My soul is an Elysium of shadows,
Silent, light and beautiful shadows,
Not to the thoughts of this violent time,
Not involved in joys or sorrows
The most famous lines of the poet, which could very well illustrate his life. Fyodor Ivanovich Tyutchev!
Tyutchev's life is full of melodrama, as befits a poet. True, the poet was in the service of diplomacy all his life. Therefore, the figure of Tyutchev stands in a special row of Russian geniuses.
Encyclopedias, sloppy in biographical details, usually indicate that he was born on December 5, 1803 in the Oryol province. But to be more precise, in the Bryansk district, in the village of Ovstug, in the family of an old noble family. All other pages of the biography are quite typical for a noble offspring. But then, perhaps, the most interesting thing begins. Everyone, of course, remembers the famous lines like the multiplication table:
You can't understand Russia with your mind,
The general arshin cannot be measured:
She will become special -
You can only believe in Russia.
But few people think that the Russian patriot and imperialist loved and believed in Russia, but mostly outside the borders of his country. Tyutchev spent a significant part of his life in Munich, where he found a friend of his heart in the person of the Bavarian aristocrat, Countess Bothmer.
It is clear that they communicated with his wife and the aristocratic circle into which his young wife introduced him, not in Russian. And this circle amazes with the names: the famous German poets and philosophers of that time, Heine and Schelling.
It was from German poetry that the future Russian lyricist learned plasticity and depth. Tyutchev translated Heine into Russian, and with Schelling he conducted fierce philosophical debates on the topic of the future arrangement of Europe.
However, fans of his work are interested in, in addition to poetry, his personal life. Under the mask of the respectable burgher and aristocrat Tyutchev, a flood of feelings was seething. Officially, Tyutchev was married twice. Both times his choice was German noblewomen.
There is one remarkable incident that happened with Tyutchev and his first wife Eleanor. The steamer "Nicholas I", on which the Tyutchev family took a boat trip from St. Petersburg to Turin, is in trouble in the Baltic Sea. Some sources write the following: “During the rescue, Eleanor and the children are helped by Ivan Turgenev, who was sailing on the same ship.”
Yes, indeed, there is a lot of evidence that in 1838 the steamship "Nicholas I", on which Turgenev went to study abroad, caught fire. But, according to the memoirs of contemporaries, Turgenev did not behave so courageously. In particular, Ivan Sergeevich tried to get into a boat with women and children, exclaiming: “To die so young!”
But let's continue about the flood of feelings. Tyutchev met his second lover, Ernestina Dernberg, while married to Eleanor Bothmer. Eleanor, unable to bear her husband’s betrayal and worries about the shipwreck, soon passed away into another world. As memoirists write: “Tyutchev spent the whole night at Eleanor’s coffin and by morning he became completely gray.” However, a year later he married Ernestine.
It would seem that it's time to settle down. But the “violent blindness of passions” also captured the diplomat. This time the culprit was a Russian girl, Elena Aleksandrovna Denisyeva, the same age as his daughter, who studied with her at the Smolny Institute.
Tyutchev became friends with Deniseva, again being married. The “secret marriage” of Denisyeva and Tyutchev was concluded in July 1850. But everything secret, as we know, someday becomes apparent. Denisyeva, after their relationship became known in the world, was disowned by her father. She was forced to leave the institute and live in a rented apartment. But she threw herself headlong into the maelstrom of feelings and devoted herself entirely to Tyutchev. However, a year later the loving poet lost interest in his new lover:
Oh, how murderously we love,
As in the violent blindness of passions
We are most likely to destroy,
What is dear to our hearts!
As you know, the darkness of low truths is dearer to us... A hundred, a hundred and fifty years will pass, and the President of Russia, receiving French President Nicolas Sarkozy in the Kremlin, will quote Tyutchev, replacing the line “you can only believe in Russia” with “you just need to believe in Russia.”
Even if someone has never heard the name Tyutchev, he at least knows these lines:
The snow is still white in the fields,
And in the spring the waters are noisy -
They run and wake up the sleepy shore,
They run and shine and shout...
Tyutchev is an eternal spring, the languor and freshness of withering. A brilliant lyricist, subject to the “violent blindness of passions.” Well, whoever is not susceptible is not a poet!
In 1851, Tyutchev wrote a beautiful poem - “Oh, how murderously we love.” It will be easier to analyze this work if you understand in more detail the biography of the poet, namely his personal life. After all, almost everything of the creator is connected with his beloved women.
History of writing
This poem is one of the author’s most powerful, sensual and vibrant works. It so happened that the personal life of Fyodor Tyutchev was very tragic. But, despite this, the poet, until the end of his days, felt gratitude to those women who loved him, and he reciprocated them. This is exactly how Tyutchev was, loving, sensual and grateful. He mainly dedicated his poems only to the ladies of his heart.
While married, Tyutchev fell in love with a young noblewoman, Elena Denisyeva, who later became his mistress. This triangle existed for 14 years, and not only the poet’s wife suffered in it, but also Elena herself. A huge scandal arose around their romance as soon as it became known that Denisyeva was pregnant. Love for Tyutchev forced the girl to go against her family, because of which she went through many humiliations and experienced extremely strong negativity coming from secular society. The St. Petersburg nobility considered Denisyeva a fallen woman. In difficult times, the poet did not abandon his beloved, but, on the contrary, began to appreciate her even more for the fact that she was able to sacrifice her name for the sake of him and their love. And after some time, the now famous poem that Tyutchev wrote appeared - “Oh, how murderously we love.”
Analysis of the work
This example of pure poetry consists of ten quatrains. Two of them (identical) are involved in the framing of the verse, that is, the same stanza is repeated at the beginning and at the end, which gives this masterpiece even more emotionality. To write quatrains, cross rhyme is used. For emotional enhancement, various epithets are used, such as ellipsis and The lyrical concept is expressed using an oxymoron (“oh, how murderously we love”), which begins the first and last quatrains. In the latter, its meaning is enhanced by the exclamation mark used by the poet. The poem can be divided into three parts, where in the first the lyrical hero asks one question and is absorbed by memories, in the second part he answers his question, tells how it all happened, and the third part tells what it all led to. And the work as a whole speaks of the history of the relationship between the lyrical hero and his beloved. The heroine is Denisyeva, and the lyrical hero is Tyutchev.
“Oh, how murderously we love.” Analysis of the beginning of the poem
In the first stanza, the author asks himself several questions. What happened in such a short time? What changed? Why did it happen? Where did the smile go, where did the tears come from? The lyrical hero knows the answers to all the questions, and this makes him feel even worse.
Middle of the piece
The third quatrain describes the poet's memories. He tells how, at the first meeting, the heroine struck him with her magical gaze, her fresh blush on her cheeks and her magnificent laughter - lively, as if it were a child's. At that moment she was like blooming youth, and he was fascinated by her beauty, her charm, he was proud of himself and his victory. In the fourth stanza, questions again pour through the memories: “What now? Where did it all go? Perhaps Tyutchev himself asked such questions. He wrote many poems about love, but this one carries a special meaning.
the last part
The sixth quatrain represents the lyrical hero as an instrument of Fate. It turns out that all those undeserved sufferings in the life of his beloved were brought precisely by the feelings that arose between them. It was for the sake of love that she renounced many earthly joys. This idea continues in the seventh stanza, where life is presented as doomed to various trials. In the eighth quatrain, the romantic essence of the images becomes clear. Tyutchev's lyrics are filled with special drama when his hero begins to realize his guilt. His love led to bitterness and pain for his chosen one. In the ninth stanza, love appears as an evil fire that burns everything to ashes, leaving nothing behind.
Philosophical issues
Tyutchev's lyrics are filled with a feeling of hopelessness. Philosophical works are focused on clarifying the meaning of life. The lyrical hero plunges into dreams, reflects on everything that is happening, doing this both alone with himself and in crowded places.
For the hero of the poem, reality is proof that love is not only the flowering of the soul, but also many experiences and trials that Fyodor Tyutchev himself endured. Oh, how murderously we love! Analysis of the entire poem shows us that this is not just a phrase with which the work begins and ends. This is its most important essence, which states that such a wonderful feeling as love cannot always bring only joy.
"Oh, how murderously we love..."
Oh, how murderously we love,
As in the violent blindness of passions
We are most likely to destroy,
What is dear to our hearts!
How long ago, proud of my victory,
You said: she is mine...
A year has not passed - ask and find out,
What was left of her?
Where did the roses go?
The smile of the lips and the sparkle of the eyes?
Everything was scorched, tears burned out
With its flammable moisture.
Do you remember, when you met,
At the first fatal meeting,
Her magical gaze and speech,
And the laughter of a child is alive?
So what now? And where is all this?
And how long was the dream?
Alas, like northern summer,
He was a passing guest!
Fate's terrible sentence
Your love was for her
And undeserved shame
She laid down her life!
A life of renunciation, a life of suffering!
In her spiritual depths
She was left with memories...
But they changed them too.
And on earth she felt wild,
The charm is gone...
The crowd surged and trampled into the mud
What bloomed in her soul.
And what about the long torment?
How did she manage to save the ashes?
Pain, the evil pain of bitterness,
Pain without joy and without tears!
Oh, how murderously we love,
As in the violent blindness of passions
We are most likely to destroy,
What is dear to our hearts!
Poem by Tyutchev F.I. - Oh, how murderously we love...
Tyutchev’s poem “Oh, how murderously we love” was dedicated to the poet’s late feelings for a young graduate of the Institute of Noble Maidens, Elena Denisyeva, with whom he had a love affair and three illegitimate children. This complicated love story, which lasted more than 14 years, brought a lot of grief and suffering to both the poet and his legal wife Ernestina, and Deniseva, who was condemned by everyone and expelled from society.
The main theme of the poem
Tyutchev created the sensual, heartfelt and piercingly sad lyric poetry “Oh, how murderously we love” at the moment when Elena was expecting a child from him, and because of this, a serious scandal broke out in society (1851). The poem is full of remorse and regret that he broke the fate of poor Deniseva, who, in the opinion of the St. Petersburg nobility, became a fallen woman, and could not protect her from the attacks of Puritan society. The poet does not give up his love and tries with all his might to support his beloved woman, who sacrificed her reputation and position in society for him.
Here there are lines where the poet sadly asks the question: “Where did the roses, the smile of the mouth and the sparkle of the eyes go?” Denisyeva, who had experienced great moral upheavals in her life, was humiliated and despised by society, really aged prematurely: “everyone was scorched by tears, poured out their flammable moisture” and acquired nervous disorders and illnesses, which eventually drove her to the grave at the age of 38.
The lines of the poem are full of regret and pain, the author repents for the suffering he caused, which mutilated and broke the fate of his loved one, and for his love, because “she laid an undeserved shame on her life.” The only consolation for lovers are memorable moments about long-gone carefree days of joy and happiness, very short-lived, because they were trampled by a merciless crowd “trampled into the dirt what was blooming in her soul.” Now the soul of the lyrical heroine of the work is full only of pain and despair: “the evil pain of bitterness, pain without joy and without tears.”
The poet associates his feelings for the young girl with murderous love, because it was because of her that her life was destroyed and her path into decent St. Petersburg society was barred. She devoted her entire short life to raising the children they shared with Tyutchev, and he, being torn into two houses, took upon himself the full maintenance of his second family. His legal wife Ernestine, who sincerely loved her husband with all her soul, nobly forgave everything and even allowed his illegitimate children to give his last name; for all this Tyutchev was immensely grateful to her and treated her with great respect and awe. It was this woman who supported Tyutchev in his inconsolable grief (the tragic death of Denisyeva and their children from consumption), and he tormented his soul and heart until the end of his life, accusing himself of making his beloved unhappy and unable to protect her from humiliation and pain .
Structural analysis of the poem
The poem is divided into three parts: in the first, the author asks questions and gives memories, in the second he gives answers and tells how it all happened, in the third he gives an explanation of what this led to.
The poem “Oh, how murderously we love” is the third from the Denisiev cycle (it includes 15 poems in total); when writing it, Tyutchev used iambic tetrameter and cross rhyme. They give the work a special smoothness, thanks to which these ten stanzas (for Tyutchev this number is considered very large) are read very easily, almost in one breath. As a given of the odic tradition, Old Russian archaisms are used (eyes, otrada, cheeks, gaze), as well as the interjection “o” present in the initial stanza, giving the poem majesty and solemn pathos. The author conveys the emotionality of the work and his sincere suffering with the help of a large number of exclamation marks, ellipses, and also by using two repeating stanzas at the beginning and end.
Tyutchev’s poems of the Denisyev cycle, dedicated to his beloved woman who died untimely, are saturated with pain, sadness and melancholy; for him, love becomes not only happiness, but also a murderous poison, bringing into people’s lives the torment and experiences that Tyutchev and two women who love him despite public opinion and other prejudices.
Oh, how murderously we love,
We are most likely to destroy,
What is dear to our hearts!
How long ago, proud of my victory,
You said: she is mine...
A year has not passed - ask and find out,
What was left of her?
Where did the roses go?
The smile of the lips and the sparkle of the eyes?
Everything was scorched, tears burned out
With its flammable moisture.
Do you remember, when you met,
At the first fatal meeting,
Her magical gaze and speech,
And the laughter of a child is alive?
So what now? And where is all this?
And how long was the dream?
Alas, like northern summer,
He was a passing guest!
Fate's terrible sentence
Your love was for her
And undeserved shame
She laid down her life!
A life of renunciation, a life of suffering!
In her spiritual depths
She was left with memories...
But they changed them too.
And on earth she felt wild,
The charm is gone...
The crowd surged and trampled into the mud
What bloomed in her soul.
And what about the long torment?
How did she manage to save the ashes?
Pain, the evil pain of bitterness,
Pain without joy and without tears!
Oh, how murderously we love,
As in the violent blindness of passions
We are most likely to destroy,
What is dear to our hearts!
Analysis of the poem “Oh, how murderously we love” by Tyutchev
The poem “Oh, how murderously we love...” is completely autobiographical. It is based on a real tragedy in Tyutchev’s life. Being a married man with children, the poet became interested in his daughters’ young friend, E. Deniseva. No one suspected about this affair until in 1851 the mistress gave birth to a daughter for the poet. It was no longer possible to hide the relationship. A loud scandal broke out in society. The doors of decent houses were closed in front of Denisyeva. She could not renounce her love and continued to remain Tyutchev’s mistress, becoming the mother of two more children. The poet himself was torn between his legal and civilian families. Constant worries and shame about her position quickly aged Denisyeva and led to her early death. The poem “Oh, how murderously we love...” Tyutchev wrote immediately after the secret was revealed, in 1851.
It is unlikely that the poet suspected that his work would become prophetic, and the epithet “murderous” would be embodied in real life. In fact, he became the main culprit in the death of his beloved. Despite the fact that the poet’s personal history was clearly visible in the poem, Tyutchev does not use the pronoun “I”. He addresses himself as if from the outside. This is probably due to the fact that the poet reacted very sharply to mentions of his connection and sought to suppress all talk about it.
The work is built on the contrast between the beginning of a relationship and the situation to which it led. The origin of the novel is characterized by the “smile of the lips” and the “magic gaze” of the main character. The happiness and intoxication of love did not last long and was replaced by the “flammable moisture” of tears. The past serene time now resembles a fleeting dream that has disappeared without return.
Tyutchev blames the lyrical hero, whose passion turned into a tragedy for the young girl. Public shame and contempt became divine punishment for her. Naturally, the author also experiences suffering, but it is incomparable to the desperate situation of his mistress. Human rumor is the most terrible judge from which there is no salvation or protection. The poet understands that the natural result was “evil pain”, which will haunt his beloved for the rest of his life. This statement can be considered a direct personal observation of the author. Contemporaries said that after the exposure, Denisyeva’s character deteriorated sharply. The sweet, good-natured girl became withdrawn and angry. Tyutchev understood perfectly well his guilt in this terrible change.
The last stanza of the poem repeats the first. The ring composition emphasizes the vicious circle in which the author finds himself. Denisyeva herself was able to break it, leaving this world in 1864.
