THE POEM «THE EAGLE» BY N. GUMILYOV: REPRESENTATION OF THE PERFECT DEATH

Abstract

The article discusses the poetics of the poem «The Eagl» (1909) by N. Gumilyov in the aspect of mortal conceptualization of the poet’s literary worldview. It defines the meaning of his third book of poems «The Pearls». It is hypothesized that in Gumilyov’s poetic universe the death is a basis and guarantee of convergence found in the internal and external aspects of lyrical subject self-actualization. The study of this poetic text is carried out by combining structural-semiotic and mythopoetic methods that allow the researcher to detect deep semantic layers of Gumiltyov’s literary self-determination. The analysis of the the poem «The Eagle» narrative structure shows that the lyrical narration of the «ornithological» hero’s («the eagle’s») death represents death as an axiological ideal of N. Gumilyov’s lyrical subject. The sacrificial catastrophic nature of the «eagle» flight and the postmortem fusion of the bird with the cosmic universe becomes an ontological measure of existence. «The eagle’s» death is implicitly likened with an act of creative transformation of existance, due to which it is possible to comprehend secret movements of the world order and convergence of microcosm and macrocosm.In Gumilyov’s conception «the eagle» is presented as objectified outward incarnation of the lyrical hero. Therefore, the «the eagle’s» death is extremely alienated from the subjective «I» on the one hand, and it is inextricably assosiated with its thirst for magical overcoming of the universe laws, it is an act of ultimate existential heroism on the other hand. The bird’s sacral ability to posthumously exercise a «regal flight» in the universe gives this «ornithological » character status of an ideal «double» (alter ego) of the lyrical subject who wants to creatively get rid of death, thereby to achieve the world harmony. The author concludes that the ideal manner of the narrative hero’s death is entirely associated with the attainment of immortality in the light of the inviolability of the universe as a spiritual reality of the created world which possesses exceptional status in N. Gumilyov’s mythology.