Bulgakova L.Y.
Student of the National Research University «BelSU», Faculty of History and Philology
REPRESENTATION OF METAPHOR IN POETIC CREATIVITY A.A. AKHMATOVA
Summary
This article is devoted to one of the brightest representatives of the poetry of the Silver Age – Anna Akhmatova. The article analyzes the work of A.A. Akhmatova, her poetic gift and attitude to poetry. The article deals with the specifics of the Akhmatova metaphors, which, without blurring the semantic boundaries of words, serves to create a concrete and at the same time multifaceted image.
Keywords: A. A. Akhmatova, metaphor, feelings, soul.
In modern linguistics, there is a growing interest in the study of metaphor, despite the fact that the first theoretical studies of this figurative phenomenon are attributed to ancient rhetoric. For example, Aristotle in «Poetics» draws attention to the verbal form of the tragedy and notes that the speech of the tragedy is decorated, and the adornment is understood as the artistic means of the language, especially the metaphor. In modern studies, metaphor is considered in cognitive and stylistic aspects as a means of decorating speech. Consequently, the metaphor represents the mastery of the author of an artistic text. Exploring the metaphorical synergy of the “living” word, N.F. Alefirenko notes that the most fascinating and inextinguishable subject of study of our science is a verbal metaphor.
The study of the poetic heritage of A.A. Akhmatova was engaged in many scientists of various scientific fields and areas of philological knowledge: N.V. Nedobrov, V.V. Vinogradov, T.V. Tsivyan, V.M. Zhirmunsky and B.M. Eichenbaum. L.Ya. also discusses the poetry of Akhmatova. Ginsburg: “For the first period, objectivity is characteristic, a word that is not rebuilt by metaphor, but drastically transformed by the context” [1, 126].
Metaphor – a turn of speech in which words and expressions are used in a figurative sense based on similarity. The language of the poetic text demonstrates an expressive perception of reality, which is achieved in various ways: 1) indirect metaphorization consists in the realization of an abstract concept through a specific action verb directed at it: Like a straw, you drink my soul, / I know its taste is bitter and hops …; 2) expressive metaphors convey the state of a person, “enliven” the poetic text and expand the category of a person: Mortal hour, bending down, will give to drink / Transparent sublimation …; 3) anthropomorphic metaphors: There was a voice like a hawkish cry, / But it is strange to someone like … 4) predicative metaphors: Torture of the strong is a fiery malady ! Only death is a great triumph. Consequently, the use of metaphor is a technique that is often used in poetic texts and explicates the expressive-sensual perception of the author’s intentions.
In Russian poetry of the first half of the 20th century, several types of metaphorical text generation were formed. In the work of the symbolists, the metaphorical perception of the world is the main “feature” of the poet. As noted N.V. Barkovskaya, “metaphor … can be considered as a stylistic law in symbolism” [2, 60]. Halftone poetry is replaced by the art of «concrete» words and precise images. Acmeists formulate a new trend, which is figuratively marked in the words of Osip Mandelstam: “We do not fly, we rise only to those towers that we can build ourselves” [3, 172]. Consequently, the appeal to the metaphor and the desire to develop all kinds of shades of words explicates the aesthetic perception of the poetic text. Such his focus is also inherent in the work of Anna Akhmatova.
The metaphor in the Akhmatova text «lives» differently than in the text symbolist. It is otherwise included in the artistic fabric of poetry and fulfills another function, in which its special aesthetic and stylistic role is revealed.
When the first two collections of poems by Akhmatova were published, the first thing that the reader of that century, who was “nurtured” on the text of the Symbolists, noticed, is the incredible simplicity of the syllable. Metaphor was no longer the primary means of expression.
Akhmatova knows how to find similarities in that she cannot converge, bring together objects and phenomena that are completely “non-close”, having found her own approach for this. She can calmly say about the “shadow of the illuminating smile,” and at the sound of the violin, hear sweetness, sobbing, prayer, and longing at the same time. This large number of “arguing meanings” becomes natural and necessary for her. Not so millet, Akhmatova loves a polynomial metaphor, where each component brings a special meaning to the text, a different point of view on an object or phenomenon.
In A.Akhmatova’s poetic texts, designs dominate, in which the means of artistic expressiveness are harmoniously interconnected, which allows the author to achieve greater expressiveness of her thoughts and feelings. For example, in the poem “Squeezed hands under a dark veil” Akhmatova uses 1) the epithet “tart sadness”, that is unbearable, 2) the metaphor “sadness made him drunk”, the use of which reinforces the expression of unbearable suffering, 3) the rhetorical question “How will I forget? «Explains the power of experiences and shows that, obviously, she does not forget this scene, repeating» I ran away …, / I ran … «gives the text dynamism and expressiveness. With the help of a phraseological unit «the mouth twisted painfully», the antithesis «calmly and terribly» Akhmatova conveys the indifference of the hero that occurred after the resulting emotional pain. The use of direct speech «Do not stand in the wind,» at the time of emotional experience of the heroine herself, says that he cannot be returned:
Squeezed hands under a dark veil …
“Why are you pale today?”
— Because I’m tart sadness
Drink him drunk.
How will I forget? He came out staggering
His mouth twisted painfully …
I ran off without touching the railing
I ran after him to the gate.
Gasping, I shouted: “Joke
All that has gone before. Leave, I die. «
Smiled calmly and terribly
And he said to me: «Do not stand in the wind.»
Metaphor in A.A. Akhmatova is woven into the artistic outline of the architectonics of the poetic text and implements the author’s intentions that convey a figurative and sensual experience.
Analyzing the poetic heritage, we came to the conclusion that the Akhmatov metaphors can be classified into two groups: 1) traditional metaphors, which are often found in the poetic texts of different writers, for example, All Festive, All Brighter // Snowflakes, flying, shine … (Anna Domini “ The Ghost ”) 2) individual-author metaphors, for example, Represented to me by nap // Our last starry paradise … (“ White Flock ”:“ Represented to me by nap ”).
A.A. Akhmatova uses metaphoric combinations. The combination of dreams of poplars is distant from each other, which allows the author to maintain the reader’s attention and follow the development of the action:
The poplars rustled anxiously,
Gentle them visited dreams …
(«Evening»: «Blue evening. The winds meekly subsided …»)
The metaphor in Akhmatova’s poetic texts recreates the uneasy, unstable state of the heroine and her soul. This is a situation that, on the one hand, is constantly changing and can turn into the opposite, and on the other, it “feeds” on the unity of these opposites. Brodsky spoke most precisely about this peculiarity of the Akhmatov metaphor: “Her weapon was a combination of the incompatible”. For example:
Seventeen months cry,
Calling you home
I rushed to the executioner’s feet,
You are a son and my horror …
(«Requiem»)
Another feature for creating a metaphor in her poems is the concretization of abstract concepts borrowed from the field of human feelings and ideas, from the world of nature. Among such metaphors in Akhmatov’s poetry, predominantly metaphors that are appropriated to abstract concepts endow the properties of living beings:
I lost my mind, oh strange boy,
Wednesday at three o’clock!
Pricked finger nameless
I’m a ringing wasp …
(«Evening»: «I lost my mind, oh boy weird»)
Consequently, we can note the originality of the metaphor, which, without destroying the semantic boundaries of words, serves to form an accurate and multifaceted image. It is this metaphor that is formed in Akhmatova’s poetry, without affecting the carefully thought-out mosaic that comes to replace the diverse associations that obscure the meaning of words.
Akhmatov’s metaphor is an earthly metaphor that creates the world of feelings. Metaphors in Akhmatova are in most cases thought of as “placers”, rather than complex metaphorical themes, when one metaphor turns out to be a plot forming part of a whole poem. Without any doubt, how Akhmatova incorporates the metaphor into the outline of the text was affected by the change in her attitude to the word. The verbal perspective shrank, the semantic space shrank, but filled, it became saturated. The speech has become stingy, but intense.
References
- Ginzburg L. Akhmatova A. // Ginzburg L. Literature in search of reality. — L., 1987. 295 p.
- Barkovskaya N. The Word and Image in Russian Poetry of the Beginning of the Twentieth Century (on the Problem of Intensification of the Lyric Form) // XX Century. Literature. Style. — Ekaterinburg, 1994. No. 1. P. 60
- Mandelshtam O.E. Word and culture. — M., 1987. p. 17