Derzhavin is a river of times in its aspiration. Poem by G.R. Derzhavin “The river of times in its aspiration...”. Perception, interpretation, evaluation. Expressive reading by heart. Analysis The river of times in its rush

You can listen to an audio recording of the poem “The River of Times in its Aspiration...”. The text is read by Honored Artist of Russia Alexander Dmitrievich Fedorov.

We have come to the last page of Derzhavin’s work. Already a very old man, a few weeks before his death, he wrote his last poem. It is short, only eight lines:

The river of times in its rush carries away all the affairs of people and drowns peoples, kingdoms and kings into the abyss of oblivion. And if anything remains Through the sounds of the lyre and trumpet, It will be devoured by the mouth of eternity And the common fate will not leave!

The poet went into Eternity. And he looked into it philosophically calmly, sadly and wisely. No one has the power to escape the mighty flow of time. We all living on earth are united by this stream that is rapidly carrying us away. And yet, there is still hope that something remains from each generation of people, remains “through the sounds of the lyre and trumpet.” Otherwise, the connection between times would be broken. And Derzhavin’s symbolic image of the “river of times” would not have sounded with such authentic force and would not have remained in our memory for a long time.

Literature

1. Derzhavin G.R. Essays with explanatory notes by Y.K. Grotto: In 9 volumes. St. Petersburg, 1864-1884.
2. Derzhavin G.R. Poems. L., 1933.
3. Derzhavin G.R. Poems. L., 1947.
4. Derzhavin G.R. Essays. M., 1985.
5. Belinsky V.G. Works of Derzhavin // Belinsky V.G. Collection cit.: In 3 vols. M., 1948. T. 2.
6. Gukovsky G.A. Russian poetry of the 18th century. L., 1927.
7. Zapadov V.A. Gavrila Romanovich Derzhavin. M.; L., 1965.
8. Serman I.Z. Russian poetry of the second half of the 18th century. Derzhavin // History of Russian poetry: In 2 vols. L., 1968. T. 1.
9. Zapadov A.V. Poets of the 18th century (M.V. Lomonosov, G.R. Derzhavin). M., 1979.
10. Dictionary of literary terms. M., 1974.
11. Dal V.I. Explanatory dictionary of the living Great Russian language: In 4 volumes. M., 1979-1980.
12. Literary encyclopedia of terms and concepts. M., 2001.

Read also other topics in Chapter VI:

Literature and library science

And if anything remains Through the sounds of the lyre and trumpet, It will be devoured by the mouth of eternity And the common fate will not go away. The author reflects on eternity and the fact that absolutely all human affairs and aspirations will sooner or later be forgotten. The expression of the poem is created by the concentration of metaphors: the river of times, the abyss of oblivion, the mouth of eternity, and the phonetic organization of repetition [r] determines the tense tonality of the eight-line; sequence of stressed vowels in the third and penultimate lines o o e e o o. There are 2 images in the poem: images of time and eternity.

Poem by G.R. Derzhavin “The river of times in its aspiration...”. Perception, interpretation, evaluation. Expressive reading by heart.

History of creation

By the end of the 18th century, Derzhavin achieved a lot: he was a senator, a minister, and argued with the tsars. But there were many ministers, senators, secretaries of state, but he was still alone - the poet Derzhavin. Somehow it happened naturally that everyone recognized him as a genius. Of course, Derzhavin was first and foremost a courtier, a careerist. In his eyes, the order was more important than the ode. But over the years, he realized that it was literature that held the key to his immortality. And this was what his proud, ambitious soul always wanted. It is no coincidence that he translated “Monument” from Latin into Russian. He thought that it was his poems that would become an eternal monument to him...

But no! Years passed, he grew weaker, lost his sight, and gradually the eternal and sad truth was revealed to his gaze, which was inaccessible to him, the young man.

In the summer of 1816, in his beloved Zvanka, his estate in the Novgorod province, he began work on a new work. But the poet’s creative plans were not destined to come true: death interrupted his work. Only a few lines have reached us, written - which in itself is symbolic - on a slate board.

For reference. Slate board board made of black mineral on which writing is done with a stylus.

Two days before his death on July 6, 1816, he wrote its formula on a slate board:

R eka of time in its aspiration

U carries all people's affairs

AND drowns in the abyss of oblivion

N nations, kingdoms and kings.

A if anything remains

H sounds of the lyre and trumpet,

T about eternity will be devoured

AND common fate will not go away.

Perception, interpretation, evaluation

The philosophical work “The River of Times in its Aspiration...” is the poet’s attempt to express his view on the question of the meaning of life. The poems make you think about what will remain of a person’s actions after his death. The author reflects on eternity, on the fact that absolutely all human affairs and aspirations will sooner or later be forgotten. Indeed, everything passes eventually. Human actions can be evil and good, noble or not, but they are not eternal. Time passes and everything is forgotten. New people come who do not remember what happened before them. The only thing that matters is what is now, because everything else simply doesn’t matter.

There is nothing eternal on earth, so it makes no sense to attach too much importance to human actions and actions. The fate of everything earthly is too fragile and ephemeral, everything exists only for a moment.“Eternal” philosophical problems are brought out by the author into the subtext of the work.

The poem is permeated with a pessimistic feeling. Its author is an elderly man, wise with years of experience, perhaps an old man, calmly and wisely looking at the vanity of the world. He has nowhere to rush, he knows the value of life.

The expression of the poem is created by the concentration of metaphors (river of times, abyss of oblivion, mouth of eternity)and phonetic organization (the repetition of [p] determines the tense tonality of the eight-line; the sequence of stressed vowels in the third and penultimate lines (о ое//еоо)).

There are 2 images in the poem: images of time and eternity. Both time and history in Derzhavin’s poem have an end and do not imply either the triumph of progress or the establishment of harmony: the words carries away, drowns, gets devoured, oblivion, abyss and vent are close in meaning “death”, “loss”, “end”, “non-existence”. The prevalence of these signs in “all human affairs”

In the first quatrain, imperfective verbs are used, denoting the duration of the process and the repetition of the laws of history, which continue to operate while earthly time flows. In the second quatrain, the perfect form, which gives the verbs the meaning of limit, serves as a kind of metaphor for the end of world history.

The image of time is compared with the image of eternity, and the plan of the present constant is replaced by the plan of the future (That will be devoured by the mouth of eternity). If in everyday linguistic consciousness eternity is usually reduced to a temporary duration that has neither beginning nor end, then Derzhavin, speaking about eternity, avoids specific temporal characteristics and dimensions. On the one hand, his eternity is dynamic (it will be devoured), on the other, in accordance with the poetic tradition of the 18th century, it comes close to Chaos, which for ancient philosophers and poets was embodied in the image of the abyss.

The incomprehensibility of eternity in Derzhavin’s poem is reflected in the rejection of its detailed figurative characterization. If the image of history (time) is built on the basis of a chain of closely interconnected metaphors and is detailed (time a river with a stormy current, rushing towards the “abyss of oblivion”), then eternity in the text has only one figurative sign an all-consuming crater.

The word fate in the last line turns out to be ambiguous: on the one hand, it has the meaning of “fate, destiny”, on the other hand, it realizes the meaning of “immutable law”,

Conclusion

In Derzhavin’s poem, the motif of judgment develops, which has several aspects: this is the determination of the true price of people’s actions, and summing up the results, and establishing the place of art in history, and the judgment of time over man, and overcoming time itself.

Initially, Derzhavin wanted to write a poem On Perishability, which would talk about the frailty of this world, but he could not realize his own plan, since frailty called him. Therefore, only the beginning remained of the conceived verse, which was inherited by descendants under the name River of Times... - according to the first line. Derzhavin wrote the poem almost just before leaving the world, and this fact makes the poem more valuable, since it speaks of the author’s sensitive premonition and understanding of his own situation and the essence of the world.

The River of Times... represents, as they say, the author's swan song, and even the understatement that is there (if you know about the general plan) is also a very symbolic element. The poet, as if on the verge of death, talks about the frailty of the entire universe and breaks off mid-sentence, leaving his own body, which just recently breathed, wanted and wrote poetry.

However, even if one considers this unfinished poem, there is much to gain and reflect on. Noteworthy is the acrostic, which was created thanks to the first lines of the text. The content includes two words: ruin honor.

Derzhavin probably wanted to continue this verse, but even from these words the general motive is clear. It is about understanding the temporality of all existence. Kingdoms and kings become ruins, they turn into nothing.

Of course, there is always the hope of immortalizing oneself in history thanks to such instruments as the sounds of the lyre and trumpet, that is, thanks to art, fame, and the memory of descendants. However, such eternity is only a convention in the face of real eternity, which will still absorb any evidence, any remnants of memory and glory. Before time, a person remains powerless; he can practically do nothing to oppose this devouring factor, which will absorb both the wise poet and the stupid beggar, the beauty and the beast, good and disgusting deeds.

The poet uses appropriate comparisons in order to emphasize this fact - “will be devoured by the mouth of eternity”, “drown into the abyss of oblivion”. Derzhavin, describing such a reality, not only does not entertain himself with illusions, but also does not lose heart about the current situation. Let us remember that he wrote the poem on the verge of his own death, but at the same time he looked quite calmly at the river of times and simply felt part of this common fate.

Option 3

The work is one of the last creations of the poet, related to his philosophical lyrics, and has literary incompleteness, since it remains an excerpt of an unfinished poem, the title of which was planned by the author in the form of “On Perishability.”

The compositional structure of the poem seems brief and consists of an eight-line poem, created under the impression of the painting “River of Times,” depicting world history in the form of eternity and time, the images of which are depicted in poetry.

The main theme of the work is the depiction of the power of time, manifested in transience and bending countries, peoples and each individual into the abyss of oblivion.

The author's intention of the work reveals the value of every moment of life, investing in it a special philosophical meaning, since any person in a certain period of time finds himself before entering eternity. The poet compares time to the flow of water, emphasizing the image of time as its strength and irreversibility.

The poet expresses the powerful influence of time on a person’s life through the use of means of artistic expression in the form of numerous metaphors of personification, as well as the use of imperfective verbs to enhance the duration and repeatability of the time process.

The meter of the poem is tetrameter trochee combined with cross rhyme, expressing the tension and expression of the work, written in a state of gloomy and menacing fatalism, demonstrating the pessimistic mood of the poet on the eve of his own death.

The images of eternity and time in the poem are identified by the poet with the lack of harmony and the presence of a certain irreversible, incomprehensible process. At the same time, the author does not give a detailed description of the image of eternity, positioning it as the only sign - an all-consuming vent, an abyss, while the image of time is presented by the poet in detail, in the form of a certain interconnected chain.

Anticipating the approach of death, the poem conveys the painful state of mind of the author, who has lost hope of immortality.

Analysis The river of times in its rush

This poem by the wonderful poet Gabriel Romanovich Derzhavin was written by him in 1816 on July 6. The poet wrote the poem while at that time on his estate in the Novgorod province. The poem with the philosophical title “River of Times” was not completed; what is presented to the reader is only a few initial lines. Death ruined the poet's plans and his work was not destined to be completed.

Not only the title of the poem refers to philosophical science, but also its content. Gabriel Derzhavin was a fairly multifaceted personality; initially his priority was his career, but in the end he came to the conclusion that it was creativity that would give him a memory in the minds of people. Consequently, towards the end of his life, Derzhavin paid more attention to some ideas and thoughts. The poem was written after some reflection, when, due to his age, the poet realized what was hidden before him in his youth. This is exactly what he wanted to put into his creation. Even if it is not finished, it still contains the main idea and very catchy, catchy words that are incredibly chosen. Thanks to the vocabulary of the poem, it has an all-consuming, large-scale meaning.

“The river of times, in its rush, carries away all the affairs of people,” this is how Derzhavin’s poem begins. In this line, the reader is first confronted with the idea that time has no limits, it is fleeting and everything that people do, no matter how grandiose it may be, does not matter. The poet emphasizes the power of time with the help of the precise connection of several words. “Drowns peoples, kingdoms and kings into the abyss of oblivion.” How skillfully the words were chosen: drowning is a catchy verb that gives the meaning of strength, the abyss of oblivion - hopelessness, its enormity. How great is time and how pitiful is everything before it, because it “drowns” entire nations, states, everything that seems great to people.

Next, Derzhavin tells the reader that if something remains, something that could pass through time “through the sounds of the lyre and trumpet,” that is, which became famous, important for people, incredible in time, then eternity will be merciless. In eternity everything will be crushed and will not escape from its intended, common fate.

This poem, although it is an unfinished work, clearly fulfilled Gabriel Derzhavin’s dream to remain in people’s memory. From the concept, its transmission, to the vocabulary, everything is wonderful in “River of Time.” The most important thing that you can understand for yourself from the poem is that no one is capable and nothing is capable of resisting eternity, and time, its soul, can carry away a lot in the course of its river.

On July 6, 1816, in Zvanka, his estate near Novgorod, seventy-three-year-old Gavrila Romanovich Derzhavin wrote down these lines on a black slate board (his usual draft).

Eight lines that, according to relatives, were apparently supposed to be followed by others. However, a day later, on July 8, " He lay down in bed at half past one, sighed more than usual, and with that sigh died"... The inscription on the gravestone immortalized" actual privy councilor and various orders of knight"(not a word about the poet)...

The slate board with the draft of the last poem was delivered to the Imperial Library at the request of its director, A.N. Olenin, and fifty years later academician Y.K. Grot, an outstanding researcher of Derzhavin’s work, testified: “ Everyone can see (the board) on the wall, in the department of Russian books; but almost nothing remains of the lines inscribed on it".

There, in the manuscript department of the State Public Library of the USSR named after M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin in Leningrad, you can still see it today, under glass in a lacquered wood frame. In good lighting, individual letters, words can be discerned...

However, the “river of times” has not yet overcome these lines. Copied onto paper immediately after the poet's death, they were soon published in Son of the Fatherland, one of the most famous literary magazines.

We are well acquainted with the elderly Derzhavin from Pushkin’s story about the Lyceum exam on January 8, 1815: “ He sat with his head on his hand. His face was meaningless; eyes are cloudy; lips droop; his portrait, where he is shown in a cap and robe, is very similar...", however, "he dozed until the exam in Russian literature began. Here he perked up, his eyes sparkled; he was completely transformed"The last time Derzhavin took up the slate was exactly a year and a half after that lyceum visit, and we can easily imagine how he revived and transformed again on July 6, 1816...

Let's go through Derzhavin's last lines, probably not yet brought to complete perfection, but, without a doubt, brilliant.

There is no title. But, according to people close to Derzhavin, the poet was going to call the poems “On Perishability.”

"The river of times in its aspiration..."

Since ancient times, the image of “river of life”, “river of time” has been constantly used; In Derzhavin’s office there hung a peculiar painting-table “The River of Times, or an Emblematic Image of World History.”

The long strip is a “map” of the past five thousand years; from top to bottom there are branches of an endless river with names: “Egypt”, “Babylon”, “Greece”; then almost all of them merge in "Rome". From “Rome” various “European streams” originate - French, English, German... next to Russian. At the right edge of the “map” is the most direct flow: the achievements of science, literature, art. Here are the names of Homer and Newton, and the largest discoveries are listed. At the bottom edge of the map, where the year is 1800 (and time has not yet passed for the publisher), the latest names and events of the cultural world. Smallpox vaccination; Lavoisier; discovery of Ceres (asteroid); Derzhavin...

It was while looking at this picture-table that the poet composed his last lines. And at the same time, they contain an echo of one of the early poems that brought the thirty-seven-year-old poet great fame:

“The verb of times” is the striking of the clock, which echoes in the same line: “metal ringing.”

In the last verses there is a different, more majestic, calm image, “the river of times”; it does not require instant rhyme and, without haste, moves “in” its aspiration...

Fourteen years after the death of Derzhavin, Pushkin, arrested in Boldin due to cholera, will have to fulfill the request of a visiting neighbor, retired second lieutenant Dmitry Alekseevich Ostafiev, to write something in an album. It is impossible to refuse, especially since not long before Ostafyev received an autograph from the poet’s uncle, Vasily Lvovich; and Alexander Sergeevich does what he often did in such cases: he puts into the album a poem that is not his own, but especially appropriate among cholera, which tends to carry away many “in its aspirations.” Not having Derzhavin’s works at hand, Pushkin wrote from memory and made two mistakes, both of which were interesting. The second case will be discussed ahead; Boldin’s owner wrote down the first line: “The river of times in its course.”

Pushkin, with his craving for simplicity and precision, prefers a clear and realistic “flow” to a more abstract, vague “aspiration.” When young Pushkin recited Zhukovsky’s poems from memory and forgot or involuntarily changed a word, Zhukovsky understood that this place was unsuccessful and needed to be remade. However, Derzhavin is Derzhavin. According to Pushkin, “flow” is better; but Derzhavin is a poet of the 18th century, prone to high, measured style, and here “aspiration” is more appropriate. Moreover, thanks to this word, the rumbling combination " re": re ka in re men...st re mlenye... This, of course, is not without reason, what will become clear later (although we will immediately say that it is unlikely that Derzhavin recalculated the number " re" and consciously constructed such sound combinations - this is how the verse went, intuition prompted).

Leaving the first line, let us note in parting that the river corresponded to the ancient concepts of the speed of time: it is true that the 18th century was in a great hurry towards the end, but still could not change that sense of the pace of events that was familiar to Derzhavin from the young seventeen fifties, sixties, seventies...

The river of times, and yet in 1818 the same young poet, whom the old man Derzhavin managed to bless as he went to his grave, will write (about another poet, Batyushkov):

Admired by Pushkin’s poems, Vyazemsky wrote to Zhukovsky: "In the smoke of centuries!" This expression is a city. I would give everything for him, movable and immovable. What a beast! We need to put him in the yellow house: otherwise this mad brat will eat us all, us and our fathers. Do you know that Derzhavin would be afraid of the “smoke of centuries”? Nothing to say about the others".

Today, at the end of the 20th century, Vyazemsky’s admiration is somewhat strange for us: “smoke of centuries” and other similar definitions of quickly rushing time have become quite familiar, even stereotyped. However, almost every template probably has a very noble origin: it was once a fresh image, which has become somewhat worn out from frequent use... At the beginning of the 19th century, Derzhavin’s idea of ​​slow, majestically flowing time, which cannot be compared with quickly dissipating time, was clearly distinguished smoke (Derzhavin “would have been frightened”), and Pushkin’s view of time rushing quickly, furiously, ghostly like smoke, a look that no longer gravitates towards the 18th century. but rather, to our 20th century.

The river of times, the smoke of centuries - two “concepts of time”...

An active privy councilor, former secretary of the empress, governor, minister of justice and holder of many Russian orders, Derzhavin knew a lot about kingdoms and kings. In addition, he was interested in history, although in his era it was much smaller and “cozier” than now.

If you had asked the old man who was drawing signs on a slate board, how great is the past, what is the abyss of oblivion, eternity “behind his shoulders,” the poet would have said approximately as eighteen-year-old Alexander Gorchakov, one of the boys who looked at Derzhavin during the Lyceum, wrote down at that time exam: " History is the time of civilized human affairs, embracing the last five thousand years"The wise Buffon had recently calculated that it took eighty thousand years for the hot globe to cool down...

The words “million years” have not yet been spoken, Egyptian hieroglyphs have not yet been read (this will be done six years after Derzhavin’s death). For several more decades on earth, no one will know anything about the Hittites - a great centuries-old civilization that played a significant role in the prehistory of our culture. The Indian culture of Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa, the ancient Sumerian cities, the Cretan-Mycenaean world and many other countries and eras absolutely unknown to Derzhavin still lie in the “abyss of oblivion”, the exact depth of which is not clear how to measure.

But what about kings and kingdoms! Derzhavin, although a courtier and a minister, never gave a high price for them. In the 1780s, he translated Psalm 81 into modern verses so much that the “biblical text” was strictly prohibited by censorship:

Now, in 1816, he repeated a long-loved idea in a new way.

Here again you can hear those “rolls” that already sounded in the first line; again a lot" R": through, lyres, pipes...

It is curious that in that Boldino album, where Derzhavin’s poems were copied, Pushkin made a mistake for the second time, writing: “through the sounds of the lyre or the trumpet.” According to Pushkin, it turned out that something remains thanks to poetry (lyre) or fame, historical memory (trumpet). Derzhavin, perhaps, wanted to say that if anything remains in the world, it is only thanks to art, because the lyre and trumpet are musical instruments, subject only to poets, storytellers, and bards.

It seems that Pushkin sensed a certain inaccuracy and vagueness of Derzhavin’s image here and involuntarily corrected or started an argument with the deceased poet: in fact, what remains in the world and thanks to what?

A terrible sound explosion prepared by the former " R" And " re", in the first and sixth lines... Will be devoured by the muzzle - zher - zre: one root - devour, devour, priest, victim, muzzle. Derzhavin was a great master of such verse roar; in the poem “Bullfinch” (about the death of Suvorov) there is a line: “Northern thunder lies in the coffin” (however, how can we not remember that in the famous poems, especially from Tchaikovsky’s opera, “If only dear girls could fly like birds, and sat on the branches..." Derzhavin deliberately did not introduce any " R").

It remains only to say that in the last line of the last poem - “And the common fate will not go away” - “ R" disappears completely, but what howling vowels: oh-oh-oh! An echo, a sad rumble coming from the abyss, from the mouth of Dante's hell; Let us remember Pushkin’s similar sound writing: “The storm covers the sky with darkness” ( u-i-o-yu-eo-o-e).

If we are already talking about sounds, we need to touch on a question that is not completely clear: how to pronounce the last words of the fifth and seventh lines, with e or e: osta e tsya - devour e stay or stay e tsya - devour e tsya. According to some philologists, e it was less common at that time.

But there is no complete certainty - we don’t hear... The verses break off.

Their meaning is terrible and simple: the force that carries peoples, kingdoms and kings into the abyss cannot, at first (centuries, millennia), overcome what was created by the lyre and the trumpet, and yet in the end the mouth of eternity will swallow the highest creation human spirit. The abyss of oblivion, the mouth of eternity... Meanwhile, twenty-one years earlier, in 1795, Gavrila Romanovich seemed to have a different attitude:

Derzhavin of the last verses argues with Derzhavin of “Monument”!

The reader of this article, perhaps, expects our complete agreement not with the seventy-three-year-old, but with the fifty-two-year-old poet: everyone will be happy and calm down, exclaiming as usual: “ Manuscripts don't burn!"(This happy Bulgakov image is now repeated so often that sometimes you want to set fire to another manuscript: what if it really doesn’t burn!)

Let us, however, try to look at things without undue bias and calmly examine two theses: “Flight will not crush time...” and “It will be devoured by a mouth...” Derzhavin lived in an era when many discoveries were made that suggested the idea of ​​“transitivity.” and perishability." “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” is a wonderful anonymous person who emerged from the “abyss” for just two decades, only to then disappear in the turmoil and flames of 1812; however, disappear, remaining; but the unknown author in the very first lines introduces his absolutely unknown predecessor, the teacher: “Boyan, brothers...”

More and more great creations - and next to them there is emptiness. The Bible - but it has long been understood that the most ancient copies of the sacred book are many centuries younger than the original text, and how many have disappeared, been eliminated along the way!.. Even what remains for descendants suddenly seems random, ephemeral...

The wise Marcus Aurelius appeared in modern times in only two handwritten copies, and one of them soon disappeared. A contemporary of Alexander the Great, Menander, whose name resounds for centuries, whose heroes in ancient times were household names, like in our time Tartuffe, Khlestakov... Menander is a playwright, luminary, the founder of the so-called Neo-Attic comedy, a master... More than a hundred of his plays , published and reprinted dozens of times, would occupy a significant place in any library today. But it was only in 1905 that a papyrus with the text (more or less complete) of five comedies was found. And already in our time, another play was discovered in Oxyrhynchus, the most famous garbage dump in the world, where unnecessary things were thrown in Ptolemaic Egypt... Finally, Titus Livius, the king of ancient Roman historians. Only 35 books out of 142, only 25 percent of his “History of Rome from the Foundation of the City” have reached our time. True, there was a rumor that in the library of Ivan the Terrible, inherited from the Byzantine emperors, there were all the volumes, but where is that library, where are those books and scrolls that, according to the authoritative opinion of Academician M.N. Tikhomirov, perhaps, dispersed from the palace assembly to remote monasteries? And what did a certain 18th-century apprentice really see “under the Kremlin”, shouting “Word and deed!” and severely beaten, since the books he supposedly discovered were not found later? Accident.

Marc Bloch, the excellent French historian killed by the Nazis, had reason to doubt that we really get “the main things” from the past; who can guarantee that we do not judge, for example, the literature of an entire era by secondary works, and material culture by more or less random remains?

Derzhavin, one might say, is a pessimist: “And if anything remains...” We, optimists, can, it seems, make only one respectful objection to Gavrila Romanovich: the river of time does not flow easily, the main flow, of course, is from the past to the future, but no matter how strong this current is, there is also a certain “countercurrent” - back to that Yesterday, which is inseparable from Today and Tomorrow. The author of the next “Monument” after Derzhavin knew all this well:

As long as there is at least one poet in the world, he by nature revives the past, and how can he not resurrect Pushkin and Derzhavin!

Immortality, like infinity, has two directions.

However, let's return to our eighth line again. After all, the essay is not finished, and we can even assume that Derzhavin was going to write more... If the river of times carries away peoples, kingdoms and kings, if even the sounds of the lyre and trumpet devour eternity, then we need to create a small, cozy hearth in the “deserts of time” , gathering family and friends around him, rejoicing in a little:

In these poems, composed several years before his death, Derzhavin admires the singing of birds, the shepherd's horn, home conversations, morning coffee, playing lapta, hunting... But finally, in the same essay ("Eugene. The Life of Zvan"), motifs suddenly arise death and eternity: life is a moment, man is dust, and, perhaps, only Clia (Clio), the muse of history, will preserve the memory of the poet, however, most likely, only as an echo, a spirit in the lands where he lived:

The “trumpet” in this quatrain is, of course, the predecessor of the “lyre and trumpet” of the last verses.

July 6, 1816 Derzhavin most likely wanted to express in a new way what had already been said about death as a source of special quiet joy in life. I wanted to, but I didn’t have time or didn’t want to have time...

There are masters who are amazingly able to not finish their compositions. This was the case, for example. Pushkin, who has many wonderful poetic and prose passages, either completed or slyly abandoned and retaining the charm of a half-finished stone, an unfinished statue. There is even a special term - style non-finita, when the master, as it were, acts in collaboration with the imperfect, when absence is a harmonious complement to presence.

However, there are other cases. Sometimes the author does not finish his work because he does not have time. And then his co-author is death. I saw a painting by an artist where wrestlers were depicted; the artist died before he could finish painting their eyes, but this made the work much stronger: powerful, intertwined, eyeless figures and, moreover, the very fact of the artist’s death. All this gave the image a new, special meaning.

If, after the death of a person, as A. A. Akhmatova noted, all his portraits change, then, of course, the poems also change. Death poems - especially. On July 6, 1816, Gavrila Romanovich, one might say, co-authored death and eternity. On July 8, death passed through the eight-line “by the hand of a master” and gave it a meaning that Derzhavin did not anticipate (but who knows, maybe he foresaw?). And what?

Let's re-read the last verses again and again: it would seem that nothing could be sadder - death, the abyss of oblivion, the devouring crater... All this again and again brings us back to what has already been remembered: "the verb of the times! The sound of metal..." Comes to memory and Alexander Blok:

These lines sound Derzhavin-esque, although Blok hardly thought about it: a coffin, a slab - and that same pipe!

The most important word is “solemn”. The funeral lines are solemn. Derzhavin's last poems are undoubtedly also solemn; In addition to the usual lamentation about the transience of existence, they contain a secret and solemnity.

We do not dare to impose our opinion, but we note that for the author of this article and several friends he interviewed, in the last lines of Derzhavin there is also some strange joy, no, more precisely, not joy, but a certain light, communion with eternity.

What's the secret? Maybe it’s like this: brilliant poems, even on the saddest topic, always contain a way out, “immortality, perhaps a guarantee.” If such poems are created in the world, not all is lost. And Derzhavin explains: everything passes, is carried away, rubbed away, but if a poet, a person is able to embrace and understand all this, then by this very understanding he is already, as it were, eternal, immortal. And isn’t that what the then Gavrila Romanovich Derzhavin already said thirty-two years before his death:

These are the thoughts that came to mind when reading those poems that, under very special circumstances, were written on a slate board by the great poet Gavrila Romanovich Derzhavin on July 6, 1816.

“The River of Times in Its Aspiration” is a poem by Derzhavin, which was written on July 6, 1816. Three days later the poet died. This is only part of the work, since the author did not finish it.

The recording was discovered on the board where the poet wrote drafts. He created the passage while looking at the painting “River of Times.” It was historical in nature and it was a depiction of world history.

The poet's poem shows the power of time. It is so fleeting that no one can resist. Kings and kingdoms, entire peoples and nations bow before time. Everything plunges into the abyss of oblivion. No matter how many achievements there are, how much is done, everything will eventually be lost.

The meaning of the work is that you need to value time, and the main idea of ​​the verse is that world history is constantly repeating itself.

Again and again new eras come, new kingdoms that make the same mistakes. This cycle will be eternal, so we can only put up with it.

The full poem was supposed to be called “On Perishability,” but since it was not written in full, the passage was named after the first line.