{"id":384,"date":"2018-10-10T00:28:07","date_gmt":"2018-10-10T04:28:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2447-fall-2018\/?p=384"},"modified":"2018-10-10T00:29:34","modified_gmt":"2018-10-10T04:29:34","slug":"repetition-of-stanza-and-repetition-of-line-one-rhetorical-technique-that-yields-two-interpretations-of-romantic-poetry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2447-fall-2018\/the-domestic-exotic\/repetition-of-stanza-and-repetition-of-line-one-rhetorical-technique-that-yields-two-interpretations-of-romantic-poetry\/","title":{"rendered":"Repetition of Stanza and Repetition of Line: One Rhetorical Technique that Yields Two Interpretations of Romantic Poetry"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In this week\u2019s short poems \u201cSing Not, My Love,\u201d by Alexander Pushkin and \u201cFarewell to Russia\u201d by Mikhail Lermontov, I took note of stanza and line repetitions, both of which contribute to a recursive, and almost nostalgic, perspective on each author\u2019s life during their periods of exilement. To begin with some background from earlier class discussions: both of these authors had dominated the Russian literature produced in the mid 19<sup>th<\/sup> century. Their contributions to lyric poetry during the literary era of Russian Romanticism remain as some of the most significant additions to recorded Russian poetry (Gillespie). I found that a large component of Russian Romanticism revolves around nostalgia for the past. This \u201clonging for the past\u201d is expressed not only through the subject matter of these two poems\u2014 which references old Russia whilst written from exile\u2014but is also expressed through form\u2014whether that be the repetition of entire stanzas, or the couplet repetition evident in Lermontov\u2019s \u201cFarewell to Russia.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>To begin, the most prevalent stylistic choice utilized by Alexander Pushkin in \u201cSing Not, My Love,\u201d is his entire duplication of the first stanza at the end of the poem, in which he expresses a sadness and distance from the memories of his childhood. Note that Pushkin begins this lyrical poem with a rejection of his childhood memories, symbolically represented as \u201cGeorgia\u2019s songs\u201d (Pushkin 1). His memories from his youth from the small southern province Georgia become encapsulated and represented by a channel of mixed emotions that possess a \u201cmournful grace\u201d (6). These memories harbor the fondness of his early years all while reminding him of his loss, specifically the \u201cpoor maiden\u2019s face,\u201d which we later learn is a \u201creference to Maria Raevskaya,\u201d one of Pushkin\u2019s first loves who had \u201cfollowed her husband to Siberia when he was exiled\u201d (129). I find it interesting that Pushkin invokes this historical character that followed her husband, Prince Sergey Volkonsky, who had been previously exiled to Serbia before Pushkin. The main difference between Volkonsky\u2019s exile and Pushkin\u2019s is that Volkonsky was trailed by the same lover that Pushkin had lost year\u2019s prior. This detail, along with the repetition of the entire first stanza leads me to believe that Pushkin remains unresolved regarding his exile. He rejects the recognition of his old life, as it is no longer attainable nor pleasant for him. His lover most distinctly has chosen a different man who had inexcusably similar circumstances to Pushkin. What is most interesting is that this reference is closely followed by the aforementioned repeated stanza, as if the initial and ultimate presence of this stanza bounds Pushkin into isolation, leaving him handcuffed to the \u201chaunting force\u2014\u201c the recursive and seemingly eternal sentence to Siberia (11,12). The resolve of this stanza is rhythmically pleasing, precise, and accurate: it seems almost natural that instead of thinking forward, or looking back to his past childhood, he should remain both symbolically and physically entrapped between not only the bookends of repeated stanzas, but also the between the isolating forests of his Siberian exilement.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Furthermore, I found a similar stylistic choice utilized by Mikhail Lermontov in his \u201cFarewell to Russia,\u201d produced in 1840, which was promptly before his second exile (Manuylov, V.A. <em>The Life of Lermontov<\/em>). This shorter poem features a resolved narrator who begins with a quatrain referencing negative characteristics of Russia, calling it the \u201cland of the masters\u2014 \u201cthe land of the unwashed\u201d (Lermontov 2,1). Unlike Pushkin, Lermontov does not look nostalgically towards the past: he instead calls his very Russian\u2019s \u201ccringing slaves,\u201d clearly rejecting them (4). Also, notice the clear sense of direction in Lermontov\u2019s narrative. Instead of remaining encapsulated by a mix of mourning and rejection as does Pushkin in \u201cSing Not, My Love,\u201d Lermontov hopefully lists his wishes for his exile: \u201cpeace[ful]\u201d skies, and distance from \u201ctsars\u201d and \u201ceverspying eyes\u201d(7,8). His clear and assured direction in thought is supported by the emphatic usage of couplet repetition in each adjacent phrase: \u201cLand of\u2026\u201d, \u201cYou\u2026\u201d, and \u201cFar from\u201d (1-2,3-4, 7-8). Each of these repetitions reference a strong sense of movement away from \u201cunwashed Russia, and towards the \u201cpeace beneath Caucasian skies\u201d (6). Finally, I find it very interesting that this poem precedes Lermontov\u2019s <strong><em>second<\/em><\/strong> exile from Russia, and within this poem, Lermontov utilizes <strong><em>duple<\/em><\/strong> line repetition in order to emphasize direction of thought. It is arguable that this is a clear reference between style and meaning; I think it is safe to at least presume that with an experience of previous exilement, this line repetition could perhaps just represent his sureness to move on from his contentious Russian past.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In sum, I think that both of these poems, each by Pushkin and Lermontov, represent how different uses of rhetorical style can offer various interpretations of each poem\u2019s relationship with exilement and nostalgia for the past. In my analysis, Pushkin\u2019s repetition of a stanza informs my assumptions that Pushkin had perhaps felt entrapped by his exile and his isolation form society. His style seems to reflect both a physical and emotional isolation from both his past childhood and his future aspirations. Meanwhile, Lermontov\u2019s anaphoric repetition at the beginning of each two lines in his \u201c Farewell to Russia\u201d functions as an emphatic and resolute method to dismiss his past and move towards his future exile. Lermontov\u2019s strong rhetorical technique establishes a strong sense of direction to which he envisions a peace in isolation. Thus, even though both of these lyric poems regard Romanticism, including its themes of nostalgia, each poem utilizes various repetitive styles, which inform various interpretations of each author\u2019s perspective on exile.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In this week\u2019s short poems \u201cSing Not, My Love,\u201d by Alexander Pushkin and \u201cFarewell to Russia\u201d by Mikhail Lermontov, I took note of stanza and line repetitions, both of which contribute to a recursive, and almost nostalgic, perspective on each author\u2019s life during their periods of exilement. To begin with some background from earlier class [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":400,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[50,10],"class_list":["post-384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-domestic-exotic","tag-lermontov","tag-pushkin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2447-fall-2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2447-fall-2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2447-fall-2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2447-fall-2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/400"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2447-fall-2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2447-fall-2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2447-fall-2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2447-fall-2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2447-fall-2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}