Nikolai Stepanovich Gumilev, a significant figure of the Silver Age, Russian poet-acmeist, was born on April 15, 1886 in Kronstadt. Gumilyov grew up in Tsarskoye Selo, then his father, a military naval doctor, moved his family to Tiflis, where the first poem of the young poet was published in 1902. In 1903, the Gumilevs returned to Tsarskoe Selo. Here Nikolai studied at the gymnasium, and in 1906, after graduating from educational institution went to Paris. Until that time, he had already managed to publish his debut collection of poems "The Way of the Conquistadors".

In France, the poet published the Sirius magazine, attended lectures at the Sorbonne, corresponded with Bryusov, who published his poems in the Russian Symbolist magazine Libra. From Paris, Nikolai traveled twice to Africa, which was reflected in his new collections Romantic Flowers and Pearls, published in 1908 and 1910.

After returning to St. Petersburg in 1908, Gumilyov joined the Russian literary community and became one of the founders of the Apollo magazine, the most popular publication on art and literature.

In 1910 Nikolai Gumilyov married the poet Anna Akhmatova. Their marriage was difficult, and, despite the birth of their son Lev in 1912, the couple soon broke up, and in 1918 Gumilyov and Akhmatova divorced.

A bright event in creative life poet was his participation in the creation of the "Workshop of poets", which united such masters as Mandelstam, Gorodetsky, Akhmatova. In 1911, Gumilev announced the emergence of a new trend in poetry - acmeism, and together with like-minded people began publishing the magazine "Hyperborey".

As soon as Russia enters the First World War, Gumilyov voluntarily leaves for the front, takes an active part in hostilities, which twice brings him the St.George's Crosses of the 2nd and 3rd degree. During wartime, two collections of his poems were published - "The Quiver" in 1916 and "To the Blue Star" in 1917.

After returning from the front, the poet works in the publishing house "World Literature", translates, publishes and teaches.

In August 1921, Gumilyov was arrested on charges of conspiracy against the government. Three weeks later he was sentenced to death. According to archival documents, on the night of August 26, the sentence was carried out. The exact place of the execution and burial of Nikolai Gumilyov is still unknown.

Biography 2

The future poet was born on April 3 (April 15) 1886 in the city of Kronstadt in the family of naval doctors Stepan Yakovlevich Gumilyov and Anna Ivanovna, maiden name Lvovna. In childhood, the poor classic did not differ in good health, but on the contrary, he was constantly ill: he suffered from headaches and other things. He began to write poetry as a child, the first poem dates back to the age of 6.

In 1894 he entered the famous Tsarskoye Selo gymnasium, but due to poor health, he switched to home schooling.

In 1903, after long trips with his family, Gumilyov returned to the gymnasium and entered the 7th grade, where he met his future love, Anna Akhmatova. The study was hard, and the poet was on the verge of expulsion, but he was always helped by another poet and part-time director of the gymnasium, Innokenty Annensky. He saw talent in the boy.

In 1905, the first collection of poems, "The Way of the Conquistador", was published.

In 1906, having received a certificate of maturity, Nikolai went to Paris. In 1907, the second collection of poetry "Romantic Flowers" was published, dictated by the feeling of love inspiration and the beauty of Anna Akhmatova. From that moment on, Gumilev enters the phase of his mature creativity.

After long wanderings in the East and Africa, in 1909 Gumilyov entered the St. Petersburg University. In 1910 the collection "Pearls" was published.

In the same year, the poet's marriage to the poetess Anna Akhmatova takes place.

In 1911, Gumilyov, together with Osip Mandelstam and Sergei Gorodetsky, founded the poetry society "Poets' Workshop".

In 1912 Gumilev proclaimed the emergence of a new poetic movement, "Akmeism".

The poet himself conceived this trend as a counterbalance to the dominant symbolism at that time. Acmeism declares the primacy of materiality, graceful precision of words and materialism.

Before the First began to thunder in Europe World War, Gumilev spends time wandering in the east, but at first the world catastrophe returns to Russia and enters the front as a volunteer. On the front line, Gumilev is honored with two St. George's crosses for his heroic service. The war has a positive effect on his inspiration; at the front, Gumilev will write many of his beautiful poems. In 1917, the poet went to the Russian Expeditionary Force in France, where he felt in love with the daughter of the famous surgeon Helena du Boucher, and dedicated a collection of poems to her.

Nikolai Stepanovich returned to his homeland in 1918. Divorces Anna Akhmatova. A year later, in 1919, he marries for the second time, to Anna Engelhardt.

At the end of the summer of 1921, Gumilyov was taken into custody due to suspicion of participation in the Tagantsev conspiracy. Almost a month later, he was sentenced to death. Carried out the next day. Nikolai Stepanovich Gumilyov was 35 years old. The burial place of the poet is still unknown.

Pedigree Nikolay Gumilyov Stepanovich, a Russian poet-acmeist, had strong noble roots. His mother, Anna Ivanovna Gumilyova (nee Lvov), at the age of twenty-three, married the widower Stepan Yakovlevich Gumilyov, who had the profession of a military doctor. Their son Nikolai was born on the third of April (old style) 1886 in the city of Kronstadt, where his father worked in a hospital. In the same 1886, the family moved to Tsarskoe Selo. Nikolai Gumilyov spent his entire childhood there. Due to his frequent relocations, he had to study at different gymnasiums: Petersburg, Tiflis and Tsarskoye Selo. He read a lot, was fond of Nietzsche and the poetry of the Symbolists, in his gymnasium years he realized himself as a poet.

In 1905, the first collection of his poems, The Way of the Conquistadors, was published. The then well-known symbolist poet Valery Bryusov drew attention to him. They have been in active correspondence for many years. After graduating from high school, Nikolai Gumilyov went to Paris (1906), where he lived for two years. There he studied French literature, visited museums, and attended lectures at the Sorbonne University. Extreme material need led to the fact that sometimes he had to eat only chestnuts. But, nevertheless, there, in Paris, he was engaged in literary activity: he published the magazine "Sirius", wrote stories and poems. In the same place, in Paris, in 1908, the poet published his second collection, Romantic Flowers.

During 1909, already in Russia, Nikolai Gumilyov began to strengthen his literary position: he collaborated in the new Ostrov magazine, began working in the Apollo magazine, participation in which lasted until 1917. In 1910, Nikolai Stepanovich made an offer to the young poetess Anna Andreevna Gorenko (Akhmatova) and received consent. And since the Gumilev family was in mourning for the recently deceased father of Nikolai, the wedding was modest and quiet. The newlyweds made their honeymoon to Paris. In the same 1910, Gumilyov's third collection, Pearls, was published. And in the fall, he went on another trip to Africa. That year was so eventful.

I must say that Gumilev was an avid traveler, and especially fell in love with Africa. The first time he went there in 1908, but only visited Cairo and Alexandria. The second time he went to Africa in the winter of 1909-1910. And here is the third trip - after the wedding with Akhmatova. This time he visited Djibouti, Dire Dawa, Harare, Addis Ababa, and was even introduced to the Abyssinian emperor. Gumilev returned from there (1911) disappointed in travel and sick with African fever. But, having recovered, he again went to travel, this time to Italy (1912).

In the autumn of the same year, Gumilev entered the St. Petersburg University, the Romano-Germanic department, to study Old French poetry, and in parallel released the next collection of his poems - "Alien Sky". In 1913, on the instructions of the Academy of Sciences, he again left for Abyssinia - to study culture and collect a collection of household items of wild tribes. This business trip lasted for six months.

In 1914, when the First World War began, Gumilyov went to the front. And already at the end of this year he received the first St. George Cross for valuable reconnaissance, and the next year he was awarded the second George for saving a machine gun from artillery shelling during the retreat. The events experienced by Gumilev during the war were reflected in his book "Notes of a Cavalier". In 1915, a new collection of Gumilyov's poems, "The Quiver", was published. After treatment in the Crimea - again the front (1916-1917), then on the instructions of the Commissioner of the Provisional Government he lived in Paris, and only in 1918 he returned to Russia.

The marriage with Anna Akhmatova was unsuccessful, and in the summer of 1918 they divorced, although they had a little son, Leo, who later became an ethnographer and also a passionate travel lover. After the divorce, almost immediately Gumilyov married Anna Nikolaevna Engelhardt, in marriage with whom he had a daughter, Elena. Since then, he lived almost without a break in St. Petersburg (then Petrograd), earned translations for the publishing house "World Literature", taught in several literary studios, but his whole family was still starving. Despite hunger and lack of money, at the end of his short life, Gumilyov published several more poetry collections: "Mick", "Porcelain Pavilion", "Bonfire", "Tent" and prepared for publication "Pillar of Fire", which came out after the death of the poet in 1923 year.

Gumilyov's life was suddenly and terribly cut short. In 1921 he was arrested for participating in the Tagantsev conspiracy and on August 25 he was shot. And only many years later it became clear that his "fault" was not in participation, but only in failure to report. Gumilyov's second wife and his daughter died of starvation in besieged Leningrad.

Short biography Nikolay Gumilyov (option 1)

Gumilev Nikolai Stepanovich (1886 - 1921) - Russian poet, prose writer, literary critic, translator, representative of literature " silver age”, Founder of the school of Russian acmeism.

Childhood and first works

Nikolai Stepanovich Gumilev was born on April 3 (15), 1886 in Kronstadt, in the family of a ship doctor. The childhood of the future writer took place first in Tsarskoe Selo, and then in the city of Tiflis. In 1902, Gumilyov's first poem "I fled to the forest from the cities ..." was published.

In 1903 Nikolai Stepanovich entered the 7th grade of the Tsarskoye Selo gymnasium. In the same year, the writer met his future wife, Anna Gorenko (Akhmatova). In 1905, an important event took place in Gumilyov's short biography - the poet's first collection, The Way of the Conquistadors, was published.

Mature creativity. Travels

After graduating from high school in 1906, Gumilev left for Paris and entered the Sorbonne. While in France, Nikolai Stepanovich tried to publish the magazine Sirius, which was exquisite at that time (1907). In 1908, the second collection of the writer "Romantic Flowers", dedicated to Anna Akhmatova, was published. This book marked the beginning of the mature work of Gumilyov.

Nikolai Stepanovich returns to Russia, but soon leaves again. The writer visits Sinop, Istanbul, Greece, Egypt, African countries with expeditions.

In 1909, Gumilev entered St. Petersburg University, first at the Faculty of Law, but then transferred to the History and Philology. The writer takes an active part in the creation of the Apollo magazine. In 1910, the collection "Pearls" was published, which received positive reviews from V. Ivanov, I. Annensky, V. Bryusov. The book includes the famous work of the writer "Captains".

In April 1910, Gumilev married Anna Akhmatova.

"Workshop of Poets" and Acmeism. World War I

In 1911, with the participation of Gumilyov, a poetic association "Workshop of Poets" was created, which included O. Mandelstam, S. Gorodetsky, V. Narbut, M. Zenkevich, E. Kuzmina-Karavaeva. In 1912, Nikolai Stepanovich announced the emergence of a new artistic movement, Acmeism, the magazine Hyperborey was soon created, and Gumilyov's collection Alien Sky was published. In 1913, the writer again went to the East.

With the outbreak of the First World War, Gumilev, whose biography was already full of extraordinary events, voluntarily goes to the front, for bravery he is awarded two St. George's crosses. While serving in Paris in 1917, the poet falls in love with Helene du Boucher, dedicating a collection of poems to her "To the Blue Star".

Post-war years. Doom

In 1918, Gumilyov returned to Russia. In August of the same year, the writer divorces Akhmatova.

In 1919 - 1920 the poet worked in the publishing house "World Literature", teaches, translates from English, French. In 1919 he married Anna Engelhardt, daughter of N. Engelhard. Gumilyov's poems from the collection "The Pillar of Fire" (1921) are dedicated to his second wife.

In August 1921, Nikolai Gumilyov was arrested on charges of participating in the anti-government "Tagantsev conspiracy." Three weeks later, he was sentenced to execution, executed the very next day. The exact date of the execution and the place of burial of Nikolai Stepanovich Gumilyov are unknown.


Interesting Facts

  • In 1909, Gumilyov took part in a ridiculous duel with M. Voloshin due to the fact that Nikolai Stepanovich spoke unflatteringly about the poet Elizaveta Dmitrieva. Both poets did not want to shoot, Gumilev shot in the air, Voloshin's pistol misfired.
  • In 1916, Gumilyov was enlisted in the special Fifth Hussar Alexandria Regiment, whose soldiers took part in the most fierce battles near Dvinsk.
  • Anna Akhmatova has always criticized Gumilyov's poetry. This often led to the fact that the poet burned his works.
  • For a long time, Gumilyov's works were not published. The poet was rehabilitated only in 1992.
  • Two documentaries were filmed about Gumilyov's life - "Testament" (2011) and " A new version... Gumilyov against the dictatorship "(2009)

Brief Biography of Nikolai Gumilyov (option 2)

Nikolai Stepanovich Gumilyov can be called a poet-acmeist. His short life was full of interesting events, but ended tragically. He was born in 1886 in the city of Kronstadt, where his father worked as a doctor. Nikolai had an older brother Dmitry, and the age difference between them was two years. The author's family is noble.

As a child, the poet was a sickly child, but this did not prevent him from leading an active life and making friends with his peers. Some say that he wrote his very first quatrain at the age of six, and the first verses at twelve. He received his education in gymnasiums and graduated in 1906. We can say that he studied poorly and received only one A in his certificate in the subject of "logic". And once he was even expelled, but then left for the second year.
While still in the seventh grade, Nikolai met Anna Gorenko (Anna Akhmatova), who in the future would become his life companion.

After graduating from the gymnasium, the poet went to France, where he studied the culture of the country. While living in Paris, Gumilev was engaged in publishing a magazine.

In addition to France, he visited Greece, Italy, Turkey and Egypt. And besides that, as part of the expedition, he visited Africa, where he had been 4 times for the entire time, he really liked it very much. We can say that the poet was also a researcher, and upon his arrival from Africa, he brought many interesting specimens to the museum. While in Egypt, Gumilev studied at the university at the Faculty of Law.

The first collection of poems was published in 1905, and this was a very important event in the life of the author. He dedicated a collection of poems to his wife, which came out in 1908 and was called "Romantic Flowers".

The poet constantly raised his level and at the same time he got acquainted with the works of the famous authors of that time, drawing from them all the most necessary and interesting. In 1909, the poet took part in a duel with his friend M. Voloshin, and both of them remain alive. The reason for the duel was Elizaveta Dmitrieva, a young poetess who liked Gumilyov, but preferred his friend M. Voloshin. This is precisely what caused the duel to take place.

When the First World War began, Gumilyov volunteered for the front and for his courage and courage he was awarded two St. George's Crosses, of which he was proud. His brother Dmitry also went to war with him and died in 1922.
From 1917 to 1918, Nikolai lived in Greece, and when he returned, he set to work. During this time, he actively worked as a translator.

In 1921, on August 3, Nikolai Stepanovich was arrested for participating in a conspiracy and on August 24, sentenced to death. This is how the life of the poet, researcher and officer ended tragically. Numerous friends of Gumilyov tried to free him, but nothing came of it. Gumilyov was rehabilitated in 1992. However, until now it is not known where Gumilyov was buried after the execution.

In 1919, the poet married Anna Engelgard and in the same year their daughter Elena was born.

Gumilyov's last book was published in 1921. Critics say that this was the author's best work.

Gumilyov had many famous works and collections. These include a collection of poems on the military theme "Quiver", a collection of poems "Bonfire", poems about his travels in Africa with the name "Tent". The last collection was said to be a textbook on geography, but only in poetry. And, probably, the collection "Pillar of Fire" can be called the best work. The author preferred most of all to write about love and life, about death and art.

In 1921, on August 3, Nikolai Stepanovich was arrested for participating in a conspiracy and on August 24, sentenced to death. This is how the life of the poet, researcher and officer ended tragically. Numerous friends of Gumilyov tried to free him, but they failed. Gumilyov was rehabilitated in 1992. However, until now it is not known where Gumilyov was buried after the execution.

Nikolay GUMILEV (1886-1921)

  1. Childhood and adolescence of Gumilyov.
  2. Early work of Gumilyov.
  3. Travels in the work of Gumilyov.
  4. Gumilyov and Akhmatova.
  5. Gumilyov's love lyrics.
  6. Philosophical Lyrics of Gumilyov.
  7. Gumilyov and the First World War.
  8. War in the works of Gumilyov.
  9. The theme of Russia in the work of Gumilyov.
  10. Gumilyov's dramaturgy.
  11. Gumilyov and the revolution.
  12. Biblical motives in the lyrics of Gumilyov.
  13. Arrest and execution of Gumilyov.

The legacy of NS Gumilyov, a poet of rare individuality, only recently, after many years of oblivion, came to the reader. His poetry attracts with novelty and acuteness of feelings, agitated thought, graphic clarity and severity of poetic drawing.

  1. Childhood and adolescence of Gumilyov.

Nikolai Stepanovich Gumilev was born on April 3 (15), 1886 in Kronstadt in the family of a marine doctor. Soon his father retired, and the family moved to Tsarskoe Selo. Here in 1903 Gumilyov entered the 7th grade of the gymnasium, the director of which was the remarkable poet and teacher I.F.Annensky, who had a tremendous influence on his student. Gumilev wrote about the role of I. Annensky in his life in poems of 1906 "In Memory of Annensky":

To such unexpected and melodious nonsense,

Calling the minds of people with me,

Innokenty Annensky was the last

From Tsarskoye Selo swans.

After graduating from high school, Gumilev left for Paris, where he attended lectures on French literature at the Sorbonne University, studied painting. Returning to Russia in May 1908, Gumilyov devoted himself entirely to creative work, showing himself as an outstanding poet and critic, theorist of verse, the author of the now widely known book of art criticism, Letters about Russian Poetry.

2. Early work of Gumilyov.

Gumilev began to write poetry at the school age. In 1905, the 19-year-old poet published his first collection, The Way of the Conquistadors. Soon, in 1908, followed by the second - "Romantic Flowers", and then the third - "Pearls" (1910), which brought him wide fame.

At the beginning creative path N. Gumilyov adhered to the Young Symbolists. However, early enough he became disillusioned with this trend and became the founder of Acmeism. At the same time, he continued to treat the Symbolists with due respect, as worthy teachers and predecessors, virtuosos of the artistic form. In 1913, in one of his programmatic articles "The Heritage of Symbolism and Acmeism," Gumilev, stating that "Symbolism has completed its development cycle and is now falling," added at the same time: "Symbolism was a worthy father."

In Gumilyov's early poems, an apology of the volitional principle dominates, romanticized ideas about a strong personality who decisively asserts itself in the fight against enemies ("Pompey among the pirates"), in tropical countries, in Africa and South America.

The heroes of these works are domineering, cruel, but also courageous, albeit soulless conquerors, conquistadors, discoverers of new lands, each of whom in a moment of danger, hesitation and doubt

Or, having discovered a riot on the Borg,

Tears a pistol from his belt

So that gold is pouring from the lace,

With pinkish Brabant cuffs.

The lines quoted are taken from the ballad Captains, included in the collection Pearls. They very clearly characterize Gumilyov's poetic sympathies for people of this type,

Whose is not the dust of lost charters -

The chest is soaked with the salt of the sea,

Who's a needle on a torn card

Celebrates his daring path.

A fresh breeze of real art fills the "sails" of such poems, of course, associated with the romantic tradition of Kipling and Stevenson.

3. Travels in the work of Gumilyov.

Gumilyov traveled a lot. A voluntary wanderer and a pilgrim, he traveled and traveled thousands of miles, visited the impenetrable jungle Central Africa, languished with thirst in the sands of the Sahara, bogged down in the swamps of Northern Abyssinia, touched the ruins of Mesopotamia with his hands ... And it is no coincidence that exoticism became not only the theme of Gumilyov's poems: the very style of his works is imbued with it. He called his poetry the Muse of Far Wanderings, and he remained faithful to it until the end of his days. With everything a lotThe image of the subject and philosophical depth of the late Gumilyov, the poems about his travels and wanderings cast a very special reflection on all creativity.

Leading place in early poetry Gumilyov is occupied with an African theme. Poems about Africa, so distant and mysterious in the imagination of readers at the beginning of the century, gave a special originality to Gumilyov's work. The poet's African poems are a tribute to his deep love for this continent and its people. Africa in his poetry is steeped in romance and full of attractive power: "The heart of Africa is full of singing and ardor" ("Niger"). This is a witchcraft country full of charm and surprises ("Abyssinia", "Red Sea", "African night", etc.).

Deafened by the roar and stomp,

Dressed in flames and smokes

About you, my Africa, in a whisper

Seraphim speak in heaven.

One can only admire the love of the Russian poet-traveler for this continent. He visited Africa as a true friend and ethnographer. It is no coincidence that faraway Ethiopia still keeps a good memory of N. Gumilev.

Glorifying the discoverers and conquerors of distant lands, the poet did not shy away from portraying the fate of the peoples they conquered. Such, for example, is the poem "Slave" (1911), in which slave slaves dream of stabbing the body of a European oppressor with a knife. In the poem "Egypt", the author's sympathy is evoked not by the rulers of the country - the British, but by its true masters, those

Who with a plow or a harrow leads Black buffaloes in the field.

Gumilyov's works about Africa are characterized by vivid imagery and poetry. Often, even a simple geographical name ("Sudan", "Zambezi", "Abyssinia", "Niger", etc.) entails a whole chain of various pictures and associations. Full of secrets and exoticism, sultry air and unknown plants, amazing birds and animals, the African world in Gumilyov's poems captivates with the generosity of sounds and colors, a multicolored palette:

All day over the water like a flock of dragonflies

Golden flying fish are visible

At sandy, sickle-curved braids,

Shallow like flowers, green and red.

("Red sea").

The poet's deep and devoted love for the distant African continent was also evidenced by Gumilyov's first poem "Mick", which colorfully tells about a little Abyssinian prisoner named Mick, his friendship with the old baboon and the white boy Louis, their joint escape to the city of monkeys.

As the leader of Acmeism, Gumilev demanded great formal skill from poets. In his treatise "The Life of a Verse", he argued that in order to live for centuries, a poem, in addition to thought and feeling, must have "the softness of the outlines of a young body ... and the clarity of a statue, illuminated by the sun; simplicity - the future is open for her alone, and - refinement, as a living recognition of continuity from all the joys and sorrows of past centuries ... ". His own poetry is characterized by the chasing of the verse, the harmony of the composition, the emphasized rigor in the selection and combination of words.

In the poem "To the Poet" (1908), Gumilyov expressed his creative credo as follows:

Let your verse be flexible and resilient

Like a poplar in a green valley,

Like the chest of the earth, where the plow has stuck,

Like a girl who didn't know a man.

Take care of confident severity,

Your verse should neither flutter nor beat.

Although the muse has easy steps

She is a goddess, not a dancer.

Here you can clearly see a cross with Pushkin, who also considered art to be the highest sphere of spiritual life, a shrine, a temple, which should be entered with deep reverence:

The service of muses does not tolerate vanity, Beauty must be majestic.

Already the first poems of the poet are replete with vivid comparisons, original epithets and metaphors that emphasize the diversity of the world, its beauty and changeability:

And the sun is lush in the distance

Dreamed with dreams of abundance,

And kissed the face of the earth

In a languor of sweet impotence.

And in the evenings in heaven

Scarlet clothes were burning

And stained, in tears,

Doves of Hope sobbed

("Autumn Song")

Gumilyov is primarily an epic poet, his favorite genre is a ballad with its energetic rhythm. At the same time, the exotic, pathetically upbeat poetry of the early Gumilyov is sometimes somewhat cold.

4. Gumilyov and Akhmatova.

Changes in his work took place in the 1910s. And they are connected in many respects with personal circumstances: acquaintance, and then marriage to A. Akhmatova (then still Anna Gorenko). Gumilev met her back in 1903, at a skating rink, fell in love, made proposals several times, but received consent to the marriage only in the spring of 1910. Gumilyov will write about it this way: From the serpent's den, From the city of Kiev, I took not a wife, but a sorceress. And I thought - a funny girl, Fortuneteller - a wayward, A cheerful songbird.

You call - it frowns, You hug it - it bristles, And the moon comes out - it will fade, And it looks and groans, As if it is burying Someone - and wants to drown itself. ("From the lair of the serpent" ")

After the publication of the collection "Pearls", Gumilyov was firmly entrenched in the title of a recognized master of poetry. As before, many of his works breathe exotic, unusual and unfamiliar images of Africa, dear to his heart. But now the dreams and feelings of the lyric hero are becoming more tangible and earthly. (In the 1910s, love lyrics, poetry of emotional movements began to appear in the poet's work, there was a desire to penetrate into the inner world of his characters, which had been battened down by a hard shell of inaccessibility and imperiousness, and especially into the soul of the lyric hero. some poems on this subject to a false romantic entourage, such as:

I approached, and here is instant,

Fear clung to me like a beast:

I met the head of a hyena

On slender girlish shoulders.

But in the poetry of Gumilyov there are many poems that can rightfully be called masterpieces, the theme of love sounds so deeply and piercingly in them. Such is, for example, the poem "About you" (1916), permeated with deep feeling, it sounds like the apotheosis of a beloved:

About you, about you, about you

Nothing, nothing about me!

In human dark destiny

You are the winged call to the higher.

Your noble heart -

Like a coat of arms of bygone times.

It illuminates being

All earthly, all wingless tribes.

If the stars are clear and proud

Turn away from our land

She has two of the best stars:

These are your bold eyes.

Or here is the poem "Girl" (1911), dedicated to the 20th anniversary of Masha Kuzmina-Karavaeva, the poet's maternal cousin:

I don't like languor

Your crossed arms

And calm modesty

And bashful fright.

The heroine of Turgenev's novels,

You are arrogant, gentle and pure,

There is so much stormless autumn in you

From the alley where the sheets are circling.

Many of Gumilyov's poems reflected his deep feeling for Anna Akhmatova: "Ballad", "Poisoned", "Animal Tamer", "By the Fireplace", "One Evening", "She", etc. Such is, for example, perfectly created by the poet-master the image of the wife and the poet from the poem "She":

I know a woman: silence,

Bitter fatigue from words

Lives in a mysterious twinkle

Her pupils are dilated.

Her soul is open eagerly

Only the copper music of the verse,

Before a distant and gratifying life

Arrogant and deaf.

She shone in the hours of languor

And holds lightning in his hand

And her dreams are rosary like shadows

On the paradise sand of fire.

5. Love lyrics by Gumilyov.

The best works of Gumilev's love lyrics should also include the poems “When I was in love”, “You could not or did not want to”, “You regretted, you forgiven”, “Everything is pure for a pure look” and others. Gumilyov's love appears in a variety of forms: either as a “tender friend” and at the same time a “merciless enemy” (“Scattering stars”), or as a “winged call to the higher” (“About you”). "Only love is left to me ...", - the poet makes a confession in the poems "Canzona the first" and "Canzona the second", where he comes to the conclusion that the most pleasant thing in the world is "for us trembling of lovely eyelashes // And the smile of beloved lips."

In the lyrics of Gumilyov, a rich gallery of female characters and types is presented: fallen, chaste, regally inaccessible and inviting, humble and proud. Among them: the passionate oriental queen ("The Barbarians"), the mysterious witch ("The Witch"), the beautiful Beatrice, who left paradise for her beloved ("Beatrice") and others.

The poet lovingly paints a noble appearancea woman who knows how to forgive insults and generously give joy, understand the storms and doubts crowding in the soul of her chosen one, filled with deep gratitude "for dazzling happiness // At least sometimes be with you." The chivalrous principle of Gumilyov's personality was also manifested in the poetry of the woman.

6. Philosophical lyrics of Gumilyov.

In the best poems of the collection "Pearls", the drawing of Gumilev's verse is clear and deliberately simple. The poet creates visible pictures:

I stare at the melting block

To the gleam of pink lightning

And my clever cat catches fish

And lures birds into the net.

The poetic picture of the world in Gumilyov's poems attracts with its specificity and tangible images. The poet even materializes music. He sees, for example, how

Sounds rushed and screamed Like a vision, like giants, And rushed about in the echoing hall, And dropped diamonds.

The "diamonds" of the words and sounds of Gumilyov's best poems are exceptionally colorful and dynamic. His poetic world is extremely picturesque, full of expression and love of life. A clear and elastic rhythm, bright, sometimes excessive imagery are combined in his poetry with classical harmony, precision, thoughtfulness of form, adequately embodying the richness of content.

In his poetic depiction of life and man, N. Gumilyov was able to rise to the depths of philosophical meditations and generalizations, revealing an almost Pushkin or Tyutchev power. He thought a lot about the world, about God, about the purpose of man. And these thoughts were reflected in various ways in his work. The poet was convinced that in everything and always "the Lord's word nourishes us better than bread." It is no coincidence that a significant part of his poetic heritage is made up of poems and poems inspired by gospel stories and images, imbued with love for Jesus Christ.

Christ was Gumilyov's moral and ethical ideal, and the New Testament was a reference book. Gospel stories, parables, instructions are inspired by Gumilyov's poem "The Prodigal Son", the poems "Christ", "The Gates of Paradise", "Paradise", "Christmas in Abyssinia", "Your Temple. Lord, in heaven ... "and others. Reading these works, one cannot fail to notice what an intense struggle is going on in the soul of his lyrical hero, how he rushes between opposite feelings: pride and humility.

The foundations of the Orthodox faith were laid in the mind of the future poet in childhood. He was brought up in a religious family. His mother was a true believer. Anna Gumilyova, the wife of the poet's elder brother, recalls: “The children were brought up in the strict rules of the Orthodox religion. Mother often went with them to the chapel to light a candle, which Kolya liked. Kolya loved to go to church, light a candle and sometimes prayed for a long time in front of the icon of the Savior. From childhood he was religious and remained the same until the end of his days - a deeply religious Christian. "

Irina Odoevtseva, who knew the poet well, also writes about Gumilyov's visits to church services and his convinced religiosity in her book On the Banks of the Neva. The religiosity of Nikolai Gumilyov helps to understand a lot in his character and work.

Gumilyov's thoughts about God are inseparable from his thoughts about man, his place in the world. The poet's worldview concept was clearly expressed in the concluding stanza of the poetic novella Fra Beato Angelico:

There is God, there is the world, they live forever,

And people's lives are instant and wretched.

But everything is contained within a person.

Who loves the world and believes in God.

All the poet's creativity is the glorification of man, the possibilities of his spirit and willpower. Gumilyov was passionately in love with life, with its diverse manifestations. And he strove to convey this love to the reader, to make him a "knight of happiness", for happiness depends, he is convinced, first of all on the person himself.

In the poem "Knight of Happiness" he writes:

How easy it is to breathe in this world!

Tell me who is dissatisfied with life.

Tell me who sighs deeply

I am free to make everyone happy.

Let him come, I'll tell him

About a girl with green eyes.

About the blue morning darkness.

Pierced by rays and poetry.

Let him come. I have to tell

I have to tell it over and over again.

How sweet it is to live, how sweet it is to win

Sea and girls, enemies and word.

And if, nevertheless, he does not understand.

My beautiful will not accept faith

And will complain in its turn

To world sorrow, to pain - to a barrier!

It was a symbol of faith. He categorically did not accept pessimism, despondency, dissatisfaction with life, "world sorrow".It was not for nothing that Gumilyov was called a poet-warrior. Traveling, testing himself with danger was his passion. He wrote about himself prophetically:

I I will not die on my bed

With a notary and a doctor,

And in some wild crack.

Drowned in thick ivy ( “Me and you).

7. Gumilyov and the First World War.

When the First World War began, Gumilyov volunteered for the front. His bravery and contempt for death are legendary. Two soldier's Georgias - the highest awards for a soldier, serve as the best confirmation of his bravery. Gumilev told about episodes of his military life in the "Notes of a cavalryman" in 1915 and in a number of poems from the collection "Quiver". As if summing up his military fate, he wrote in the poem "Memory":

Knew the pangs of cold and thirst.

A disturbing dream, an endless journey.

But Saint George touched twice

Bullet intact chest.

One cannot agree with those who consider Gumilyov's war poems chauvinistic, praising the "sacred cause of war." The poet saw and realized the tragedy of the war. In one of his poems' he wrote;

And the second year is leaning towards the end. But banners also fly. And the war is also violently mocking Our wisdom.

8. War in the works of Gumilyov.

Gumilyov was attracted by the bright romanticization of the feat, for he was a man of the chivalrous structure of the soul. War in his image appears as a phenomenon akin to a rebellious, destructive, disastrous verse. Therefore, we so often meet in his poems the assimilation of battle to a thunderstorm. Lyrical hero of these works plunges into the fire element of battle without fear and despondency, although he understands that death lies in wait for him at every step:

She is everywhere - and in the glow of a fire,

And in the dark, unexpected and close.

That on the horse of the Hungarian hussar,

And then with the gun of the Tyrolean shooter.

Courageous overcoming of physical difficulties and suffering, fear of death, the triumph of the spirit over the body became one of the main themes of N. Gumilyov's works about the war. He considered the victory of the spirit over the body to be the main condition for the creative perception of being. In Notes of a Cavalryman, Gumilyov wrote: “I can hardly believe that a person who dines every day and sleeps every night could bring something into the treasury of the culture of the spirit. Only fasting and vigilance, even if they are involuntary, awaken in a person special forces previously dormant. " The same thoughts pervade the poet's poems:

The spirit blooms like the rose of May.

Like fire, it rips apart the darkness.

Body without understanding anything

Boldly obeys him.

The fear of death, the poet claims, is overcome in the soul of Russian soldiers by the awareness of the need to defend the independence of the Motherland.

9. The theme of Russia in the work of Gumilyov.

The theme of Russia runs through almost all of Gumilyov's work. He had every right to assert:

Golden heart of Russia

Beats rhythmically in my chest.

But this theme manifested itself especially intensively in the cycle of poems about the war, participation in which for the heroes of his works is a righteous and sacred deed. therefore

Seraphim, clear and winged.

Behind the shoulders of the warriors are visible.

For their exploits in the name of the Motherland, Russian soldiers are blessed by higher powers. That is why the presence of such Christian images is so organic in Gumilyov's works. In the poem "Iamba Pentameter" he states:

And the soul is burnt with happiness

Since then; fun soldered

Both clarity and wisdom; about God

She talks to the stars,

The voice of God hears in the military alarm

And God calls his roads.

Gumilyov's heroes are fighting "for the sake of life on earth."This idea is affirmed with particular insistence in thethe desire for the "Newborn", imbued with Christiansmotives of sacrifice for the happiness of futuregenerations. The author is convinced that he was born. under the rumbleguns baby -

... will be God's favorite,

He will understand his triumph.

He must. We fought a lot

And we suffered for him.

Gumilev's poems about the war are evidence of the further growth of his creative talent. The poet still loves the "splendor of pompous words," but at the same time he has become more discriminating in the choice of vocabulary and combines the former desire for emotional tension and brightness with the graphic clarity of the artistic image and depth of thought. Remembering the famous battle scene from the poem "War", striking with an unusual and surprisingly accurate metaphorical series, simplicity and clarity of the figurative word:

Like a dog on a heavy chain

A machine gun yaps behind the forest,

And shrapnel buzzing like bees

Collecting bright red honey.

We will find in the poet's poems a lot of precisely noted details that make the world of his military poems both palpably earthly and uniquely lyrical:

Here is a priest in a hooded cassock

Intoxicatingly sings a psalm.

A majestic melody is played here

Over a barely visible hill.

And a field full of mighty enemies. Buzzing menacing bombs and melodious bullets, And the sky in lightning and menacing clouds.

Published during the First World War, the collection "Quiver" includes not only poems that convey the state of a person in war. Equally important in this book is the image of the inner world of the lyrical hero, as well as the desire to capture the most diverse life situations and events. Many poems reflect important stages in the life of the poet himself: farewell to his gymnasium youth ("In Memory of Annensky"), a trip to Italy ("Venice", "Pisa"), memories of past travels ("African Night"), about home and family ( "Old estates"), etc.

10. Gumilyov's dramaturgy.

Gumilyov also tried himself in drama. In 1912-1913, three of his one-act plays in verse appeared one after the other: "Don Juan in Egypt", "Game", "Actaeon". In the first of them, recreating the classic image of Don Juan, the author transfers the action to the conditions of modern times. Don Juan appears in the image of Gumilyov as a spiritually rich personality, head and shoulders above his antipode, the learned pragmatist Leporello.

In the play "The Game" we also face a situation of acute confrontation: the young beggar romantic Count, who is trying to regain the possession of his ancestors, is contrasted with the cold and cynical old royalist. The work ends tragically: the collapse of dreams and hopes leads the Count to suicide. The author's sympathies are entirely given here to people like the dreamer Count.

In "Actaeon" Gumilev reinterpreted the ancient Greek and Roman myths about the goddess of the hunt Diana, the hunter Actaeon and the legendary king Cadmus - a warrior, architect, worker and creator, the founder of the city of Thebes. Skillful contamination of ancient myths allowed the author to vividly highlight positive characters - Actaeon and Cadmus, to recreate life situations full of drama and poetry of feelings.

During the war, Gumilev wrote a dramatic poem in four acts "Gondle", which sympathetically depicts the physically weak, but mighty in spirit medieval Irish skald Gondle.

Peru Gumilyov also belongs to the historical play "The Poisoned Tunic" (1918), which tells about the life of the Byzantine emperor Justinian I. As in previous works, the main pathos of this play is the idea of ​​opposition between nobility and baseness, good and evil.

The last dramatic experience of Gumilyov was the prose drama Hunting for Rhinoceroses (1920) about the life of a primitive tribe. In bright colors, the author recreates the exotic images of savage hunters, their existence full of dangers, the first steps towards understanding themselves and the world around them.

11. Gumilyov and the revolution.

The October Revolution found Gumilyov abroad, where he was sent on a mission in May 1917 by the military department. He lived in Paris and London, was engaged in translations of oriental poets. In May 1918 he returned to revolutionary Petrograd and, despite family troubles (divorce from A. Akhmatova), poverty and hunger, he worked with Gorky, Blok, K. Chukovsky at the publishing house “World Literature”, lectured in literary studios.

During these years (1918-1921), the poet's last three lifelong collections were published: "Bonfire" (1918), "Tent" (1920) and "Pillar of Fire" (1921). They testified to the further evolution of Gumilyov's work, his desire to comprehend life in its various manifestations. He is worried about the theme of love ("About you", "Sleep", "Ezbekie"), Russian culture and history ("Andrei Rublev"), native nature ("Icebreaker", "Forest", "Autumn"), everyday life ("Russian manor ").

Gumilyov the poet is not dear to the new "screaming Russia", but the old, pre-revolutionary, where "human life is real", and in the bazaar "they preach the word of God" ("Town"). no wars and revolutions where

The cross has been lifted up over the church

A symbol of clear, paternal power.

And the crimson ringing is buzzing

Speech wise, human.

("Cities").

There is in these lines, with their inexpressible longing for the lost Russia, something from Bunin, Shmelev, Rachmaninov and Levitan.In "Bonfire" for the first time Gumilyov has an image common man, a Russian man with his

With a look, a smile of a child,

With such a mischievous speech, -

And on the chest of a young man

The cross shone gold.

("Mules").

12. Biblical motives in the lyrics of Gumilyov.

The title of the collection "Pillar of Fire" is taken from the Old Testament. Turning to the basics of being, the poet saturated many of his works with biblical motives. He writes especially a lot about the meaning of human existence. Reflecting on the earthly path of man, on eternal values, on the soul, on death and immortality, Gumilev pays a lot of attention to the problems of artistic creation. Creativity for him is a sacrifice, self-purification, an ascent to Calvary, a divine act of the highest manifestation of the human "I":

True creativity, Gumilev argues, following the traditions of patristic literature, is always from God, the result of the interaction of divine grace and the free will of man, even if the author himself does not realize it. The poetic talent bestowed from above "as a kind of benevolent testament" is the duty of honest and sacrificial service to people:

And a symbol of mountain greatness.

As a kind of benevolent covenant

High tongue-tied

You are bestowed, poet.

The same idea sounds in the creation of the Sixth Sense:

So, century after century - eh soon. Lord?

Under the scalpel of nature and art

Our spirit cries out, exhausted flesh.

By giving birth to an organ for the sixth sense.

In recent collections, Gumilyov has grown into a great and demanding artist. Gumilev considered work on the content and form of his works to be the primary task of every poet. No wonder one of his articles devoted to the problems of artistic creation is called "Anatomy of a Poem".

In the poem "Memory" Gumilev defines the meaning of his life and creative activity as follows:

I am a morose and stubborn architect

The temple that rises in the darkness

I was jealous of the glory of the fathers,

As in heaven and on earth.

The heart will be tormented by the flame

Until the day when they ascend are clear

Walls of New Jerusalem

In the fields of my home country.

Without getting tired of reminding his readers of the biblical truth that “in the beginning was the Word,” Gumilev sings a magnificent hymn to the Word with his poems. There were times, the poet says, when "the sun was stopped with a word // cities were destroyed with the word." He raises the Word - Logos over the "low life", kneels before him as a Master, always ready for creative study with the classics, for obedience and heroism.

Gumilyov's aesthetic and spiritual landmark is Pushkin's work with its clarity, precision, depth and harmony of the artistic image. This is especially noticeable in his latest collections, reflecting the variegated and complex dynamics of being with a truly philosophical depth. In the bequest poem "To My Readers" (1921), included in the collection "Pillar of Fire", Gumilyov is full of desire calmly and wisely:

... Immediately remember

All cruel, sweet life, -

All native, strange land

And, standing before the face of God

With simple and wise words.

Wait quietly for His judgment.

At the same time, in a number of poems in the collection "The Pillar of Fire", the joy of accepting life, falling in love with the beauty of God's world is interspersed with anxious forebodings associated with the social situation in the country and with one's own destiny.

Like many other outstanding Russian poets, Gumilyov was endowed with the gift of foresight of his fate. He is deeply shocked by his poem "Worker", whose hero casts a bullet that will bring death to the poet:

The bullet cast by him will enlighten

Over the gray, foamed Dvina.

The bullet he casted will find

My chest, she came for me.

And the Lord will repay me in full measure

For my short and bitter century.

I did it in a light gray blouse,

A short old man.

In the last months of his life, Gumilyov did not leave the feeling of imminent death. I. Odoevtseva writes about this in her memoirs, reproducing episodes of their visit to the Znamenskaya Church in Petrograd in the fall of 1920 and the subsequent conversation at the poet's apartment over a cup of tea: “Sometimes it seems to me,” he says slowly, “that I will not escape the common fate. that my end will be terrible. Quite recently, a week ago, I had a dream. No, I don't remember him. But when I woke up, I felt clearly that I had very little time left to live, a few months, not more. And that I am going to die very terribly. "

This conversation took place on October 15, 1920. And in January of the following year in the first issue of the magazine "House of Art" was published N. Gumilyov's poem "The Lost Tram", in which he allegorically depicts revolutionary Russia as a tram rushing into obscurity and sweeping away everything in its path.

"The Lost Tram" is one of the most mysterious poems, which has not yet received a convincing interpretation. In his own way, deeply and originally from the standpoint of Christian eschatology, the poet develops here the eternal theme of world art - the theme of death and immortality.

The poem recreates the state when a person, according to the Christian doctrine, is between physical death and the resurrection of the soul. Death for Gumilyov is the end of the earthly journey and at the same time the beginning of a new, afterlife. In the poem, she is personified by a carriage driver who takes the lyrical hero away from earthly life on a strange, fantastic hearse - a tram that has the ability to move on earth and in the air, in space and in time. The image of a tram is romanticized, acquiring the features of a cosmic body, rushing into infinite space with tremendous speed. It is a symbol of the poet's fate in its earthly and transcendental dimensions.

To depict travel to the afterlife, the author uses the travel motive, traditional for religious literature. Time in the poem is open into eternity, it combines the past, present and future.

The work captures many biographical details of the life of the lyrical hero, gives a retrospective review of the most important events of his life, shows the transphysical wanderings of his spirit. All of them are presented in allegorical and surreal lighting. So, the bridges across the Neva, Nile, Seine, through which the tram is carried, evoke associations with a bridge leading, according to popular beliefs, to the other world, and the rivers themselves can be viewed as an analogue of the river of oblivion, which the soul of the deceased must overcome in the afterlife journey.

The path to the Kingdom of the Spirit, where the soul of the lyrical hero seeks, is complicated by wandering and throwing in time dimensions. The posthumous fate of the lyric hero is, as it were, programmed by earthly life, and the tram, lost “in the abyss of time,” on a new, metaphysical loop, as it were, repeats the poet's lifetime wanderings. Performing intense spiritual work to re-evaluate the earthly life he has lived, the lyrical hero hopes for eternal and endless life, for the attainment of the kingdom of God, “the India of the Spirit”. The Orthodox funeral service in St. Isaac's Cathedral is an important step towards that.

Faithful stronghold of Orthodoxy

Isaac is cut in above.

There I will serve a prayer for health

Masha and a memorial service for me.

13. The arrest and execution of Gumilyov.

The funeral service was already approaching. In the same year, 1921, on the initiative of Zinoviev, the Petrograd Cheka instigated the so-called "Tagantsev affair" named after its organizer, Professor V.N. Tagantsev, who, together with his like-minded people, allegedly plotted a counter-revolutionary coup. The investigator of the Cheka Y. Agranov, who headed the case, brought to criminal responsibility more than 200 people, among whom were famous scientists, writers, artists and public figures.

On August 3, N. Gumilyov, who had recently been elected chairman of the Petrograd Union of Poets, was also arrested. Gumilyov was accused of the fact that when one of his old acquaintances invited him to join this organization, he refused, but did not report this proposal to the authorities.

The code of honor, as well as the civic position, did not allow him to do this: according to the testimony of the writer A. Amfiteatrov, who knew him well, N. Gumilev “was a strong monarchist. Not loud, but not at all hiding. In the last book of his poems, published already under Soviet fear, he did not hesitate to print a short poem about how he, traveling in Africa, visited the prophet-demigod "Mahdi" and -

I gave him a gun

And a portrait of my Emperor.

On this, he must have stumbled, already being under arrest. " On August 24, the Petrograd Cheka sentenced 61 people to death, including N. Gumilyov. The poet was shot on August 25, 1921 at one of the stations of the Irinovskaya railway near Leningrad.

As V. Soloukhin writes in his "Pebbles on the Palms": "The artist Yuri Pavlovich Annenkov testifies that Gumilyov, an officer, twice George Knight, a brilliant poet, smiled at the execution.

From other sources it is known that during the execution Zinoviev crawled on the floor and licked the boots of the Chekists with a slobbering mouth. And this creature and scum killed the Russian knight Gumilyov! "

Nikolai Gumilyov's life was cut short at 35, in the prime of his extraordinary talent. How many wonderful works could have come out from under his talented pen!

NS Gumilyov can with good reason be called one of the poets of the Russian spiritual and national revival. The lines of his poem "The Sun of the Spirit" sound like a prophecy filled with optimism:

I feel that autumn will be soon.

Solar work will end

And people will take off the drain of the spirit

Golden, ripe fruits.

This confidence breathes all the work of the wonderful poet, which is gaining more and more fame. According to the just statement of G. Adamovich, “the name of Gumilyov has become glorious. His poems are read not only by literary specialists or poets; they are read by the "ordinary reader" and learns to love these poems - courageous, intelligent, harmonious, noble - in the best sense the words".

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Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation

Federal State Autonomous Educational Institution of Higher Professional Education

Far Eastern Federal University (Branch in Nakhodka)

abstract

By discipline: "Russian Literature"

On the topic: "The life and work of Nikolai Gumilyov"

Completed: student of group 15C-1321

Yashchuk Tatiana Alekseevna

Nakhodka, 2015

1. Life and work of Nikolai Gumilyov

2. Analysis of creativity Gumilyov

3. Analysis of the poem "Captains"

4. Analysis of the poem "Slave"

Conclusion

Literature

1. Lifeb and the work of Nikolai Gumilyov

Nikolai Stepanovich Gumilev was born on April 3 (15), 1886 in Kronstadt, where his father, Stepan Yakovlevich, who graduated from a gymnasium in Ryazan and Moscow University Faculty of Medicine, served as a ship's doctor. According to some reports, the father's family came from a clerical rank, which can be indirectly confirmed by the surname (from the Latin word humilis, "humble"), but the poet's grandfather, Yakov Stepanovich, was a landowner, the owner of a small Beryozki estate in Ryazan province, where the Gumilev family sometimes spent the summer. B.P. Kozmin, without specifying the source, says that the young N. S. Gumilyov, who was then fond of socialism and read Marx (he was at that time a Tiflis gymnasium student, which means it was between 1901 and 1903), was engaged in agitation among millers , and this caused complications with the governor. Berezki were later sold, and a small estate near St. Petersburg was bought in their place.

Gumilyov's mother, Anna Ivanovna, sister of Admiral L. I. Lvov, was the second wife of Stepan Yakovlevich and more than twenty years younger than her husband. The poet had an older brother Dmitry and a half-sister of Alexander, married Sverchkov. The mother survived both sons, but the exact year of her death has not been established.

Gumilyov was still a child when his father retired, and the family moved to Tsarskoe Selo. Gumilev began his education at home, and then studied at the Gurevich gymnasium, but in 1900 the family moved to Tiflis, and he entered the 4th grade of the 2nd gymnasium, and then transferred to the 1st. But the stay in Tiflis was short-lived. In 1903, the family returned to Tsarskoe Selo, and the poet entered the 7th grade of the Nikolaev Tsarskoe-rural gymnasium, the director of which he was at that time and remained until 1906 famous poet Innokenty Fedorovich Annensky. The latter is usually credited with a great influence on the poetic development of Gumilyov, who, in any case, placed Annensky very highly as a poet. Apparently, Gumilev began writing poetry (and stories) very early, when he was only eight years old. His first appearance in print dates back to the time when his family lived in Tiflis: on September 8, 1902, his poem "I fled to the forest from the cities ..." was published in the newspaper Tiflis Listok.

Gumilyov studied poorly, especially in mathematics, and graduated from high school late, only in 1906 water. But even a year before graduating from high school, he published his first collection of poems entitled "The Way of the Conquistadors", with an epigraph from hardly many then known, and later so famous French writer Andre Gide, whom he obviously read in the original.

Gumilyov entered St. Petersburg University in 1912, studied Old French literature at the Romano-Germanic department, but did not finish the course. He really went to Paris and spent 1907-1908 abroad, listening to lectures on French literature at the Sorbonne. In Paris, Gumilyov decided to publish a small literary magazine called "Sirius", in which he published his own poems and stories under the pseudonyms "Anatoly Grant" and "Co", as well as the first poems of Anna Andreevna Gorenko, who soon became his wife and became famous under the name of Anna Akhmatova - they had known each other from Tsarskoe Selo. Here in 1908 Gumilev published his second book of poems - "Romantic Flowers". From Paris he made his first trip to Africa in 1907. Apparently, this trip was undertaken against the will of his father, at least, this is how A.A. Gumilyov writes about it: About this dream of his [to go to Africa] ... the poet wrote to his father, but his father categorically stated that neither he will not receive money or his blessing for such an "extravagant trip" until graduation. Nevertheless, Nicholas, in spite of everything, set out on a journey in 1907, saving the necessary funds from the parent's monthly salary.

Subsequently, the poet enthusiastically recounted everything he had seen: - how he spent the night in the hold of a steamer with the pilgrims, how he shared their meager meal with them, how he was arrested in Trouville for trying to get on the steamer and ride a "hare". This journey was hidden from the parents, and they only learned about it after the fact. The poet wrote letters to his parents in advance, and his friends neatly sent them every ten days from Paris.

In 1908, Gumilev returned to Russia. Now he already had some literary name. Between 1908 and 1910 Gumilyov makes literary acquaintances and enters the literary life of the capital. Living in Tsarskoe Selo, he communicates a lot with IF Annensky. In 1909 he met S. K. Makovsky and introduced the latter to Annensky, who for a short time became one of the pillars of the Apollo magazine founded by Makovsky.

In the spring of 1910, Gumilyov's father, who had been seriously ill for a long time, died. And a little later in the same year, on April 25, Gumilyov married Anna Andreevna Gorenko. After the wedding, the young people left for Paris. In the autumn of the same year, Gumilev undertook a new trip to Africa, this time visiting the most inaccessible places in Abyssinia. In 1910, the third book of Gumilyov's poems was published, which brought him wide popularity - "Pearls".

In 1911, the Gumilevs had a son, Lev. The birth of the Poets' Guild dates back to the same year, Gumilyov set off on a new journey in 1913 to Africa, this time furnished as a scientific expedition, with an assignment from the Academy of Sciences (on this journey Gumilyov was accompanied by his seventeen-year-old nephew, Nikolai Leonidovich Sverchkov). Gumilev wrote about this trip to Africa (and maybe partly about the previous ones) in the "Iambic pentacles" published for the first time in Apollo:

But the months passed, back

I swam and took away the tusks of elephants

Paintings by Abyssinian masters,

Panther furs - I liked their stains -

And what was previously incomprehensible

Contempt for the world and weariness of dreams.

Gumilyov told about his hunting exploits in Africa in an essay that will be included in the last volume of our Collected Works, along with other prose of Gumilyov. "Iamba pentameter" is one of the most personal and autobiographical poems of Gumilyov, who amazed before with his "objectivity, his" impersonality. " a deep and irreparable crack in their relationship:

I know life has failed ... and you

You, for whom I was looking for on the Levant

The imperishable purple of royal robes,

I lost you like Damayanti

Mad Nal once lost.

Bones flew up, sonorous as steel,

Bones fell - and there was sadness.

You said, pensive, sternly:

- "I believed, I loved too much,

And I'm leaving, not believing, not loving,

And before the face of the All-Seeing God,

Perhaps ruining myself,

I renounce you forever. "

I did not dare to kiss your hair,

Not even to squeeze cold, thin hands.

I myself was as nasty as a spider

I was frightened and tormented by every sound.

And you left in a simple and dark dress,

Similar to the ancient Crucifix.

In July 1914, when the Gabriel of principle shot rang out in distant Sarajevo, and then the whole of Europe was engulfed in the fire of war, a tragic era began. poet gumilev print slave

The patriotic impulse then swept over everything Russian society... But almost the only one among any prominent Russian writers, Gumilev responded to the war that had rained down on the country effectively, and almost immediately (on August 24) signed up as a volunteer. He himself, in a later version of the already mentioned "Iambic Pentameters", said this best of all:

And in the roar of the human crowd,

In the hum of the passing guns

In the silent call of the battle pipe

I suddenly heard the song of my destiny

And he ran where the people were running,

Repeating humbly: wake up, wake up.

The soldiers were singing loudly, and the words

They were indistinct, their hearts caught:

- "Hurry forward! The grave is so grave!

Fresh grass will be our bed,

And the canopy is green foliage,

The Arkhangelsk power is an ally. "

So sweetly this song poured, beckoning,

That I went and took me

And they gave me a rifle and a horse

And a field full of mighty enemies,

Buzzing menacing bombs and melodious bullets,

And the sky in lightning and red clouds.

And the soul is burnt with happiness

Since then; full of fun

And clarity and wisdom, about God

She talks to the stars,

The voice of God hears in the military alarm

And God calls his roads.

In several of Gumilyov's poems about the war, included in the collection "Quiver" (1916) - almost the best in all "military" poetry in Russian literature: not only romantic-patriotic, but also deeply religious perception of Gumilev of the war was reflected.

In January 1918, Gumilev left Paris and moved to London. Gumilyov left London in April 1918.

In the same year he divorced AA Akhmatova, and the next year he married Anna Nikolaevna Engelhardt, the daughter of an Orientalist professor, whom SK Makovsky described as "a pretty, but mentally insignificant girl." In 1920, the Gumilevs, according to A. A. Gumileva, had a daughter, Elena.

In 1918, shortly after returning to Russia, he planned to republish some of his pre-revolutionary collections of poems: new, revised editions of Romantic Flowers and Pearls appeared; were announced, but did not come out "Alien Sky" and "Quiver". In the same year, the sixth collection of poems by Gumilyov "The Bonfire" was published, containing the poems of 1916-1917, as well as the African poem "Mick" and the already mentioned "Porcelain Pavilion".

There is no reason to think that Gumilev returned to Russia in the spring of 1918 with a conscious intention to invest in the counter-revolutionary struggle, but there is every reason to believe that if he were in Russia at the end of 1917, he would have ended up in the ranks of the White Movement.

Gumilyov was arrested on August 3, 1921 (he was found guilty of participating in a conspiracy in which he did not participate, he was simply acquainted with one of the leaders of the conspiracy - N.I. Lazarevsky), four days before the death of A.A. . Block. Both V.F.Khodasevich and G.V. Ivanov in their memoirs say that some kind of provocateur played a role in the death of Gumilyov. Gumilyov was found guilty and shot.

In his memoirs about Gumilyov, the phrase from his letter to his wife from prison was more than once quoted: "Do not worry about me. I am healthy, I write poetry and play chess." It was also mentioned that in prison before his death, Gumilev read Homer and the Gospel. The poems written by Gumilyov in prison have not reached us. They were probably confiscated by the Cheka and maybe - who knows? - preserved in the archives of this ominous institution. And Gumilev is the first in the history of Russian literature great poet whose burial place is not even known. As Irina Odoevtseva said in her poem about him:

And not at his grave

No hill, no cross - nothing.

2. Analysis of creativity Gumilyov

The poetry of Gumilyov at different periods of his creative life is very different. Sometimes he categorically denies the Symbolists, and sometimes he gets so close to their work that it is difficult to guess that all these wonderful poems belong to one poet. Here I recall the words of the discerning A. Blok: “A writer is a perennial plant ... the soul of a writer expands in periods, and his creation is only the external results of the underground growth of the soul. Therefore, the path of development can appear straight only in perspective, while following the writer along all the stages of the path, you do not feel this straightness and steadiness, due to stops and distortions ”.

These words of Blok, a poet highly esteemed by Gumilyov, and at the same time his main opponent in critical articles, are most suitable for describing Gumilyov's creative path. So, the early Gumilev gravitated towards the poetry of the senior Symbolists Balmont and Bryusov, was fond of the romanticism of Kipling, and at the same time turned to foreign classics: W. Shakespeare, F. Rabelais, F. Villon, T. Gautier and even to the epic monumental works of Nekrasov ... Later, he moved away from the romantic decorativeness of exotic lyrics and the lush brightness of images to a clearer and more strict form of versification, which became the basis of the Acmeist movement. He was strict and unforgiving towards young poets, the first to declare versification a science and craft, which should be learned in the same way as music and painting are taught. Talent, pure inspiration should, in his understanding, have a perfect apparatus of versification, and he persistently and severely taught the young mastery. The poems of the acmeist period, which compiled the collection "The Seventh Heaven", confirm such a sober, analytical, scientific approach of Gumilyov to the phenomena of poetry. Basic Provisions new theory are presented by him in the article “The heritage of symbolism and acmeism”. The “new direction” was given two names: acmeism and adamism(from Greek - “courageously firm and clear view of life”). Gumilev considered their main achievement to be the recognition of the “intrinsic value of every phenomenon”, the displacement of the cult of the “unknown” by a “childishly wise, painfully sweet feeling of his own ignorance”. Also to this period belongs the writing by Gumilev of a serious critical work "Letters on Russian Poetry", published later in 1923.

This book of exclusively poetic criticism occupies a special place in the history of Russian critical thought. The articles and reviews included in it were written by a great poet and passionate theorist of verse, a man of impeccable poetic ear and precise taste. Possessing an unconditional gift of foresight, Gumilyov the critic outlines in his works the ways of development of Russian poetry, and today we can see how accurate and perspicacious he was in his assessments. He expressed his understanding of poetry at the very beginning of his programmatic article "Anatomy of a Poem", which opens the collection "Letters about Russian Poetry". “Among the numerous formulas that define the essence of poetry, two stand out,” wrote N. Gumilyov, “proposed by poets who are pondering over the secrets of their craft. They read: "Poetry is the best words in the best order" and "Poetry is that which is created and, therefore, does not need to be altered." Both of these formulas are based on a particularly vivid sense of the laws by which words affect our consciousness. The poet is the one who "takes into account all the laws governing the complex of words taken by him." It is this position that underlies the tremendous work that Gumilev carried out with young poets after the revolution, persistently teaching them the technique of poetry, the secrets of that craft, without which, in his opinion, real poetry is impossible. Gumilyov wanted to write a theory of poetry, this book was not destined to be born, and his attitude to the “holy craft” of poetry is concentrated in several articles and reviews that made up “Letters on Russian Poetry”.

But over the years, Gumilyov's poetry changes somewhat, although the basis remains solid. In the collections of the war era, the distant echoes of Blok's, girded by rivers, Rus and even Andrei Bely's Ashes suddenly appear in it. This trend continues in post-revolutionary creativity. Amazingly, in the poems of The Pillar of Fire, Gumilyov, as it were, extended his hand to the rejected and theoretically denounced symbolism. The poet seems to be immersed in a mystical element, in his poems fiction is intricately intertwined with reality, the poetic image becomes multidimensional, ambiguous. This is already a new romanticism, the lyrical and philosophical content of which differs significantly from the romanticism of the famous "Captains", the acmeistic "beautiful clarity" and concreteness.

3. Analysis of the poem "Captains"

This poem belongs to one of the first collections of Gumilyov, when "the muse of wanderings had not yet left him." In this poem, he glorifies the courage, strength and valor of the "discoverers of new lands", this image for him combines a captain of the navy and a Spanish pirate. Its captains are people who lived at the time when they discovered America, so the image of the captain resembles the heroes of the novels of that time.

Many features of his early work are very clearly manifested here: exoticism, a riot of colors: "gold with lace", "... pinkish ... cuffs"; A set of feelings, love for lush interior and exterior decoration, austerity of form.

The courage of the lyrical hero, who is trying to find his happiness beyond the line of being, is emphasized.

Gumilyov in this poem acts as a romantic poet, much is idealized and exaggerated here.

We liked this poem very much for its exoticism and especially loved the lyrical hero, reminiscent of an adventurer.

4. Analysis of the poem "Slave"

The poem was written by Gumilev under the impression he received on his travels across Africa in Abyssinia. Gumilyov was amazed at the position of the indigenous people of this country, slavery still existed in it, and it was the position of the oppressed blacks that prompted the writing of this poem. Therefore, the theme is here: the oppressed and the oppressors.

A feature of the poem is that the narration is conducted from the faces of lyrical heroes - slaves. They talk about their depressed unhappiness:

We have to clean his things

We must guard his mules

And in the evening there is corned beef

That spoiled during the day.

As if in opposition to them, another lyrical hero becomes - a "European", a slave owner:

He sits under the shade of a palm tree

Wrapping my face in an earthly veil,

Puts a bottle of whiskey next to him

And whips foaming slaves.

He is mockingly called brave, because his strength, courage is contained only in a sharp saber and "lashing whip" and "long-range weapons." Through the words of the slaves, it is felt that Gumilev condemns, despises this arrogant, soulless, evil coward who can feel stronger only by oppressing the powerless.

The features of the poem include the almost complete absence of epithets. And since the narration is conducted on behalf of the oppressed, then in my opinion the author wanted to emphasize that slaves cannot feel anything except anger and strong hatred of the “European”, which at the end of the poem turns into a threat:

He has a [European] delicate body

It will be sweet to pierce with a knife.

This is the idea of ​​the poem. Gumilev says that the humiliation suffered by the indigenous people will not pass without leaving a trace and, sooner or later, they will take revenge on the unwanted guests from Europe, and will regain their freedom.

Conclusion

Nikolai Gumilyov was far from being an ordinary person with an amazing and at the same time tragic fate. There is no doubt about his talent as a poet and literary critic. His life was full of severe trials, which he coped with valor: several suicide attempts in his youth, unhappy love, almost a duel that took place, participation in a world war. But it ended at the age of 35, and who knows what kind of brilliant works Gumilyov could still create. An excellent artist, he left an interesting and significant legacy, undoubtedly influenced the development of Russian poetry. His students and followers, along with high romanticism, are characterized by the utmost accuracy of the poetic form, so appreciated by Gumilev himself, one of the best Russian poets of the early XX century.

Literation

1) G. Mesnyaev "Revival" 1981-82. "In an iron shell."

2) “Gumilev Nikolai Stepanovich. Poems and poems ”, VK Luknitskaya.

3) “Russian literature of the XX century”. L.A. Smirnova, A.M. Turkov, A.M. Marchenko and others.

4) Soviet Encyclopedic Dictionary.

5) “Tagantsevskoe business”. V. Khizhnyak. ("Evening Moscow").

6) http://ref.repetiruem.ru/referat/nikolajj-stepanovich-gumilev2

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