The soul and the mask: linguopoetic analysis of V. Bryusov’s poem "If you could not guess yourself..." (to the 150th anniversary of the birth)

Abstract

The article analyses one of the late V. Ya. Bryusov’s little-known poems. The research focuses on the composition, key semantic fields and oppositions, spatial and temporal organization of the text. The article pays meticulous attention to the ways of presenting the lyrical hero and the linguistic means of expressing agent-object relations. The semantic-stylistic analysis of the text and the method of slow reading show how the lyrical plot unfolds, what accent the linguistic form brings to the interpretation of the figurative and semantic content of the poem, as well as to its subtext formation. Componential analysis is used to characterise the complex of meanings of the lyrical text core units. The research highlights the originality of the mask image and the presentation of the lyrical subject of the poem. The article concludes that the seemingly brief and simple plot conceals a complex intertwined subject-object structure.