"On railway" Alexander Blok
Maria Pavlovna Ivanova
Under the embankment, in the unmown ditch,
Lies and looks as if alive,
In a colored scarf thrown on her braids,
Beautiful and young.Sometimes I walked with a sedate gait
To the noise and whistle behind the nearby forest.
Walking all the way around the long platform,
She waited, worried, under the canopy.Three bright eyes rushing -
Softer blush, cooler curl:
Perhaps one of those passing by
Look more closely from the windows...The carriages walked in the usual line,
They shook and creaked;
The yellow and blue ones were silent;
The green ones cried and sang.We got up sleepy behind the glass
And looked around with an even gaze
Platform, garden with faded bushes,
Her, the gendarme next to her...Just once a hussar, with a careless hand
Leaning on the scarlet velvet,
Slipped over her with a tender smile,
He slipped and the train sped off into the distance.Thus the useless youth rushed,
Exhausted in empty dreams...
Road melancholy, iron
She whistled, breaking my heart...Why, the heart has been taken out a long time ago!
So many bows were given,
So many greedy glances cast
Into the deserted eyes of the carriages...Don't approach her with questions
You don’t care, but she’s satisfied:
With love, mud or wheels
She is crushed - everything hurts.
Analysis of Blok’s poem “On the Railway”
Alexander Blok’s poem “On the Railway,” written in 1910, is part of the “Odin” cycle and is one of the illustrations of pre-revolutionary Russia. The plot, according to the author himself, is inspired by the works of Leo Tolstoy. In particular, “Anna Karenina” and “Sunday”, the main characters of which die, unable to survive their own shame and having lost faith in love.
The picture, which Alexander Blok masterfully recreated in his work, is majestic and sad. A young woman lies on the railway embankment beautiful woman, “as if alive,” but from the first lines it is clear that she died. Moreover, it was not by chance that she threw herself under the wheels of a passing train. What made her commit this terrible and senseless act? Alexander Blok does not give an answer to this question, believing that if no one needed his heroine during her lifetime, then after her death there is even less point in looking for motivation for suicide. The author only states a fait accompli and talks about the fate of the one who died in the prime of life.
It is difficult to understand who she was. Either a noble noblewoman or a commoner. Perhaps she belonged to a fairly huge caste of ladies of easy virtue. However, the fact that a beautiful and young woman regularly came to the railway and followed the train with her eyes, looking for a familiar face in the respectable carriages, speaks volumes. It is likely that, like Tolstoy's Katenka Maslova, she was seduced by a man who subsequently abandoned her and left. But the heroine of the poem “on the railway” until the last moment believed in a miracle and hoped that her lover would return and take her with him.
But the miracle did not happen, and soon the figure of a young woman constantly meeting trains on the railway platform became an integral part of the dull provincial landscape. Travelers in soft carriages, carrying them to a much more attractive life, glanced coldly and indifferently at the mysterious stranger, and she aroused absolutely no interest in them, just like the gardens, forests and meadows flying past the window, as well as the representative figure of the policeman who was on duty at the station.
One can only guess how many hours, secretly full of hope and excitement, the heroine of the poem spent on the railway. However, no one cared about her at all. Thousands of people carried multi-colored carriages into the distance, and only once did the gallant hussar give the beauty a “tender smile,” meaning nothing and as ephemeral as a woman’s dreams. It should be borne in mind that the collective image of the heroine of Alexander Blok’s poem “On the Railroad” is quite typical for the beginning of the 20th century. Fundamental changes in society have given women freedom, but not all of them have been able to properly use this invaluable gift. Among the representatives of the fairer sex who were unable to overcome public contempt and were forced to be doomed to a life full of dirt, pain and suffering, of course, is the heroine of this poem. Realizing the hopelessness of the situation, the woman decides to commit suicide, hoping in this simple way to immediately get rid of all her problems. However, according to the poet, it is not so important who or what killed the young woman in the prime of life - a train, unhappy love or prejudice. All that matters is that she is dead, and this death is one of thousands of victims for the sake of public opinion, which puts a woman on a much lower level than a man, and does not forgive her even the most insignificant mistakes, forcing her to atone for them with her own life.
Poem by A.A. Blok’s “On the Railroad” is rich in artistic details that make the reader shudder. The cinematic verisimilitude with which each stanza is written clearly paints a tragic picture before us.
At this time, Blok was re-reading “Resurrection” by Leo Tolstoy. The plot of the poem has an intertextual connection with the story of Nekhlyudov and Katyusha Maslova. Here you can see a reference to another, no less famous novel, Anna Karenina. However, it cannot be said that “On the Railroad” is a poetic imitation. The author uses new symbols, imbuing them with Blok sound.
The idea is based on real case, which Blok witnessed. Driving past the railway station, he saw through the train window a poisoned teenage girl and local inhabitants standing at a distance and looking with petty curiosity. Blok saw everything from the inside. He couldn't help but respond with his heart.
As you know, the poet was very attentive and free from indifference. This conclusion can be drawn from the memoirs of his contemporaries, from what was created by Blok, for example, such an article as “Irony”, from his diaries and letters. The author always reacted sharply to any slightest change in the world order. His sensitive heart, which heard the music of the revolution, was not able to pretend to be a mechanical engine.
For Block human life– this is the life of the whole country. In the poem “On the Railway” there is clearly an identification of the existence of an individual person and the fate of the entire Motherland.
Genre, direction, size
The genre of the poem “On the Railway” is a lyrical work. It reflects the features of the symbolist movement.
First of all, it should be noted the ambiguity of each image appearing in the work, the musicality of the syllable and the philosophical sound of the central theme. At the end of this poem, a symbolist view of life's realities from the point of view of eternity is clearly visible. Musicality, expressed not only by poetic techniques, but also concentrated in the internal energy of “On the Railway,” also connects this work with symbolism.
Blok uses an ambiguous poetic meter: alternating iambic pentameter and iambic tetrameter. “On the Railway” consists of nine quatrains. The type of rhyme is also special; the first and third lines of the quatrains are dactylic rhymed. The second and fourth have a female clause. Thus, an internal rhythm is created, giving the poem a wave-like intonation sound.
Composition
The composition “On the Railroad” is circular. The poem begins with the image of a dead girl lying “under an embankment, in an unmown ditch,” and ends with a return to the same image. Blok uses a cinematic technique, gradually moving the lens away from the main character to show her fate, and then again returning to the figure of the unfortunate girl. It gives the reader a feeling of being involved in what is happening. The existence of an individual heroine becomes an impulse to think about the fate of the Motherland.
The ring composition allows Blok to create an image of infinity: the end is the beginning, and the beginning is the end. However, the last lines leave hope for deliverance from this fate. The dead heroine is described as if alive: “Don’t approach her with questions, / You don’t care, but she’s content: / With love, dirt or wheels / She’s crushed - everything hurts.” One gets the feeling that she can still hear the hustle and bustle around her, still sees figures approaching her, still distinguishes the faces of curious onlookers. Dead man written out as if existing between the world below and above. This duality in that the flesh belongs to the earth, and the soul rushes to heaven, is shown as deadened, but still present.
Images and symbols
The poem contains hidden symbols that capture the essence of the era.
- For example, in this quatrain: “The carriages walked in the usual line,/Trembled and creaked;/The yellow and blue ones were silent;/The green ones cried and sang…” - the poet allegorically means social inequality and in general the polarity of perception of Russian reality of that time by different classes. And at the same time he notices the dull indifference to the fate of man, both from the upper and lower strata. Some are hidden behind the mask of an aristocrat, others are hidden behind the illusion of the breadth of their own soul. In any case, everyone is the same in one thing: no one notices the human waiting, no one reaches out a hand. However, Blok does not reproach people, he only asks them to be more sensitive at least to her death, since they were unable to live. Blok wrote this: “Heart, shed tears of pity for everything and remember that you cannot judge anyone...”
- The heroine's unfortunate fate can be viewed from a symbolist point of view. The image of a girl “in a colored scarf thrown over her braids” - personification of Russia. “A decorous gait”, exciting expectations in hopes that now a miracle will happen - and life will become easier, and everything will change. It seems to me that Blok wanted to put a global meaning into this symbol - the eternal expectations of the Russian people for a better life.
- Another can easily be guessed in the girl’s fate a symbol of the difficult life of a Russian woman. Endless expectations of happiness, the keys to which are thrown deep into the water and long ago eaten by fish, according to the heroine of Nekrasov’s poem.
- Railway image is a symbol of the path. People are rushing on a train, no one knows where, not noticing how the entire country is plunged into mortal melancholy. “Greedy glances” that the girl throws at the windows of the cars, hoping for a heartfelt response - an attempt to stop the train of that era and be saved by love.
- Lyrical hero treats the girl with deep sympathy and compassion. First of all, he sees Russia in the girl’s face. One gets the feeling that he is passing through himself all the pain of this unfortunate fate, realizing his helplessness in the face of the tragedy that has taken place.
Themes
The main theme of the poem is the theme of loneliness in the crowd, the tragic fate of a person who longed for love and was met only with cold external space. The theme of human indifference, as a result of universal blindness, is also woven into the outline of the plot. The inability to forget oneself and see one’s neighbor, the inability to get out of the carriage of life rushing to God knows where and just stop for a moment, look around, notice, listen, become sensitive. The closeness and isolation of everyone gives rise to an all-consuming icy void into which the entire country is plunging. Blok draws a parallel between the destinies of a particular heroine and Russia, showing how lonely and dilapidated the Motherland seems to him, enduring so much pain and not finding a sensitive soul in its own expanses.
Blok also brings up the theme of unfulfilled dreams. The sound of “On the Railroad” is tragic precisely because of this victory of life’s realities over dreams.
Problems
The problems of “On the Railroad” are multifaceted: here is the path of Russia, the fate of the Russian woman, and the insurmountability of fate.
There is not one in the poem rhetorical question However, the interrogative intonation is palpable in the subtext of the work. The poet reflects on the fate of his own country, trying to understand where and why everything around him is moving. The feeling of external bustle and internal loneliness is created due to the station surroundings. The smallness of a person against the backdrop of a huge space, trains rushing somewhere, busy crowds of people. The problem of hopelessness and hopelessness is examined using the example of a single human destiny.
Idea
The main idea that Blok puts into his creation is also ambiguous. Each symbol carries more than one meaning.
The main idea is to comprehend the path of the Motherland. The lyrical hero is not indifferent to what is happening. He is trying to encourage people to be sensitive and careful. If we consider the fate of the heroine as a symbol of the fate of Russia, then we can say that the central idea of this poem is to listen to an already dying country. This is a kind of premonition of the approaching events of that era. What will be said in the article “Intellectuals and Revolution” eight years later is reflected in this work.
The important thing is that the lyrical hero is also among those who rushed past, and only the contemplation of death excites his entire being. Essentially, all of these artistic details(“an orderly gait”, “a softer blush, a cooler curl”, etc.) are recreated only in his imagination. Seeing the outcome of this sad story, he seems to scroll back to realize the mistake, to feel all the pain of what the main character experienced.
Means of artistic expression
Facilities artistic expression, found in this poem, are also multifaceted. Here are the epithets “even gaze”, “greedy gaze”, etc., and the comparison “as if alive”, and the antithesis “The yellow and blue ones were silent; / In the green ones they cried and sang.”
Blok also uses the sound recording “The carriages walked in a familiar line, trembled and creaked” to more accurately convey the atmosphere of the station.
The anaphora in the sixth quatrain “He slid over her with a tender smile,/Slipped - and the train sped off into the distance...” is necessary here for expressiveness and emphasizing the fleeting nature of what is happening. In the penultimate quatrain there is a rhetorical exclamation: “What, the heart has been taken out a long time ago!”, conveying the emotional tension of the poem. In the same quatrain, Blok again uses anaphora: “So many bows were given, / So many greedy glances were cast,” which, first of all, creates a pumping intonation.
Blok also often uses a dash in the middle of a line, thus creating a long caesura, which focuses attention on what is being said and becomes an impulse of internal tension: “He slipped and the train sped off into the distance,” “You don’t care, but she’s satisfied,” “... or wheels/She is crushed - everything hurts.”
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Reading and learning the verse “On the Railroad” by Alexander Alexandrovich Blok is not easy. This is due to the fact that the symbolist poet takes the reader away from the main storyline, giving the poem a special semantic load. The text of Blok’s poem “On the Railway” is full of drama, melancholy, and special internal tension. The work was written in 1910 and is dedicated to the death of a young woman under the wheels of a train. It seems to continue the “railway-tram” line begun by other Russian writers and poets: L. Tolstoy in “Anna Karenina” and “Sunday”, A. Akhmatova in the poem “Rails”, N. Gumilev in the poem “The Lost Tram”.
Blok paints his lyrical heroine as a “young”, “beautiful”, strong woman, capable of subtle feelings and experiences. Her life flows smoothly, she is invisible to others, but she wants something different, she wants to be noticed, not to be “glided over with even glances”, not to be compared with the gendarme standing next to her or the growing bushes. In literature lessons in the 11th grade, teachers explain that the railway in this poem is a symbol of the poet’s modern life, where a meaningless cycle of events takes place, where everyone is indifferent to each other, where everyone is depersonalized, where there is nothing but “road, iron melancholy.” Living in a world where entire classes are fenced off from each other iron walls carriages, unbearable. In such a world, a person can only be a victim, and if happiness is impossible, if life flows meaninglessly, if no one notices you, the only thing left to do is die. After reading the poem in its entirety, you begin to understand what the poet is talking about. He calls for paying attention to a person during life, and not showing idle curiosity about him after his death. That is why the poet does not reveal the reasons for the heroine’s death and does not explain what pushed her to take this step, because no one cares, but “she has enough.”
Blok’s poem “On the Railroad” is presented on our website. You can get acquainted with it online, or you can download it for a literature lesson.
Maria Pavlovna Ivanova
Under the embankment, in the unmown ditch,
Lies and looks as if alive,
In a colored scarf thrown on her braids,
Beautiful and young.
Sometimes I walked with a sedate gait
To the noise and whistle behind the nearby forest.
Walking all the way around the long platform,
She waited, worried, under the canopy.
Three bright eyes rushing -
Softer blush, cooler curl:
Perhaps one of those passing by
Look more closely from the windows...
The carriages walked in the usual line,
They shook and creaked;
The yellow and blue ones were silent;
The green ones cried and sang.
We got up sleepy behind the glass
And looked around with an even gaze
Platform, garden with faded bushes,
Her, the gendarme next to her...
Just once a hussar, with a careless hand
Leaning on the scarlet velvet,
Slipped over her with a tender smile,
He slipped and the train sped off into the distance.
Thus the useless youth rushed,
Exhausted in empty dreams...
Road melancholy, iron
She whistled, breaking my heart...
Why, the heart has been taken out a long time ago!
So many bows were given,
So many greedy glances cast
Into the deserted eyes of the carriages...
Don't approach her with questions
You don’t care, but she’s satisfied:
With love, mud or wheels
She is crushed - everything hurts.
Poem A. Blok "On the Railroad" begins with a description of the death of the heroine - a young woman. The author returns us to her death at the end of the work. The composition of the verse is thus circular and closed.
On the railway to Maria Pavlovna Ivanova Under the embankment, in the unmown ditch, She lies and looks as if alive, In a colored scarf thrown over her braids, Beautiful and young. It used to be that she walked with a sedate gait towards the noise and whistle behind the nearby forest. Walking all the way around the long platform, She waited, worried, under the canopy... The carriages walked in the usual line, Trembling and creaking; The yellow and blue ones were silent; The green ones cried and sang. They stood up sleepy behind the glass And looked around with an even gaze The platform, the garden with faded bushes, Her, the gendarme next to her... Only once did the hussar, with a careless hand, Lean on the scarlet velvet, Slid along it with a tender smile... He slid - and the train sped off into the distance . So the useless youth rushed, Exhausted in empty dreams... Road melancholy, iron Whistled, tearing my heart... Don't approach her with questions, You don't care, but she's content: Love, dirt or wheels She's crushed - everything hurts. June 14, 1910The name is symbolic. Let us remember that in Russian literature Anna Karenina and women who leave their homeland die by “railroad-tram” death - in M. Tsvetaeva’s poem “Rails”, the lyrical hero of the poem N found himself not in “his” tram, that is, in a time alien to him Gumilyov's "Lost Tram". The list could be continued...
In the author’s note to this poem, Blok testifies: “Unconscious imitation of an episode from Tolstoy’s “Resurrection”: Katyusha Maslova at a small station sees Nekhlyudov in a velvet chair in a brightly lit first-class compartment in the window of the carriage.” However, the content of the poem, of course, goes far beyond the scope of “unconscious imitation.”
In the first quatrain, Blok paints the image of a “beautiful and young” woman, whose life was interrupted in its prime. Her death is just as absurd and unexpected as it is absurd that now she, “in a colored scarf thrown over her braids,” lies “under an embankment, in a ditch...”:
It used to be that she walked with a sedate gait towards the noise and whistle behind the nearby forest. Walking all the way around the long platform, she waited, worried, under the canopy.She walked calmly, “decorously,” but there was probably so much restrained tension, hidden expectation, and inner drama in it. All this speaks of the heroine as a strong nature, which is characterized by depth of experience and constancy of feelings. As if on a date, she comes to the platform: “Tender blush, cooler curl...” She arrives long before the appointed hour (“walking all the way around the long platform...”).
And the carriages “walked along the usual line,” indifferently and tiredly “trembled and creaked.” Life in the carriages went on as usual, and no one cared about the lonely young woman on the platform. In the first and second grades (“yellow and blue”) they were coldly laconic, fencing themselves off from the rest of the world with an armor of indifference. Well, in the “green” (III class carriages), without hiding their feelings and without being embarrassed, they “cried and sang”:
They stood up sleepy behind the glass and looked around with an even gaze at the Platform, the garden with faded bushes, Her, the gendarme next to her...How humiliating and unbearable these “even glances” must have been for the heroine of the poem. Will they really not notice her? Doesn't she deserve more?! But she is perceived by those passing in the same row as the bushes and the gendarme. A typical landscape for those traveling on a train. Normal indifference. Only in Blok’s poem does the railway become a symbol of the poet’s contemporary life with its meaningless cycle of events and indifference to people. General impersonality, dull indifference to others, both of entire classes and individuals, creates an emptiness of the soul and makes life meaningless. This is “road melancholy, iron”... In such a deadening atmosphere, a person can only be a victim. Only once did an alluring vision flash across the young woman - a hussar with a “tender smile”, but, probably, it only stirred her soul. If happiness is impossible, mutual understanding in the conditions " scary world“Impossible, is life worth living? Life itself is losing value.
Don’t approach her with questions, you don’t care, but she’s content: Love, dirt or wheels She’s crushed - everything hurts.The author refuses to explain the reasons for the death of the young woman. We don’t know whether “she was crushed by love, by dirt or by wheels.” The author also warns us against unnecessary questions. If they were indifferent to her during her lifetime, why now show insincere, short-term and tactless participation.
Alexander Blok wrote this interesting poem in 1910. And it is interesting because the poet himself made a note that this is a kind of imitation of one of the episodes of Leo Tolstoy’s work “Resurrection”.
Speaking of the plot: this is a rather sad picture. The life of a young girl who hoped for happiness in life. But she found only death. It seems that the lyrical hero knew the young lady and watched her fate. He feels sorry for her, and at the same time, from some lines you can see that the girl herself went the wrong way life's path. The action takes place on the platform of a railway station, where a young lady is trying to find a response in the hearts of passengers from passing cars. Why is she waiting for happiness in such a place? Why does he ultimately step into the abyss of non-existence? Many questions arise as you read A. Blok’s work. In advance, Blok writes the lines “Don’t approach her with questions, you don’t care, but she’s happy.” It seems as if Blok wanted to say that the reader, like an indifferent passenger, will also rush past after finishing reading. And yet, it can be assumed that the girl was looking for happiness on the platform, because she hoped to find joy at least from strangers, because she was lonely.
Very skillfully A. Blok selects expressions in his creation to convey the main theme. For example, in the seventh stanza there is the line “So the useless youth rushed.” Such a catchy word “useless” makes it clear that no one needs the heroine, no one knows about her, only the lyrical hero and the reader turn their attention to the fate of the girl.
Sad fate attracts the image of an unhappy soul. Perhaps this is one of those poems in which you don’t need to look for meaning again, you just need to pay attention to it as to its heroine.
Analysis of Blok's poem On the Railway
Alexander Blok wrote a work in the genre of a poem, which he called “On the Railroad.” This was done in 1910. Also, critics include this work in his collection of poems, or a cycle called “Alone.” And perhaps not without reason. Since the block’s poem contains many elements that in themselves are illustrations of Russia, which was not yet revolutionary.
That is, pre-revolutionary Russia is an important thing that Blok wanted to show in his work. In addition, the main characters are also present. This is a beautiful, young woman. In addition, he is her lover. But from the very first lines of the poem it becomes clear that she is dead. Since the plot is as follows - she died after throwing herself under the wheels of a train.
But the thing is, she did it that way on purpose. After all, the whole point is that life is as difficult as it seemed to her at that moment. Blok further develops this idea, and readers see that everything is not so simple. After all, there was love, so strong and passionate, but everything seemed to perish in one moment.
No wonder Alexander Blok chose such a plot. After all, it is inspired precisely by the works of Leo Tolstoy. Especially, the theme of works in which the main characters die tragically, and this is “Anna Karenina”, and even “Sunday”. These heroes died because shame came first for them, as well as disappointment that people were not the same as themselves. Alexander Blok was able to present the plot in the poem in such a way that it does not look ridiculous or ordinary. Everything seems majestic, and very tragic.
But who the heroine herself is is difficult to understand. Both beautiful and young, but what origin is not clear. But there was one fact - this woman constantly and regularly came at the same time, watching the passengers get off the train, and then sadly looked after the departing train. This happened all the time, and then, on an ordinary day, she died, thus perishing. Even the author himself does not know what exactly made him commit this act.
Analysis of the poem On the railway according to plan
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