Alexander Alexandrovich Blok. "On the railway

Poem A. Blok "On railway" begins with a description of the death of the heroine - a young woman. The author returns us to her death at the end of the work. The composition of the verse is thus circular and closed.

On the railway to Maria Pavlovna Ivanova Under the embankment, in the unmown ditch, She lies and looks as if alive, In a colored scarf thrown over her braids, Beautiful and young. It used to be that she walked with a sedate gait towards the noise and whistle behind the nearby forest. Walking all the way around the long platform, She waited, worried, under the canopy... The carriages walked in the usual line, Trembling and creaking; The yellow and blue ones were silent; The green ones cried and sang. They stood up sleepy behind the glass And looked around with an even gaze The platform, the garden with faded bushes, Her, the gendarme next to her... Only once, a hussar, with a careless hand, Leaning on the scarlet velvet, Slipped along it with a tender smile... He slid - and the train sped off into the distance . So the useless youth rushed, Exhausted in empty dreams... Road melancholy, iron Whistled, tearing your heart... Don't approach her with questions, You don't care, but she's content: Love, dirt or wheels She's crushed - everything hurts. June 14, 1910

The name is symbolic. Let us remember that in Russian literature Anna Karenina and women who leave their homeland die by “railroad-tram” death - in M. Tsvetaeva’s poem “Rails”, the lyrical hero of the poem N found himself not in “his” tram, that is, in a time alien to him Gumilyov "The Lost Tram". The list could be continued...

In the author’s note to this poem, Blok testifies: “Unconscious imitation of an episode from Tolstoy’s “Resurrection”: Katyusha Maslova at a small station sees Nekhlyudov in a velvet chair in a brightly lit first-class compartment in the window of the carriage.” However, the content of the poem, of course, goes far beyond the scope of “unconscious imitation.”

In the first quatrain, Blok paints the image of a “beautiful and young” woman, whose life was interrupted in its prime. Her death is just as absurd and unexpected as it is absurd that now she, “in a colored scarf thrown over her braids,” lies “under an embankment, in a ditch...”:

It used to be that she walked with a sedate gait towards the noise and whistle behind the nearby forest. Walking all the way around the long platform, she waited, worried, under the canopy.

She walked calmly, “decorously,” but there was probably so much restrained tension, hidden expectation, and inner drama in it. All this speaks of the heroine as a strong nature, which is characterized by depth of experience and constancy of feelings. As if on a date, she comes to the platform: “Tender blush, cooler curl...” She arrives long before the appointed hour (“walking all the way around the long platform...”).

And the carriages “walked along the usual line,” indifferently and tiredly “trembled and creaked.” In the carriages there was its own normal life, and no one cared about the lonely young woman on the platform. In the first and second grades (“yellow and blue”) they were coldly laconic, fencing themselves off from the rest of the world with an armor of indifference. Well, in the “green” ones (cars III class), without concealing feelings and without embarrassment, “they cried and sang”:

They stood up sleepy behind the glass and looked around with an even gaze at the Platform, the garden with faded bushes, Her, the gendarme next to her...

How humiliating and unbearable these “even glances” must have been for the heroine of the poem. Will they really not notice her? Doesn't she deserve more?! But she is perceived by those passing in the same row as the bushes and the gendarme. A typical landscape for those traveling on a train. Normal indifference. Only in Blok’s poem does the railway become a symbol of the poet’s contemporary life with its meaningless cycle of events and indifference to people. General impersonality, dull indifference to others, both of entire classes and individuals, creates an emptiness of the soul and makes life meaningless. This is “road melancholy, iron”... In such a deadening atmosphere, a person can only be a victim. Only once did an alluring vision flash across the young woman - a hussar with a “tender smile”, but, probably, it only stirred her soul. If happiness is impossible, mutual understanding in the conditions " scary world“Impossible, is life worth living? Life itself is losing value.

Don’t approach her with questions, you don’t care, but she’s content: Love, dirt or wheels She’s crushed - everything hurts.

The author refuses to explain the reasons for the death of the young woman. We don’t know whether “she was crushed by love, by dirt or by wheels.” The author also warns us against unnecessary questions. If they were indifferent to her during her lifetime, why now show insincere, short-term and tactless participation.

Dedicated to Maria Pavlovna Ivanova

You can fully feel the depth of the tragedy in Alexander Blok’s poem “On the Railway,” which the poet wrote in the summer of 1910 and dedicated to Maria Pavlovna Ivanova. What the author wanted to convey to the woman was the question that history conveyed to us only that Alexander had close friendly relations with the Pavlov family.

The poem tells about the death of a girl under the wheels of a train. Already from the first lines, the poems grab your heartstrings and don’t let go until the last letter. Blok wants to emphasize the beauty of the dead girl using symbolism. A colored scarf over a braid speaks of a woman’s youth, and an uncut moat emphasizes the point life path, that moment when a person no longer cares about worldly worries.

Waiting without answer

The girl lived near the railway and often waited under a canopy for the train to pass. This moment from the second quatrain says that the deceased was a local resident and it is unlikely that the railway was a novelty to her. She waited, when the trains flew past, for someone to look at her from the jingling windows, but no one cared about the lonely girl near the tracks.

The author does not go into detail, but analysis without diving into the depths of the lines says that the beauty experienced many bitter moments in her life. Perhaps her lover did not reciprocate, perhaps she could not say “yes” to someone’s passionate words. As we will see from the end of the poem, this does not matter.

The carriages walked in the usual line,
They shook and creaked;
The yellow and blue ones were silent;
The green ones cried and sang.

Inactivity of the railway

IN Tsarist Russia the color of the carriages depended on the class. They cried and sang in the green ones, because these were 3rd class carriages where commoners traveled. The yellow carriages were second class, and the blue carriages were first class. Wealthy passengers were traveling there more on business, away from singing and crying. The girl near the railway did not arouse anyone's interest.

Trains even now, when the deceased is lying near the tracks, run past with a whistle, but even now there is no concern for her. There was no need for a living one, much less a dead one. Only once did the hussars glance from the carriage, and even then he did it out of natural curiosity.

It was not for nothing that Blok chose the railway as the site of the tragedy, because the trains rushing along it well symbolize the passing of youth. Only yesterday the girl was rosy-cheeked and sparkling with beauty, but today she lies in a ditch and only her gaze remains as if she were alive. She lived with hope and faith, but the deserted eyes of the carriages were indifferent - no one looked friendly from the window, no one caressed her in life, and now the journey was over.

Epilogue

At the conclusion of the poem, Blok compares the dead girl with the living one and does not advise anyone to approach her with questions. In the end, it doesn’t matter what killed her - love, the dirt of life or the wheels of a train! One fact remains - regardless of the cause of death, the girl is in pain, because somewhere out there she will still have to answer for her early departure, for not drinking the cup of life before the day, for not sharing her beauty with the world.

Despite the dramatic nature of the poem, there are also germs of life in it. Blok teaches us to value life and drink its bitter cup to the end, because the gift of birth was given to us from above. The author also hints that silence is sometimes better than inappropriate questions.

Under the embankment, in the unmown ditch,
Lies and looks as if alive,
In a colored scarf thrown on her braids,
Beautiful and young.

Sometimes I walked with a sedate gait
To the noise and whistle behind the nearby forest.
Walking all the way around the long platform,
She waited, worried, under the canopy.

Three bright eyes rushing -
Softer blush, cooler curl:
Perhaps one of those passing by
Look more closely from the windows...

The carriages walked in the usual line,
They shook and creaked;
The yellow and blue ones were silent;
The green ones cried and sang.

We got up sleepy behind the glass
And looked around with an even gaze
Platform, garden with faded bushes,
Her, the gendarme next to her...

Poem by A.A. Blok’s “On the Railroad” is rich in artistic details that make the reader shudder. The cinematic verisimilitude with which each stanza is written clearly paints a tragic picture before us.

At this time, Blok was re-reading “Resurrection” by Leo Tolstoy. The plot of the poem has an intertextual connection with the story of Nekhlyudov and Katyusha Maslova. Here you can see a reference to another, no less famous novel"Anna Karenina". However, it cannot be said that “On the Railroad” is a poetic imitation. The author uses new symbols, imbuing them with Blok sound.

The idea is based on real case, which Blok witnessed. Driving past the railway station, he saw through the train window a poisoned teenage girl and local inhabitants standing at a distance and looking with petty curiosity. Blok saw everything from the inside. He couldn't help but respond with his heart.

As you know, the poet was very attentive and free from indifference. This conclusion can be drawn from the memoirs of his contemporaries, from what was created by Blok, for example, such an article as “Irony”, from his diaries and letters. The author always reacted sharply to any slightest change in the world order. His sensitive heart, which heard the music of the revolution, was not able to pretend to be a mechanical engine.

For Block human life– this is the life of the whole country. In the poem “On the Railway” there is a clear identification of the existence of an individual person and the fate of the entire Motherland.

Genre, direction, size

The genre of the poem “On the Railway” is a lyrical work. It reflects the features of the symbolist movement.

First of all, it should be noted the ambiguity of each image appearing in the work, the musicality of the syllable and the philosophical sound of the central theme. At the end of this poem, a symbolist view of life's realities from the point of view of eternity is clearly visible. Musicality, expressed not only by poetic techniques, but also concentrated in internal energy“On the Railroad” also relates this work to symbolism.

Blok uses an ambiguous poetic meter: alternating iambic pentameter and iambic tetrameter. “On the Railway” consists of nine quatrains. The type of rhyme is also special; the first and third lines of the quatrains are dactylic rhymed. The second and fourth have a female clause. Thus, an internal rhythm is created, giving the poem a wave-like intonation sound.

Composition

The composition “On the Railroad” is circular. The poem begins with the image of a dead girl lying “under an embankment, in an unmown ditch,” and ends with a return to the same image. Block uses a cinematic technique, gradually moving the lens away from main character to show her fate, and then again returning to the figure of the unfortunate girl. It gives the reader a feeling of being involved in what is happening. The existence of an individual heroine becomes an impulse to think about the fate of the Motherland.

The ring composition allows Blok to create an image of infinity: the end is the beginning, and the beginning is the end. However, the last lines leave hope for deliverance from this fate. The dead heroine is described as if alive: “Don’t approach her with questions, / You don’t care, but she’s content: / With love, dirt or wheels / She’s crushed - everything hurts.” One gets the feeling that she can still hear the hustle and bustle around her, still sees figures approaching her, still distinguishes the faces of curious onlookers. Dead man written out as if existing between the world below and above. This duality in that the flesh belongs to the earth, and the soul rushes to the sky, is shown as deadened, but still present.

Images and symbols

The poem contains hidden symbols that capture the essence of the era.

For example, in this quatrain: “The carriages walked in the usual line,/Trembled and creaked;/The yellow and blue ones were silent;/The green ones cried and sang…” - the poet allegorically means social inequality and in general the polarity of perception of Russian reality of that time different classes. And at the same time he notices the dull indifference to the fate of man, both from the upper and lower strata. Some are hidden behind the mask of an aristocrat, others behind the illusion of the breadth of their own soul. In any case, everyone is the same in one thing: no one notices the human waiting, no one reaches out a hand. However, Blok does not reproach people, he only asks them to be more sensitive at least to her death, since they were unable to live. Blok wrote this: “Heart, shed tears of pity for everything and remember that you cannot judge anyone...”
The heroine's unfortunate fate can be viewed from a symbolist point of view. The image of a girl “in a colored scarf thrown over her braids” - personification of Russia. “A decorous gait”, exciting expectations in hopes that now a miracle will happen - and life will become easier, and everything will change. It seems to me that Blok wanted to put a global meaning into this symbol - the eternal expectations of the Russian people for a better life.
Another can easily be guessed in the girl’s fate a symbol of the difficult life of a Russian woman. Endless expectations of happiness, the keys to which are thrown deep into the water and long ago eaten by fish, according to the heroine of Nekrasov’s poem.
Railway image is a symbol of the path. People are rushing on a train, no one knows where, not noticing how the entire country is plunged into mortal melancholy. “Greedy glances” that the girl throws at the windows of the cars, hoping for a heartfelt response - an attempt to stop the train of that era and be saved by love.
Lyrical hero treats the girl with deep sympathy and compassion. First of all, he sees Russia in the girl’s face. One gets the feeling that he is passing through himself all the pain of this unfortunate fate, realizing his helplessness in the face of the tragedy that has taken place.

Topics

The main theme of the poem is the theme of loneliness in the crowd, tragic fate a man yearning for love and met only by the coldness of the outer space. The theme of human indifference, as a result of universal blindness, is also woven into the outline of the plot. The inability to forget oneself and see one’s neighbor, the inability to get out of the carriage of life rushing to God knows where and just stop for a moment, look around, notice, listen, become sensitive. The closeness and isolation of everyone gives rise to an all-consuming icy void into which the entire country is plunging. Blok draws a parallel between the destinies of a particular heroine and Russia, showing how lonely and dilapidated the Motherland seems to him, enduring so much pain and not finding a sensitive soul in its own expanses.

Blok also brings up the theme of unfulfilled dreams. The sound of “On the Railroad” is tragic precisely because of this victory of life’s realities over dreams.

Problems

The problems of “On the Railroad” are multifaceted: here is the path of Russia, the fate of the Russian woman, and the insurmountability of fate.

There is not a single rhetorical question in the poem, however, the interrogative intonation is palpable in the subtext of the work. The poet reflects on fate own country, trying to understand where and why everything around is moving. The feeling of external fuss and inner loneliness created by the station surroundings. The smallness of a person against the backdrop of a huge space, trains rushing somewhere, busy crowds of people. The problem of hopelessness and hopelessness is examined using the example of a single human destiny.

Idea

The main idea that Blok puts into his creation is also ambiguous. Each symbol carries more than one meaning.

The main idea is to comprehend the path of the Motherland. The lyrical hero is not indifferent to what is happening. He is trying to encourage people to be sensitive and careful. If we consider the fate of the heroine as a symbol of the fate of Russia, then we can say that the central idea of this poem is to listen to an already dying country. This is a kind of premonition of the approaching events of that era. What will be said in the article “Intellectuals and Revolution” eight years later is reflected in this work.

The important thing is that the lyrical hero is also among those who rushed past, and only the contemplation of death excites his entire being. Essentially, all of these artistic details(“an orderly gait”, “a softer blush, a cooler curl”, etc.) are recreated only in his imagination. Seeing the outcome of this sad story, he seems to scroll back to realize the mistake, to feel all the pain of what the main character experienced.

Means of artistic expression

The means of artistic expression found in this poem are also multifaceted. Here are the epithets “even gaze”, “greedy gaze”, etc., and the comparison “as if alive”, and the antithesis “The yellow and blue ones were silent; / In the green ones they cried and sang.”

Blok also uses the sound recording “The carriages walked in a familiar line, trembled and creaked” to more accurately convey the atmosphere of the station.

The anaphora in the sixth quatrain “He slid over her with a tender smile,/Slipped - and the train sped off into the distance...” is necessary here for expressiveness and emphasizing the fleeting nature of what is happening. In the penultimate quatrain there is a rhetorical exclamation: “What, the heart has been taken out a long time ago!”, conveying the emotional tension of the poem. In the same quatrain, Blok again uses anaphora: “So many bows were given, / So many greedy glances were cast,” which, first of all, creates a pumping intonation.

Blok also often uses a dash in the middle of a line, thus creating a long caesura, which focuses attention on what is being said and becomes an impulse of internal tension: “He slipped and the train sped off into the distance,” “You don’t care, but she’s satisfied,” “... or wheels/She is crushed - everything hurts.”

The poem “On the Railroad,” completed on June 14, 1910, is part of the “Motherland” cycle. The poem consists of 36 lines (or 9 stanzas), written in iambic heterometers with a two-syllable accent on the second syllable. The rhyme is cross. Alexander Blok clarifies in the notes to the poem that this is an imitation of one of the episodes of L.N. Tolstoy from "Resurrection".

The poem “On the Railway” conveys pain, melancholy, naivety and faith in a possible easy, happy life for a pretty young girl who still could not curb her wayward fate and chose death over her unsuccessful path in life.

Plot develops at a sparsely populated passenger station of one of the train stations, and the narration is narrated by a man who knew this woman and remembered what she was like until she decided to follow in the footsteps of Anna Karenina. The poem has ring composition, because in its last quatrain it returns us to the first.

It is not clear why she waited for her happiness on the platform?.. Why so good woman, "beautiful and young" couldn't arrange your life? Why did she choose death instead of fighting for her happiness? The author asks: "Don't approach her with questions", but, penetrating the soul of this rhymed work, quite a lot of them arise.

But heroine image laconic, nevertheless, it does not repel, but is endearing. It is clear that the woman in her youth chose the wrong road, from which it was very difficult to turn off. She flattered herself with the hope that some passer-by would be enchanted and “he will look more closely from the windows”.

Of course, the woman secretly expected and wanted attention from the yellow or blue carriages (which is equivalent to first and second class), but “Only once did the hussar... Slide over her with a tender smile...”. The passengers of the yellow and blue carriages were primly cold, indifferent to the whole world and, especially, to this woman, whom they simply did not notice. Green carriages (third class) were not shy about showing their feelings, so they were equally loud "they cried and sang". But they also cast indifferent glances at the heroine; some were uninteresting, others did not need her, and others had nothing to give in return.

It is not for nothing that this poem is placed in the “Motherland” cycle, which reveals many aspects of patriotic themes. This is both the fate of Russian women and the bleak life in pre-revolutionary Russia, and the image of his beloved homeland.