“A girl sang in the church choir...” is Alexander Blok’s favorite poem. Analysis of Blok’s poem “The girl sang in the church choir... The girl sang biblical motifs in the church choir
The girl sang in the church choir
About all those who are tired in a foreign land,
About all the ships that went to sea,
About everyone who has forgotten their joy.
And it seemed to everyone that there would be joy,
That all the ships are in the quiet backwater,
That there are tired people in a foreign land
You have found a bright life for yourself.
Philological analysis of the poem
Alexander Blok, the greatest poet of the 20th century, began his career as a symbolist poet. If the poems of the “First Book” of poems are imbued with mysticism and are far from real life, then, starting from 1905, Blok’s interest in public life intensified. The Russo-Japanese War and the First Russian Revolution opened the poet's eyes to reality. In this regard, in Blok’s works of the second period, motives began to sound that led him to rapprochement with the people, homeland and life.
The poem “A Girl Sang in the Church Choir...”, written in August 1905, was included in the cycle of “Miscellaneous Poems” (1904 - 1905) of Blok’s “Second Book”. The poet responds to the military events of the Russian-Japanese War, in which a huge number of sons of the Russian soil died, many were wounded and captured.
The theme of the poem “A girl sang in the church choir...” is a prayer for those who died and did not return from the war, filled with faith in a bright future and hope that it will be heard. The idea of the poem is interesting and unusual - to show the doom of this prayer.
Let's take a closer look at the stylistics, syntax, linguistic units and figurative structure of the text.
The poem consists of four paragraphs (stanzas) interconnected. Each stanza has semantic completeness, which activates the reader’s attention. Compositionally, the text can be divided into two parts. The first three quatrains are the girl’s prayer, imbued with bright hope and holy faith that everything will be fine. The last stanza, and, consequently, the second semantic part, seems to deny the first, showing the doom of this prayer. Thanks to the technique of antithesis, a contradictory world appears before us: the earthly and the divine, faith in the holiness of prayer and its doom.
The integrity of the entire text is achieved not only in meaning. The author uses semantic repetitions: exact lexical repetitions (“ about everyone», « Ray», « joy», « ships», « voice», « What», « And"), synonymous repetitions (" watched and listened», « quiet» - « light», « sweet» - « thin"), root repeats (" ships» - « ships», « stranger» - « foreign land», « tired» - « tired», « on white» - « white»).
Thus, it is easy to see that the poem is built on repetitions, and this, of course, is one of the strong positions of this poem. It is repetitions that are the key words and constitute the semantic dominant of this text.
The poem has a special meter - a four-beat beater. It is known that the dolnik occupies an intermediate position between the syllabic-tonic and tonic systems of versification. Thus, this poem has a rhythmic organization, but at the same time, the number of unstressed syllables between stressed syllables is not constant. The four-beat beater conveys the heroine’s excitement, giving the text melodiousness and melody.
Blok’s poem alternates between male and female rhymes, which gives it greater musicality and smoothness ( choir - edge, sea - its own, dome - shoulder, listened - ray, there will be - ships, people - found, tonok - gate, child - back). The masculine rhyme at the end of the stanza emphasizes the completeness of the text.
The poem has cross rhyme, which gives it special expressiveness. In the third stanza there is an imprecise rhyme:
And it seemed to everyone that there would be joy no
,
That all the ships are in a quiet harbor,
That there are tired people in a foreign land di
You have found a bright life for yourself.
In each quatrain it is easy to notice anaphora (“ about everyone», « And», « What"), giving the text excitement and emotionality.
In addition, the text uses the technique of polyunion. Coordinating and subordinating conjunctions are repeated: “ And
a ray shone on a white shoulder,ANDeveryone looked out of the darknessAnd
listened...AND
it seemed to everyoneWhatthere will be joyWhatin the quiet backwater all the ships,Whattired people in a foreign land...AND
the voice was sweetAnd
the beam was thinAND
just high..." This stylistic device creates the effect of stringing together the coordinating and subordinate parts of subordinate sentences. In this regard, throughout the poem, emotional tension gradually increases. In the first quatrain, non-union can be traced, thanks to which the girl’s prayer becomes more expressive.
In the second quatrain there is an inversion “ sang her voice flying into the dome", thereby intonationally highlighting the word " voice” for the subsequent participial phrase, carrying aestheticism.
The temporal organization of the poem is also peculiar. There are few verbs in the text, which indicates staticity and lack of dynamics. It is interesting that in the first three stanzas (the first semantic part) verbs of the imperfect form of the past tense are used ( “sang”, “sang”, “shone”, “looked and listened”, “sang”, “seemed”) which indicates the duration and repetition of the action. In this regard, we seem to hear the prayer repeated many times. By saying it again and again, the power of the request increases, as if we are entering a state of unity with the Almighty. Time seems to slow down, creating the illusion of a bright future. However, in the second semantic part, in addition to past tense verbs of the imperfect form ( "was", "cried") the perfect verb appears " will not come" in the future tense. It indicates the completion of the action - the prayer is heard by God. It should also be noted that in this case the verb “ will not come" denotes not only the end of an action, but at the same time its beginning. Thus, the expression " no one will come back"acquires an additional semantic connotation and becomes a metaphor foreshadowing future upheavals of the 20th century.
Artistic time in this text is inextricably linked with artistic space. This relationship is usually called a chronotope. In this poem, the reader finds himself drawn into two spaces, the boundaries of which are too blurred and practically imperceptible: on the one hand, the real and earthly - the girl sings a prayer in the temple (stanzas 1 - 3), on the other hand - the divine (last stanza).
The artistic expressiveness and poetry of the text of Blok's poem is achieved through the use of homogeneous members of the sentence, complicated by participial phrases. The author uses participial phrases to aesthetically influence the feelings of readers.
The phonetics of Alexander Blok's poem is peculiar. Alliteration of consonants R
, l gives the text euphony and musicality, the girl’s prayer seems to be chanted (ne l ah, ho R e, lips l oh, k R ayu, cor ab l yah, mo R e, R
hell, no l, th l os, l eating, in a coupe l
, l uch this l, on be l om, from m R aka smot R e l and with l fuck off l oe n l atye ne l o in l uche, kaza l axis, to R ab l and, lips l s l Yudi, light l wow, oh R e l and, with l hell, then l just). The emphasis on hissing sounds is an expression of the silence that always reigns in the temple (virgin w ka, h at and oh, oh w units w forgetting them w them while flying sch hey, servant w al, lu h, chu and Bine, and life, when h passionate, h then, ka and dy). The last stanza is characterized by alliteration to voiced consonants ( G O l os, with l A d OK, l uch, then n ok, Tsa's R
skies VR at, P R and often n thai n am, p l aka l R e b e n ok), which gives a feeling of anguish.
Thus, the motif of the prayer’s doom becomes stronger with each line of the poem.
The tropics are also special " The girl sang in the church choir" Using paraphrases " at the Royal Gates" And " Involved in the Mysteries"The block makes the text of the poem more sublime, divine. We understand that the Royal Doors are the altar in the church, and the Participant of the Mysteries is the communicant, i.e. connected by the soul to the highest nature and to eternal life in it.
To add color and expressiveness, the author uses epithets: “ foreign land», « voice flying into the dome», « on a white shoulder», « in a quiet backwater», « tired people», « bright life», « beam... thin», « voice... sweet" The epithet “ the voice was sweet", showing the desire and sincerity of prayer.
Metaphors " her voice sang" And " the dress sang“confirm the total absorption in prayer for those who died and did not return, and sincere faith in its power.
Undoubtedly, words-symbols occupy one of the main places in the poem and are its dominant feature. With the help of symbols, the poet helps the reader understand the system of artistic images and the development of the author's idea.
Under the pen of Alexander Blok, the word “ ship" It symbolizes all the people who went to the Russo-Japanese War and did not return. " Dome"becomes the personification of God himself. The girl's prayer calls out to Jesus, so she " flying into the dome", i.e. turned to God.
And the image of the girl itself acquires additional semantic coloring. Before us is not just a girl, but a generalized image of a woman waiting for her sons to return from the war. The block plays with the symbolism of color. It is not for nothing that he uses the color white: the girl is dressed in a white dress. She's like an angel. Through the color white, the author tries to influence the thoughts of the reader so that he can understand the feelings of the poet himself. White color is a multi-valued symbol. However, in this poem it symbolizes the moral purity of the soul, innocence, maternal care, and closeness to God.
The image of the beam is also symbolic. On the one hand, the beam is a symbol of people's hope. On the other hand, the beam is a confirmation that the prayer is heard by God. In addition, the ray is a connecting thread between the earthly and divine worlds, but it is very fragile, therefore “ the beam was thin».
The image of a child has special symbolism. In general, a child is a symbol of a pure, sincere and sinless soul. He turns out to be the closest to the divine world, as he undergoes the rite of Communion. The child was crying " high, at the Royal Gates", because it was near the altar (on the throne) that the sacrament of receiving the Holy Gifts took place (bread and wine, which during communion turned into the Body and Blood of Christ). The cry of a child symbolizes the sorrow and regret of God himself. He knows that " no one will come back».
Thus, word-symbols, syntactic and compositional organization, semantic repetitions are the dominant feature of the poem. Alliteration, tropics and metrics enhance the emotional impact on the reader and add aestheticism. Thanks to the technique of antithesis, Alexander Blok shows us, on the one hand, the holiness of prayer and faith in its fulfillment, on the other, its doom, the sorrow of God himself. Blok paints us a contradictory world, filled with hope for a bright future, but at the same time with cruelty and anger.
The work of A. Blok with extraordinary completeness absorbed the traditions of Russian poetry, starting with V. Zhukovsky, M. Lermontov, A. Fet, A. Grigoriev, F. Tyutchev, Ya. Polonsky, and ending with V. Solovyov. Assimilation block
or all the best achievements of Russian art, taking over from them the baton of humanism and the highest spirituality.
The poem “A Girl Sang in the Church Choir” is one of the most striking examples of Blok’s philosophical lyrics.
The poem was written in 1905 and thematically is a response to the events of the Russian-Japanese War (“all the ships are in a quiet backwater”). However, this is only a reason, an external impulse to think about subjects of a more general nature.
The block of this period is the “Strangers” block. The bright, unattainable ideal, such as the image of the Beautiful Lady in his earlier poems, became more real. It would be more accurate to say that in the early poems Blok was of little interest in reality in general. He sang about the world of his dreams. Now his lyrical hero is faced with the surrounding reality, and it strikes him with its dissonance with the ideal world. In the poems, the theme of two worlds arises: the real world - base and vulgar, in which there is no place for high ideals, and the unreal world, the world of high spirituality and bright ideals. This conflict (romantic in nature) reaches the highest drama and intensity in Blok.
One of the poems of this kind is the poem “The Girl Sang in the Church Choir.”
From the first lines we see a “church choir” and, more broadly, the theme of Christian mercy and compassion.
The girl sang in the church choir
About all those who are tired in a foreign land,
About all the ships that went to sea,
About everyone who has forgotten their joy.
One of the main postulates of Christianity appears before us in a form “cleansed” of theological husk: faith in a better, more just and merciful world, in harmony and happiness.
So her voice sang, flying into the dome,
And a ray shone on a white shoulder,
And everyone looked and listened from the darkness,
How the white dress sang in the beam.
And it seemed to everyone that there would be joy,
That all the ships are in the quiet backwater,
That there are tired people in a foreign land
You have found a bright life for yourself.
The poet not only paints a certain picture, he empathizes with it, admires it. It’s as if he’s listening to the liturgy himself. In addition, in the image of the “girl from the church choir” it is not difficult to see the features of the same Beautiful Lady, “The Wife Dressed in the Sun.” Layering on Christian motifs, the image makes us think of the Mother of God. And here it is primarily a compassionate, consoling image.
However, with the last quatrain, Blok sharply strengthens the theme of dual worlds, barely outlined in the poem earlier.
And the voice was sweet, and the beam was thin,
And only high, at the royal gates,
Involved in secrets, the child cried
That no one will come back.
The Royal Doors are a place in the altar that is associated with Christmas and the baby Jesus. Thus, the child in Blok’s poem is the Savior. However, it is not named directly; it emphasizes precisely human traits and involvement in our world. In addition, the Savior here is a child, that is, the torment of the cross still awaits him, the atonement for human sins lies ahead. It would seem that the very image of the Savior should give hope for a future revival, but this is not the case with Blok. The Child Jesus mourns people, mourns the world, which, despite the suffering of the cross that awaits him, he is unable to save. The theme of fate, the inevitable end of the world and all civilization occupies a central place in the poem. It should be noted that the symbolists, including Blok, accepted F. Nietzsche’s idea of the gradual degeneration of European civilization and its inevitable collapse under the blows of wild hordes, in which, unlike the Western community, vital forces were preserved. Wild tribes will sweep away the corrupted civilization, and history will begin all over again - until the new civilization again runs out of internal strength and is again swept away by wild hordes. Symbolists and other “decadents” lived in anticipation of the collapse of civilization, many of them believed that hordes would come from the east (for example, V. Solovyov with his idea of “pan-Mongolism”),
In the poem “The Girl Sang in the Church Choir...” eschatological premonitions (i.e. premonitions of the end of the world) subjugate the entire poetic space, filling it with sorrow and boundless compassion for the doomed.
Eschatological sentiments were embodied in Blok's work with the greatest force compared to all his contemporaries-poets. They will sound in full voice during the years of revolutionary terror (the poems “The Twelve” and “Scythians”), during the period of rampant all-destroying elements, which Blok perceived as the collapse of the entire Western civilization, but at the same time blessed it in the name of Christ, sincerely believing that the collapse of the old world will be the beginning of a new life, a new round of human development.
The poem is full of metaphors and epithets; the technique of metonymy is used (“the white dress sang in the beam”). Blok also uses symbols - mainly related to the Christian religion (“church choir”, “dome”, “bright life”, “royal doors”, “child”).
Blok's work had a huge influence on the work of poets of the 20th century, becoming one of the most noticeable phenomena in Russian poetry of the era of wars and revolutions.
If you read the verse “A girl sang in the church choir” by Alexandra Aleksandrovich Blok for the first time, an unusual dual impression is created. Most of the work describes a beautiful girl, like an angel, in a snow-white dress, singing in the temple choir. Her ringing voice instills in the souls of people listening to this angelic singing hope that all troubles and sorrows will pass, joy and a bright life will come. But neither the girl’s sweet voice nor the shining ray of sunshine could hide the crying child, who knows exactly the bitter truth.
This work is very symbolic. It was created in 1905, after Bloody Sunday and the Battle of Tsushima. It is these tragic events that the author speaks about in the first lines, without openly naming them. The mood of the poem changes from hope for a better future to devastating doom. In this work, the author reveals the inconsistency of the world.
You can study this work with your students in a Russian literature lesson in the classroom or leave it for independent study. You can read the entire text of Blok’s poem “The Girl Sang in the Church Choir” online, and if necessary, download it completely free of charge on our website.
The girl sang in the church choir
About all those who are tired in a foreign land,
About all the ships that went to sea,
About everyone who has forgotten their joy.
And it seemed to everyone that there would be joy,
That all the ships are in the quiet backwater,
That there are tired people in a foreign land
You have found a bright life for yourself.
The poem “The girl sang in the church choir...”. Perception, interpretation, evaluation
The poem “A Girl Sang in the Church Choir...” was written by A. A. Blok in 1905, during the period of the first Russian revolution and the brewing civil war. Researchers also connect this work with the events of the Russian-Japanese War, with the Battle of Tsushima.
The poem is built on the principle of antithesis. Beautiful singing, a girl in a white dress resembling an angel, beauty, peace and tranquility of the temple - all this is contrasted with the harsh reality, horrors and cruelty of the time of wars and revolutions.
Compositionally, we can distinguish two parts in the poem. The first part includes the first three stanzas. This is a beautiful picture seen by the poet in the temple:
A girl sang in the church choir about all the tired in a foreign land,
About all the ships that went to sea,
About everyone who has forgotten their joy.
The girl’s singing here becomes her prayer for all those who find it difficult now. The motive of the ship going to sea also suggests its return home. Blok’s ship is a symbol of renewal and hope. Researchers noted that the image of a singing girl in the poem turns into the image of a singing voice “flying into the dome,” and then into the image of a singing dress: “the white dress sang in the beam.” The poet speaks here about the great power of art, about its impact on people. This beautiful singing instills hope, faith in the future, and peace in the soul. The motif of light and darkness is also very significant here. The darkness of the church here symbolizes the darkness of life. And this darkness gradually dissipates under the influence of beautiful music. A thin ray shines on her white shoulder, giving birth to faith in a bright life in tired souls.
The second part of the work is the fourth stanza. Its first line is the boundary separating dreams, music, songs and real life. The image of a crying child, “Participated in the Mysteries,” returns us to cruel reality. Here the poet deploys a biblical phraseology: “The truth speaks through the mouth of a baby.” And he says that life is very cruel, there is a place of death and grief in it:
And only high at the Royal Doors,
Participant in the Mysteries, the child cried, About the fact that no one will come back.
The poem was written by a dolnik. The poet uses various means of artistic expression: epithet (“in a quiet backwater”), anaphora (in each stanza), metaphor (“a voice flying into a dome”). The musicality and melodiousness of this work is created with the help of numerous anaphors, assonances (“The girl sang in the church choir”), syntactic parallelism (“And the voice was sweet, and the beam was thin...”).
Blok wrote this poem after the shooting at the Winter Palace, after numerous barricades and demonstrations. I wrote it as a monument to innocent victims, as a prayer, as a song. It was very dear to the poet himself. He ended each of his public appearances with the reading of this particular poem.
“A girl sang in the church choir” is one of the saddest poems by Alexander Blok. In his work, the poet relied on the principles of symbolism. But his very first poems had a revolutionary flavor. The poet grew up in an intelligent environment, and his cherished dream was the equality of people. But when the first echoes of the revolution began, Blok wondered: are such sacrifices necessary for its sake? You can read more about this in the analysis “The girl sang in the church choir.”
History of writing
In the analysis of “The Girl Sang in the Church Choir,” attention should be paid to the fact that the poem is connected with the fact that in 1905 a wave of workers’ rallies and uprisings swept across the country. Russia was on the brink of civil war, people were in fear for their loved ones. Services were held in churches in the name of saving the Fatherland. Most likely, the poet was at one of these.
Most of all, Blok was impressed by the singing girl that a bright future would come. But the poet already realized at that time that to change power it was necessary to sacrifice many lives. Therefore, he ceased to be confident in the ideals of the revolution. In the analysis of “A Girl Sang in the Church Choir,” it is also worth noting: despite the fact that the singing brought peace to those present, Blok realized that the revolution would not bring the truce that people hoped for.
Poem composition
An important point in the analysis of “The Girl Sang in the Church Choir” is the construction in the work. It is built on the antithesis of two parts, both in compositional and semantic terms. In the first part, Blok describes the girl and her singing about all the victims of the revolution, about all the ordinary people who had to defend their interests and rights with the help of the revolution.
But at the same time, her singing gives people hope for a better life and brings peace. And the cleanliness of the temple creates the illusion of security. The beauty of the song fascinates the parishioners; it seems to them that soon there will be a truce between the authorities and the people.
But already in the second part the crying of a child is described, in which the poet hears something completely opposite to the girl’s singing. The baby feels what is not given to others. He has a presentiment that people's hopes will not come true. Revolution is impossible without sacrifices, and, anticipating this truth, he cries because he cannot tell people about this knowledge in any other way.
Poem meter and rhyme
When analyzing the poem “The Girl Sang in the Church Choir,” its design is important. It does not have any specific size, i.e. it is written in free form. Two-syllable parts should be recited slightly so as not to disturb the rhythm. And the fusion of sonorous and hissing sounds conveys the atmosphere of the temple, writing a poem in free form creates a feeling of purity, eternity, and reciting it in a chant gives it melody.
Means of expression
In the analysis of the verse “The girl sang in the church choir,” it should be noted that the sharp transition from hope to the collapse of all illusions is achieved thanks to the antithesis. Each stanza uses anaphora and assonance, which gives the poem a melodious quality. Epithets and metaphors give it even more expressiveness.
Poetic images
All those about whom the girl sang are ordinary people, victims of the struggle for equality. The poet, who observes this service, moves from peace to a state of anxiety, anticipating impending changes in the country. And he understands that it was this secret that was revealed to the child.
Alexander Blok wrote this poem as a memory of all those who sacrificed their lives for revolutionary ideas. He ended each of his public appearances with a reading. During that period, the poet rethought his attitude towards the revolution and ceased to consider it an ideal opportunity for social change. Realizing all the consequences of the revolution, and that it was not worth such sacrifices, Blok abandoned the propaganda of these ideas and devoted his work to the symbolist direction.
