"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 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 beautiful woman lies on the railway embankment, “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 life, then after her death there is especially no 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” before last moment she 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 taken into account that collective image The heroine of Alexander Blok’s poem “On the Railroad” is quite typical for the early 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.
Questions for analyzing the poem “On the Railroad”:
- Why is this poem included in the third volume of the poet's lyrics?
- What is the tragedy of the heroine?
- How is the picture of a “scary world” created?
- Find the key words in the poem.
- Why did the author include this poem in the “Motherland” cycle?
The very title of the poem “On the Railroad” evokes an association with the motif of the path, and the first stanza specifies that this is the path to death, the death of a young woman. The picture that the author paints is related to the theme of the Russian land. This is evidenced by objective world, details of the portrait: unmown moat, colored scarf, braids. The author tells about the life of the heroine, identifying the reasons for her death.
The line of words accompanying the heroine speaks of her as if she were alive: “she walked with a sedate gait,” “she waited, worried, for love, she has a gentle blush, cool curls. But the world that is opposed to it is indifferent to man, to living feelings. He is deathly. Therefore, the author uses image words such as “sleepy”, “even gaze”, “careless hand”, “deserted eyes of carriages”. Life indifferently rushes past the heroine, the world does not care about the expectations of youth. Therefore, a feeling of the meaninglessness of existence, empty dreams, and iron melancholy is born. The epithet “iron” is not accidental. It concentrates dull despair associated with the “terrible world” that kills the soul. Therefore
an image of a heart being taken out appears (“the heart has been taken out a long time ago”). Even death evokes nothing in a crowd of people except idle curiosity. And only the heart lyrical hero responds with pain.
It is no coincidence that this poem was placed in the “Motherland” cycle. “A terrible world” is also a symbol of modern Bloc Russia. There is a social hint in the poem: “The yellow and blue ones were silent, the green ones cried and sang.” Yellow and blue carriages are for wealthy people, green carriages are for common people. Therefore, the symbolic words “crying” and “singing” reflect the theme of suffering and the people’s fate.
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:
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
Her, the gendarme next to her...
Just once, a hussar with a careless hand
Leaning on the scarlet velvet,
He slipped and the train sped off into the distance.
Exhausted in empty dreams...
Road melancholy, iron
She whistled, breaking my heart...
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.
The work of A. Blok, with all the diversity of its problematics and artistic solutions, represents a single whole, one work unfolded in time, a reflection of the path traveled by the poet.
Blok himself pointed out this feature of his work: “... this is my path... now that it has been passed, I am firmly convinced that this is due and that all the poems together are a “trilogy of incarnation.”
Cross-cutting motifs, details, and images permeate the poet’s entire lyrics. The poem “On the Railway” is included in the figurative system of Blok’s creativity as the implementation of the theme of the path, the end-to-end image of the road. It was written under the impression of reading the novel by L.N. Tolstoy's "Resurrection". Blok says this about his poem: “An 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.”
I can't help but remember tragic death another heroine of Tolstoy - Anna Karenina...
The poem “On the Railway” in visible external content, undoubtedly, has another, deeper plan, and its central position in the “Motherland” cycle is no coincidence.
The adverbial sequence “under an embankment, in an unmown ditch,” which opens the poem, begins it with a tragic denouement, before us is the implementation of the reverse narration technique.
The tragic ending determines the emotional tone of the retrospective descriptions that make up the main part, central in position in the text. The first and last (ninth) stanzas form a ring, both of them are given in the momentary present, before us is a clear ring composition of the text. The central, retrospective part opens with the word “happened”, placed at the beginning of the stanza and the verse line, in the most “shock” position. This “happened” puts all subsequent actions into the general plan of a long-past repeat: “It happened, walked, waited, worried... walked, trembled, creaked, were silent, cried and sang, stood up, walked around, rushed... exhausted, whistled... tearing...”. All events, all actions related directly to the one who is now “lying and looking as if alive” are given, as it were, in isolation from the subject. Incompleteness becomes structural important factor text.
"She" appears only in the last line of the fifth stanza:
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...
The approaching train is presented distantly, like an unknown creature. Then gradual “recognition” occurs: at first, perception seems to move from auditory signals to visual ones: “a noise and a whistle behind the nearby forest, three bright eyes rushing in.” Then: “the carriages were moving along the usual line.” Each appearance of the “three bright eyes” is perceived as hope and promise, therefore:
...A softer blush, a cooler curl...
The rough drafts say this more clearly:
Always promised the unknown
Three red eyes moving...
The heroine’s repeated transformation (“a softer blush, a cooler curl…”) is driven by hope:
Perhaps one of those passing by
Look more closely from the windows...
These two lines are not actually the heroine’s direct speech. It is for her, who meets and sees off the train, that all the people on it are “passing through.” Replacing the indefinite pronoun “someone” with the interrogative-relative “who” is typical for colloquial speech. The voice of the one who now “lies and looks as if alive” breaks into the narrator’s voice. “She” enlivens this piece: under the sign of hope and expectation, the story is transferred to another time plane - the present-future in the past: “a softer blush, a cooler curl” (now), “she will look” (the future). The ellipsis, as a sign of silence, completes this stanza, breaking it off.
The carriages walked in the usual line,
They shook and creaked;
The yellow and blue ones were silent;
The green ones cried and sang.
When talking about human destiny, about hopes and expectations, trouble was conveyed, among other means of expressiveness, by violating the direct order of words. At the beginning of the verse, the circumstance was put forward (“under the embankment, in the unmown ditch”), then the introductory words (“it happened”, “perhaps”), then the definition became in postposition (“three bright eyes rushing”), then the anchoring part of the nominal predicate was brought forward (“softer blush, cooler curl”); and only the beginning of the fourth stanza differs in direct word order:
The carriages walked in the usual line... -
subject, predicate, secondary members. In the world of machines and mechanisms, everything is correct and clear, everything is subject to a certain routine.
The second part of the same stanza is already with the word order broken:
The yellow and blue ones were silent;
The green ones cried and sang.
Here the movement of the train is given as if in the perception of the heroine.
The formula of movement combines “her” and “carriages” that are not identified in the text: “she walked with a decorous gait” - “they walked in the usual line.” Moreover, in the verb go (walked, walked), in each specific case different meanings of this verb are activated. She walked - “moved, stepping over” - “walked with a decorous gait...”. “The carriages were moving” - “moving, overcoming space.” Here these meanings are deliberately brought closer together; something mechanical, as if directed from the outside, appears in this movement towards each other. All actions (“walked”, “trembled”, “creaked”, “were silent”, “crying and sang”) are equally habitual and long-lasting (“they walked in the usual line”).
In pre-revolutionary Russia, first and second class carriages, respectively, were “yellow and blue”; “green” – third class carriages. Here the prosperous “yellows and blues” are contrasted with the “greens”. This contrast is complicated by the contrast of grammatical structures - the two-part “The yellow and blue ones were silent” (subtle metonymy) is contrasted with the one-part one with an indefinite personal meaning of the predicate: “In the green ones they cried and sang” - it is unknown, and it doesn’t matter who is crying and singing there.
Yellow, blue, green carriages are not just real signs of a moving train, but symbols of differently shaped human destinies.
We got up sleepy behind the glass
And looked around with sleepy eyes
Platform, garden with faded bushes,
Her, the gendarme next to her...
And again inversion and contrast. “Sleepy” with their “even gaze” and “she”, who finally appears in the text, are contrasted. “She” for the “sleepy” ones is the same boring and familiar object as the platform, the garden with faded bushes, the gendarmes. And again, ellipsis as a means of highlighting a word, image, thought, as a sign of anxiety and expectation.”
In this stream of gray everyday life, one single bright spot suddenly flashed:
Only once did the hussar with a careless hand
Leaning on the scarlet velvet,
He slid a gentle smile over her...
The tenderness and melodiousness of the sound is enhanced in this stanza by the rhyme on “-oy” (careless - tender), where the commonly used form on “-oy” is also possible.
It is significant that at the beginning of the stanza the circumstance of time “only once” is placed, emphasizing the uniqueness of this happy moment. The whole picture is a contrast with dull everyday life: the festive joy of life shines through even in the very pose of the hussar. Velvet is not just red - scarlet. Here scarlet is a sign of hope, the possibility of love. Particularly significant is the rhyming pair “scarlet” - “umchalo”, which not only rhyme, but also inevitably correlate with each other. Hope as hope, given in the third stanza:
Perhaps one of those passing by
Look more closely from the windows... -
destroyed by inexorable fate, fate, that terrible force, which controls human destinies in scary world, rushing past on its appointed, iron path.
It is significant that the train did not rush off, but was “swept away.” The action seems to happen by itself, fatally. An unknown force took away the dream (“perhaps”), the possibility of happiness disappeared - and the narrative returns to normal again: further verb forms are used, conveying in general terms long past, repeating (“happened”) everything that happened after:
Thus the useless youth rushed,
Exhausted in empty dreams...
Road melancholy, iron
She whistled, breaking my heart...
Lexical repetitions: “the train sped off into the distance” - “so youth rushed” unite the sixth and seventh stanzas. In the seventh stanza one can see the image of the road, the image of a rushing train: “rushed,” “road melancholy, iron,” “whistled.”
At the beginning of the next, eighth stanza, the particle “so what” is added, separated by a pause from the following text. It is this cry of “What” that determines the emotional tone of the entire stanza, the last in the retrospective part. Anaphora: “So much... So much...” unites the second and third verse lines. The entire stanza is sharply highlighted by the first verse:
Why, the heart has been taken out a long time ago!
(the only exclamatory sentence in the poetic text), and is united by repeating grammatically homogeneous forms: “taken out”, “given away”, “thrown”.
“Three bright eyes rushing” turn into “desert eyes of carriages”; The “empty dreams” of the previous stanza are correlated with the “desert eyes of the carriages.” “Only once” of the sixth stanza - the only, and even then illusory, possibility of happiness - is contrasted with the repeated “So many bows were given, so many greedy glances were cast...”
The ninth and last stanza returns us to the “present”, to the one who “lies and looks as if alive.” The basis of the figurative system of this stanza is contrast. “She”, appearing for the second time in the role of the subject, is contrasted with the inhabitants of the “cars”: “She is enough” - “You don’t care.”
Row homogeneous members: “love, dirt or wheels...” – combines general auditory antonyms. The first two members of the series reveal in the short passive participle “crushed” its metaphorical meaning - “destroyed, crushed morally”; the third member - “with wheels” - reveals the immediate meaning in the word “crushed” - “killed, put to death,” “deliberately deprived of life.” “Crushed by wheels” also evokes by association the idea of a metaphorical wheel of fortune, history, breaking human destinies. This image was used by Blok: “... he is ready to grab with his human hand the wheel that moves the history of mankind...” (from the Preface to “Retribution”).
The first members of the series - “love, dirt” are contrasted with the third member - “wheels”, but not only: the entire series is united by the verb “crushed” and the common meaning for each member of a tool, an instrument of action.
“She is crushed” is the final form, closing the series short participles: “the heart is taken out”, “many bows are given”, “many glances are cast”. The short passive participles in the lines are especially relevant: “Why, the heart has been taken out a long time ago!” and “She’s crushed—everything hurts.” These lines frame the last two stanzas of the poem.
The passive form “crushed”, “taken out” becomes a figuratively significant dominant of the entire poem.
Understanding the compositional and stylistic forms of the word in Blok’s work helps to understand the meaning of the poem in a different way and enter the author’s lyrical world.
In Blok's poetics, the path as a symbol, theme and idea plays special role. The poem “On the Railway” illuminates one of the facets of the end-to-end image of the path.
The railway is a symbol of the path, movement, and development. A train, a steam locomotive, the image of a “road-path”, a station as a stage of the journey or a moment of the journey, the lights of the locomotive and the lights of the semaphore - these images permeate all of Blok’s texts, from poems to private letters. And his own, personal and creative, fate appears in the symbolic image of a train. In a letter to A. Bely, the same image of the path-fate appears: “It is very likely that my train will only make its last turns - and then arrive at the station, where it will remain for a long time. Even if the station is average, from it you can look back at the path you have traveled and the path ahead. Nowadays, with the train gradually slowing down, many alarming snippets are still whistling in our ears...” The image of a train - a symbol of fate, own life the poet, uncontrollably rushing on an unknown path, also appears in the poem “You were brighter, more faithful and more charming than all of them...”. The image of the railway develops into a symbol of the railway - an inexorable and boundless fate:
My train flies like a gypsy song
Like those irrevocable days...
What was loved is all past, past,
There is an unknown path ahead...
Blessed, indelibly
Irreversible...sorry!
In Blok’s letter to E.P. Ivanov has a significant message relating to the very day that marks the initial draft of the poem “On the Railway”: “I was in St. Petersburg... I wanted to come to your service; but he suddenly waved his hand and sadly climbed into the carriage. What a dull ache that comes from boredom! And so constantly - life “follows” by like a train, sleepy, drunk, and cheerful, and boring people stick out in the windows, and I, yawning, look after him from the “wet platform”. Or - they are still waiting for happiness, like trains at night on an open platform covered with snow.” All the correspondences between this entry and the poem are indicative and significant: both in the letter and in the poem there is a general emotional tonality that brings realities closer together: “... sleepy, drunk, and cheerful and boring people are sticking out in the windows” - “... sleepy people stood up behind the windows”, “they were silent yellow and blue, in green, they cried and sang.” And finally, the main unifying motif: the train as a sign of hope for happiness: “... three bright eyes rushing in,” “... they are still waiting for happiness, like trains at night on an open platform covered with snow.”
A path, a road, is not only a symbol of movement and development, but it is also a symbol of the outcome, as a promise and a pledge. The image of a track and a train appears repeatedly in Blok’s work as an object of comparison, suggesting a clear solution:
...Let this thought appear strict,
Simple and white as the road
What a long journey, Carmen!
(“Oh yes, love is as free as a bird...”)
And the same image of the path, the train as a sign of exit, of hope appears in the article “Neither Dreams nor Reality”: “All our lives we have waited for happiness, like people at dusk for long hours waiting for a train on an open, snow-covered platform. They were blinded by the snow, and everyone was waiting for three lights to appear at the turn. Here is finally a tall, narrow locomotive; but no longer for joy: everyone is so tired, it’s so cold that it’s impossible to warm up even in a warm carriage.”
The poem “On the Railroad” reveals the essence of life in the Scary World, this steady, irresistible and merciless path. The railway, in symbolic understanding, undoubtedly belongs to the number of symbols and signs of the Terrible World.
In the creative practice of A. Blok, “iron”, “iron” is on the verge of symbol and reality, in constant interaction and interpenetration. Already in “Poems about a Beautiful Lady” “iron” appears in a symbolic meaning:
We were tormented, erased for centuries,
Hearts were tempered with iron...
(“About legends, about fairy tales, about secrets...”)
“Iron”, “iron” - “cruel, merciless, inevitable”:
This is the law of iron fate...
(“Retribution”, ch. I)
And the wizard is in power
She seemed full of strength
Which with an iron hand
Trapped in a useless knot...
(“Retribution”, ch. II)
Apocalyptic image - “rod of iron” in figurative system The block appears as a symbol of an inevitable and formidable danger or as an instrument of punishment and retribution:
He is raised - this iron rod -
Over our heads...
The symbolic designation of inevitability, severe inflexibility through the image of “iron”, “iron” stands out among Blok’s symbols with a sharp negative assessment, even if in the word “iron” the meaning “strong, irresistible” comes to the fore:
It seems more iron-clad, more intense
My dead dream...
("Through the Gray Smoke")
More often, “iron” means “inevitable”
With iron necessity
Will I sleep on white sheets?..
(“All this was, was, was...”)
Iron age, iron fate, railroad track acquire some stability as phrases denoting a range of ideas inextricably linked with symbolic meaning words "iron":
Nineteenth century, iron,
Truly a cruel age!
(“Retribution”, Chapter I)
The metaphor “iron” appears in Blok’s poetics as a symbol of cold and evil cruelty.
In the poem “On the Railroad,” the image of the railroad appears as an image of a steady path, an inevitably rushing merciless fate.
In Blok’s lyrics, the theme of the path is inextricably linked with the theme of Russia, the theme of the Motherland:
Oh, my Rus'! My wife! To the point of pain
We have a long way to go!
(“On the Kulikovo field”)
No, I’m going on a journey uninvited by anyone,
And may the earth be easy for me!
Relax under the roof of a tavern.
("Autumn Will")
Blok represents Russia as a “humanized” generalized image: “The more you feel the connection with your homeland, the more real and willingly you imagine it as a living organism... The homeland is a huge, dear, breathing being... Nothing is lost, everything is fixable, because She died and we did not die.” In Blok’s figurative system, Russia often appears in the guise of a Russian woman in a colorful or patterned scarf:
And the impossible is possible
The long road is easy
When the road flashes in the distance
An instant glance from under a scarf...
("Russia")
No, not an old face and not a lean one
Under a Moscow colored handkerchief!
("New America")
In the poem “On the Railway,” the one who “lies and looks as if alive, in a colored scarf thrown on her braids”—isn’t this “crushed” Russia itself? (Remember that this poem was included by the poet in the cycle “Motherland”).
5 (100%) 1 voteDedicated to Maria Pavlovna Ivanova
You can fully feel the depth of the tragedy in Alexander Blok’s poem “On the Railway,” which the poet wrote in the summer of 1910 and dedicated to Maria Pavlovna Ivanova. What the author wanted to convey to the woman was the question that history conveyed to us only that Alexander had close friendly relations with the Pavlov family.
The poem tells about the death of a girl under the wheels of a train. Already from the first lines, the poems grab your heartstrings and don’t let go until the last letter. Blok wants to emphasize the beauty of the dead girl using symbolism. A colored scarf over a braid speaks of a woman’s youth, and an uncut moat emphasizes the point life path, that moment when a person no longer cares about worldly worries.
Waiting without answer
The girl lived near the railway and often waited under a canopy for the train to pass. This moment from the second quatrain says that the deceased was a local resident and it is unlikely that the railway was a novelty to her. She waited, when the trains flew past, for someone to look at her from the jingling windows, but no one cared about the lonely girl near the tracks.
The author does not go into detail, but analysis without diving into the depths of the lines says that the beauty experienced many bitter moments in her life. Perhaps her lover did not reciprocate, perhaps she could not say “yes” to someone’s passionate words. As we will see from the end of the poem, this does not matter.
The carriages walked in the usual line,
They shook and creaked;
The yellow and blue ones were silent;
The green ones cried and sang.
Inactivity of the railway
In Tsarist Russia, the color of the carriages depended on the class. They cried and sang in the green ones, because these were 3rd class carriages where commoners traveled. The yellow carriages were second class, and the blue carriages were first class. Wealthy passengers were traveling there more on business, away from singing and crying. The girl near the railway did not arouse anyone's interest.
Even now, when the deceased is lying near the tracks, trains run past with a whistle, but even now they don’t care about her. She was not needed alive, much less needed dead. Only once did the hussars glance from the carriage, and even then he did it out of natural curiosity.
It was not for nothing that Blok chose the railway as the site of the tragedy, because the trains rushing along it well symbolize the passing of youth. Only yesterday the girl was rosy-cheeked and sparkling with beauty, but today she lies in a ditch and only her gaze remains as if she were alive. She lived with hope and faith, but the deserted eyes of the carriages were indifferent - no one looked friendly from the window, no one caressed her in life, and now the journey was over.
Epilogue
At the conclusion of the poem, Blok compares dead girl with a living person and does not advise anyone to approach her with questions. In the end, it doesn’t matter what killed her - love, the dirt of life or the wheels of a train! One fact remains - regardless of the cause of death, the girl is in pain, because somewhere out there she will still have to answer for her early departure, for not drinking the cup of life before the day, for not sharing her beauty with the world.
Despite the dramatic nature of the poem, there are also germs of life in it. Blok teaches us to value life and drink its bitter cup to the end, because the gift of birth was given to us from above. The author also hints that silence is sometimes better than inappropriate questions.
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...
The poem “On the Railroad” was included in the “Motherland” cycle. The work reveals the tragedy of fate and the suicide of a young woman. The action takes place at a small remote stop; the author does not indicate the name of the district or province.
To understand the fate of the heroine, it is enough to know that this is the wilderness. This fact allows us to feel more deeply the loneliness and joylessness of a young woman who dreamed of happiness. Trains probably stop very rarely, “passing by on the usual line.” The reader understands that the platform is deserted by the fact that only she and the gendarme standing next to her are visible from the windows. From the poem it becomes clear that she went out onto the platform more than once, caught many glances from people looking out of the windows, but only once noticed the passing smile of a hussar leaning on the red velvet
Many people passing by saw the woman, but few paid attention to the lonely standing figure on the platform. These imaginary meetings occupied a huge place in the life of a single woman. Words about passing youth with its empty dreams make you think about the speed and irrevocability of time, about unfulfilled hopes. Dreams of finding happiness ran into the indifference and coldness of those around me. Millions of deserted eyes from the carriages looked at her, many bows were given, but all to no avail.
The author asks not to ask her anything. But questions arise of their own accord. The reader will find the answers after carefully reading the poem, when a clear idea of the cause of suicide is formed. We are talking about a woman meeting not a specific person from the train, but about the expectation of wonderful changes for the better. Constant visits to the station and unjustified hopes give the reader the opportunity to feel the hopelessness of the young heroine’s situation.
Constantly passing trains symbolize life rushing by. Her heart was torn apart by the melancholy of the road. The inability to change anything, and prompted beautiful woman commit suicide.
In the piercing cycle “Motherland”, all the poems are filled with sadness and pain, boundless melancholy, which have haunted Rus' for a long time and have not let go. Only two works are dedicated to images of people, and not the Motherland as a whole. A. Blok spoke about the colorless life of a young girl. An analysis of the poem “On the Railroad” will be given below.
Under the rhythmic rumble of iambic
It goes slowly and, in fact, scary description the existence of a young girl somewhere in the depths of Russia who does not know how to hold on to her fleeting youth. Her painful daily visits to the station are shown with empty hopes for some (what?) changes in life. After all, she is “beautiful and young,” Blok characterizes her. On the railway will show this) life will squeeze the heart and soul of the heroine with such unbearable melancholy that from the first stanza it is clear how scary and quickly she will end her life and hopes.
In the quagmire of life
In the terrible monotony of the heroine’s life, there was only one entertainment - going to the station in the evening, dressed up. The whole tedious, wearisome day ended with the arrival at a fast train, through the windows of which one could look and see another life - bright and elegant. And her cheeks flushed, and her curls curled more steeply, and the heroine, standing next to the gendarme near the faded dusty bushes, was exhausted in empty dreams, bogged down in inertia. From afar I saw three bright headlights of a rushing train, and the cars, shaking and creaking, went and went past, without stopping, and the melancholy tore my heart: again she stood there, no one needed. The train flashed by, looked at the carriages - and that was it, and there was nothing more.
Sheer indifference, even if you shout or don’t shout, no one cares about her. An eventless existence takes place at a small stop (and Blok vividly describes it), on the railway. Analysis of the poem says that the heroine has nowhere to apply her strength, feelings, intelligence, beauty.
Just one just once
Just once, the hussar drew attention to her, casually leaning his elbows on the scarlet velvet. He smiled tenderly, glanced over - and there was nothing more left.
Time does not wait, the train rushed off into the distance. But for a second she was appreciated. This is both wonderful and humiliating. Useless youth rushed by like a train. What then? And now there is nothing but dull monotony, except petty affairs that stultify and coarse the mind and soul. What then? Is it really necessary to grow old so colorlessly so that no one will rejoice at her lively, cheerful character and the tender charm of her youth? The bitterness, regrets, and hopeless melancholy that consume the heroine are shown by Blok (“On the Railroad”). Analysis of the poem does not allow us to hope for any changes in the heroine’s life.
Sharp turn
How many times the poor thing had to walk through the woods to the station, how many times she had to stand under the canopy, how many times she had to walk the long platform, only she and the Almighty know. After all, I was so irresistibly drawn from this quiet place to where life is seething and changing every day. And nothing happened. And then came an instant desire to put an end to the sleepy fog of life (Blok says) on the railway forever. Analysis of the poem speaks of the girl’s spontaneous, but not accidental, decision to smile farewell and, without desire, like into a pool, throw herself under the train.
A terrible beginning and a terrible end
Like a musical rondo, the first and last quatrains begin and end an abruptly cut short, miserable, wretched life, which did not even blossom, and could not blossom in full force. And now, as if alive, with open, frozen eyes, she lies in an unmown ditch, having rolled off the rails and under an embankment. Actually, she did not die now, but back when her hopes were smoldering and fading away with each passing day.
Physically alive, she was already dying when she cast greedy glances at the windows of the carriages. What questions might arise for her now? And would the girl want to answer them? After all, no one cares. Everything is just empty curiosity. This is how Blok narrates (“On the Railroad”). Analysis of the poem only states, like a doctor, the fact of death.
Russia
The girl is lonely and not needed by anyone, neither herself nor people. What about Russia without a daughter? She herself is a beggar, lying dozing, humiliated and wild. This is how Blok saw her at a crossroads, on the railroad. The analysis done by the poet, like a scalpel, reveals its chaotic nature and disastrous path. But this is precisely the kind of poet who loved and hated her immensely at the same time. Contradictively, with a bleeding heart, Blok looked with bitterness at what was happening on the railway. He carried out an analysis of Russian reality throughout the entire cycle of poems “Russia”. “On the Railroad” is a piece of the mosaic from which “Russia” was formed - boundless melancholy.
The poet’s heart is crying, blood is flowing from it on the Kulikovo Field. And the artist himself does not know what to do with himself, let alone give advice and recipes to the children of Russia. One thing he knows for sure is that “the heart cannot live in peace,” Blok. “On the Railway” (analysis of the verse makes us understand this) is a piercing cry of the soul, tearing the hearts of both the poet and the heroine of the work. Vulgarity, savagery and age-old darkness triumph.
Reading Blok out loud
Poems should be perceived by ear, like music, because this is the only way to hear the sounds and understand, feel how the images come together.
Let's start with the language of metaphors. The carriages, yellow and blue, are intended for wealthy people who can afford to travel in first and second class, which is not specified by the poet, and the green ones are for poverty, because this is clear to contemporaries without explanation. In addition, this quatrain has interesting sound assonances and alliterations: the repeated syllables “li” soften the menacing sound of the wheels and make it more melodious. The soft repetition of “l” 10 times in the quatrain about the hussar softens the inevitability of a fleeting meeting of the eyes of strangers. The whistling and hissing “s” and “zh” emphasize the rapid movement of the composition. If you read it carefully and say it out loud, then this expressive coloring will be heard. And the technique in the composition, when the denouement precedes the story, strengthens the image of the railway created later as a symbol of the rut of life, from which one cannot turn either to the right or to the left. The tenses of verbs are also important. In the first and last quatrains, the verb forms are used in the present tense, and this also strengthens it reverse composition. The image of the path, having passed through the entire poem, becomes central, oppressive and killing a person. This is how Blok “On the Railroad” builds. The analysis is given briefly. They can be supplemented further.
The essence of Blok’s world is terrible and filled with scattering evil, soulless and indifferent, human stupidity, hopeless, majestic, endless. But no, this is not the end, says the poet. There are also forests, clearings, fogs, rustling in the oats. Beauty exists outside of people. It can and should be seen.