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Bruce's sonnet analysis. Analysis of Bryusov’s poem “Sonnet to Form. Meter and rhyme

“Sonnet to Form” Valery Bryusov

There are subtle power connections
Between the contour and the smell of a flower
So the diamond is invisible to us until
Under the edges will not come to life in a diamond.

So the images of changing fantasies,
Running like clouds in the sky,
Petrified, they live for centuries
In a polished and complete phrase.

And I want all my dreams to
Having reached the word and the light,
We found the traits we wanted.

Let my friend, having cut the poet's volume,
He will revel in it and the harmony of the sonnet,
And letters of calm beauty!

Analysis of Bryusov’s poem “Sonnet to Form”

Valery Bryusov is one of the founders of Russian symbolism - a movement that elevates the form of any literary work to the absolute. Therefore, it is not surprising that in his early poems this poet preaches the ideas of his chosen literary direction, trying to convey to readers the idea that even a modest quatrain should be completely in its beauty.

However, a fascination with form was characteristic of many Russian poets who adhered to symbolist views. And this became an excellent incentive for the development of poetic language, which became more refined, laconic and elegant.

In 1895, declaring his symbolist views, Valery Bryusov published the poem “Sonnet to Form,” in which he tried to convey to readers that the connection between the meaning of any work and how this meaning is expressed affects its perception. This connection is subtle, and to make it more visible, any author has to make a lot of effort. “So a diamond is invisible to us until it comes to life in a diamond under its facets,” the poet notes. According to Bryusov, the basis of any work is fantasy, which is airy and changeable, like “clouds in the sky.” However, some still manage to capture them in such a way that readers can catch their every curve and changing contour. They are “petrified, and then live for centuries in a sharpened and completed phrase.”

The desire for eternity in his works is characteristic of almost every poet. However, Bryusov treated this issue with particular trepidation. The author was convinced that hundreds of poems could be written, and not one of them would become an object of imitation and admiration just because readers would never be able to understand what exactly the poet wanted to tell them. On the other hand, works that are too simple and accessible in their understanding do not cause due admiration, since almost every person has the gift of versification. As a result, the ideal version of the work, according to Bryusov, should contain an original thought, which is presented in a very refined and impeccable in its perfection form. Only in this way are real poems born, which become the property of world literature and the next step in its development. And the names of their creators are written in golden letters into history, even if the author owns only one quatrain, ideal in all respects. Only a few can create such works, and inspiration in this regard plays a secondary role. The poet is convinced that versification is hard mental work, coupled with an impeccable sense of harmony.

It is precisely this pinnacle of mastery that Bryusov himself strives for, who dreams that his poems will not only be beautiful in content, but also have an impeccable form. He dreams that any reader will be able to enjoy these two important components of poetry, so closely interconnected and allowing them to create a single picture of the universe, imaginative, exciting and delightful in its beauty. Bryusov wants every reader, upon opening a collection of his poems, to “drink in it both the harmony of the sonnet and the letters of calm beauty.” However, it is worth noting that over the years the poet has somewhat changed his views, becoming convinced that the power of a word does not always depend on the form in which it is presented. Nevertheless, until the end of his days, Bryusov strove to find harmony between form and content, choosing words for each of his poems with special care and trying to turn it into a small poetic masterpiece, shining like a diamond in the sunlight.

Valery Yakovlevich Bryusov

There are subtle power connections
Between the contour and the smell of a flower
So the diamond is invisible to us until
Under the edges will not come to life in a diamond.

So the images of changing fantasies,
Running like clouds in the sky,
Petrified, they live for centuries
In a polished and complete phrase.

And I want all my dreams to
Having reached the word and the light,
We found the traits we wanted.

Let my friend, having cut the poet's volume,
He will revel in it and the harmony of the sonnet,
And letters of calm beauty!

Valery Bryusov

“Sonnet to Form” was written in 1894 by the young 21-year-old Bryusov, a student at the Faculty of History and Philology at Moscow University. The writer included it in the “Prologue” cycle in the collection of youth poems “Juvenilia”, which he was preparing for publication in 1896. The collection was never published. The poem, along with others prepared for publication in an unpublished collection, was included in the “Complete Works” (1913).

Literary direction and genre

In 1894, the direction of symbolism was born in Russia, at the origins of which was Bryusov. A Symbolist manifesto and almanacs “Russian Symbolists” were published (funded by Bryusov). “Sonnet to Form” is a poem about the embodiment of the ideas of symbolism in poetry. The genre of the poem is philosophical lyrics, the so-called sonnet is a poetic manifesto.

Theme, main idea and composition

The sonnet has an epigraph by the French symbolist Mallarmé, who argues that the essence of things is not revealed in everyday speech. How then to reveal it? Bryusov's sonnet is about this.

The sonnet form involves 2 quatrains and 2 tercets. The first quatrain sets the theme, thesis. The author talks about a flower whose form and content, external and internal, contour and smell are connected. This idea is further developed in the image of a diamond, the essence of which is not visible until the cut perfects the shape.

The first terzetto, it would seem, does not contain contradictions; there is no expected turning point in it. The lyrical hero dreams that his dreams will be embodied in words. But the antithesis to the original thesis about the unity of form and content is still presented: the importance of form comes first. Dreams that are not embodied in words do not reach the light; they disappear and die.

Synthesis of the second terzetto is a story about the publication of the lyrical hero’s poems and their perception by a friend. The sonnet is the perfect form, from the point of view of the lyrical hero. That is, “Sonnet to Form” is a sonnet about the sonnet as a perfect form. Thus, form and content merge, but form, according to the teachings of the symbolists, turns out to be leading.

The theme of the poem is included in the title. This sonnet is not so much about form as it is about form. Including poetry.

The main idea of the poem: perfect form is the only condition for the correct perception of the meaning of a work of art.

Paths and images

The epithets of the poem characterize both the subject of the image in poetry and the very essence of perfect poetry. Subtle rulers communications, changeable fantasies, desired traits are embodied in polished and complete phrase, letters calm beauty.

Syntactic parallelism in quatrains allows us to compare the unity of the form and content of a flower, the value of a diamond and the beauty of its cut, mental fantasy and its embodiment in a phrase. The transience of changing fantasies in the poem is compared to clouds in the sky. The metaphor “running” is applied to both fantasies and clouds, and fantasies are petrified into perfect phrases (metaphor).

The first terzetto focuses on dreams, which seem to have a will of their own (personification). Dreams reach the word and the light (a metaphor for the birth of a thought, its formulation and verbal embodiment). Desired traits are the perfect form that is necessary for the embodiment of thoughts.

In the last stanza the image of a friend appears. This is a like-minded person, able to see the beauty of a verse, ready to revel in it (metaphor). As you know, the desired volume, which was supposed to include the sonnet, was never published.

In the sonnet castle, the poet seems to completely forget about the content. A like-minded person is impressed by the harmony of the sonnet (composition, meter, rhyme) and the “letters of calm beauty” (obviously, sound writing). Thus, Bryusov embodies the idea that form is extremely important.

Meter and rhyme

The rhyme of this sonnet is as follows: aBBa aBBa vGvGGv. This is a classic sonnet with a variable rhyme pattern in terzetts. The sonnet is written in iambic pentameter with many pyrrhic lines.

“To the Young Poet”, analysis of Bryusov’s poem
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“To a Woman,” analysis of Bryusov’s poem

There is information that, like garbage, clogs the brain with its uselessness. By accepting the unnecessary, a person takes space in his head from the important and extremely necessary.

Prelest is the subordination of life to false opinions and ideas.

To love your neighbor means to be the space for his formation in God.
To be with God is to be a space for another to become in God.

Even where one big one gives and another small one receives, equality of greatness is possible. A grateful taker is equal to a selfless giver. And the selfish/arrogant giver is less grateful than the one who takes.
Friendship is equality of greatness.

Dignity is being put together, having all the parts of the whole in their place and having those parts in right relationship with each other - i.e. integrity relationships.

Any problem can be solved using the principle “Where two or three are gathered in My name, there I am in the midst” (Matt. 18:20), i.e. if problems are not solved, then we are not going to solve them in His name, but want to solve them in our own name (if we want to solve them at all, and do not prefer not to see or hear anything). Or simply everyone is on their own wavelength and thinks only about themselves and their own, losing sight of the other.

Prayer is standing in God. To pray for someone is to stand in God, holding the image of this person within yourself, and wishing him from the heart for salvation in Christ. The person praying is not vindictive, because it is impossible to stand in God while being angry (to be angry is to stand in evil, not in God).

I'm afraid to know - those who know lie.

Three existential states of a person: text, song, anti-song. An anti-song kills, just as a song gives life.
Every person can be one, the other and the third. It becomes a text through the works of others (it is born as a text), everything is a text and everything is a text. It becomes a song in God and with God. And antisong - when he fights against the song of another.
Christ is the Song, Antichrist is the Anti-Song.

Don't trade the sky - you won't lose bread.

G. Skovoroda was lucky, he could confidently say: “The world caught me and did not catch me.” Today's geniuses, especially after death, are caught by the world with copyright. And he catches...

The creative act consists of sketching an internal event using means accessible to external perception and thereby securing the entrance to the experienced state (so that one can return), as well as making it accessible to others.

To know a person is to know his deep, core, most important, his eternal. Eternity is when we look at each other with eternal eyes and see each other’s eternal. When we look at the eternal, we become eternal.

Ideological cliches are garbage that clogs the brain. The result is that people stop perceiving normal text; sensitivity remains only to ideological propaganda.

Life is an exchange of life.

Freedom is communion with God. Communication with God and in God, communication between God in oneself and God in another. Freedom is being in God. You can be yourself with yourself or with others, or with God, only by being in God.

Every person is a text that is meant to become a song.
What is the difference? We can probably say this: a text is a set of letters, words, phrases in any order, they were before a person and will be after him. And the song is his inner essence, sounding through the same words, but conveying a personal sound. It’s as if the text cannot be patented - it is general, but the song, as it were, receives a personal patent from God. Why from God? Because God gives the song, our inner man sings only when he is in God.

Speech is like Ariadne's thread in the labyrinth of everyday life. Tsvetaeva’s words about this are “the poet starts talking from afar, the poet starts talking far away.” The poet holds this thread in his hands and can pull on it, becoming involved and involved in its messages. The poet jumps into the “water” of words, linked together by the laws of integrity, and, turning over the words like beads on a rosary, he thinks not from himself, but from speech - from the Word.
The poet's speech is a conversation with the Word through words.

A Christian is not a man of his crowd, his party, but a man of Christ.

He who does not have love cannot hear the word, because he cannot follow the path of the Word.

In the works of Valery Bryusov you can find many works that are written in the style of Russian symbolism. The poet was sure that literary poems should be perfect, therefore, he filled even small quatrains with thorough beauty. And many Russian poets adhered to this principle of writing poems. It was symbolism that gave impetus to the development of a laconic and refined poetic language.

In the poetic work “Sonnet to Form” Bryusov expresses his symbolist views. The poet says that it is extremely important to establish a connection between the main idea of the poem, as well as the form through which this idea will be expressed.

The basis of any poetic work is the author’s imagination. She is changeable, flexible, airy. However, despite this, some gifted poets still manage to create such poetic works that will be imprinted in the memory of many readers for centuries.

With special care and sincerity, Bryusov creates poems dedicated to eternity. In his opinion, one can write dozens and hundreds of rhyming works, however, never translate the idea of eternity into their meaning. Such works should be complex and piercing, their text should touch the soul of every reader.

The result of such conclusions is a simple truth - poetic works must have originality, a main idea that is subtly woven into the lines of the verse. Their form must be perfect. Only in this case can such literary works earn worldwide fame and popularity.

Valery Bryusov strived for such perfection. He tried his best to ensure that his poems had that same elegant and airy form. Until the end of his literary career, the poet tried to find harmony, a golden mean between the concepts of form and content in poems. Every word in his rhyming lines was chosen with special attention. Thanks to such diligence and talent, each work of Valery Bryusov turned into a real literary masterpiece.