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Boris Pasternak (1890-1960) is a famous poet of the 1910th century. The first books of the Russian poet appeared in the XNUMXs (the end of the Silver Age of Russian poetry). The author is characterized by a paradox in the perception of the world, philosophical. Pasternak also often uses puns in his works. Almost in each of his poems there is a sense of shock from the world around, its beauty, attention to even the smallest natural details and the conviction that everything is a single spiritual whole…
It was not easy to choose poems and works for this list – after all, there are about 500 poems, and I would like to recommend more works for reading than are presented here. But we have tried to select some of the most famous works of Pasternak so that you know about them.
10 February. Get ink and cry!
Poem “February. Get ink and cry!» B. Pasternak wrote in 1912, but reworked his brainchild several times, returning to his lines at different stages of his life.
In 2013, the poem was published along with five other works by the young Pasternak in a collection called “Lyric”.
In his poem, the author shows the simultaneous awakening of nature and the human soul, which gives rise to poetry. Spring comes and nature is renewed, and the human soul follows it. This is the main idea invested by the author in the poem.
While writing February, B. Pasternak was fond of the aesthetics of symbolism, which was reflected in the desired work.
9. Being famous is ugly
Poem of the poet PasternakBeing famous is uglywas written in 1956. Then the author was subjected to numerous attacks from the press, and he was not pleased with fame.
In his poem, he warns posterity: when you watch someone’s fame from the side, it seems beautiful, but in fact it is disgusting.
The general theme of the poem: the essence of creativity and the path of a person who is closely connected with it, its purpose. In addition, B. Pasternak reflects on life and death (which are always inseparable), about fate, about the goals of creativity in the broadest sense. The main motive of the work is self-knowledge.
8. Date
In 1955, Pasternak completed the writing of the novel Doctor Zhivago, which includes several poems. Doctor – Yuri Andreevich (the author attributes poems to his pen – the main character of his book, but putting his own feelings into his mouth.) Among the doctor’s creative heritage is a work that he called “Date“. It is dedicated to not quite a simple relationship with his beloved.
It seems that when you love – this is the most important thing, but in life feelings do not always take precedence over everything else …
The personal life of Pasternak, like the hero of the novel, is not easy, so the origins of the theme of the poem should be sought in the author’s biography.
7. Winter night
B. Pasternak’s poem “Winter nightbecame prophetic. His friends stopped communicating with Pasternak, and February ended in 1988 (at that time Doctor Zhivago was first published in the USSR).
The poem is a fusion of love and philosophical lyrics, included in the work “Doctor Zhivago”.
When the poem was written is unknown. Researchers believe that the female image in the work is associated with Olga Ivinskaya, who was his last love.
The main idea that can be taken away from the poem is that a person, no matter how hostile the circumstances, can always soar, find the strength in himself to overcome them. In this thought, the poet’s conviction of creative independence is manifested.
6. Hamlet
Boris Pasternak wrote this work already at a fairly mature age. It was completely completed in 1946, when the war ended.
The world that surrounds a person is not always favorable towards him. Sometimes there are dead ends along the way. Which side to take if one day you are faced with anger and meanness?
The main theme of the poemHamlet» Yuri Zhivago (the hero of the novel “Doctor Zhivago” by Pasternak) – the choice of a moral position in a world full of evil, cruelty and violence.
A Man, a Personality, who has absorbed the heritage of all previous eras, as well as a Contemporary who struggles with the “sleeping” strength of his spirit, inner freedom and creativity, opens up before the readers.
5. In everything I want to reach …
B. Pasternak wrote the work “In everything I want to reach …in 1956. It was published after the death of the author, in 1961 in the collection “When it clears up.” Pasternak devoted a lot of time to thinking about creativity, trying to find out its formula.
In the desired poem, Pasternak says that the purpose of poetry is to get to the very essence. Both the lyrical hero and the author want to find that thread that would give an answer to many exciting questions and help. In the poem, the author considers the components of his work and says that he wants to achieve perfection.
4. year nine hundred and five
The poem “year nine hundred and five”was written as a chronicle of the first Russian revolution: the funeral of Bauman, the “beating of the crowd”, the “Potemkin” uprising, etc.
B. Pasternak wrote in the journal “On a literary post”: “The nine hundred and fifth year is not a poem, but simply a chronicle of 1905 in poetic form. The poem was highly appreciated by M. Gorky.
It shows the meaning-forming role of infernal motifs in the chronicle description of the revolutionary processes that took place in Russia. The author paid special attention to the problem of his Christian understanding of the realities of the spiritual and social life of his generation.
3. Supreme Amnesty
«Supreme Amnesty“- an autobiographical story by B. Pasternak, which he finished writing in 1930. In it, the poet sets out his key views on creativity and art.
In the Letter of Safeguarding, the year of the centenary of the Patriotic War – it is in this year that the events of the work begin, which embody the impending collapse of Russian glory. In the book, Pasternak writes down his impressions of what he saw.
The poet wrote out this “Guarantee of protection” for himself, trying to prevent encroachments on his own way of life. The book is very colorful, the text moves in jumps, so you can start reading from any page. There is no progressive plot here.
2. My sister is life
«My sister is life“- This is a collection of poems by Pasternak, written, for the most part, in the spring and summer of 1917 in Moscow.
The book is sympathetic for all Russian poetry; its inner plot was based on the author’s love story for Elena Vinograd. Boris Pasternak himself admitted:This book is dedicated to the woman».
The composition is subject to the plot of a love drama from the moment of the birth of feelings of love to their loss. In “Sister” Pasternak depicts the world as a reflection of human experiences.
1. Doctor Zhivago
B. Pasternak began writing the novel in December 1945. “Doctor Zhivago”is a biography of the doctor and poet Yuri Andreevich Zhivago.
Zhivago’s biography is deliberately correlated with the tragic history of Russia in the XNUMXth century for the first thirty years. The poet’s novel can be called a book that answers the questions:Why are we like this? “How did we get like this?“. Which is very reminiscent of the work of Leo Tolstoy “War and Peace”.
According to the author’s own assessment, Doctor Zhivago is his pinnacle achievement. Pasternak’s novel was able to embody a sincere story that pierces the soul, a story about the moral experience of the generation to which he belonged, as well as deep reflections on the historical fate of his homeland.