| The Poet's dead! - a slave to honor -
He fell, by rumor slandered,
Lead in his breast and thirsting for revenge,
Hanging his proud head!...
The Poet's soul could not endure
Petty insult's disgrace.
Against society he rose,
Alone, as always...and was slain!
Slain!...What use is weeping now,
The futile chorus of empty praise
Excuses mumbled full of pathos?
Fate has pronounced its sentence!
Was it not you who spitefully
Rebuffed his free, courageous gift
And for your own amusement fanned
The nearly dying flame?
Well now, enjoy yourselves...he couldn't
Endure the final torture:
Quenched is the marvelous light of genius,
Withered is the triumphal wreath....
This poem was written after death of greatest Russian poet A.S. Pushkin, who was famous for his progressive, liberal, and revolutionary views. He died on the duel at age of 37 and was mourned by many intelligent people of his generation.
I've found some ideas connecting this poem to the writing of Aristotle:
According to Aristotle,(page 3 of "Poetics) for tragedy is an imitation, not of men, but of an action and of life, and life consists in action, and its end is a mode of action. Lermontov in this poem does a great job describing actions of Pushkin: "the poet's soul could not endure..", "Against society he rose..". Descriptions of these actions perfectly render characteristics of a person, and actions of a poet speak for his character. Also Lermontov compares poet's thirst for revenge with the lead in his breast, which seems like an interesting analogy, or imitation of a subject with the feeling of a poet. As Aristotle would say:"The poet being an imitator, like a painter or any other artist, must of necessity imitate one of three objects - things as they were or are, things as they are said or thought to be, or things as they ought to be."
Also, according to Aristotle, in respect of Character there are four things to be aimed at: it must be good, to aim at is propriety/manly valor, character must be true to life,, and consistency. Hero of Lermontov, as we can see can satisfy all the criteria of Aristotle in regards to Character: he is definitely good ("Rebuffed his free, courageous..."), has a manly valor (Against society he rose), true to life, and consistent to his ideals (Lead in his breast and thirsting for revenge, Hanging his proud head..) | |
I like the text you chose for this assignment because it relates so well to the article we read by Aristotle. For one, it is an actual poem, and this is the main relation to Aristotle’s “Poetics” because he was describing the essentials of a good poem, or “Tragedy.” Other texts work well to be compared to Aristotle’s work, but this one works particularly well because it is a real poem- and a tragic one at that! Secondly, you found many great connections between “The Poet’s Dead” and “Poetics.” The poem you chose is full of verbs and action, and this is one of the main points Aristotle laid out for poets. I agree with you when you say that the character of the poem you chose, fits all the criteria given to us in “Poetics,” and I think Aristotle would agree that he is an ideal character for a poem.
ReplyDeleteHannah Mayer