Life and work of Fet. Interesting facts from the life of Fet

Name: Afanasy Fet

Age: 71 years old

Activity: lyric poet, translator, memoirist, corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1886)

Family status: was married

Afanasy Fet: biography

Afanasy Afanasyevich Fet is a recognized genius of literature, whose work is cited both in Russia and in foreign countries. His poems, such as “I won’t tell you anything”, “Whisper, timid breathing”, “Evening”, “This morning, this joy”, “At dawn you don’t wake her”, “I have come”, “The nightingale and the rose ” and others are now required to be studied in schools and higher educational institutions.

In the biography of Afanasy Fet, there are many mysteries and secrets that still excite the minds of scientists and historians. For example, the circumstances of the birth of a great genius who sang of the beauty of nature and human feelings are like a riddle of the Sphinx.

When Shenshin was born (the name of the poet, which he bore for the first 14 and the last 19 years of his life), is not known for certain. They call it November 10 or December 11, 1820, but Afanasy Afanasyevich himself celebrated his birthday on the 5th of the twelfth month.

His mother, Charlotte-Elisabeth Becker, was the daughter of a German burgher and for some time was the wife of a certain Johann Feth, an assessor at the local court in Darmstadt. Soon Charlotte met Afanasy Neofitovich Shenshin, an Oryol landowner and part-time retired captain.

The fact is that Shenshin, having arrived in Germany, could not book a place in a hotel, because they simply were not there. Therefore, the Russian settles in the house of Chief Kriegskommissar Karl Becker, a widower who lived with a 22-year-old daughter who was pregnant with her second child, son-in-law and granddaughter.

What a young girl fell in love with 45-year-old Athanasius, who, moreover, according to the memoirs of his contemporaries, was unsightly himself - history is silent. But, according to rumors, before meeting the Russian landowner, the relationship between Charlotte and Fet gradually came to a standstill: despite the birth of their daughter Carolina, the husband and wife often clashed, besides, Johann got into numerous debts, poisoning the existence of a young wife.

It is only known that from the “City of Sciences” (as Darmstadt is called), the girl, together with Shenshin, fled to a snowy country, the severe frosts of which the Germans even never dreamed of.

Karl Becker could not explain such an eccentric and unprecedented act of his daughter for those times. After all, she, being married woman, left her husband and beloved child to the mercy of fate and went in search of adventure in an unfamiliar country. Grandfather Athanasius used to say that “means of seduction” (most likely, Karl meant alcohol) deprived her of her mind. But in fact, Charlotte was later diagnosed with a mental disorder.

Already in Russia, two months after the move, a boy was born. The baby was baptized Orthodox custom and named Athanasius. Thus, the parents predetermined the future of the child, because Athanasius in Greek means "immortal". In fact, Fet became a famous writer, whose memory has not died for many years.

Converted to Orthodoxy, Charlotte, who became Elizaveta Petrovna, recalled that Shenshin treated his adopted son as a blood relative and endowed the boy with care and attention.

Later, the Shenshins had three more children, but two died in young age, which is not surprising, because due to progressive diseases in those troubled times, infant mortality was considered far from uncommon. Afanasy Afanasyevich recalled in his autobiography "The Early Years of My Life" how his sister Anyuta, who was a year younger, went to bed. Near the girl's bed, relatives and friends were on duty day and night, and in the morning doctors visited her room. Fet remembered how he approached the girl and saw her ruddy face and blue eyes, fixedly looking at the ceiling. When Anyuta died, Afanasy Shenshin, initially suspecting such a tragic outcome, fainted.

In 1824, Johann proposed marriage to the governess who was raising his daughter Caroline. The woman agreed, and Fet, either out of resentment for life, or then, in order to annoy the ex-wife, struck Afanasy out of the will. “I am very surprised that Fet forgot in his will and did not recognize his son. A person can make mistakes, but to deny the laws of nature is a very big mistake, ”Elizaveta Petrovna recalled in letters to her brother.

When the young man was 14 years old, the spiritual consistory canceled the baptismal record of Athanasius as the legitimate son of Shenshin, so the boy was given his last name - Fet, since he was born out of wedlock. Because of this, Athanasius lost all privileges, therefore, in the eyes of the public, he appeared not as a descendant of a noble family, but as a “Hessendarstadt subject”, a foreigner of dubious origin. Such changes were a blow to the heart for the future poet, who considered himself primordially Russian. For many years, the writer tried to return the name of the person who raised him as his own son, but the attempts were in vain. And only in 1873 Athanasius won and became Shenshin.

Athanasius spent his childhood in the village of Novoselki, in the Oryol province, in his father's estate, in a house with a mezzanine and two outbuildings. The boy's gaze opened up picturesque meadows covered with verdant grass, crowns of mighty trees lit by the sun, houses with smoking chimneys and a church with ringing bells. Also, young Fet got up at five in the morning and, wearing only pajamas, ran to the maids so that they would tell him a fairy tale. Although the spinning maids tried to ignore the annoying Athanasius, the boy eventually got his way.

All these childhood memories that inspired Fet were reflected in his subsequent work.

From 1835 to 1837 Athanasius visited the German private boarding Krummer, where he showed himself as a diligent student. The young man pored over literature textbooks and even then tried to come up with poetic lines.

Literature

At the end of 1837, the young man went to conquer the heart of Russia. Athanasius diligently studied for six months under the supervision of the famous journalist, writer and publisher Mikhail Petrovich Pogodin. After preparation, Fet easily entered the Moscow University at the Faculty of Law. But soon the poet realized that the subject patronized by Saint Ivo of Brittany was not his path.

Therefore, the young man, without any hesitation, transferred to Russian literature. As a first-year student, Afanasy Fet seriously took up poetry and showed his test of the pen to Pogodin. Having familiarized himself with the works of the student, Mikhail Petrovich gave the manuscripts, which stated: "Fet is an undoubted talent." Encouraged by the praise of the author of the book "Viy", Afanasy Afanasyevich publishes his debut collection "Lyrical Pantheon" (1840) and begins to be published in the literary magazines "Domestic Notes", "Moskvityanin", etc. "Lyrical Pantheon" did not bring recognition to the author. Unfortunately, Fet's talent was not appreciated by his contemporaries.

But at one point Afanasy Afanasyevich had to leave literary activity and forget about the pen and the inkwell. A black streak has come in the life of a gifted poet. At the end of 1844, his beloved mother died, as well as an uncle, with whom Fet had warm friendly relations. Afanasy Afanasyevich counted on the inheritance of a relative, but his uncle's money in an unexpected way disappeared. Therefore, the young poet was literally left without a livelihood and, hoping to acquire a fortune, entered the military service and became a cavalryman. He rose to the rank of officer.

In 1850, the writer returned to poetry and released a second collection, which received rave reviews from Russian critics. After a fairly long period of time, the third collection of the gifted poet was published under the editorship, and in 1863 a two-volume collected works of Fet was published.

If we consider the work of the author of "May Night" and "Spring Rain", then he was a refined lyricist and, as if, identified nature and human feelings. In addition to lyrical poems, his track record includes elegies, thoughts, ballads, messages. Also, many literary critics agree that Afanasy Afanasyevich invented his own, original and multifaceted genre of "melodies", in his works there are often responses to musical works.

Among other things, Afanasy Afanasyevich is familiar to modern readers as a translator. He translated into Russian a number of poems by Latin poets, and also introduced readers to the mystical Faust.

Personal life

Afanasy Afanasyevich Fet during his lifetime was a paradoxical figure: before his contemporaries he appeared as a thoughtful and gloomy person, whose biography is surrounded by mystical halos. Therefore, a dissonance arose in the minds of poetry lovers, some could not understand how this person, burdened with worldly worries, could so exaltedly sing of nature, love, feelings and human relationships.

In the summer of 1848, Afanasy Fet, who served in the cuirassier regiment, was invited to a ball in the hospitable house of the former officer of the Order Regiment M.I. Petkovich.

Among the young ladies fluttering around the hall, Afanasy Afanasyevich saw a black-haired beauty, the daughter of a retired cavalry general of Serbian origin, Maria Lazich. From that very meeting, Fet began to perceive this girl as or as -. It is noteworthy that Maria knew Fet for a long time, however, she met him through his poems, which she read in her youth. Lazic was educated beyond her years, knew how to play music and was well versed in literature. It is not surprising that Fet recognized a kindred spirit in this girl. They exchanged numerous fiery letters and often flipped through albums. Maria became the lyrical heroine of many Fetov's poems.

But the acquaintance of Fet and Lazich was not happy. The lovers could become spouses and raise children in the future, but the prudent and practical Fet refused the union with Mary, because she was as poor as he was. In his last letter Lazich Afanasy Afanasyevich initiated the breakup.

Soon Maria died: due to a carelessly thrown match, her dress caught fire. The girl could not be saved from numerous burns. It is possible that this death was a suicide. The tragic event struck Fet to the core, and Afanasy Afanasyevich found consolation from the sudden loss of a loved one in his work. His subsequent poems were received with a bang by the reading public, so Fet managed to acquire a fortune, the poet's fees allowed him to travel around Europe.

While abroad, the master of trochaic and iambic met with a wealthy woman from a famous Russian dynasty - Maria Botkina. The second wife of Fet was not good-looking, but she was distinguished by good nature and easy disposition. Although Afanasy Afanasyevich proposed not out of love, but out of convenience, the couple lived happily. After a modest wedding, the couple left for Moscow, Fet resigned and devoted his life to creativity.

Death

On November 21, 1892, Afanasy Afanasyevich Fet died of a heart attack. Many biographers suggest that before his death, the poet attempted suicide. But there is no reliable evidence for this version this moment no.

The grave of the creator is located in the village of Kleymenovo.

Bibliography

Collections:

• 2010 - "Poems"
• 1970 - "Poems"
• 2006 - “Afanasy Fet. Lyrics"
• 2005 - “Poems. Poems»
• 1988 - “Poems. Prose. Letters»
• 2001 - "Prose of the poet"
• 2007 - "Spiritual Poetry"

• 1856 - "Two limes"
• 1859 - "Sabina"
• 1856 - "Sleep"
• 1884 - "Student"
• 1842 - "Talisman"

Afanasy Fet is an outstanding Russian poet, translator and memoirist, corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. His poems are known and read not only in Russia, but also far beyond its borders.

Soon he successfully passed the exams at Moscow University at the Faculty of Law, but then transferred to the verbal department of the Faculty of Philosophy.

At the university, the student became friends with the famous writer and journalist Mikhail Pogodin.

While studying at the university, Afanasy Fet did not stop composing new poems. Once he wanted to know Pogodin's opinion regarding his work.

He responded positively to his poems and even decided to show them.

Imagine Fet's surprise when he learned that his work made a great impression on the famous writer. Gogol called the young poet "an undoubted talent."

Fet's works

Inspired by praise, in 1840 Afanasy Fet published the poetry collection "Lyrical Pantheon", which turned out to be the first in his creative biography. Since that time, his poems began to appear in various Moscow publications.

A few years later, serious changes took place in Fet's life. In 1844, his mother and beloved uncle passed away.

It is worth noting that after the death of his uncle, he expected to receive an inheritance from him. However, for some unknown reason, the money disappeared.

As a result, Afanasy Afanasyevich was left practically without a livelihood. In order to make a fortune for himself, he decided to become a cavalryman and rise to the rank of officer.

In 1850, the second collection of Afanasy Fet was published, which aroused great interest among critics and ordinary readers. After 6 years, a third collection appeared, edited by .

In 1863, Fet published a two-volume collection of his own poems. It contained many lyrical works in which he superbly described and human qualities. In addition to poetry, he was also fond of writing elegies and ballads.

It is worth noting that Afanasy Fet gained great popularity as a translator. For his biography, he managed to translate both parts of Faust and many works of Latin poets, including Horace, Juvenal, Ovid and Virgil.

An interesting fact is that at one time Fet wanted to translate the Bible into, since he considered the synodal translation unsatisfactory. He also planned to translate The Critique of Pure Reason. However, these plans never materialized.

Fet's poems

Among the hundreds of poems in Fet's biography, the most popular are:

• If the morning pleases you...
• Steppe in the evening
• Just meet your smile...
• I stood still for a long time...
• I came to you with greetings ...

Personal life

By nature, Afanasy Fet was a rather extraordinary person. Many saw in him a serious and thoughtful person.

As a result, his fans could not understand how such a closed personality managed to vividly, vividly and easily describe nature and human feelings.

One day in the summer of 1848, Fet was invited to a ball. Getting acquainted with the invited guests and watching the dances, he noticed a black-haired girl Maria Lazich, who was the daughter of a retired general.

Interestingly, Maria was already familiar with the work of Afanasy Fet, because she loved poetry.

Soon a correspondence began between the young people. Later, the girl inspired Fet to write many poems and played an important role in his biography.

However, Afanasy Fet did not want to propose to Mary, because she was as poor as he was. As a result, their correspondence ceased, and at the same time, any communication.

Soon Maria Lazich tragically died. From an accidentally thrown match, her outfit caught fire, as a result of which she received many burns incompatible with life.

Some biographers of Fet claim that the death of the young beauty was a suicide.

When the writer gained some popularity and was able to improve his financial situation, he went on a trip to the cities of Europe.

Abroad, Fet met a wealthy woman, Maria Botkina, who later became his wife. And although this marriage was not for love, but for convenience, the couple lived a happy life together.

Death

Afanasy Afanasyevich Fet died on November 21, 1892 from a heart attack at the age of 71.

Some researchers of Fet's biography believe that his death was preceded by a suicide attempt, but this version does not have reliable facts.

The poet was buried in the village of Kleymenovo, the Shenshin family estate in the Oryol region of Russia.

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Afanasy Afanasyevich Fet. (11/23/1820 - 11/21/1892.)

In the fall of 1820, the landowner of the Mtsensk district, Afanasy Shenshin, returned to his estate Novoselki after treatment on the waters in Germany. The 44-year-old retired guardsman did not return alone: ​​he brought with him his wife, 22-year-old Charlotte Feth, who, having passionately fallen in love with Athanasius Shenshin, left her husband Johann Feth, her daughter and father in Germany.

Shortly after the arrival of Shenshin and his wife, on November 23, 1820, their baby Athanasius was born. The child of Charlotte Feth was recorded in the metrics as the son of Shenshin. Although their marriage was not registered. This forgery was somehow revealed after 14 years. The tragedy was also in the fact that from the correspondence between Shenshin and Charlotte's father it is clear that Shenshin was not the father of the child, but Charlotte's ex-husband also did not consider him his son.

After much trouble, it was possible to achieve that the boy was recorded as the son of Fet. Otherwise, he would be considered illegitimate all his life. Thus, Athanasius becomes a German subject, loses Russian citizenship, nobility and all the privileges and rights to his father's inheritance.

The very name "Fet" became for him a symbol of his misfortunes. Later he writes: “If you ask what all the suffering, all the sorrows of my life are called, then I will answer: their name is Fet.” “From childhood I took out only the intrigues of the servants, the stupidity of the teachers, the severity of the father, the defenselessness of the mother and training in fear every day.”

Lutheran Charlotte Fet was baptized in her new homeland and became Elizaveta Petrovna, having achieved a divorce from her first husband, Fet, married Shenshin. The She6nshins had four children who were legal heirs. Charlotte's daughter from her first marriage, who remained in Germany with her father, also enjoyed all the rights among her German relatives. And only one child of Elizabeth Petrovna took upon himself all the bitterness of the illegitimate. In addition to this drama of his rejection, Athanasius, in his spiritual, mental make-up, inherited a lot from his mother. She suffered from bouts of severe melancholy. As the family was added, she got sick more and more, less and less often she left the bed, which was in a room with constant closed windows and curtains. Although the doctor did not say anything definite about her illness, she constantly repeated: “I am suffering unbearably. Cancer gnaws at me day and night. Mother Athanasius died at the age of 44 (in 1842).

After Athanasius was recorded as the son of Fet, his mother's first husband, his life changes dramatically: he is taken to the city of Verro (now Vyra of Estonia), to a German boarding school.

Cut off from his family, having lost his surname, excommunicated from home (he was not even taken on vacation), alone in a strange city, Athanasius felt like an outcast. This drama in his life prepared the ground for ineradicable pessimism in his soul.

Athanasius is 14 years old and already in these years, he felt the birth of some obscure incomprehensible light in his soul. He writes: “In quiet moments of complete carelessness, I seemed to feel the underwater rotation of flower spirals, striving to bring the flower to the surface ...” This was the voice of an unknown creative gift to anyone, this was poetry asking for life.

In the meantime, a joyful event takes place in the life of Athanasius - after graduating from school, he moves to Moscow and in the fall of 1838, at the age of 18, becomes a student at the philosophical faculty of the university. In the same year, he began to uncontrollably write poetry. Athanasius became friends with Apollon Grigoriev, who also burned with a passion for poetry. Athanasius moves to the Grigorievs' house, in Zamoskvorechye. In this house, friends prepared for printing the first collection of student poems by Athanasius, which was published in 1840 under the initials "A.F." In the same house, many already mature poems were created, which began to be published already in magazines under the name “A. Fet. Maybe the letter "e" turned into the letter "e" through the fault of the compositor, but from now on the signature "Fet" has become, as it were, a literary pseudonym for the Russian poet.

In 1843 Fet's poem is published in the journal "Domestic Notes"

"I came to you with greetings,
Say that the sun has risen
What is hot light
The sheets fluttered;

…………………………..

Tell that from everywhere
Joy blows over me
That I don’t know myself what I will
Sing - but only the song is ripening.

The poet, as it were, publicly declares what he came to tell in Russian poetry, although he himself does not know what he will sing about, but the song is maturing. Critic Botkin exclaims “We don’t know such a lyrical spring in all Russian poetry!”

In Russian criticism, even a stable definition of the core of Fet's creativity is allowed: "fragrant freshness". And this is how his poetry is characterized "primitive naturalness, passionate sensuality, infantile naivety".

O first lily of the valley! From under the snow
You ask for sunbeams;
What a virgin bliss
In your fragrant purity!

Like the first beam spring bright!
What dreams descend in it!
How captivating you are, a gift
Flaming Spring!

After graduating from the university in 1844, Afanasy Fet went to the Kherson province and entered the cavalry as a lower rank. He set himself the goal of becoming a legitimate member of his noble family (from where he was expelled), becoming an officer, because. only an officer's rank, even the lowest, gave him the right to the nobility. And now, 1.5 years of exemplary service, and he is awarded the coveted epaulettes of the cavalry cornet. But fate deals another blow: a decree is issued - from now on, the nobility was given only the rank of major. Years of military service again. In 1856, at the age of 36, Fet rose to the lower rank. But karma again catches up with Fet: the new emperor Alexander II issues a decree: the nobility gives only the rank of colonel. It was a fatal blow to Fet's not very strong psyche: he went on a long vacation, and in 1858 resigned.

Fet tried to justify his perseverance in achieving the noble rank and material wealth by the fact that, in his opinion, true culture is created by the nobles. He reproached writers from the nobility who forgot about their class interests.

During the period of his military service, Fet experienced another drama. In 1848, he met the daughter of the Serbian Lazic family. Maria Lazich from a modest poor family loves poetry, music, she is an excellent pianist, she has known and loved poetry for a long time. They have a mutual feeling, but they are both poor. In the person of Maria Lazich, Fet was sent another test. There is no hope for marriage. Fet informs Maria that they must part. Maria begs him not to end the relationship. The terrible ending was the death of Mary: she burned down from the dress that broke out on her. It was speculated that it might have been suicide. Fet remembered Maria all his life, blamed himself for her death and dedicated many poems to her. When Fet was under seventy and, in his own words, “evening lights” were already shining, this poetic confession was born:

Maria Lazic

No, I haven't changed. To deep old age
I'm the same devotee, I'm a slave to your love
And the old poison of chains, sweet and cruel,
Still burning in my blood

Although memory insists that there is a grave between us,
Though every day I wander languidly to another, -
I can't believe that you forget me
When you are here in front of me.

Will another beauty flash for a moment,
It seems to me, just about, I recognize you;
And tenderness of the past I hear a breath,
And, shuddering, I sing.

During military service, Fet manages to visit St. Petersburg. Here he enters the circle of talented youth .. Among his friends is the later famous critic and poet Apollon Grigoriev; lyricist Yanov Polonsky, historian Sergei Solovyov, Turgenev, Goncharov, Annenkov, Botkin, Nekrasov. Fet was friends with Vladimir Solovyov (1853-1900) for more than 10 years. I knew Leo Tolstoy for 40 years. Met with Tyutchev and adored his poetry.

A. Fet could be unusually charming, he was loved in society. He was famous for his wit, led philosophical conversations, was an excellent storyteller. Critic Strakhov: "Fet was inexhaustible in speeches full of brilliance and paradoxes."

Fet's friends offer to publish a collection of his poems, which appeared in 1856. Fet is already a famous poet. Criticism does not skimp on praise. All of Russia sings romances based on his poems. So Varlamov’s romance to Fet’s poem “Don’t Wake Her at Dawn” in “Domestic Notes” is called almost a folk song.

In his public views, A. Fet was a conservative: he did not believe in social transformations, he believed that equality was impossible in this world and that harmony could only be in art. Therefore, the theme of his poetry: nature, Love, Beauty, Eternity. For this reason, in 1859, Fet broke with Nekrasov and the Sovremennik magazine, which became the spokesman for the views of the revolutionary democracy of Chernyshevsky and Dobrolyubov. Fet was an ardent defender of the rights of the landowners, the nobility. He is the finest lyricist and tight-fisted landowner. He excluded politics and social reality from his art. Fet did not allow in his poetry to depict contradictions and struggle in Russian society. A. Fet serves "Eternal Beauty". This is another drama of his life: a dispute with the century, which began in the 60s and continued until the end of the poet's life. It was this struggle against the ideas of revolutionary democracy that earned him the reputation of a "serf-owner and reactionary." Fet, rejecting the socially hostile world, is looking for the ideal person in higher spheres, in spiritual beauty.

Curse us: freedom is dear to us,
And it is not the mind that rages in us, but the blood,
The almighty nature cries out in us,
And we will glorify the age of love.

As an example, we set the singers of spring:
What a delight to be able to speak like that!
As we live, so we sing and praise,
And we live so that we can not help but sing!

The poet was worried about eternal moral questions, the mysteries of life and death, the contradictions of body and spirit. He says: “The world in all its parts is equally beautiful. Beauty is spilled throughout the universe. And how, and all the gifts of nature, it affects even those who are not aware of it.

The riddle of Fet for contemporaries, moreover, relatives, seemed incomprehensible. It seemed to combine two people in it: one despised life and severely, cruelly condemned the reforms that limited the rights of the nobles; the other is a poet of amazing depth, of the finest lyricism.

Reproach, pity inspired,
Do not irritate the soul of the sick;
Let the kneeling
I should stay in front of you!

Burning over the vain earth,
You kindly allow
I revel in purity
And the beauty of your soul.

See how transparent light
You are surrounded on earth
Like God's world in the light of it
m In a bluish haze!

Oh, I am blessed in the midst of suffering!
How glad, forgetting yourself and the world,
I'm rising sobs
Hot hold back the tide!

Polonsky wrote to Fet about this poem:

“What kind of creature you are - I do not comprehend; Well, tell me, for the sake of God and all his angels, and all his devils, where do you get such unctuous-pure, such sublimely ideal, such youthful-reverent poems, like "Reproach, inspired by pity ..."?

These poems are so good that I am ready to swear with delight. What Schopenhauer, and indeed what philosophy, will explain to you the origin or mental process of such a lyrical mood? If you do not explain this to me, then I will suspect that another is sitting inside you, invisible to anyone, and to us, sinners, invisible, a person surrounded by radiance, with eyes of azure and stars, and winged. You are old and he is young! You deny everything, but he believes!.. You despise life, and he, on his knees, is ready to sob before one of its incarnations, before such a being, from the light of which God's world is drowning in a bluish haze! Oh my God!

Isn't that why I love you so much, that in you sits, in the form of a little man, an immortal particle of your soul? And you still laughed at me for my belief in immortality! .. But whoever does not believe him, let him not read your poems, he will not understand - not for any gingerbread!<...>By my nature, I am more idealistic and even a dreamer than you, but how can I or my insides create such a hymn to unearthly beauty, and even in old age! .. " 1890 (Fet is 70 years old).

In 1857, Afanasy Fet married the sister of the famous critic Botkin, Maria Petrovna, and in 1858, when he retired, he plunged into economic activity, buying a farm in his native Mtsensk district. He prudently grows rich, is elected a justice of the peace, abandoning poetry.

After 17 years, in 1877, he buys another village in the Kursk province, where he spends the rest of his life. At this time, Fet returns to poetry.

Four books of his poetry common name"Evening Lights" is the result of creativity in the new estate. He creates as inspired as in early years. Fet's work was greatly influenced by gypsy singing: “Soon gypsy melodies were heard, whose power over me is omnipotent”- this recognition was made by the poet in the story "Cactus", which is based on real episodes of his biography. In his younger years, the poet communicated with gypsies and was in love with a gypsy from the Zubovsky tavern.

Stop, don't sing, that's enough!
With every sound the poison of love
It pours into the soul willfully
And it burns rebelliously painfully
In agitated blood.

Fet calls the gypsy element incarnate fire.

Evil song! How painfully indignant
You breathe my soul to the bottom!
Until dawn in the chest trembled, aching
This song is this song alone.

And those who sing give themselves to torment
It was sweeter than the charm of sleep ...

Reflecting on the mystery of gypsy singing, Fet writes: “God! What a languishing thirst for selfless devotion, boundless caress is heard in these yearning tunes. Longing in general is a painful feeling: why is it this longing that breathes such happiness?

Fet had long awakened an interest in the ancient world and in ancient art. The creations of ancient sculptors inspired Fet's lyrics more than once. A true masterpiece was a poem dedicated to the statue of the goddess Diana

Diana

Goddess virginal rounded features,
In all the grandeur of brilliant nakedness,
I saw between the trees over the clear waters.
With oblong, colorless eyes
An open brow rose high, -
With his immobility, attention was relieved,
And the virgins pray in the heavy torment of the womb
The sensitive and stone maiden listened.
But the wind at dawn penetrated between the sheets, -
The clear face of the goddess swayed on the water;
I was waiting for her to go with a quiver and arrows,
Milky whiteness flickering between the trees,
Look at sleepy Rome, at the eternal city of glory,
On the yellow-water Tiber, on groups of colonnades,
Long hauls... But the marble is immovable
White in front of me beauty incomprehensible.

Critic Botkin wrote: “Never before has the silent poetry of sculpture been felt and expressed with such power. In these verses, the marble was really filled with some kind of unknown, mysterious life: you feel that petrified forms are transformed into an airy vision ... We confess that we do not know of a single work where the echo of the vanished, irrevocable pagan world resounded with such ardor and sonority, as in this ideal, airy image of a strict, virginal Diana. This is the highest apotheosis not only of sculpture, but of the entire mythological world!”

In this poem, "prayer before the perfection of the past beauty and hidden inner longing for the same perfection."

Fet has another poem dedicated to an ancient statue.

"Venus de Milo" was written in Paris under the impression of the statue of Venus seen in the Louvre. In order to be imbued with the height of the syllable of Feta the prose writer, let's read his prose description of the statue of Venus de Milo.

“From the clothes that have descended to the hips with the most charming bend, the tenderly young, cold-skinned, restrained body of the goddess fades. This is a velvety, cool and elastic curl of a flower, towards the first ray that has just broken the bodily shell. Not only did no one's breath touch him, the very dawn did not have time. shed a tear of joy on him.(...). Nothing to say about the beauty of the face. The proud consciousness of the all-conquering power breathes in the section of the lips and eyes, in the airy outlines of the nostrils ... everything that marble involuntarily sings to you, says the goddess, not the artist. Only such art is pure and holy, everything else is its profanation. This is prose, but poetic and musical prose, the so-called. music is in every word here.

And chaste and bold,
Up to the loins shining with nakedness,
Blooming divine body
Unfading beauty.

Under this canopy whimsical
Slightly raised hair
How much bliss is proud
Spilled in the heavenly face!

So, all breathing pathos passion,
All dazzling with sea foam
And all-conquering power,
You look into eternity before you.

(In the city of Paphos on the island of Crete there was a temple dedicated to the goddess of love Aphrodite).

A. Fet is engaged in translation activities. While still a student, he began to translate Horace, and over time he translated not only all the works of this poet, but also almost all Roman poetry (Catullus, Tibulla, Propertius, Ovid, Virgil, the satire of Juvenal, Persia, Martial). In addition to Roman authors, Fet translated many other ancient and modern Western and Eastern poets.

Of the great works of the Fet translator, Goethe's Faust and the work of Schopenhauer (German philosopher (1788-1860)) "The World as Will and Representation" should be noted.

To one of his poems, Fet quotes from Schopenhauer: “The uniformity of the flow of time in all heads proves more than anything else that we are all immersed in the same dream; moreover, that all who see this dream are one being. And Fet's poem inspired by Schopenhauer's work.

Exhausted by life, the deceit of hope,
When I yield to them in the battle with my soul,
And day and night I close eyelids
And somehow strangely sometimes I see clearly.

And so transparent lights infinity
And so the whole abyss of ether is available,
What do I look straight from time to eternity
And I recognize your flame, the sun of the world.

And everything that rushes through the abyss of the ether,
And every ray, fleshly and incorporeal, -
Your only reflection, O sun of the world,
And only a dream, only a fleeting dream.

Here we hear the Feta-philosopher speaking both about the transience of the universe and about the single center of creation - the sun of the world. But the main direction of Fet's poetry is lyric poetry, A. Fet is one of the few purest lyricists in Russian literature of the 19th century: neither the epic nor the dramatic kind was his vocation. But Fet's lyrics are organically connected with music: after all, music lives inside the word. All words are an ocean of sounds, this is the great and mysterious element of speech, over which only the lyric poet has power. Here is how Afanasy Fet himself writes about the creation of a lyrical work, as if a picture of “lyrical singing”:

“Here is a young, bright, powerful, passionate soul! Her moral state brought her out of her usual rest... Passionate excitement is growing, raising from the bottom of her soul all the forgotten secrets, now gloomy and bleak, like hell, now bright, like the dreams of a seraph. To die or to speak out The powerless word will stagnate - Comfort yourself! There is a language of the gods mysterious, incomprehensible. But clear in transparency".

Fet calls the language of the gods the music that the poet hears in the word: “Poetry and music are not only related, but also inseparable. All centuries-old poetic works - from the prophets to Goethe and Pushkin inclusive - are, in essence, musical works, songs ... "

Somehow, in a letter to Tolstoy, Fet laments that nothing can be conveyed in words and everything is understood by music. The musicality of Fet - his poems, this is the painful and sweet "music of the chest."

The critic N. Strakhov writes to Fet: "You have the secret of amazing sounds that no one else can." And further: "With him everything becomes music, everything is transformed into singing."

The poet is often compared to the musical genius Chopin, who was Fet's favorite composer. Tchaikovsky considered Fetov's gift to be "completely exceptional". “Fet, in his best moments, goes beyond the limits indicated by poetry and boldly takes a step into our field ... He is not just a poet, rather a poet-musician ... I consider him a poet of unconditional genius .... He has such works from which the hair stands on end. Fet is a completely exceptional phenomenon; there is no way to compare him with other first-class poets ...

Like Beethoven, he has been given the power to touch such strings of our soul that are inaccessible to artists, Even if they are strong, but limited by the objects of the word. Tchaikovsky, one of Fet's brilliant poems, points out "on a haystack at southern night."

On a haystack at southern night
I lay face to the firmament,
And the choir shone, lively and friendly,
Spread around, trembling.

Earth, like a vague silent dream,
Passed away without knowing
And I, as the first inhabitant of paradise,
One in the face saw the night.

I rushed to the midnight abyss,
Or hosts of stars rushed to me?
It seemed as if in a powerful hand
Above this abyss I hung.

And with fading and confusion
I measured the depth with my eyes,
In which with every moment I
Everything is irrevocable.

Pyotr Ilyich wrote several romances based on Fet's verse-revelations. One of the most famous "The night shone". This poem is one of Fet's greatest masterpieces.

The night shone. The garden was full of moonlight. lay
Rays at our feet in a living room with no lights
The piano was all open, and the strings in it were trembling,
Like our hearts for your song.

You sang until dawn, exhausted in tears,
That you are alone - love, that there is no other love,
And so I wanted to live, so that, without dropping sounds,
Love you, hug and cry over you.

And many years have passed, languid and boring,
And in the silence of the night I hear your voice again,
And blows, as then, in these sonorous sighs,
That you are alone - all life, that you are alone - love.

In Fet's poems, there is always the pressure of delight or tragedy, always a rise or an attempt to rise and look into oblivion.

I light up and burn
I break and soar
In the languor of extreme effort
And I believe with my heart that they are growing
And immediately they will take to the sky
Spread my wings.

Afanasy Fet always overcomes the blows of fate: the secret of birth, heavy heredity from his mother, loss of nobility, failure to return him through military service, the death of his beloved girl, a break with Nekrasov ... Poetry for Fet is healing from torment, from his personal tragedy and its realization in joy.

Love me! As soon as your humble
I will meet the eye
At your feet I will spread patterned
Living carpet.

Inspired by an unknown desire,
Above all earthly
In what fire, with what self-forgetfulness
We will fly!

May night

What a night! On everything what bliss!
Thank you, native midnight land!
From the realm of ice, from the realm of blizzards and snow
How fresh and clean your May flies!

What a night! All the stars to one
Warmly and meekly look into the soul again,
And in the air behind the song of the nightingale
Anxiety and love spread...

This is one of Fetov's "spring songs" in which the "music of love" breathes. Fet also has a famous verbless poem.

A whisper, a timid breath.
trill nightingale,
Silver and flutter
Sleepy stream.

Night light, night shadows,
Shadows without end
A series of magical changes
sweet face,

In smoky clouds purple roses,
reflection of amber,
And kisses, and tears,
And dawn, dawn!..

Lek Tolstoy, whom Fet had known for 40 years and corresponded for more than 20 years, recalled: “How much noise it made once, how much they scolded it!” But this poem also gave rise to many admiring assessments, Saltykov-Shchedrin wrote: "... in any literature one can rarely find a poem that, with its fragrant freshness, would seduce the reader to such an extent ...".

A. Grigoriev said about the same poem of his: "It is a series of endless, so intertwined, so necessary successive chords that cannot be interrupted - a poem that cannot be read otherwise than in one breath."

Fet himself said: “The business of the poet is to find the sound with which he wants to touch the well-known string of our soul. If he found him, then our soul will sing to him in response..

Fet all. Life was distinguished by a tendency to bouts of gloomy melancholy, inherited, obviously, from his mother. But it was also a feeling of being an outcast in youth when the soul reacts especially subtly to injustice, to the absence of parental warmth. His soulmate Apollon Grigoriev, in whose family Athanasius lived, writes:

“I have not seen a person who would be so choked with longing, for whom I would be more afraid of suicide. I was afraid for him, I often spent nights at his bedside, trying to dispel with anything ... the terrible chaotic fermentation of the elements of his soul. Fet's state of mind is reflected in the following poem:

Life passed without a clear trace.
The soul was torn - who will tell me where?
For what pre-selected purpose?
But all the dreams, all the violence of the first days
With their joy - everything is quieter, everything is clearer
The latter is suitable for housewarming.

On December 26, 1873, Alexander II gave the Senate a decree “... On the accession of the retired guards-captain-captain A.A. Feta to the family of his father Shenshin with all the rights, title and family that belong to him. Fet became a legitimate member of the Shenshin family, a full-fledged Russian nobleman. And so, at the end of his life, Fet acquired everything: the surname Shenshin, nobility, commercial rank, wealth, until this completely changed the state of his soul: she either flew up into the heavens, then fell into the abyss of darkness and longing.

At the age of 72, Fet tried to commit suicide, but his secretary managed to take away his steel stylet. Then Fet rushes to the sideboard where the knives are, but at that moment death itself overtakes him - his heart breaks. The poet did not live up to 72 years of two days. The poet was buried in the Shenshin family estate, not far from Orel.

Afanasy Fet, despite the internal, constantly overcome tragedy, is one of the sunniest poets in the world.

I still love, I still yearn
Before the beauty of the world
And I won't give up on anything
From the caresses sent down by you.

1890 (Fet is 70 years old)

What a tender heart one must have at this age in order to express one's feelings with such lines. Fet said that "the poet can break through the plan of everyday reality only in a state of insane soaring."

How undead you are, silver night,
In the soul, the flowering of dumb and secret power!
O! covered and let me overcome
All this decay, soulless and dull.

What a night! diamond dew
Living fire with the fires of the sky in dispute.
Like an ocean, the skies opened up
And the earth sleeps and warms like the sea.

My spirit, O night! like a fallen seraph,
Recognized kinship with imperishable stellar life,
And, inspired by your breath,
Ready to fly over this secret abyss.

Block said that "... to describe Fet would mean to exhaust the inexhaustible." The poet has a deep cosmic vision and understanding of the world. How often, looking into the heavenly infinity, he is amazed at the grandeur of the universe, talks with the luminaries, with the stars. And they answer the poet":

We don't have a number. In vain by a greedy thought
You are catching up with the shadow of eternal thoughts;
We are burning here, so that in the impenetrable dusk
An endless day has been asked for you.

That's why when it's so hard to breathe
It is comforting for you to raise your forehead like that
From the face of the earth, where everything is dark and scarce,
To us, into our depths, where it is magnificent and light.

The poet touches the secrets of the universe. Turning to the stars, he asks the question: are these stars? Or maybe only their belated reflection? Alien images of celestial bodies?

To the fading stars

How long will I drink your flicker,
Blue sky inquisitive eyes?
How long to smell what is higher and more beautiful
Are you missing in the temple of the night?
Maybe you are not under those lights:
The old era extinguished you, -
So after death fly to you in verse,
To the ghosts of the stars, I will be the ghost of a sigh!
May 6, 1890

Fet is aware of the identity of your personality with the Universe and creates with the feeling of God:

Not so, the Lord, mighty, incomprehensible
You are before my restless mind,
That on a starry day your bright seraphim
A huge ball lit over the universe

No, you are powerful and incomprehensible to me
The fact that I myself, powerless and instantaneous,
I carry in my chest, like that seraph,
Fire is stronger and brighter than the whole universe.
While I am the prey of vanity,
The plaything of her inconstancy, -
In me he is eternal, omnipresent, like you,
He knows neither time nor space.

Literature:

1. "How our word will respond" Selected lyrics. Sat: M.-"Pravda", 2986.
2.A.A. Fet. Lyrics. Sat: L. - Lenizdat, 1977.

About once upon a question of the questionnaire of the daughter of Leo Tolstoy Tatyana “How long would you like to live?” Fet replied: "The least long." And yet the writer had a long and very rich life- he not only wrote many lyrical works, critical articles and memoirs, but also devoted whole years to agriculture, and apple marshmallow from his estate was even supplied to the imperial table.

Non-hereditary nobleman: childhood and youth of Athanasius Fet

Afanasy Fet in childhood. Photo: pitzmann.ru

Afanasy Fet was born in 1820 in the village of Novoselki near the city of Mtsensk, Oryol province. Until the age of 14, he bore the surname of his father, the wealthy landowner Afanasy Shenshin. As it turned out later, Shenshin's marriage to Charlotte Fet was illegal in Russia, since they got married only after the birth of their son, which Orthodox Church categorically did not accept. Because of this, the young man was deprived of the privileges of a hereditary nobleman. He began to bear the name of his mother's first husband, Johann Fet.

Athanasius was educated at home. Basically, he was taught literacy and the alphabet not by professional teachers, but by valets, cooks, courtyards, and seminarians. But Fet absorbed most of his knowledge from the surrounding nature, the peasant way of life and rural life. He liked to communicate for a long time with the maids, who shared news, told tales and legends.

At the age of 14, the boy was sent to the German boarding school Krummer in the Estonian city of Vyru. It was there that he fell in love with the poetry of Alexander Pushkin. In 1837, young Fet arrived in Moscow, where he continued his studies at the boarding house of Professor world history Mikhail Pogodin.

In quiet moments of complete carelessness, I seemed to feel the underwater rotation of flower spirals, trying to bring the flower to the surface; but in the end it turned out that only spirals of stems were striving outward, on which there were no flowers. I drew some verses on my slate board and erased them again, finding them meaningless.

From the memoirs of Afanasy Fet

In 1838, Fet entered the law faculty of Moscow University, but soon switched to the historical and philological department. From the first year he wrote poems that interested classmates. The young man decided to show them to Professor Pogodin, and he to the writer Nikolai Gogol. Soon Pogodin gave a review of the famous classic: "Gogol said this is an undoubted talent". The works of Fet and his friends were approved - the translator Irinarkh Vvedensky and the poet Apollon Grigoriev, to whom Fet moved from Pogodin's house. He recalled that "the house of the Grigorievs was the true cradle of my mental self." The two poets supported each other in their work and life.

In 1840, Fet's first collection of poems, Lyrical Pantheon, was published. It was published under the initials "A. F." It included ballads and elegies, idylls and epitaphs. The collection was liked by critics: Vissarion Belinsky, Pyotr Kudryavtsev and the poet Yevgeny Baratynsky. A year later, Fet's poems were already regularly published by Pogodin's magazine "Moskvityanin", and later by the magazine "Domestic Notes". In the last year, 85 Fetov's poems were published.

The idea to return the title of nobility did not leave Afanasy Fet, and he decided to enter the military service: the officer rank gave the right to hereditary nobility. In 1845, he was accepted as a non-commissioned officer in the Order's cuirassier regiment in the Chersonese province. A year later, Fet was promoted to cornet.

Well-known metropolitan author and "agronomist-master to the point of desperation"

Friedrich Mobius. Portrait of Maria Fet (detail). 1858. State Literary Museum, Moscow

In 1850, bypassing all censorship committees, Fet released a second collection of poems, which was praised on the pages of large Russian magazines. By this time, he was transferred to the rank of lieutenant and quartered closer to the capital. In the Baltic port, Afanasy Fet participated in Crimean campaign, whose troops guarded the Estonian coast.

AT last years Life Fet received public recognition. In 1884, for the translation of Horace's works, he became the first recipient of the full Pushkin Prize of the Imperial Academy of Sciences. Two years later, the poet was elected its corresponding member. In 1888, Athanasius Fet was personally introduced to Emperor Alexander III and awarded the court title of chamberlain.

While still in Stepanovka, Fet began to write the book “My Memoirs”, where he talked about his life as a landowner. The memoirs cover the period from 1848 to 1889. The book was published in two volumes in 1890.

On December 3, 1892, Fet asked his wife to call a doctor, and in the meantime he dictated to his secretary: “I don’t understand the conscious increase in inevitable suffering. Volunteering towards the inevitable" and signed "Fet (Shenshin)". The writer died of a heart attack, but it is known that at first he tried to commit suicide by rushing after a steel stiletto. Afanasy Fet was buried in the village of Kleymenovo, the Shenshin family estate.

I was offended to see how indifferently the sad news was received even by those whom it most of all should have touched. How selfish we are! He was a strong man, fought all his life and achieved everything he wanted: he won a name, wealth, literary celebrity and a place in high society, even at court. He appreciated all this and enjoyed everything, but I am sure that his poems were dearest of all in the world and that he knew that their charm is incomparable, the very heights of poetry. The further, the more others will understand it.

From a letter from Nikolai Strakhov to Sofya Tolstoy, 1892

Already after the death of the writer, in 1893, the last volume of memoirs "The Early Years of My Life" was published. Fet also did not have time to release the volume that completes the cycle of poems “Evening Lights”. The works for this poetic book were included in the two-volume Lyric Poems, which was published in 1894 by Nikolai Strakhov and Grand Duke Konstantin Romanov.

"Lessons on Fet's creativity" - What impressions did you have after the lesson? Targets: Afanasy Afanasyevich Fet 23.XI (5.XII). 1820 - 21.XI (3.XII). 1892. How is the musicality of a poem created? P.I. Tchaikovsky. Tea was served and we went into the hall. To educate the moral qualities of students through the poetry of A. Fet. How is the poem structured?

"Fet's Poem" - From the memoirs of T. Bers (Kuzminskaya). NATURE night. Let's read "Another May Night" together. Silver. Piano, strings, song, voice, sounds, sang. What is the symbolic meaning of the poem? "It is impossible to eternal beauty Do not sing, do not praise, do not pray ... ". Man's world. Denisev cycle.

"The Life of Fet" - Love in the life of a poet. Studies. M.P. Botkina survived her husband by only 2 years. A.A. Fet visiting L.N. Tolstoy in Yasnaya Polyana. And dreaming and dreaming: we are both young, And you looked as you looked before. At that time, N.V. Gogol, who had arrived from abroad, lived in Pogodin's house. Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol. The desire to rise to the nobility prompted Fet to enter the military service.

"The Creativity of Fet" - Key words: lyrics, image, impressionism, pure art. Project "Development of lessons on the work of Afanasy Fet" Project planning. Evaluation criteria: Appendix - file No. 6 Evaluation examples: Appendix - file No. 7. When implementing the project, age and psychological features students.

"Tyutchev and Fet" - What other feelings are expressed in the poem? Reading poetry. What are the features of the poetic language of each poem? Listening to messages and conversation: Benchmarking poems "Summer Evening" by F.I. Tyutchev and "What a Night" by A.A. Fet. Features of the poetic world Tyutchev Fet. FET (Shenshin) Afanasy Afanasyevich is a famous Russian poet.

“Poetry of Fet” - Fet has always attracted the poetic theme of evening and night. What a night! And from Fet's poem it breathes freshness and novelty. Movement in a stanza is denoted by the noun “flutter”, which rhymes with “breath”. The drama is connected with the secret of Fet's birth. The main semantic field of the poem is between words, behind words.