N.S. Gumilev, "The Lost Tram": a brief analysis. Gumilev's poem "The Lost Tram": Images and Parallels

"Lost Tram" - a poem by Gumilyov, included in the "Pillar of Fire," his last collection. This verse is considered one of the best and most famous in the poet's work. In this article, we present his brief analysis.

Gumilev's poem "The Lost Tram" is very popular for analyzing various critics and literary critics. It attracts their attention, firstly, like any masterpiece, and secondly, it shows a great literary innovation of the author. Nevertheless, despite the tremendous innovation, the author also follows the tradition in his work. Another reason why the "Lost Tram" attracts the attention of researchers is that it shows Nikolai Stepanovich's references to the landmarks of his life.

Features of the analysis of the poem

It is necessary to briefly note some general points before analyzing. Gumilev's poem "The Lost Tram", despite its innovation, has all the main features of its genre. The subject-forming unit in the lyrics, unlike the dramatic and epic genres, is experience, emotion, feeling, and not an event. In addition, in essence any poem is metaphorical, and the metaphor gravitates toward the symbol. It should be noted that this work was written in one breath, on inspiration. It does not belong to the number of poems that are meticulously and painstakingly "constructed", so they require the same meticulous and painstaking analysis. It is not so necessary to carry out his analysis.

Gumilev's poem "The Lost Tram" can not be understood by following the usual method of interpretation. The logic of the creations created in one breath is somewhat irrational. Not a single critic can "parse" them. No one is able to decompose their genius into constituent parts. This and beautiful such works.

The size

So, let's begin our analysis. Gumilev's poem "The Lost Tram" is written in a dolly. Why did the author choose this size, why did they need to separate shock syllables with uneven intervals? If you read the poem aloud, accentuating stresses, we will notice that their rhythm resembles the sound of wheels. Dolnik in this work "voiced" the movement of the tram, which enhances the artistic effect.

Chronotope

When looking at the content, it is striking that the "Lost Tram" is Gumilev's poem, which has an unusual chronotope (the relationship of spatial and temporal relations). The source of the tram image is a real prototype, which the author saw in the morning on Petrograd Street. However, between him and the tram, represented in the poem, which is clearly otherworldly nature, lies a large abyss. They seem to come from different worlds.

Sounds

The sounds that accompany his appearance are quite real, if we look at them literally. This is the cry of birds, thunder, knocking, ringing. It was these sounds that accompanied the movement of the tram at the time of Gumilev. However, the wording of the poem tells us that the nature of these sounds is symbolic. Thanks to this, the whole work is translated into a symbolic plane, in which it is necessary to consider the "Lost Tram". Gumilyov's poem can be correctly understood only by following this setting.

So, there are only 3 sounds: distant thunders, lute-ringing, crow-crow. In Gumilev, the lute, like the magic violin, is a symbol of the poet's mission, like a lyre in Pushkin's work. In addition, it is a symbol of a conditionally medieval, legendary time in which there is an artist of the word of any era. The next sound, crow of grays, is a bad omen, rock, death, death. Thunder is a battle, heavenly or earthly, and also a sign of the presence of supernatural power, as analysis shows.

The poem "The Lost Tram" is impossible to understand, if you do not know where the tram is going. Let's work it out together.

Where the tram is moving

The lyrical hero of the poem becomes a passenger against his own will. A tram is a certain force that is much more powerful than a person. It's no wonder that in the air behind him remains a fiery trace. Where does this tram go, what kind of power is it?

It should be noted that the coachman is, but he is indifferent and does not respond to the request of the lyric hero to stop. In the corresponding stanza chronotop suddenly and terribly changes. Until quite recently the tram was on the street, though unfamiliar. Now he suddenly rushes "winged" and "dark" storm. The most important thing here is that the tram "lost its way in the abyss of times".

"The Abyss of Time"

Various researchers interpreted this place of the poem differently. For example, Elena Kulikova believed that the tram is like a ghost ship, the "Flying Dutchman", lost in time. There is also a version according to which the author describes a journey to the afterlife. This view is held by Yuri Zobnin. He believes that Gumilev's poem sends us to Dante's Divine Comedy. The coachman performs the role of Virgil, then replaced by Mashenka - Beatrice.

How can we understand where the author's intent and logic are, and where are our own associations? How to make our analysis objective? The poem "The Lost Tram" is not the only one of its kind in Gumilev. In the context of his work, the "abyss of times" appears several times. Nikolai Stepanovich has used this image more than once, for example, in his poem "Stockholm". Here we also encounter transitions of "times" and "spaces" in which the lyrical hero "lost forever". It is no accident that the poem was called the "Lost Tram" by the author.

In addition, the sounds in "Stockholm" are similar to what we hear in the work of interest to us. This is a powerful roar and rumble, the sound of a bell, the sounds of prayer. Gumilev in the "Letter on Russian poetry" noted that religion and poetry are two sides of one coin. Therefore, in the work of Nikolai Stepanovich, the singing of violin, lute, lyre and prayer is practically equivalent.

The Motive of Sleep in a Work

Let's continue the analysis of the poem "The Lost Tram" according to plan. This is a work in which the hero seems to dream of his life. He watches her swift movement through the tramway window. As you know, a man before his death, as it were, sees his life, which sweeps before him. We can say that the "Lost Tram" is a prophetic poem. This can be judged not only because it contains an episode of the execution of the hero, but also because the tram's movement looks like a description of the memory of his life that flashed before his death. That is why the lyrical hero anxiously and insistently asks the wagon driver to stop, however it turns out to be impossible.

The development of the image of a tram in Russian literature

In Russian literature, this image of Gumilev will remind you about himself many more times. This will happen, for example, in the "Master and Margarita" Bulgakov, where there will be a tram, a severed head, and a tram driver. Very deeply and interestingly this image will be revealed in the final of "Doctor Zhivago" Pasternak, in the episode of the death of the main character. Yuri dies in a tram, at this time a thunder storm, the hero looks out the window.

Innovation Gumilev

The technique used by the author was new for Russian poetry. An analysis of N. Gumilev's poem "The Lost Tram" was conducted by Valery Shubinsky. He noted that this work became the forerunner of "Russian semantic poetics". Many contemporaries did not understand this verse, as they interpreted it "in the old manner", looking for real prototypes of images created by Gumilyov. For example, Anna Akhmatova believed that the old man who flashed a tram outside the window was a real face. Perhaps it was so, and maybe not. This is not so important, because this detail of the poem only strengthens the feeling of anxious sleep, in which the dead and the living mix so easily. The hero reacts very interestingly to the appearance of the old man, whom he perceives as something self-evident. Yes, this is the man who died a year ago in Beirut. The fact that reality is incredible becomes self-evident in a dream. All this must be taken into account when considering Gumilev's "Lost Tram".

A brief analysis of this work is not an easy task. Unfortunately, even today some researchers continue to try to explain the inexplicable things literally. In their conclusions, they sometimes go very far, but this approach is initially untrue. In Gumilyov's poem, several motifs that really have a connection with reality are fantastically connected in some kind of artistic whole, just as bizarrely as the events of day life sometimes combine in a dream. The dream has logic, but it is different. It can not be explained by the logic of reality. It can only destroy it.

On this we finish the analysis of N. Gumilev's poem "The Lost Tram". We described the main features of this work. An analysis of Gumilev's poem "The Lost Tram" is brief, you can supplement it with your own reflections.