ANTISTANZAS (FORMAL SEMANTIC ANALYSIS OF THE E.A. BARATYNSKY’S POEM «MOI DAR UBOG, I GOLOS MOI NE GROMOK...»


2022. № 4 (34), 193-203

Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, HSE University

Abstract:

The article is devoted to the analysis of the poem by E.A. Baratynskii «Moi dar ubog, i golos moi ne gromok...» (<1828>; second, final wording — <1835>). This eight-line poem, which is an original variation on the theme of the «Monument», is distinguished by an extremely complex formal organization.

The main features of the poem are:

1) The ultimate«lyricism»,expressed in the injection of pronouns of the first person. The poem begins with the pronoun of the first person and ends with it. There are 9 pro- nouns of the first person in the text (i. e. more than lines).

2) Renunciation of any kind of internal border («antistanzas»). The entire poem is a single sentence; there is no punctuation between the quatrains and there is a very strong enjambement. Perhaps this technique is directly oriented towards the syntax of Horace’s «Monument».

3) The presence of a complex system of juxtapositions and oppositions: «dar — golos», «stikhi — dusha», «<Menya> naidet ... potomok — Chitatelya naidu ... ya», etc. 4) Chiasma. In addition to the inline ones («moi dar — golos moi», «moikh stikhakh — dusha moya»), the poem has a unique triple chiasm in lines 7–8: «nashel ... druga — chitatelya naidu», «ya ... v pokolen’e — v potomstve ya», «ya druga — chitate- lya ... ya», and the contact arrangement of the words «ya druga» and the distant one — of the words «chitatelya ... ya» corresponds to the «contact» interaction of the author of the poem with a contemporary friend and the «distant» one — with the reader-descendant.

Girdle rhyme is also one of the varieties of chiasm.
An analysis of the differences between the first and second wordings of the poem allows us to conclude that Baratynskii deliberately sought those artistic effects on which the text is built.

In the final part of the article, a poem by V. V. Nabokov «Kak blednaya zarya, moi stikh negromok...» (1923), the opening stanza of which contains a direct reference to the first stanza of Baratynskii’s poem (up to the use of the same pair of rhymes), is briefly regarded.