“GOOD NIGHT” (1843) BY Ap. GRIGORIEV AND “FEVER” (1847) BY A. FOETH: UNACCOUNTED ASPECTS OF COMPARISON

Abstract

The poems by A. Grigoriev and A. Foeth mentioned in the title have already been compared in studies of diff erent years (see works by B. Bukhshtab, A. Ilyushin, L. Tatarenkova and M. Maslova in the “References”). However, it appears that not all possible aspects of comparison were taken into account; fi rst of all, the subject of study did not cover poetry as such: the features of its structure, imagery, poetic technique, etc. Th e author attempts to fi ll this gap: the subject of his attention is primarily the “semantic halo of meter” in both poems (the question was partially addressed by M. Gasparov with regard to Grigoriev’s poem). Th e analysis of the lexico-semantic connections in Ap. Grigoriev’s poems (which are the focus of our research) helps us better understand their composition; the subject-object analysis of both poems also yields results. Th e comparison of Grigoriev’s “Good Night” with Lermontov’s “Cossack Lullaby” (“Kazach’ja kolybel’naja pesnja”), which seems to lie on the surface, still has some potential and might well contribute to an understanding of the composition of both poems. Th e same applies to the comparison of Foeth’s poems with Pushkin’s “Winter Evening” and “Devils” (“Besy”) which had a certain infl uence on the younger poet. It is also important to take into account the immediate context of both poets’ work, in which the poems should be considered: for Grigoriev it is a free translation of Mickiewicz’s “Dobranoc”, which appeared in print simultaneously with the poem in question; for Foeth it is some poems from the “Ballads” cycle, which includes “Fever”.