The word "land" also appears in the meaning of "homeland", "country". And in this sense, the concept of "homeland" is opposed to other possible interpretations and interpretations. First of all, Akhmatova's poem is a kind of roll call with Lermontov's Motherland. The rhythm and size of the first lines of Akhmatova and Lermontov almost completely coincide - iambic six-foot with pyrrhic in the fifth foot. The difference is that Lermontov's line ends with a feminine rhyme, while Akhmatova's line ends with a more rigid and firm masculine one. Both poems begin with an implicit polemic. Lermontov calls his love for the Fatherland "strange" from the generally accepted point of view. His concept of "Motherland" does not include "glory bought with blood", that is, Russia's military victories; neither peace, understood as stability, the inviolability of the state: nor the "dark antiquity", that is, the historical past of Russia. All these concepts are for rational love. Lermontov's love for the Motherland is unconscious, illogical, heartfelt.

Lermontov's homeland is, first of all, nature, striking the imagination with its grandeur and tranquility. These are steppes with "cold silence", these are "river floods, similar to the seas." Lermontov’s homeland is sad Russian villages and people, drunken peasants, dancing “with stomping and whistling” “on a dewy evening on a holiday.” The lyrical hero of Lermontov and the people are not identified, there is a certain line between them, a distance: “I” - “they”. There is no such distance in Akhmatova's poem. Speaking of the Motherland, she uses the pronoun "we". The lyrical hero of Akhmatova is the people. “I am your voice, the heat of your breath,” the poetess claims, and she is right in this. She did not leave Russia when the “comforting voice” called her to leave “her land, sick and sinful,” as many did. She stayed with the people and divided them tragic fate. Akhmatova's attitude to the Motherland is conveyed in the epigraph:

And in the world there are no people more tearless, arrogant and simpler than us.

The epigraph is taken from Anna Akhmatova’s poem “I am not with those who left the land,” written in 1922, when she faced a choice: share the fate of an exile, for whom “someone else’s bread smells like wormwood,” or stay here. "in the dark haze of the fire." and "not a single blow" can not be deflected from oneself. She chooses the latter and is sure she is right:

And we know that in the assessment of late

Every hour will be justified ...

More than 40 years have passed, and this “late assessment” has come. Yes, she remained faithful to her native land, she did not make "in her soul" her homeland "an object of purchase and sale."

Yes, the native land is not a promised paradise, it is full of grief, pain and suffering, “the sick, the poor, the dumb” live on it. But the native land does not bear the guilt for these sufferings, it is "dust not mixed in anything." In the terrible 20th century, full of cataclysms, wars and revolutions, there is no place for enthusiastic, sensitive tearfulness, it is impossible to compose "poems sobbing." The phrase is taken from Pasternak's poem "February":

And the more random, the more true

Poems are folded up.

“This time is difficult for a pen,” as V. V. Mayakovsky wrote, because it requires firm courage and calmness, almost unfeminine stamina.

The arrogance of the lyrical heroine does not come from a sense of superiority over those who left the country. No, she does not condemn those who left Russia, but rather sympathizes with them and their bitter fate as an exile. Her arrogance stems from self-esteem, from pride and the consciousness of being right. She does not need to remember her native land. Remember those who left. Her native land does not stir her bitter dream, as in the poem of V. Nabokov, who left Russia at the age of nineteen and has been nostalgic for his homeland all his life:

There are nights: I just lie down,

A bed will float to Russia:

And now they lead me to the ravine,

They lead to the ravine to kill.

The anguish of Nabokov's lyrical hero is so great, so unbearable, that after waking up, along with the feeling of "prosperous exile" and the safety of "cover", he is ready for this horrible dream became true, so that it really was like this:

Russia, stars, dawn night

And all in the bird cherry ravine.

Akhmatova's poem "Native Land" rightfully occupies a special place in the anthology of poems about the Motherland. The truth of Akhmatova is simple: to live in her native land, with her people, to lie down in her native land and merge with it in one dust, to become her, that's why the lyrical heroine Akhmatova calls her native land so freely. She suffered and deserved this right.

Effective preparation for the exam (all subjects) - start preparing

Updated: 2018-01-21

Attention!
If you notice an error or typo, highlight the text and press Ctrl+Enter.
Thus, you will provide invaluable benefit to the project and other readers.

Thanks for attention.

The poem "Native Land" was written by A.A. Akhmatova in 1961. It was included in the collection "Wreath of the Dead". The work belongs to civil lyrics. Its main theme is the feeling of the motherland by the poet. The epigraph to it was the lines from the poem “I am not with those who left the earth ...”: “And in the world there are no people more tearless, Haughtier and simpler than us.” This poem was written in 1922. About forty years elapsed between the writing of these two works. Much has changed in Akhmatova's life. She experienced a terrible tragedy - her ex-husband, Nikolai Gumilyov, was accused of counter-revolutionary activities and shot in 1921. Son Leo was arrested and convicted several times. survived the war, famine, disease, blockade of Leningrad. Since the mid-twenties, it has ceased to be published. but ordeal, the loss did not break the spirit of the poetess.
Her thoughts are still turned to the Motherland. Akhmatova writes about this plainly, sparingly, sincerely. The poem begins with a denial of the pathos of patriotic feeling. The love of the lyrical heroine for the Motherland is devoid of external expressiveness, it is quiet and simple:

We do not carry in treasured amulets on the chest,
We do not compose verses sobbingly about her,
She does not disturb our bitter dream,
Doesn't seem like a promised paradise.
We do not do it in our soul
The subject of buying and selling,
Sick, distressed, silent on her,
We don't even remember her.

Researchers have repeatedly noted the semantic and compositional similarity of this poem with the poem by M.Yu. Lermontov "Motherland". The poet also denies state-owned, official patriotism, calling his love for the Motherland "strange":

I love my homeland, but with a strange love!
My mind won't defeat her.
Nor glory bought with blood
Nor full of proud trust peace,
No dark antiquity cherished legends
Do not stir in me a pleasurable dream.
But I love - for what, I don’t know myself - ...

He contrasts the official, state Russia with natural and folk Russia - the breadth of its rivers and lakes, the beauty of forests and fields, the life of the peasantry. Akhmatova also seeks to avoid pathos in her work. For her, Russia is a place where she is ill, in poverty, experiencing hardships. Russia is “dirt on galoshes”, “crunch on the teeth”. But at the same time, this is the Motherland, which is infinitely dear to her, the lyrical heroine seems to have grown together with her:

Yes, for us it is dirt on galoshes,
Yes, for us it is a crunch on the teeth.
And we grind, and knead, and crumble
That unmixed dust.
But we lie down in it and become it.
That is why we call it so freely - ours.

Here we involuntarily recall Pushkin's lines:

Two feelings are wonderfully close to us -
In them the heart finds food -
Love for native land
Love for father's coffins.
(Based on them from the ages
By the will of God
human self,
pledge of his greatness).

In the same way, Akhmatova's independence of a person is based on his inextricable, blood connection with his homeland.
Compositionally, the poem is divided into two parts. In the first part, the lyrical heroine refuses from excessive expression and pathos in the manifestation of her feelings for Russia. In the second, she denotes what the Motherland is for her. The heroine feels like an organic part of a single whole, a person of a generation, of her native land, inextricably linked with the Fatherland. The two-part composition is reflected in the metrics of the poem. The first part (eight lines) is written in free iambic. The second part is in three-foot and four-foot anapaest. The poetess uses cross and pair rhyming. We find modest means artistic expressiveness: epithet ("bitter dream"), idiom ("promised paradise"), inversion ("we do not do it in our souls").
The poem "Native Land" was written in the final period of the poetess's work, in 1961. It was a period of summing up, memories of the past. And Akhmatova in this poem comprehends the life of her generation against the backdrop of the life of the country. And we see that the fate of the poet is closely connected with the fate of her Motherland.

Analysis of Akhmatova's poem "Native Land"

The late Anna Andreevna Akhmatova leaves the "love diary" genre, a genre in which she knew no rivals and which she left, perhaps even with some apprehension and caution, and passes on to reflections on the role of history. Akhmatova wrote about A.S. Pushkin: "He does not close himself off from the world, but goes towards the world." It was also her way - to the world, to the feeling of community with it.

Reflections on the fate of the poet lead to reflections on the fate of Russia, the world.

At the beginning of Anna Andreevna Akhmatova's poem "Native Land", two final lines of the poem composed by Akhmatova herself in post-revolutionary years. And it starts like this:

I am not with those who left the earth

At the mercy of enemies.

Akhmatova did not want to join the number of emigrants then, although many of her friends ended up abroad. The decision to stay Soviet Russia there was neither a compromise with the Soviet people, nor an agreement with the course chosen by it. The point is different. Akhmatova felt that only by sharing her fate with her own people could she survive as a person and as a poet. And this premonition turned out to be prophetic. In the thirties - sixties, her poetic voice acquired unexpected strength and power. Having absorbed all the pain of her time, her poems rose above him and became an expression of universal human suffering. The poem "Native Land" sums up the poet's attitude towards his homeland. The name itself has a double meaning. "Earth" is both a country with its people and its own history, and just the soil on which people walk. Akhmatova, as it were, returns the lost unity to the meaning. This allows her to introduce wonderful images into the poem: “dirt on galoshes”, “crunching on the teeth”, which receive a metaphorical load. There is not a single edge of sentimentality in Anna Akhmatova's attitude to her native land. The first quatrain is built on the denial of those actions that are usually associated with the manifestation of patriotism:

In cherished incense we do not wear on our chests,

We do not compose verses sobbingly about her ...

These actions seem unworthy to her: they do not have a sober, courageous look at Russia. Anna Akhmatova does not perceive her country as a "promised paradise" - too much in national history testifies to the tragic aspects of Russian life. But there is no resentment here for the actions that the native land "brings to those who live on it." There is a proud obedience to the lot that she presents to us. In this submission, however, there is no challenge. Moreover, there is no conscious choice in it.

And this is the weakness of Akhmatova's patriotism. Love for Russia is not for her the result of the past spiritual path, as it was with Lermontov or Blok; this love was given to her from the very beginning. Her patriotic feeling is imbibed with mother's milk and therefore cannot be subjected to any rationalistic adjustments.

The connection with the native land is felt not even on the spiritual, but on the physical level: the earth is an integral part of our personality, because we are all destined to bodily merge with it - after death:

But we lay down in it and become it,

That's why we call so freely - our own

Three sections are distinguished in the poem, which is emphasized and graphically.

The first eight lines are constructed as a chain of parallel negative constructions. The ends of the phrases coincide with the ends of the lines, which creates measured "persistent" information, which is emphasized by the rhythm of iambic pentameter.

This is followed by a quatrain written in three-foot anapaest. A change in size over the course of one poem is a rather rare phenomenon in poetry. In this case, this rhythmic interruption serves to counter the flow of denials, statements about how the collective lyrical hero motherland. This statement is rather reduced in nature, which is enhanced by an anaphoric repetition:

Yes, for us it is dirt on galoshes,

Yes, for us it's a crunch on the teeth...

The poetry of Anna Andreevna Akhmatova “was fed - even in the original poems - by the feeling of the motherland, pain for the motherland, and this theme sounded louder in her poetry ... Whatever she wrote in last years, always in her poems there was a stubborn thought about the historical destinies of the country with which she is connected with all the roots of her being.

Analysis of Akhmatova's poem "Native Land"

Akhmatova Russian literature love lyrics

The late Anna Andreevna Akhmatova leaves the genre of "love diary", a genre in which she knew no rivals and which she left, perhaps even with some apprehension and caution, and moves on to thoughts about the role and fate of the poet, about religion, about the craft , fatherland. There is a strong sense of history. Akhmatova wrote about A.S. Pushkin: "He does not close himself off from the world, but goes towards the world." It was also her way - to the world, to the feeling of community with it. Reflections on the fate of the poet lead to reflections on the fate of Russia, the world.

The epigraph of Anna Andreevna Akhmatova's poem "Native Land" contains the two final lines of the poem composed by Akhmatova herself in the post-revolutionary years. And it starts like this:

“I am not with those who left the earth

At the mercy of the enemies."

A.A. Akhmatova did not want to join the number of emigrants then, although many of her friends ended up abroad. The decision to remain in Soviet Russia was neither a compromise with the Soviet people, nor an agreement with the course chosen by it. The point is different. Akhmatova felt that only by sharing her fate with her own people could she survive as a person and as a poet. And this premonition turned out to be prophetic. In the thirties - sixties, her poetic voice acquired unexpected strength and power. Having absorbed all the pain of her time, her poems rose above him and became an expression of universal human suffering. The poem "Native Land" sums up the poet's attitude towards his homeland. The name itself has a double meaning. "Earth" is both a country with its people and its own history, and just the soil on which people walk. Akhmatova, as it were, returns the lost unity to the meaning. This allows her to introduce wonderful images into the poem: “dirt on galoshes”, “crunching on the teeth”, which receive a metaphorical load. There is not a single edge of sentimentality in Anna Akhmatova's attitude to her native land. The first quatrain is built on the denial of those actions that are usually associated with the manifestation of patriotism:

“We don’t wear cherished incense on our chests,

We do not compose verses sobbingly about her ... ".

These actions seem unworthy to her: they do not have a sober, courageous look at Russia. Anna Akhmatova does not perceive her country as a "promised paradise" - too much in Russian history testifies to the tragic aspects of Russian life. But there is no resentment here for the actions that the native land "brings to those who live on it." There is a proud obedience to the lot that she presents to us. In this submission, however, there is no challenge. Moreover, there is no conscious choice in it. And this is the weakness of Akhmatova's patriotism. Love for Russia is not for her the result of the spiritual path she has traveled, as was the case with Lermontov or Blok; this love was given to her from the very beginning. Her patriotic feeling is imbibed with mother's milk and therefore cannot be subjected to any rationalistic adjustments. The connection with the native land is felt not even on the spiritual, but on the physical level: the earth is an integral part of our personality, because we are all destined to bodily merge with it - after death:

“But we lie down in it and become it,

That is why we call it so freely - ours.

Three sections are distinguished in the poem, which is emphasized and graphically. The first eight lines are constructed as a chain of parallel negative constructions. The ends of the phrases coincide with the ends of the lines, which creates measured "persistent" information, which is emphasized by the rhythm of iambic pentameter. This is followed by a quatrain written in three-foot anapaest. A change in size over the course of one poem is a rather rare phenomenon in poetry. In this case, this rhythmic interruption serves to counter the flow of denials, statements about how the collective lyrical hero nevertheless perceives his native land. This statement is rather reduced in nature, which is enhanced by an anaphoric repetition:

“Yes, for us it is dirt on galoshes,

Yes, for us it is a crunch on the teeth ... ".

And, finally, in the finale, the three-foot anapaest is replaced by a four-foot one. Such an interruption in meter gives the last two lines a breadth of poetic breath, which find support in the infinite depth of their meaning. The poetry of Anna Andreevna Akhmatova “feeded - even in the original poems - with a sense of the motherland, pain for the motherland, and this theme sounded louder in her poetry ... Whatever she wrote about in recent years, her poems always felt a stubborn thought about the historical fate of the country with which she is connected by all the roots of her being. (K. Chukovsky)

I am not with those who left the earth

At the mercy of enemies.

I will not heed their rude flattery,

I won't give them my songs.

But the exile is eternally pitiful to me,

Like a prisoner, like a patient.

Dark is your road, wanderer,

Wormwood smells of someone else's bread.

And here, in the deaf haze of fire

Losing the rest of my youth

We are not a single blow

They didn't turn themselves away.

And we know that in the assessment of late

Every hour will be justified...

But there are no more tearless people in the world,

Haughtier and simpler than us.