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Insomnia. Tight sails. Analysis of the poem "Insomnia. Homer. Tight sails ”by Mandelstam And now Homer is silent, the black sea

The poem "Insomnia, Homer, tight sails" was written in 1915. Many literary critics call this stage of the creative life of the poet of the Silver Age the period of the "Stone" (L. Ginzburg in the book "On Lyrics"). The creator of the word is associated with the builder who erects the building, and the stone is his main tool of labor. That is why the search for the word and the meaning of life is key in understanding this poem.

Already from the first lines it becomes clear that philosophical thoughts are inspired by the work of the Greek storyteller, and the author gives a direct reference to the 2nd part of the Iliad. Reading this legendary work, plunging into its meaning, the poet is faced with the question of what is the meaning of life: “Both the sea and Homer are all driven by love. Who should I listen to? And now, Homer is silent ... ". The meaning of life is in love, which can be different: how to destroy everything around (as in the case of Elena), and how to create. For the poet, the question of whether there is a meaning in love remains open. And judging by the sentence about Homer's silence, we can conclude that this problem is relevant at all times - from Hellas to the present day.

The sea is one of key images poems. It symbolizes infinity, the relationship of times. Already from the first lines, the reader is presented with the image of "tight sails of ships" that are ready to go to sea. Therefore, we can say that the poem begins with the image of the sea, and it ends in the same way. The ring composition of the poem is a compositional element, which also indicates the cyclic nature of the problems raised in the work.

At the plot level, the author uses a ring composition: at the beginning of the work, the lyrical hero cannot fall asleep, images of Homer's poem flash before him, then "the black sea ... approaches the headboard." These lines can be understood in two ways: the black sea is a dream that replaces insomnia, or thoughts and thoughts that never give rest. But given that the sea in the tradition of antiquity, as well as subsequently the Silver Age, appears as something majestic and calm, it is more likely that the dream covers the lyrical hero. This storyline is connected with the lyrical hero himself. But there is another story line in the poem - the line of the journey to Troy, this journey from life to death, this line also closes.

The poem is dominated by nominal parts of speech (about 70% of all words), 20% - verbs. Using nouns and adjectives, the author creates an almost motionless majestic picture. The poet uses the verbs in the first stanza in the past tense, the image of Hellas is the past, long gone. All other verbs in the work are in the present tense, this emphasizes the continuity of tenses.

Imagery and expressiveness in the work is achieved by the presence of metaphors: ships are compared with cranes. In this technique, there is also an element of personification, so Mandelstam revives before us the picture of ancient Hellas, the picture of the destruction of life because of love. This personified picture does not help the lyrical hero to answer the question: why love is such a creative feeling, it becomes the cause of destruction.

Analysis 2

"Insomnia. Homer. tight sails". Doesn't it remind you of anything? "Night. The outside. Flashlight. Pharmacy". This is how Blok's poem "The Twelve" begins. Chopped, minted phrases. Like Mandelstam, Blok also belongs to the Silver Age poets. Probably, then it was fashionable to write in this style. Blok has insomnia, and so does Mandelstam.

Sooner or later, all poets turn to the theme of love. Especially when she's unhappy. Yes, Mandelstam could not sleep well in Koktebel. There he rested with his friend Maximilian Voloshin. Accidentally or not, he saw a fragment of an ancient ship. And right away, for some reason, he remembered Homer, reflections on the eternal - about a woman, about love.

Mandelstam likes the era of antiquity. It is mysterious, enigmatic, unique. He considers her the standard of beauty. In addition, he likes water. This element is also mysterious, unique. In particular, the ocean, which sends huge waves to the shores.

The poem is divided into 3 semantic parts. Written in iambic, the line rhymes through the line.

Where did Homer suddenly come from? The author studied at the university, at the Faculty of History and Philology. True, he didn’t finish his studies, he quit. There he studied Homer's Iliad in the original. Published there long list ships that went to conquer Troy. It was a proven remedy for insomnia. That's where the line about the list of ships, read to the middle, was born. Then, apparently, he still fell asleep.

The poem is written in the first person. Here the poet cannot fall asleep, and uses the well-known "sleeping pills". No, he does not count sheep, but reads the list of ships. But it doesn't help me sleep. Thought "runs away" to the Trojan War. The poet comes to an interesting conclusion that the opponents fought not for Troy, but for the beautiful Helen.

It is in the last quatrain that he concludes that everything in the world is driven by love for a woman. They start and end wars.

To make the poem brighter, more expressive, Mandelstam uses metaphors. "Everything is driven by love." There are also epithets "tight sails", "divine foam". As a comparison, you can give the line "like a crane wedge."

Why did the Hellenes go to Troy? The beautiful Helen was kidnapped by the son of the king there. The culprit of the war, indirectly, is a woman. So why not save her? What is the sense of life? In a woman, and, therefore, in love. Here "both Homer and the sea - everything is moved by love." It is she who awakens everything in people best qualities. Because of love, the greatest feats and the most reckless deeds are accomplished.

The poet compares ships with a crane wedge. But in those days, the ships did not line up in a line, but went through the sea in a wedge. And the cranes also fly in the sky like a wedge. Here's an accurate "tight sails" comparison. This means that the sails on the masts are stretched as they should. The ships are ready for a long voyage.

It is necessary to sleep, and the poet philosophizes, reflects. And asks rhetorical questions that have no answers. Homer's "Iliad" very much "hooked" Mandelstam. And if insomnia almost every night, then, probably, he learned the list of sails by heart. Why don't you sleep? Unrequited love to Marina Tsvetaeva. There was no woman.

Analysis of the poem Insomnia. Homer. Tight sails according to plan

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A bright pearl in the necklace of the early works of Osip Mandelstam is the poem “Insomnia. Homer. Tight sails”, which is written in a somewhat unconventional manner for the author.

The idea for poetry was born during Mandelstam's trip to Spain to visit fellow writer Maximilian Voloshin. There, Voloshin showed Osip a fragment of an ancient ship, from which the poet created the image of a grain of sand from the ancient flotilla from Homer's Iliad. The insomnia that Mandelstam suffered from, the sails of ancient ships and the work of Homer intertwined into one ball.

The ancient Greek poet in his Iliad told how an armada of ships was assembled for the war with Troy. There were more than 1000 ships, so it is not surprising that Osip imagined only half of the flotilla. Then he fell asleep - insomnia opened its arms.

Lines of interest are:

Let me remind you that in Homer's poem, Helen is the daughter of God and a woman, as well as the wife of the Spartan king Menelaus. Her abduction by Paris, the son of the king of Troy, was the cause of the great Trojan War.

Mandelstam writes that if there had been no abduction of Helena, then there would have been nothing to do with Troy. In fact, Elena, or rather her abduction by the Trojans, ignited the fire of the war. Didn't Mandelstam want to draw parallels in 1915 with the beginning of the First World War, because before the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, no one even thought about the war? The only difference is that in Homer love started the war (Elena was kidnapped for the sake of it), while in Europe the war starts because of a murder, because of political differences. The reasons are different - the result is the same.

In line:

Mandelstam focuses on the natural power of love. Previously, wars almost always started because of it, armadas of ships went into battle and thousands of soldiers converged in hand-to-hand combat. Now love is relegated to the backyard, it no longer owns the minds of those who make decisions at the top. Today, instead of love - money and power.

In these deep reflections on the past and present of the author, a dream overtakes, similar to the vastness of the sea, along which, yesterday, rows of Homeric ships sailed to war with Troy:

A bright short poem, which helps to quickly learn a small size and a clear rhyme.

Insomnia. Homer. Tight sails.
I read the list of ships to the middle:
This long brood, this crane train,
That over Hellas once rose.

Like a crane wedge in foreign borders -
Divine foam on the heads of kings -
Where are you sailing? Whenever not Elena,
What is Troy to you alone, Achaean men?

We offer, finally, to listen to a poem performed by Sergei Yursky.

Insomnia. Homer. Tight sails.
I read the list of ships to the middle:
This long brood, this crane train,
That over Hellas once rose.

Like a crane wedge in foreign borders, -
Divine foam on the heads of kings, -
Where are you sailing? Whenever not Elena,
What is Troy to you alone, Achaean men?

Both the sea and Homer - everything is moved by love.
Who should I listen to? And here Homer is silent,
And the black sea, ornate, rustles

And with a heavy roar, he approaches the headboard.

More poems:

Insomnia torments worse than a hangover, tincture-grass does not help ... This is probably a disease in fact, and the nurse is probably right. So you can’t, you have to sleep - the morning is wiser than any midnight misfortune! Let's wake up tomorrow...
There is music in the world of windless heights, There is a lute broadcasting over the gloomy dusk. He is scorched by fate, whom the turn overtook, When she buzzes and grumbles in a wondrous whirlwind. I'm not disturbed by the old air...
With fairy tales, I see off with my daughter Every day the evening dawn: I braid the manes of horses in the stalls, I give rings to red girls. And from the feathers of the caught firebird Burn my fingers, And the star in ...
They didn't believe, They brushed aside: Myth! But along the palaces, Along the walls taken from the battle, It has long been proven That Old Homer was truthful, Singing the death of Troy. Above her, fallen, Eternity has flown, The Earth has covered the Collapsed...
The elders of Ilion sat in a circle at the city gates; The defense of the city is already going on. The tenth year, a difficult year! They no longer expected salvation, And they only remembered the fallen, And the one who was Vina ...
From insults it is not written, From cares it is not possible to sleep. Somewhere a leaf is swaying - A bird has flown by. From the open windows Midnight pours into the room. From the sky a white cocoon Pulls threads to the pool. I'm swimming...
In the hours of comforting silence The eyes do not know sleep; And the phantom of dear old times Clenches in the chest with the darkness of the night; And live in my memory Joy, tears of young days, All the charm, ...
Furniture cracks at night. Somewhere dripping from the water supply. From the daily burden on the shoulders At this time freedom is given, At this time things are given Wordless human souls, And the blind, dumb, deaf Disperse ...
What worries my dreams On the usual bed of sleep? Spring blows on my face and chest With fresh air, Quietly kisses my eyes The midnight moon. Are you a shelter for tender delights, The joy of youth ...
Happy is he who, in passion, dares to confess to himself Without horror; Whom in an unknown fate Hope timid cherishes: Whom the misty ray of the moon Leads in voluptuous midnight; To whom quietly the true key will open ...

O. Mandelstam - Insomnia. Homer. Tight sails.

Insomnia. Homer. Tight sails.
I read the list of ships to the middle:
This long brood, this crane train,
That over Hellas once rose.

Like a crane wedge in foreign borders, -
Divine foam on the heads of kings, -
Where are you sailing? Whenever not Elena,
What is Troy to you alone, Achaean men?

Both the sea and Homer - everything is moved by love.
Who should I listen to? And here Homer is silent,
And the black sea, ornate, rustles
And with a heavy roar, he approaches the headboard.
Translation of the song
There is no translation. You can You can add it!
If you find an error in the name

Read by Sergei Yursky

YURSKY, SERGEY YURIEVICH, (b. 1935), actor, director, writer, poet, screenwriter. National artist Russian Federation.

Mandelstam Osip Emilievich - poet, prose writer, essayist.
Osip Emilievich Mandelstam (1891, Warsaw - 1938, Vladivostok, transit camp), Russian poet, prose writer. Relations with parents were very alienated, loneliness, "homelessness" - this is how Mandelstam presented his childhood in his autobiographical prose "The Noise of Time" (1925). For Mandelstam's social self-awareness, it was important to classify himself as a commoner, a keen sense of injustice that exists in society.
The attitude of Mandelstam to the Soviet government since the late 1920s. ranges from sharp rejection and denunciation to repentance before the new reality and glorification of I.V. Stalin. The most famous example of denunciation is the anti-Stalinist poem “We live without feeling the country under us ...” (1933) and the autobiographical “Fourth Prose”. The most famous attempt to take power is the poem "If I took coal for the highest praise ...", which was assigned the name "". In mid-May 1934, Mandelstam was arrested and exiled to the city of Cherdyn in the Northern Urals. He was accused of writing and reading anti-Soviet poems. From July 1934 to May 1937 he lived in Voronezh, where he created the cycle of poems "Voronezh Notebooks", in which the emphasis on lexical vernacular and colloquial intonations is combined with complex metaphors and sound play. The main theme is history and a person's place in it ("Poems about the unknown soldier"). In mid-May 1937 he returned to Moscow, but he was forbidden to live in the capital. He lived near Moscow, in Savelovo, where he wrote his last poems, then in Kalinin (now Tver). In early March 1938, Mandelstam was arrested in the Samatikha sanatorium near Moscow. A month later, he was sentenced to 5 years in camps for counter-revolutionary activities. He died of exhaustion in a transit camp in Vladivostok.

Synopsis of a literature lesson on the topic “Osip Emilievich Mandelstam. Life, creativity. Analysis of the poem "Insomnia. Homer. Tight sails ... "

He appeared like a miracle.

To be a poet, meter, rhyme, image, even if you master them perfectly, are insufficient, you need something else, innumerably more: your own, unique, voice, your own, unshakable, attitude, your own, unshared fate.

N. Struve

The purpose of the lesson: to get acquainted with the life and work of the poet; to develop in students the ability to understand a literary text, to teach how to work with text using the research method.

Equipment: laptop, multimedia presentation, handout (poet's poem), screen.

Type of lesson: learning new material.

Comments:

Students prepare a report on the topics:

1. "Facts" of the biography (1891-1938);

2. The history of the creation of the poem “Insomnia. Homer. Tight sails ... ".

During the classes:

1. Organizational moment.

2. Communication of the topic and purpose of the lesson.

3. Learning new material.

How do you understand the words of A. Akhmatova?

O. Mandelstam is a unique personality with a unique destiny and poetic gift. It can be compared to a miracle.

The student makes reports "Facts of the biography of the poet."

Writing in notebooks.

Osip Mandelstam is one of the most mysterious Russian poets, whose contribution to the literature of the 20th century is invaluable. His early work dates back to the Silver Age.

So, the life of Mandelstam, like his works, is interesting, mysterious and contradictory at the same time. This poet was one of those people who cannot be indifferent to everything that is happening around. Mandelstam deeply feels what the true values are and where the truth is... The poet's creative destiny is the search for a word that would fully express the inner state of the poet. One of the best works of Mandelstam is his poem “Insomnia. Homer Tight sails ... ", which was written in 1916 in the Crimea (reading a poem by a trained student).

Interview with students:

What attracted this poem, what feelings did it evoke?

What images does it create?

Which lines represent the main idea?

(The poem attracts with calmness, mystery, grandeur. The author created images of the Achaeans from Homer's Iliad, ships, the sea, a lyrical hero. The main idea in the line: all this is driven by love).

Prepared student's message about known facts associated with the history of the creation of the poem.

According to one version, Mandelstam was inspired to this poem by a fragment of an ancient ship found by Maximilian Voloshin, with whom he was visiting in Koktebel. However, the themes of antiquity as a whole are characteristic of Mandelstam's early poems. The poet's fascination with the ancient world is his desire for the standard of beauty and for the basis that gave rise to this beauty.

The theme of the sea, like the theme of antiquity in the poem, is not accidental, and is caused not only by the place of birth of the poem: Mandelstam was in Koktebel for the first time in June 1915.

Many critics noted that Mandelstam preferred water to all elements. At the same time, his preference is not swift streams falling from heaven or rushing over mountains; he is attracted by calm and eternal movement: flat rivers, lakes, but more often - the most grandiose form - the ocean, majestically rolling huge shafts. The theme of the sea is inextricably linked with the theme of antiquity: both are majestic, grandiose, calm, mysterious. It is a known fact that Mandelstam was in love with Marina Tsvetaeva during this period of his life, but she did not answer him.

What happens to the lyrical hero?

How is the feeling conveyed in the poem?

(The lyrical hero is tormented by insomnia. On the Black Sea coast, he reads Homer, reflecting on the fact that both the Achaeans and Homer were inspired by love).

The mythological basis of the Trojan War was the revenge of Menelaus for the kidnapping of his wife, the beautiful Helen. Helena, daughter of Zeus and the goddess of retribution Nemesis. The most beautiful of women, she arouses the envy of Aphrodite, the goddess of Beauty.

The very rumor of Helen's beauty can cause strife: all the Hellenic leaders and heroes woo her. Elena will bring pain and dishonor to her husband Menelaus, death to Paris, with whom she will run away, unable to resist the passion inspired by Aphrodite. The city that sheltered the fugitive - Troy - will be destroyed to the ground, most of Elena's suitors, who went to the walls of Troy, will die.

The Achaean army, ready to stone the queen, will stop before her beauty, and they will return her with honor to her home, to Sparta. Elena means a torch, a torch. This name is the focus of all the lines of the poem.

So, before us the pictures of bygone times come to life. The lyrical hero recreates in his imagination the ancient ships that set off to conquer Troy. Where is it said in the poem?

Insomnia. Homer. Tight sails.

I read the list of ships to the middle:

This long brood, this crane train,

That over Hellas once rose.

One gets the impression that the lyrical hero is rereading the lines from the Iliad, where the list of ships becomes a symbol of the strength and power of the Hellenes.

What was the reason for the campaign of their troops against Troy?

(The beautiful Elena was kidnapped).

Like a crane wedge in foreign borders -

Divine foam on the heads of kings -

Where are you sailing?

What is Troy to you alone, Achaean men?

The pictures that arose in the imagination of the lyrical hero captivate him and lead to reflection.

What is the meaning of life?

(in the end, he comes to the conclusion that everything in life is subordinated to love).

Both the sea and Homer - everything is moved by love.

Who should I listen to? And here Homer is silent,

And the Black Sea, ornate, makes noise

And with a heavy roar, he approaches the headboard.

So, what can bring out the best in a person? (only love makes sometimes unexpected, but the most correct actions and deeds).

(He calls the ships “a long brood, a crane train, and even brighter what a comparison is a “crane wedge”, but it also has a real basis. Ships in those distant times, when they went on military campaigns, really lined up in a wedge).

Let's pay attention to the epithet "tight sails".

What is he pointing to?

(He indicates that the ships are ready to go to sea).

Usually, movement in poetry is conveyed with the help of a quick change of verbs, energetic words, Mandelstam has few verbs, most of the sentences are nominal, incomplete, which creates a feeling of slowness, duration. So, in front of us are ships, if I may say so, in motionless motion, the poet created an image of frozen time - the past, forever remaining present.

Who else does the poet remind of?

(Kings, on whose heads "divine foam").

What does it say?

(About their greatness and strength).

To whom are kings likened here?

(To the Greek gods. One gets the feeling that the gods of Olympus approve of this trip to the “foreign frontiers” beyond Helen).

What image does Mandelstam introduce in this poem?

(The image of the Black Sea, which “ornate, makes noise”, this image gives the poem brightness and a sense of the reality of what is happening.

Let's pay attention to vocabulary.

What is the most in this poem?

(Nouns: sails, ships, foam, head, sea and there are abstract concepts - insomnia, love)

(They are necessary for understanding the idea and theme of the poem).

There are also rhetorical questions in the poem. They talk about the special state of the lyrical hero. What state is he in? (A state of thoughtfulness, reflection, philosophizing).

Homer's "Iliad" becomes for the lyrical hero something mysterious, incomprehensible and beautiful at the same time.

What is the hero thinking about? (notebook entries).

About truth, about beauty, about the meaning of life, about the laws of the universe. And most importantly - love - that's what awakens humanity to action, this is where the continuity of generations is manifested.

So, summing up the lesson, I would like to say: “Both the sea and Homer - everything is moved by love, you still need to surrender to this movement, obey the universal law, as the Achaeans obeyed fate, going to the walls of Troy. This is where the insomnia of the lyrical hero comes from. To live a full life, to strive for beauty, to love is very difficult, it requires courage and spiritual strength.

Conversation based on the results of the analysis of the poem “Insomnia. Homer. Tight sails ... ".

Students record in notebooks the features of O. Mandelstam's poetry

What features of the early poetry of O. Mandelstam were revealed by analyzing the poem "Insomnia ..."?

(Understanding art as a connecting thread between generations, understanding life as a movement towards love, requiring courage and spiritual strength.)

Lesson summary

Reflection

What did we do in class today?

Have we achieved our goal?

How do you rate your work?

Final word of the teacher

At the lesson, we tried to understand the verses of one of the most mysterious and most significant Russian poets of the 20th century - O. Mandelstam, to understand the features of his work of the early period, the universal significance of poetry; developed the skills and abilities of literary text analysis.