“For Tyutchev, living means thinking.”

I. Aksakov

“Only strong and original talents are given the opportunity to touch such strings in the human heart.”

N. Nekrasov

Fyodor Tyutchev is one of the largest Russian lyric poets, poet-thinker. His best poetry still excites the reader with its artistic foresight, depth and power of thought.

If a political struggle unfolded around the poetry of Nekrasov and Fet and now literary critics are divided into supporters of either the “Nekrasov” or “Fetiv” direction, then thoughts about Tyutchev’s work were unanimous: they were highly valued and perceived by both democrats and aestheticians.

What is the inexhaustible wealth of Tyutchev’s lyrics?

Fyodor Tyutchev was born on November 23, 1803 into a nobleman’s family on the Ovstug estate in the Oryol province. The parents of the future poet, educated and wealthy people, gave their son a thorough and varied education.

His tutor invited the once famous poet and translator S.E. Raich, an expert in classical antiquity and Italian literature. From his lessons, Tyutchev gained deep knowledge of the history of ancient and modern literature. While still a teenager, Fedor began to write himself. His early poems are somewhat outdated and “heavy”, but testify to the talent of the young man.

At the age of 14, Tyutchev became a member of the Union of Lovers of Russian Literature. In 1819, his free translation of the “Epistle of Horace to Maecenas” appeared for the first time. During 1819-1821 Tyutchev studied at the literature department of Moscow University.

Letters and diaries of this period testify to his literary tastes. He admired Pushkin, Zhukovsky, the German romantics, and read the works of French educators, poets and philosophers of Ancient Greece and Rome. The range of his intellectual interests was quite wide and covered not only literature, but also history, philosophy, mathematics, and natural sciences.

Moscow University in the early 20s became the center of political and social thought. And although Tyutchev was not interested in politics, his mother, fearing the harmful influence of revolutionary ideas on him, insisted on early completion of his studies and his son joining the diplomatic service.

Tyutchev was enrolled in the College of Foreign Affairs. Soon he left for Europe, where he lived for almost 22 years, representing the Russian diplomatic mission in Munich, then in Turin and at the court of the Sardinian king. Munich (the capital of the Bavarian kingdom) was one of the largest centers of European culture.

Tyutchev met scientists, writers, and artists there and immersed himself in the study of German romantic philosophy and poetry. He becomes close to the outstanding idealist philosopher F. Schelling, is friends with Heine, is the first to begin translating his works in the Osi language, and also translates F. Schiller, I.V. Goetheta of other European poets. This helped Tyutchev hone and improve his poetic skills.

His name entered great poetry in the 20s. Tyutchev's poems periodically appeared in various Moscow magazines and almanacs, and were often signed only with the poet's initials. Tyutchev himself did not value his own achievements very highly. Most of what was written either disappeared or was destroyed.

Surprisingly modest and demanding of himself, during one of the moves Tyutchev, burning unnecessary papers, threw several notebooks of his poetry into the fire.

Four hundred poems by Tyutchev allow us to trace the formation of his worldview and get acquainted with the outstanding events of his life.

During his student days and at the beginning of his stay abroad, the poet was influenced by freedom-loving ideas. His poem “To Pushkin's ode “Liberty” is close in ideological orientation to the works of romanticism, but it already differs from the social lyrics of Pushkin of the Decembrist period.

Tyutchev uses vocabulary characteristic of the poetry of the Decembrists (“fire of freedom”, “sound of chains”, “dust of slavery”, etc.), but sees the meaning of poetry not in a call for struggle, but in a call for peace and peace of mind. His ode contains lines addressed to the poet with a request to use a magic string to “soften, and not disturb the hearts” of readers.

Tyutchev's attitude towards Russia was contradictory. He deeply loved his homeland, believed in its future, but understood its economic and cultural backwardness, neglect, and could not put up with the political regime of “office and barracks,” “whip and rank,” which personified autocratic Russia.

For Tyutchev, any violent forms of struggle always remained unacceptable. Hence his contradictory attitude towards the Decembrist events, to which he responded with the poem “December 14, 1825.”

The poet respected the brave actions of the nobles for the sake of the ideas of public freedom, who stepped over their own interests, but at the same time he considered them “victims of stupid intentions”, argued that their act was meaningless, and therefore would not leave a mark in the memory of descendants.

Every year the poet's skill improved. By the mid-30s, he published such gems as “Spring Thunderstorm”, “Spring Waters”, “Summer Evening”, “Silentium!” However, the poet’s name remained unknown to the average reader, since some of Tyutchev’s poems (and some without the author’s signature ) appeared scatteredly in various magazines and almanacs and were “lost” in a sea of ​​low-grade poetry.

Only in 1836, on the initiative of his friend I. Gagarin, Tyutchev collected his poems into a separate manuscript for the purpose of publication. The works were transferred to P. Vyazemsky, who showed it to Zhukovsky and Pushkin.

The three luminaries of Russian poetry were delighted, and Sovremennik (and the magazine at that time belonged to its founder A. Pushkin) published 24 poems under the title “Poems sent from Germany” with the signature of F.T.

Tyutchev was proud of the attention paid to him by the first poet of Russia and dreamed of a personal meeting. However, they are not destined to meet. Tyutchev responded to Pushkin’s death with the poem “January 29, 1837.”

Like M. Lermontov, Tyutchev blamed the secular elite for Pushkin’s death, but believed that the poet was deeply mistaken in being distracted from pure poetry. At the end of the poem, he asserts the poet’s immortality: “The heart of Russia will not forget you, like its first love.”

Over the years, the sense of social changes that are taking place in the world has increased, and the understanding that Europe is on the threshold of an era of revolutions. Tyutchev is convinced that Russia will take a different path. Torn away from his homeland, he creates with his poetic imagination an idealized image of Nicholas Rus. In the 40s, Tyutchev almost did not engage in poetry; he was more interested in politics.

He explains his political beliefs in a number of articles in which he propagates the idea of ​​Pan-Slavism and defends Orthodoxy, considering religiosity a specific feature of the Russian character. In the poems “Russian Geography” and “Prediction” there are calls for the unification of all Slavs under the scepter of Russian autocracy, condemnation of the revolutionary movements that spread in Europe and threatened the Russian Empire.

Tyutchev believes that the Slavs should unite around Russia and oppose the revolutions with enlightenment. However, idealistic sentiments regarding the Russian autocracy were destroyed by the shameful defeat of Russia in the Crimean War.

Tyutchev writes sharp, biting epigrams on Nicholas I, Minister Shuvalov, and the censorship apparatus.

Interest in politics was constantly declining. The poet comes to understand the inevitability of changes in the basis of the socio-political system of Russia, and this worries and worries him at the same time.

“I realize,” writes Tyutchev, “the futility of all the desperate efforts of our poor human thought to understand the terrible whirlwind in which the world is perishing... Yes, indeed, the world is collapsing, and how not to get lost in this terrible whirlwind.”

The fear of destruction and the joy of realizing the confident gait of the new now live together in the poet’s heart. It was he who owned the words that became popular: “Blessed is he who visited this world in its fatal moments...”

It is no coincidence that he uses the word “fatal” (“Cicero”). Tyutchev, by his convictions, was a fatalist; he believed that both the fate of man and the fate of the world were predetermined. However, this did not give him a feeling of doom and pessimism, on the contrary - a sharpened desire to live, to move forward, to finally see the future.

Unfortunately, the poet considered himself to be one of the “remnants of the old generation,” acutely feeling detachment, alienation from the “new young tribe” and the impossibility of walking next to him towards the sun and movement (“Insomnia”).

In the article “Our Century” he argues that the leading feature of the contemporary is duality. We clearly see this “duplicity” of the poet’s worldview in his lyrics. He is in love with the theme of storms, thunderstorms, downpours.

In his poetry, a person is doomed to a “hopeless”, “unequal” battle with life, fate, and himself. However, these pessimistic motives are combined with courageous notes that glorify the feat of indestructible hearts, strong-willed people.

In the poem “Two Voices,” Tyutchev glorifies those who overcome life’s difficulties and social disagreements and can only be cracked by fate. Even the Olympians (i.e., the gods) look at such people with envy. The poem “Fountain” also glorifies the one who strives upward - towards the sun, towards the sky.

Tyutchev's philosophical and social lyrics are often built on the basis of the compositional device of parallelism. In the 1st part, a picture or natural phenomenon familiar to us is depicted; in the 2nd stanza, the author makes a philosophical conclusion, designed for human life and destiny.

Thematically, Tyutchev's poems are divided into three cycles: social and philosophical lyrics (already discussed), landscape lyrics and intimate lyrics (about love).

We value Tyutchev primarily as an unsurpassed singer of nature. There has never been a poet in Russian literature in whose work nature weighed so heavily. She acts as the main object of artistic sensations.

In addition, the natural phenomena themselves are conveyed in few words, but the main attention is focused on the feelings and associations that they evoke in humans. Tyutchev is a very observant poet; with just a few words he can reproduce an unforgettable image.

The poet's nature is variable and dynamic. She knows no peace, being initially in a state of struggle of contradictions, clashes of elements, in a continuous change of seasons, day and night. It has many “faces”, full of colors and smells (poems “How good you are, night sea”, “Spring thunderstorm”, “What a cheerful noise of a summer storm”, etc.).

Epithet and metaphor have an unexpected character; in their meaning they are basically those that are mutually exclusive.

This is what helps create a picture of the struggle of opposites, constant changes, which is why the poet is especially attracted to transitional moments in nature: spring, autumn, evening, morning (“There is in autumn ...”, “Autumn Evening”). But more often Tyutchev turns to spring:

Winter has come torment,

That's why she's sad -

He's knocking on her window,

It's spring for her wife.

Translation by M. Rylsky

Storms and blizzards strive to stop the progress of spring, but the law of life is inexorable:

Winter doesn't want to go away

In spring everything grumbles,

But spring laughs

And young noise!

Translation by M. Rylsky

Nature in Tyutchev’s poems is humanized. She is close to the person. And although in the poems we do not find a direct image of a person or any signs of her presence (room, tools, household items, etc.), we internally feel that we are talking about a person, his life, feelings, about what The old generation is being replaced by the young. The thought arises about the eternal celebration of life on earth:

Winter disaster heard

The end of your life

The last snow was thrown

Into a magical child.

But what an enemy's power!

I washed my face with snow

And only Spring turned pink in its bloom.

Translation by M. Rylsky

Having creatively mastered Schelling’s teaching about the dominance of a single “world soul” in the world, the poet is convinced that it finds its expression both in nature and in the inner world of an individual. Therefore, nature and man are organically fused in Tyutchev’s lyrics and form an inextricable whole. “Thought after thought, wave after wave—two manifestations of one element” (“Wave and Thought”).

The feeling of optimism, the affirmation of the celebration of life is the essence of Tyutchev’s poetry. That is why Tolstoy greeted every spring with the lines of Tyutchev’s poem “Spring”. N. Nekrasov wrote about the poem “Spring Waters”: “Reading poetry, feeling spring, from where, I don’t know, my heart becomes cheerful and light, as if several years younger.”

The traditions of Tyutchev's landscape lyrics have their origins in the poetry of Zhukovsky and Batyushkov. The style of these poets is characterized, so to speak, by the transformation of the qualitative characteristics of the objective world into emotional ones.

However, Tyutchev is distinguished by a philosophical orientation of thought and a bright, picturesque speech, which gives euphony to the poems. He uses particularly tender epithets: “blessed”, “bright”, “magical”, “sweet”, “blue” and others. In landscape lyricism, Tyutchev acts as a romantic poet, and in some of his poems the tendencies of symbolism are noticeable (“Days and Nights”, “Grey Shadows”).

Tyutchev also achieves high mastery in intimate lyrics. He raises it to the height of the same generalization as we see in landscape poetry.

However, while landscape painting is imbued with philosophical thoughts, intimate painting is filled with psychologism in revealing the inner world of a person in love. For the first time in Russian poetry, the author’s attention shifted from the lyrical suffering of a man to a woman. The image of the beloved is no longer abstract; it takes on living, concrete psychological forms. We see her movements (“She was sitting on the floor ...”), we learn about her experiences.

The poet even has poems written directly on behalf of the woman (“Don’t say: he loves me as before ...”).

In the 40-50s, the women's issue in Russia became problematic. The romantic ideal still remains alive, according to which a woman was imagined as a fairy, a queen, but not as a real earthly creature.

George Sand begins the fight for the emancipation of women in world literature. Many works have been published in Russia in which the character and intellectual capabilities of a woman are determined: is she full-fledged compared to a man? What is her purpose on earth?

Revolutionary-democratic criticism and literature viewed a woman as a being equal to a man, but without rights (Chernyshevsky’s novel “What to do”, N. Nekrasov’s poem “Russian Women”). Tyutchev shared Nekrasov’s (“Panaevsky cycle”) position. However, unlike the democrats, he calls not for the social, but for the spiritual emancipation of women.

The pearl of Tyutchev’s poetry is the “Denisiev cycle”.

In 1850, when the poet turned 47 years old, he accepted a civil marriage with Elena Denisyeva, a 24-year-old niece and a student of the inspector of the Smolny Institute of Noble Maidens, where the daughters (!) of the poet also studied, their relationship lasted 14 years (during this time three children were born). High society did not recognize and condemned Deniseva. The delicate situation depressed the young woman, which led to his illness with tuberculosis and early death.

“The Denisiev Cycle” is truly a novel in verse about love. We learn about the joy of the first meeting, the happiness of mutual love, the inexorable approach of tragedy (the poet’s beloved, who is condemned by her environment, does not have the opportunity to live the same life with her beloved, doubts the fidelity and strength of his feelings), and then the death of her beloved and “bitter pain and despair ”about the loss that does not leave the poet until the end of his life (“What did you pray with love”, “And I am alone ...”).

In the intimate cycle there is a lot of personal experience, experienced by the author himself, but there is no place for subjectivity. Poems excite the reader and are associated with their own feelings.

Many literary scholars note the closeness in the disclosure of the theme of love between F. Tyutchev and I. Turgenev. In both, a woman’s love is tragic, for the one who loves her is not able to reciprocate her to the extent that she feels.

The cause of suffering lies in the differences in female and male characters. A woman can live by love alone, but for a man, feelings always coexist with the needs of social or intellectual activity. Therefore, the lyrical hero repents that he is not able to love with the same strength as his chosen one. (“Oh, don’t bother me…”).

The love of Tyutchev’s lyrical hero is powerless, just like the love of the heroes of Turgenev’s novels. And this was typical for that time.

Tyutchev was a liberal in his worldview. And his life’s fate is similar to the fate of the heroes of Turgenev’s novels. Turgenev the realist sees the reason for the heroes’ inability to love in their social essence, social impotence. Tyutchev the romantic tries to find the reason in the impossibility of fully understanding human nature, in the limitations of the human “I”. Love acquires destructive power; it violates the isolation and integrity of a person’s inner world. The desire to express oneself, to achieve complete mutual understanding, makes a person vulnerable. Even mutual feeling, the desire of both lovers to “dissolve” in a new unity - to replace “I” - “we” - is not able to prevent how to stop the destructive outbreak of individuality, “peculiarity”, alienation, which fatally accompanies lovers and is traditionally “introduced” for a moment of harmony of souls (“Oh, how we love the murderous…”).

Most of Tyutchev's poems were set to music and became popular romances.

However, the poet was recognized only at the end of his life. In 1850, the magazine “Sovremennik” published an article by N. Nekrasov “Russian minor poets”, which was mainly dedicated to F. Tyutchev. The critic raises him to the level of A. Pushkin and M. Lermontov: he sees in him a poet of the “first magnitude,” since the main value of his poetry is in the “living, graceful, plastically accurate depiction of nature.” Later, 92 poems by Tyutchev were published as an appendix to one of the next issues of the magazine.

In 1854, edited by I. Turgenev, the first collection of Tyutchev’s poems was published. In the article “A few words about the poems of F.I. Tyutchev" Turgenev places him above all modern Russian poets.

Tyutchev's work had a significant influence on Russian literature of the 2nd century. XIX century - Beginning XX century Russian romanticism in his work reached the pinnacle of its development in the 19th century, however, it did not lose its vitality, since we trace the traditions of Tyutchev’s poetics in the works of L. Tolstoy, F. Dostoevsky, A. Blok, M. Prishvin, M. Tsvetaeva, M . Gumilyov and many others.

Only a few of Tyutchev’s poems have been translated into Ukrainian (translators: M. Rylsky, P. Voroniy), but these translations cannot be called perfect. Firstly, it is very difficult to translate associative poems, since they do not have specific content, and secondly, Tyutchev’s poetic dictionary is an obstacle, in which there are such semantic shades of words that cannot be conveyed word for word in another language. Therefore, the translations lack the unique sound of Tyutchev’s speech in verse.

"Silentium" (1830)

The poem has a Latin title, which translated means “Silence.” It seems to cross two themes: the traditional literary theme of the poet and poetry and the theme of love. In form and content the poem is declarative, i.e. the author tries to convince the reader of the correctness of the judgments that are declared in it.

In the first stanza, based on his own ideological beliefs, Tyutchev warns us against trying to tell the world about our feelings and thoughts:

Shut up, shut up from life

And dreams, and your feelings.

Translation by P. Voronoi

Man and nature live by the same laws. Just as the stars cannot understand why they shine and fade in the heights, so a person cannot and should not try to understand why feelings suddenly arise and just as suddenly disappear:

Let in the abyss of the depths

And they go and they come,

Like stars clear at night:

Admire them and be silent.

Tyutchev believed that feelings are higher than reason, since they are the product of the eternal soul, and not mortal matter. And therefore, trying to express what is happening in a person’s soul makes no sense, and is not possible at all:

How can the heart express itself?

Will anyone understand you?

He won't understand the words

Therefore the thought expressed is decay.

A person is a “thing in itself”, each personality is unique and “sealed” in its own spiritual world. It is from this that a person can draw life-giving forces, and not try to find support among the material environment:

Learn to live within yourself!

There is a whole world in your soul

Secretly enchanting thoughts,

Drown out their everyday noise,

And the darkness will disappear in the light of day,

Listen to their singing and be silent!

And again, in the last lines of the poem, the poet compares the world of the human soul and the world of nature. This is emphasized by the rhyming of words that have the main meaning - “dum - noise”, “mruchi - be silent”.

The word “be silent” sounds like a refrain. It is used 4 times in the poem, and this focuses our imagination on the main idea of ​​the poem: why and what we need to remain silent about.

The poem also gives us some idea about the subject of poetry. The beautiful is characteristic of the human soul, and it is to characterize it that the poet uses the only majestic poetic epithet in this poetry (which is generally not characteristic of his poetics and differs from others in the wealth of expressive vocabulary) - “secret and enchanting thoughts.” And this is when the surrounding world receives a prosaic definition - “ordinary noise.”

The world of the human soul is alive and objectified; it exists, as it were, outside of man (“Admire them”—that is, with your feelings—and be silent”). The author’s idea is emphasized by the rich metaphorical nature of the speech (“feelings go away,” “feelings come in,” “the heart expresses itself”).

The author uses iambic bimeter, which enhances the semantic sound of speech. Rhetorical questions and exclamations also enhance his oratorical focus. In the questions there is a theme (“How can the heart express itself?”, “Who will understand you?”), in the answers there is an idea (“Be silent, close your dreams and your feelings from life!”, “Know how to live within yourself!”, “Listen to their singing (feeling - N.M.) and be silent!”

This poem is important for understanding the essence of F.I. Tyutchev’s poetry, especially his intimate lyrics.

"Last love"

(1852 or 1854)

The poem belongs to the “Denisevsky cycle” and is dedicated to the strong outburst of the poet’s last love. The poem is romantic in sound. At the center of the work is an image-feeling, an image-experience. There are no references to the person to whom it is dedicated; the lyrical heroine is outside the context of the narrative. And therefore poetry acquires not a specific personal, but a universal sound. This is not a story about the love of an elderly man Tyutchev for a young girl Elena Denisyeva, this is a story about the last bright feeling that can flare up in a person’s soul - “about the last love.”

The poem takes the form of an extended metaphor: pictures of nature are interspersed with descriptions of the feelings of the lyrical hero. The last love is associated in the poet’s mind with the “farewell radiance of the evening dawn.” The author understands that his life is coming to an end (“the shadow has already covered half the sky” and “the blood runs cold”), and the more precious this strange and wonderful feeling is for him, which can only be compared with the “shine” in the middle of a dark night.

The poem is distinguished by its emotionality and sincerity, the author managed to achieve this feeling with the help of interjections “Oh”, sounding at the beginning and end of the poem, repetition of individual words that are most significant for the lyrical hero (“wait”, “wait a minute.” “Evening day” ”, “continue to enjoy”, “continues”, “miracle”), a successful selection of euphonious words (tenderness, charm, bliss, etc.).. The uniqueness of this poetry is provided by the metaphorical nature of epithets and phrases (“farewell radiance”, “blood runs cold” and etc.), an original combination at the end of the work of the words “bliss” and “hopelessness” that have completely different lexical meanings, the use of unexpected grammatical variations of one word (“more tender” and “tenderness”).

The melody and melodiousness of the verse contributed to the fact that composers of both the 19th and 20th centuries turned to it repeatedly.

"Fountain" (1836)

The poem is built on the principle of parallelism. The first stanza describes a natural phenomenon, the second projects it onto human life. The content is philosophical poetry, in which the author talks about the predestination of human life. And at the same time, he is delighted with those daredevils trying to break out of this fatal circle.

The lyrical hero looks with surprise at the splashes of the fountain, which, sparkling in the rays of the sun, will rush up to the sky. However, no matter how high they fly up like “flaming dust,” they are “destined” to fall to the ground. Further, in the author’s mind, this is associated with human life. No matter how a person tries to achieve something unusual, bright and outstanding in his life’s path, it is doomed, like the doomed splashes of a fountain, to fall from a height. Despite the seemingly pessimistic content, the poem does not evoke a feeling of hopelessness. On the contrary, it is optimism, because it glorifies and extols those who do not want to put up with the drab routine.

“The Fountain,” like most of Tyutchev’s poems on philosophical topics, is written in the form of an emotionally charged monologue. It begins with an address to an invisibly present interlocutor: “look”, the pronouns “you”, “you” are introduced into the text, and rhetorical exclamations are used. However, the excess of purely “aesthetic”, “exotic” vocabulary (for example, “hand”) in the poem causes difficulties for translators.

"Spring Storm" (1828)

This is one of Tyutchev’s best poems, which has long become a textbook. Purely landscape, devoid of philosophical didacticism (which is in the poems “Zieepiiiit!” and “Fountain”), the poem is accessible not only to adults, but also to children’s perception.

Tyutchev loved “turning moments” in nature, when the seasons change, night gives way to day, after a thunderstorm the sun’s rays break through the clouds. Characteristic of the poet’s landscape lyricism is the beginning of the poem, in which he categorically states: “I love the time of thunderstorms in the spring.” The following is a description of nature during the first May thunderstorm. Why is the lyrical hero so attracted to a thunderstorm, a natural phenomenon that many simply fear? Tyutchev's thunderstorm is attracted by the uncontrollability of the elements, when everything is engulfed in flashes of lightning, when everything is in a state of struggle, in motion. This also determined the author’s choice of a dynamic poetic meter - iambic bimeter.

Each stanza of the poem is dedicated to one of the stages of a thunderstorm. In the first stanza, the thunderstorm is only approaching, reminding of itself with distant thunder. The sky is still clear and blue:

I love the time of thunderstorms in spring,

When the first thunder in May

As if reveling in the game,

Rumbling in the blue sky.

Translation by M. Rylsky

In the second, the thunderstorm is approaching, the struggle between the sun and the storm begins, the thunder sounds loud and noticeable:

And in the third stanza there is a thunderstorm in full swing. But it is not the evil force that wins, but nature, life. Therefore, “everything sings along with thunder”:

Streams of clear waters flow,

The din of birds never stops,

And there is a din in the forest, and noise in the mountains, -

Everyone sings along with the thunder.

This joyful mood and fun are also heard in the last - final stanza, where the image of “mischievous Hebe” appears (in Greek mythology, the goddess of youth, the daughter of the supreme deity - Zeus), who “poured a socially wet cup from heaven to earth with laughter.”

Despite the detailed subject description of the thunderstorm (thunder, dust, rain, flow of water), the main thing in the poem is not the image of the thunderstorm, but the image-feeling, the mood that it evokes in the heart of the lyrical hero. The poem is written in a romantic creative method: the personification of nature (“thunder plays”, “Vociferous thunders”, nature “sings along”), a majestic poetic comparison (“drops of vision often a necklace burns golden in the sun”), the use of ancient images (Hebe, Zeus, etc. .).

The poem is elegant both in its form and in its content. Knowing it, you repeat it to yourself, and when you meet the first spring thunderstorm, you feel a joyful and optimistic mood, which is conveyed to us through the centuries by the great master of the poetic word.

References

Zakharkin A.F. Russians of the late second half of the 19th century. M., 1975.

Kasatkina V.N. Positive worldview of F.Y. Tyutchev: Saratov University, 1969.

Kozhinov V. F. I. Tyutchev. M., 1988.

Pigarev K.A. F.I. Tyutchev and his time. M., 1978.

Chagin G. Tyutchev in Moscow. M., 1984.

N.G. MARCHENKO, Candidate of Philological Sciences, Yu.M. Maselsky, assistant Poltava

(1803 - 1873) became classics of Russian literature. Here's what a literary critic wrote about his lyrics Yuri Lotman: “The semantics of Tyutchev’s poetry is very complex. If the usual picture in the history of literature is that individual poets and entire literary movements move from one type of meaning formation to another as from stage to stage, then for Tyutchev it is typical, often within the same poem, to combine the most diverse and historically incompatible semantic systems. Some of his words carry baroque-allegorical semantics, others are associated with romantic symbolism, others activate a mythological layer of meanings that revives the features of deep antiquity, and others with exceptional precision and simplicity designate the material world in its objective concreteness.”.

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The poet's contemporaries left interesting memories of Tyutchev. We publish some of them.

: “... his poems do not smell like composition; they all seem to have been written for a certain occasion, as Goethe wanted, that is, they were not invented, but grew on their own, like fruit on a tree... In this sense, his poetry deserves the name practical, that is, sincere, serious. ... His talent, by its very nature, is not addressed to the crowd and does not expect feedback and approval from it; In order to fully appreciate Mr. Tyutchev, the reader himself must be gifted with a certain subtlety of understanding, a certain flexibility of thought that does not remain idle for too long.”

: “Once upon a time, Turgenev, Nekrasov... could barely persuade me to read Tyutchev, but when I read it, I was simply dumbfounded by the magnitude of his creative talent.” Tolstoy named him among his favorite poets and said that “one cannot live without him.”

: “Two years ago, on a quiet autumn night, I stood in the dark passage of the Colosseum and looked at the starry sky. Large stars gazed intently and radiantly into my eyes, and as I peered into the subtle blue, other stars appeared in front of me and looked at me as mysteriously and as eloquently as the first. Behind them, even the finest sparkles flickered in the depths and little by little floated up in turn. My eyes saw only a small part of the sky, but I felt that it was immense and that there was no end to its beauty. With similar feelings I open the poems of F. Tyutchev.”

I. S. Aksakov: “The mind is strong and firm - with weakness and weakness of will, reaching the point of weakness; the mind is vigilant and sober - with the sensitivity of the nerves of the finest, almost feminine - with irritability, flammability, in a word, with the creative process of the poet’s soul with all its instantly flaring up ghosts and self-deception. An active mind, knowing neither rest nor help - with a complete inability to act, with habits of laziness acquired from childhood, with an irresistible aversion to any kind of coercion; the mind is constantly hungry, inquisitive, serious, concentratedly penetrating all questions of history, philosophy, knowledge; a soul insatiably thirsty for pleasure, excitement, distraction, passionately surrendering to the impressions of the current day..."

N. A. Dobrolyubov: “Tyutchev’s talent is capable of sultry passion, stern energy, and deep thought, aroused not only by spontaneous phenomena, but also by moral issues and the interests of public life.”

: “He is smart and sweet; He alone knows how to stir me up and tug at my tongue.” “With the death of Pushkin and the absence of Zhukovsky, my literary relations were almost completely stopped. With Tyutchev alone there is something else in common.”

: “I’ll tell you a secret, a big secret: Tyutchev is very wonderful, but... However, many of his poems are excellent...”

F. I. Tyutchev, along with Pushkin, is one of the most quoted Russian poets. His poems “You can’t understand Russia with your mind...” and “I love thunderstorms in early May...” are perhaps known to everyone. The poems of Fyodor Ivanovich Tyutchev are also close to the hearts of our contemporaries. Having not received universal recognition during his lifetime, in our time the poet occupies an important place in Russian literature. Most of his contemporaries considered Tyutchev’s poems to be far from the spirit of the times, and in form they seemed either too archaic or too bold. And the poet himself did not strive for fame, showing surprising indifference to the publication and editing of his works.
Fyodor Ivanovich Tyutchev was born on December 5 (November 23), 1803 in the village of Ovstug, Oryol province, into the family of the hereditary Russian nobleman I. N. Tyutchev. Tyutchev early discovered extraordinary talents and abilities. He received a good education at home under the guidance of S.E. Raich, a poet and translator, an expert in classical antiquity and Italian literature. Under the influence of his teacher, Tyutchev became involved in literary work early and already at the age of 12 he successfully translated Horace. Tyutchev began to shine in the poetic field at the age of 14, when the most authoritative scientist A.F. Merzlyakov read his poem “The Nobleman” at the Society of Lovers of Russian Literature.
In 1819, a free adaptation of the “Epistle of Horace to Maecenas” was published - Tyutchev’s first appearance in print. In the fall of 1819, he entered the literature department of Moscow University: he listened to lectures on the theory of literature and the history of Russian literature, on archeology and the history of fine arts. After graduating from the university in 1821, Tyutchev went to St. Petersburg, where he received a position as a supernumerary official of the Russian diplomatic mission in Bavaria. In July 1822 he went to Munich and spent 22 years there. Abroad, Tyutchev translates Schiller and Heine, and this helps him acquire his own voice in poetry and develop a special, unique style. In Germany, he became close to the romantic philosopher Friedrich Schelling and the freedom-loving poet Heinrich Heine.
A significant event in the poet’s literary life was the selection of his poems in Pushkin’s Sovremennik (24 poems), published in 1836 under the title “Poems Sent from Germany.” Then there is a long pause in Tyutchev’s publications, but it was at this time that his political worldview was finally formed. In 1843-1850, Tyutchev published political articles “Russia and Germany”, “Russia and the Revolution”, “The Papacy and the Roman Question”, and conceived the book “Russia and the West”. In the fall of 1844, Tyutchev finally returned to his homeland. In 1848, he received the position of senior censor at the ministry, and in 1858 he was appointed chairman of the “Foreign Censorship Committee.”
The end of the 40s of the 20th century was marked for the poet by a new creative upsurge. N.A. Nekrasov and I.S. Turgenev put him on a par with A.S. Pushkin and M.Yu. Lermontov. 92 poems by Tyutchev were published as a supplement to the Sovremennik magazine. In one of the issues of the magazine, an article by I. S. Turgenev “A few words about the poems of F. I. Tyutchev” was published, containing a prophecy: Tyutchev “created speeches that are not destined to die.” In the future, a high appreciation of Tyutchev’s poetry will be expressed by writers and critics of various literary groups and movements. All this meant that fame had come to Tyutchev.
However, among his contemporaries - from Pushkin and Lermontov to Nekrasov and Dostoevsky, Chernyshevsky and Leo Tolstoy - he was the least professional writer. From the age of twenty until his death, that is, half a century, he was an official, quite carelessly regarding his official duties. But all his life he was heated by the political unrest of the time. Changes and failures in his personal life, disappointment in the viability of the Russian state (after defeat in the Crimean War of 1853-1856) led to the fact that the second collection of his poems, published in 1868, did not cause a lively response in society. At the end of 1872, the poet's health deteriorated sharply, and a few months later he died.
The second “resurrection” of Tyutchev began at the turn of the 20th century, when the established school of Russian Symbolists proclaimed him as its predecessor. The era of symbolism cemented the perception of Tyutchev as a classic of Russian literature. Comprehension of Tyutchev occurred as the connection between individual human experiences and the non-stop search for social thought, with the incessant movement of history, became more and more realized. Tyutchev became necessary for the reader as a new, universal and complex human personality was formed in the cleansing storms of the early 20th century.
V.I. Korovin in his book “Russian Poetry of the 20th Century” writes: “Tyutchev thinks in terms of chaos and space, he is attracted to the tragic states of the world. He conveys eternity through the instantaneous, the general through the special and exceptional.”

Fyodor Ivanovich Tyutchev was born and spent his childhood on his father’s estate in the Oryol province. I studied at home. He knew Latin and Ancient Greek well. He learned early to understand nature. He himself wrote that he breathed the same life with nature. His first teacher was a widely educated man, poet, translator Semyon Egorovich Raich. Raich recalled that he quickly became attached to his student, because it was impossible not to love him.

He was a very affectionate, calm and very talented child. Raich awakened Tyutchev's love of poetry. He taught me to understand literature and encouraged the desire to write poetry. At the age of 15, Tyutchev entered Moscow University, and at the age of 17 he graduated and then went to serve in the Russian embassy abroad. He served as a diplomat for 22 years, first in Germany, then in Italy. And all these years he wrote poems about Russia. “I loved the Fatherland and poetry more than anything in the world,” he wrote in one of his letters from a foreign land. But Tyutchev almost never published his poems. His name as a poet was not known in Russia.

In 1826, Tyutchev married Eleanor Peterson, née Countess Bothmer. They had 3 daughters.

In 1836, Pushkin received a notebook with poems by an unknown poet. Pushkin really liked the poems. He published them in Sovremennik, but the name of the author was unknown, since the poems were signed with two letters F.T. And only in the 50s. Nekrasovsky’s contemporary had already published a selection of Tyutchev’s poems and his name immediately became famous.

His first collection was published in 1854, edited by Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev. The poems were imbued with a reverent, tender love for the Motherland and hidden pain for its fate. Tyutchev was an opponent of the revolution, a supporter of pan-Slavism (the idea of ​​​​unifying all Slavic peoples under the rule of the Russian autocracy). The main themes of the poems: Motherland, nature, love, reflections on the meaning of life

In philosophical lyrics, in love poetry, in landscape poetry there were always reflections on the fatal questions of existence and on the destiny of man. Fyodor Ivanovich Tyutchev does not have purely love poems, or about nature. Everything is intertwined with him. Each poem contains the human soul and the author himself. Therefore, Tyutchev was called a poet-thinker. Each of his poems is a reflection on something. Turgenev noted Tyutchev’s skill in depicting a person’s emotional experiences.

In December 1872, Fyodor's left half of his body was paralyzed, and his vision deteriorated sharply. Tyutchev died on July 15, 1873.