Ode "God" Derzhavin: analysis of the poem

A deeply and passionately believing person, Gabriel Romanovich Derzhavin (1743-1816) in his dress "God" tried to analyze what the Creator is and how the person is before him. He did not go the beaten paths, but created a personal unique portrait of God, the Creator of everything.

A Brief History of the Creation of an Ode

As the author writes in the comments, inspiration came to him in the Bright Christ's resurrection in 1780. After the Vigil, he recorded the first lines. Time spent with him in the Senate, and on sublime thoughts he could not concentrate. The beginning was laid on the table. During the service in 1784, the ruler of the Olonets region, he found time and left alone for Narva. He worked for several days at the inn, but the end of the ode was not given to him. He fell asleep in the middle of the night, never finishing an ode. Suddenly the poet woke up, the light shone in his eyes.

In the tide of strength and divine inspiration, bursting into tears, he finished the last lines. So created a truly brilliant work of Gabriel Derzhavin. Ode "God" to him, no doubt, was prompted by the Creator.

Brief analysis and simultaneous content analysis

Ode contains ten stanzas, each of which consists of ten lines.

In the first stanza, the author tries to define God. He has no end, no beginning, one, incomprehensible, all-encompassing. And this is all true, if we start from the modern concept of the Creator. His contemporaries, representatives of the church, opposed the fact that God contains infinite space, continuous life and endless time.

According to their ideas, it turned out that not only everything created by the Creator has a beginning and an end, which is true, but life in the Universe is finite, which is fundamentally wrong. Ode "God" Derzhavin, whose analysis is begun, is approaching the modern concepts of eternity and the infinity of the universe. Here Derzhavin outstripped the theological views of his time.

Strophes two and three: the creation of chaos

They talk about the creation of the earth in an allegorical way. Also in these verses it is said that it is impossible to fully comprehend the Creator's intention, one can only guess that this was not an arbitrary process, but a directed one: the creation of a whole out of chaos, subordinated to laws unknown to man yet. Man for a long time will have to comprehend the Creator's intention, to measure the depths of the oceans, to explore the light coming from the stars and planets.

The poet foresaw what the astrophysicist will later be doing, comprehending subtle patterns. It was not based on the Biblical creation of our world for seven days. In any case, the poet does not say anything about it. About the eternal existence of the Creator tells us the ode "God" Derzhavin. The analysis and discoveries that great scientists have made in their works, such as Newton, Einstein, Pasteur, Pavlov (people believers), only confirms what the poet said.

The fourth verse: the infinity of the worlds ...

In it Derzhavin speaks of the creation of God by many suns. He does not know this for sure, he feels the infinity of the worlds that the Creator created. This is a new step forward, which the ode "God" Derzhavin did, we are analyzing it now.

Strophes fifth and sixth: who are we before the Creator?

Here Derzhavin argues who he is before God. He compares himself with a drop, a point before his greatness. But then he says that he has some divine features. He does not specify them. Modern theologians believe, based on the Bible, that God has anger, grin, charm and disappointment. He endowed people with these features. Ode "Derzhavin's God", the analysis of which continues, is consistent with our ideas about the nature of man, which is created in the likeness of God.

The stanzas are the seventh, the eighth and the ninth: a hymn to a small man

They sound like a continuation of the topic started about the person. The person penetrates everything, he thinks, he reasons, he connects all that exists. Analysis Derzhavin's poem "God" (ode) shows that it begins to sound like a hymn to a small man: he and the king, and the slave, and the worm, and God! He feels not only his smallness, but also feels greatness. And this is an inexplicable miracle, which by itself could not have happened. Who created it? Creator.

The stanza is the tenth: a return to the origins

Now the poet speaks directly, who created man by his wisdom, the Creator. And only in death will a man return to his Father and dissolve in him, like a river or a stream, flowing into the great ocean.

The stanza is the eleventh - the final

It is the most important. No wonder the poet worked on it painfully, but she did not give it to him. God appears before him in all incomprehensible and inexplicable grandeur. The imagination of the soul is powerless to trace even its shadow. And it is right. A person is not given to present the Creator. According to the Bible, He appeared to people, taking the form of fire. And what he really is, nobody knows. According to Derzhavin, everyone should praise him. But how can God be honored by a weak mortal?

Only one thing is to try to rise a little above your sins and thus come closer to Him. From this, the poet tears of gratitude for the path indicated to him. He urges the reader to think deeply about the essence of God and man. About their unity and differences. This is the main idea of Derzhavin's ode "God." The poem is long and complex. Each line has a deep meaning. We considered a very personal work, written by Derzhavin (ode "God"). A summary of it is also set out. Now it's time to turn to drawing up a plan for writing.

Analysis of Odes "God" Derzhavin according to plan

The poet himself proposed the best variant:

1. Definition of what God is.
2. World creation.
3. Infinity of space and time.
4. Creation of a man in the image and likeness of God.
5. Hymn to man.
6. Who created man, and to whom he will return.
7. How to approach God when he is incomprehensible?

Poetic analysis

It is possible to analyze Derzhavin's poem "God" a little differently. Ode is a solemn work. It is usually dedicated to some event. In this case, the Creator became its hero. Ode requires an emphatic solemnity. Therefore, there are so many archaic, not everyday words and definitions. Since Derzhavin wrote an ode on a religious theme, there are many Church Slavonic vocabulary in it. The reader of that time perceived it easily. Being at least once a day at a mass or a liturgy, which is the same thing, he was fluent in this language, which is difficult to give to a modern student.

One can not help telling the student that the great W. Blake wrote the poem "God." Look at its 5th stanza, also A. Fet "Not so the Lord is mighty ...". They are written in accessible Russian and have something in common with Derzhavin's ode. The author's religious enthusiasm, his philosophical plan, are transmitted through solemn exclamations and antitheses. "I am nothing to you," exclaims the author and continues with delight, "But you are shining in me." In the 9th stanza, a striking antithesis, where the author, mixing himself with mud, rises to the heights of the spirit. He himself is shocked by the judgment, which he involuntarily escaped, and ended the sentence with an exclamation.

His thought is aphoristic. In the last stanza is the key to all clothing: a person is small and insignificant, but can and should develop and rise, becoming like the Creator.

The plan of an ode can be made differently

1. History of the creation of the ode.
2. Dedication to God (first five verses).
3. The person's face before the Creator (6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 st stanza).
4. Conclusion.

The ode "God" should be seen as a wonderful example of philosophical lyrics.