"It's not nice to be famous"
Poem by B.L. Pasternak’s “It’s Ugly to Be Famous” (1956) is one of the programmatic works in the poet’s work. Its plot consists of laconic formulas that accumulate the author’s views on the life of a creative person. The author simultaneously applies the principles expressed in the poem to both himself and other writers. B.L. Pasternak talks about the inner depth of the creative act, its self-purpose. Neither fame nor success in anyone's eyes is directly related to the quality of the works created. An artist of words can only decide in the depths of his soul whether the height to which he aspired has been achieved: “The goal of creativity is dedication, and not hype, not success.”
In the third stanza of the poem B.L. Pasternak emphasizes the special position of the creative person in time and space. At the same time, he formulates another principle, important and necessary for a human creator: “Hear the call of the future.” Only then will the poet be able to become interesting not only to his contemporary, but also to his descendants. However, in this stanza there is also a certain mystical motive of the sacrament; the artist needs to “attract the love of space to himself.” In fact, the motive will remain unclear until the end. The “love of space” metaphor, which is quite deep in its philosophical content, can symbolize good luck, a muse that brought creative insight, and favorable life circumstances (interesting meetings with people, nature). But still, the point here is not that he should realize his place in the world.
Being a poet-philosopher, B.L. Pasternak encourages learning from nature. His lyrical hero is able, without fear of the future, to “plunge into the unknown,” just as the area hides in fog.
BL. Pasternak writes about the need for a talented person not to revel in victories, but to maintain personal modesty in relation to his successes. After all, the main thing is to lead other people, who will decide who in history will receive glory and who will be forgotten. B.L. Parsnip on personal example teaches you not to prevaricate, not to isolate yourself in your experiences, to maintain a keen interest in the world around you, to love life until the very end. last hour. The theme of the purpose of the poet and poetry is deeply embedded in the Russian classical poetic tradition.
In this regard, the poem by B.L. Pasternak’s “Being Famous is Ugly” creatively continues it. The poem is written in iambic tetrameter. All seven stanzas of it are connected by cross rhyme, while female and men's rhymes. The poem makes extensive use of figurative and expressive means of language: phraseological units (“a parable on everyone’s lips”, “a span of five”), antithesis (“it’s time to marry” - “victory”), as well as the technique of emphasizing the vertical coordinates of artistic space (“lifts up”, “plunge into the unknown”), this compositional technique goes back to Tyutchev’s poetic tradition and is characteristic of meditative lyrics in general. The main epithet is the epithet “living”, reinforced in the final stanza by a threefold repetition. So obviously B.L. Pasternak sees the meaning of life in life itself, in living it honestly and openly. It is no coincidence that the words “should”, “must”, “must not” appear so often in the poem.
For an artist, the surrounding life is not only a source of inspiration and a subject of aesthetic interest. It is illuminated by his moral feeling, and she herself, in turn, conquering the artist, generates and strengthens this feeling in him. For Pasternak, the artist was always a “hostage”, but also a “debtor”, devoted to art to the end. The awareness of the specialness and chosenness of the poet’s fate also distinguishes the late Pasternak. It is multiplied by life experience, deepened by analysis and therefore truly impressive. It emphasizes and puts forward the moral aspect - the idea of the artist’s responsibility to the whole world, to art itself and directly to people.
The deep organic nature of the theme of duty and service is confirmed in Pasternak by the variety of options for its expression. It appears in the logic of cultural-historical and evangelical comparisons - in the poem. Or it suddenly appears, on the crest of a free and broad lyrical wave, in “Earth.” Or - quite unusually - it takes on the character of almost a maxim in the poem “Being famous is ugly.”
The poem “Being Famous is Ugly” was written by a recognized master during the period of his “last songs.” It conveys the poet’s internal perception of his role, the very essence of his existence on earth.
Late academic. He spends sparingly artistic media, which are in his arsenal, but this does not make his poems drier, but only emphasizes the skill of the poet, faithful to his image of the world, different from what Soviet literature offered:
Being famous is not nice.
This is not what lifts you up.
No need to create an archive,
Shake over manuscripts.
In this poem, Pasternak contrasts his creative path with the path of Vladimir, immoderately glorified after Stalin declared him “the best poet of our time.” Well, the leader needed a “court” poet who would carry the ideological guidelines of modernity to the masses, and by the will of fate, his choice fell on the famous futurist. But Pasternak was disgusted by the fate of the “famous” that befell Mayakovsky; he could not imagine life outside of secrecy and invisibility, and he always separated true poetry from near-literary vanity.
Let us note for now: it is contraindicated for a poet, as Pasternak believed, to be famous, to “keep archives”; success and hype are detrimental to his talent. In addition, the public's love is fleeting, sometimes unfair, and often subject to fashion. The poet, of course, creates for people, this is precisely what vital meaning any creative act. But precisely, for and in the name of the people, and not for the sake of their enthusiastic assessments, and especially not for the purpose of pleasing the tastes of those in power. Pasternak treats fame as a worldly vanity; his art is akin to the mercy of the celestials who give people benefits without demanding anything in return. The poet experiences joy from creativity itself. It is his element and way of existence. He cannot help but compose; for him it means to live, pouring out his soul in sounds, filling the world with beauty.
The poet formulates the maxim: “The goal of creativity is dedication.” In the first place for Pasternak is the highest sensitivity, responsiveness to moral impressions, and not the transformation of life into the life of a poet. Actually, in Pasternak’s later poems, with their lofty, preaching assertion of duty, a decisive activation of the “I” is visible, no longer so much an eyewitness to the world process, but rather its direct accomplice. And in the poem “Being Famous is Ugly,” this activation is taken to the limit. In the subtext of the poem there is the same desire for unity characteristic of Pasternak, but, being complicated by a feeling of incomprehension, the subjective moment in the poem is obvious, it expresses itself not directly, but indirectly, through conflict. All this introduces new accents into the artist’s philosophical and aesthetic concept, but does not destroy its foundation - the affirmation of unity with the world as a life-giving and morally formative principle.
In general, the poem requires thoughtful reading in the context of all of Pasternak’s lyrics, its thematic features, philosophical orientation, specific features. How dangerous it is to draw conclusions regarding the works of a great poet, how difficult it is to penetrate into his artistic world, is evidenced by Mandelstam’s arrogantly expressed opinion, according to which “It’s not beautiful to be famous” “sounds like an official report.” I was wrong: what the poem doesn’t have is “officiality”; rather, it creates the impression of a teaching message, but confidential, sincere, honest, like an intimate conversation between good friends.
Pasternak's signs attract attention colloquial speech: “to shake over manuscripts”, “to be a byword on everyone’s lips”, “in the end”, “out of sight”, “an inch away”. The poet uses phraseological units and colloquial expressions, which impart special expressiveness to speech with a small volume of words and convey conversational intonation.
There is another important aspect of interpreting the poem. Despite the fact that the final eight verses cannot be correlated with any specific passage of Holy Scripture, it must be noted that they, like the entire text, consist of biblical words. “It’s Ugly to Be Famous” is focused in content and poetics on the evangelical apostolic epistles. Pasternak, a deeply religious man who fell into the trap of atheistic Russian literature Soviet period, nevertheless remains true to his moral principles and religious beliefs and formulates those moral laws and ethical dogmas without which a true artist cannot imagine the life of a true artist.
Boris Leonidovich Pasternak is a poet-philosopher, a thoughtful artist who peers with interest at the life around him. The inquisitive mind of the poet wants to penetrate into the very essence of things, understand them and tell the world about his discoveries. In essence, the poet sums up his work with the poem “Being Famous is Ugly.” But summing up does not mean putting an end to it. The last book of lyrics is not the end of Pasternak’s poetry, always looking to the future, tuned to the perception of its call:
Others on the trail
They will pass your path by an inch,
But defeat comes from victory
You don't have to differentiate yourself.
A true artist is always a pioneer. Others will follow him, perhaps without even remembering whose footsteps they are following. But can this have any significance for a poet who devotes himself entirely to creativity, without reserve, and in his self-giving is likened to Jesus Christ, performing the feat of the cross? Living like this is hard, sometimes unbearable, but such is the fate of a poet. Only then is a masterpiece of art born when the human soul is alive, when it is open to the world and people:
And should not a single slice
Don't give up on your face
But to be alive, alive and only,
Alive and only until the end.
This is how Pasternak’s poem ends, and his final book of lyrics is imbued with the same sentiments. This is his last - no, constant, everlasting and forever living - poetic word.
Composition
“In the field of words, I love prose most of all,
but he wrote mostly poetry. Poem
Regarding prose, this is the same as a sketch
regarding the picture. Poetry seems to me
a large literary sketchbook."
B.L. Parsnip
The work of Boris Leonidovich Pasternak stands apart in the history of Russian literature. He lived and worked in a very difficult time for Russia. Old canons collapsed, old life changed harshly, people and destinies were broken... And in the midst of all this - a wonderful poet with a subtle soul and a unique vision of the world. Born at a turning point in fate, Boris Pasternak managed to become one of the symbols of his century.
Poems occupy separate place in his work. Many wonderful lines came from his pen. The last collection of poems, never published during Pasternak’s lifetime, entitled “When it clears up,” contains selected works of the author. The theme of renewal and hope is clearly heard in the book, which is a reflection of the changes taking place in the country. It was in this collection that the poem “Being Famous is Ugly...” was published, which can be called a kind of set of rules for a real poet. It is in this work that Pasternak reveals his attitude towards creativity.
The poem has a programmatic meaning, as if continuing Pushkin’s appeal to the “Poet”. The lyrical hero, continuing the great poet’s thought about the artist’s independence from “people’s love,” introduces a moral assessment into his judgment:
Being famous is not nice. This is not what lifts you up. There is no need to start an archive, to tremble over manuscripts.
The goal of creativity is dedication,
Not hype, not success.
Shameful, meaningless
Be the talk of everyone.
We see that Pasternak does not accept empty, undeserved fame; it is easier for him to sink into obscurity than to be on everyone’s lips without doing anything for it. This position deserves only respect. The artist makes his lonely path “in the fog,” where “you can’t see a thing,” hearing only “the call of the future” ahead. He must leave a “living trace” in modernity, which will be continued by “others”.
The unique fate of the poet is understood by Pasternak as a link between the past and the future in a single chain of art, loyalty to his calling:
And should not a single slice
Don't give up on your face
But to be alive, alive and only,
Alive and only until the end.
Once having chosen this path, the poet should never deviate from it.
Also an important work for revealing the image of the poet in Pasternak’s view can be the poem “In everything I want to get to the very essence...”, written in the same year as the first one, and included in the same collection.
I want to reach everything
To the very essence.
At work, looking for a way,
In heartbreak.
From this quatrain follows the aspiration of the lyrical hero, who can conditionally be equated to Pasternak himself. The desire for life, for knowledge of its secrets and mysteries, the thirst for activity and feeling. In this poem, the lyrical hero sets himself an almost impossible task - to penetrate the secret essence of life, deduce its laws, unravel its secrets... He tries to grasp the “thread of destinies and events.” But the task is complicated by the fact that he strives not only to understand, but also to express in words common law being:
Oh if only I could
Although partly
I would write eight lines
About the properties of passion.
Discarding empty words, he looks for the main, fundamental ones. Isn’t this the task and goal of poetry in general and each poet in particular?.. Pasternak always believed that what is meaningful does not have to be complex. The truth of things and phenomena lies precisely in their simplicity. Hence the poet’s desire to express in eight lines the properties of passion, which for Pasternak is life, because only when a person feels does he really live. This is the recipe for penetrating the mystery of life.
The role of nature in Pasternak’s work in general and in this poem in particular is interesting. It miraculously comes to life, but not as an accumulation of living and inanimate objects of the world around us, but as embodied poetry:
I would plant poems like a garden.
With all the trembling of the veins the linden trees in them would bloom in a row,
Single file, to the back of the head.
The world of poetry and the world of nature are intertwined, and it is not entirely clear where one ends and the other begins, and the poet’s linden trees line up in orderly rows, like words in a line...
“Being famous is ugly...” analysis of the work - theme, idea, genre, plot, composition, characters, issues and other issues are discussed in this article.
Lyric poem by Boris Pasternak “Being famous is not nice...”, ironically, is as famous as its author himself. The first line, which has long become an aphorism, is an example proving how important it is that the beginning literary work instantly captivated the reader and forced him to greedily read the text further until the very end. In fact, already in the first line of his programmatic poem, the author formulates an artistic and personal position, which is very unusual for a poet. After all, it is known that creative people at all times have been in dire need of understanding and success. Often doubting everything, it is thanks to their enthusiastic attitude towards themselves that they understand that what they are doing is not in vain. However, Pasternak clearly distinguishes between the concepts "hype" And "love of space" ("the call of the future"). This is the main antithesis poem, and it is intonationally reinforced by cross rhyme.
The poet emphasizes: recognition, if it has come, should be a natural consequence "dedication" in art, not "imposture". He seems to foresee the future glory of the real creator:
Others on the trail
They will pass your path by an inch,
- and immediately insists that the person "shouldn't differentiate" "defeat from victory". He needs complete acceptance of everything that happens to him as a sign of fate.
Modesty and dignity - this is what Boris Pasternak teaches his readers. And it seems that at the same time he is turning to himself, his inner voice and possible impulses of ambition in his own soul. Is it so? ... Let's see at what time and under what circumstances in the poet's life this poem was created.
Dated 1956, the work was born in the late period of the life and work of Boris Pasternak. By this time, the “great leader of the Soviet people” I. Stalin, whom a romantically minded poet had glorified just a few years ago, had already passed away. Pasternak's short period of public recognition in the Soviet Union and membership in the Writers' Union has already been left behind. The poet moved away from the general literary bustle and increasingly devoted himself to translations of works by foreign authors and risky activities to protect and support disgraced friends, among whom were Akhmatova and her son. The writer’s life included a rethinking of the events of past years and his path, and in this sense, it would not be wrong to assume that "It's not nice to be famous..."- a reminder to himself, and to his fellow writers about true values and, of course, to readers, who, in fact, create destructive hype around their idols.
Literary critics suggest that in this poem Boris Pasternak openly dissociates himself from creative path another famous contemporary and former like-minded person - Vladimir Mayakovsky. By that time it was customary to praise him beyond measure as “the best poet of our time.” The words belonged to Stalin, which for a long time determined the “inviolability” of Mayakovsky, who had already become a cult poet in the eyes of the people. In this “court path” Pasternak saw a terrible danger for a creative person. And yet the lyrical hero of his poem does not at all drool with slander and does not hide in his words and intonations an insult to the whole world for his own lack of recognition.
In every phrase one hears a conscious and hard-won truth. This is a stern sermon addressed to those who have the divine gift of inspiring and "to lift up" and who has forgotten or may forget their purpose on earth. “No need to start an archive, writes the author, Shake over manuscripts". And openly passes judgment
Shameful, meaningless
Be the talk of everyone.
Some exaggeration of the denial of the gift in in this case should work like a charm cold water. This began the awakening from sleep, and it is expressed compositionally in the first two stanzas. Next, the author nevertheless moves on to discussions about what a poet should be like (both in the narrow and broad sense of the word).
A poem written in complex, ever-changing verse size(spondee - pyrrhic - pyrrhic - iambic), has no external plot- only internal. This is the movement of the poet-philosopher’s thought from the denial of glory to the affirmation great power gift
...leave spaces
In fate, not among papers.
Metaphor "spaces" here the meaning of understatement takes on, motive for knowledge and searching for oneself, and lexical repetition of the word "alive" convinces the reader of the need to strive for spiritual life - "but only"!
Which attracts attention with the extraordinary brightness of her talent. His poems interest many intellectual minds and are extremely popular. Many lines of his immortal creations have long become quotations. The analysis of the poem “It’s Ugly to Be Famous,” given in this article, will be of interest not only to literary scholars, but also to everyone who is interested in
The state of the lyrical hero
He is very tense, but confident that he is right. Pasternak's lyrical hero seeks the truth in this world and comes to certain conclusions only thanks to his own experience. A true creator is always a pioneer. He creates something that will later serve as a road a large number people, will lead them to a new understanding of truth and the world around them.
The lyrical hero does not rush around, is not lost in conjectures, he is completely calm and confident. Of course, it took him quite a long time to go all the way from start to finish and come to the point of becoming an artist. The fate of any creative person is connected with torment, eternal spiritual search, and service to art.
Let's try to analyze. “It’s not beautiful to be famous” (Pasternak’s poem) is intended to show the soul of the poet with his conflicting feelings. Like any creator, he is constantly in search of his place in the world. This is what Pasternak tells readers.
“Being famous is ugly”: analysis
In this lyrical work, the author touches on several topics relating to the creative process and human existence in general. Success and fame, in his opinion, are temporary. It is unacceptable to set these components as a goal, otherwise real creativity will fade and turn into simple making money. An artist must not cultivate greed and self-interest; he must be sincere and truthful.
If a simple man in the street can be forgiven for having a certain inclination towards profit, then for a poet such a “hobby” can turn out to be detrimental. Any creative person has a very vulnerable soul. Lies and deception destroy it, deprive it of a sense of self-sufficiency and peace. What conclusions does the analysis allow us to draw?
“It’s not nice to be famous” emphasizes the great role of the poet in public life, determines its place in the universe. The artist always paves the way to the future, he does not live in the present, and therefore is never satisfied, completely satisfied. This the main idea, which Pasternak emphasizes in the poem “Being famous is ugly.” The analysis of this lyrical work is aimed at revealing the essence of creativity.
Why does the poet live?
The purpose of a word artist is different from that of most people. Any creative person has the ability to feel and perceive things that a simple layman would simply not pay attention to. The Creator is always sensitive to what is happening; for him there are no unnecessary trifles. A poet should not constantly be concerned with overly ordinary things, otherwise he will lose himself. He needs more time to be alone with his own infinite essence and realize the significance of everything that happens. Otherwise, any artist is doomed to countless torments and suffering.
Truth is of the highest value to him. For the sake of truth, he is ready to endure temporary hardships and go towards his goal. Freedom represents the poet's guide. There is no way to do without it. Only by remaining free can a poet create and move forward to new achievements. The analysis of “Being famous is ugly” shows how difficult and unusual a creative person is.
The poet's aspirations
All artists are designed in such a way that they necessarily see the meaning of their lives in serving the will of the Almighty as much as possible. Such a person is more connected to his inner essence than anyone else, so he has well-developed intuition. The lyrical hero considers dedication to be the goal of creativity. He talks about how important it is to stay alive until your last breath.
It is important to live this life with dignity, without adapting to circumstances and without trying to play some role. You need to remain yourself and go all the way to your own achievements. Only then will a person be truly happy. The analysis “Being famous is ugly” demonstrates the task of any artist on earth - to seek the truth in everything and live according to the laws of conscience.
Instead of a conclusion
Thus, the meaning of the poet’s stay on earth is not to preserve himself as long as possible, but to properly and profitably spend his internal creative forces. The potential inherent in an artist can serve for the benefit of other people and show them the right path. Pasternak’s “It’s Ugly to Be Famous” shows the depth of feelings and experiences of a true creator who always lives on the edge of his capabilities and is surrounded by contradictions.