The White Church and Dark Temples as Symbolic Images in the Poetry of A. Blok

Abstract

The symbolic image of the church/temple is considered one of the integrating images in Blok’s lyrics, revealing the poet’s connection with the religious aspects of culture. The characterologically significant images of the white church on the hill and the dark St. Petersburg temple are analyzed in different facets of the author’s three poetry books. A visual image in the background landscape — the white church in the midst of the vast Russian expanses — appears as a bright landmark in the lyrical plot of the poet’s path, and is connected with the theme of awaiting the Beautiful Lady. This is a high-frequency image (about 50 uses), which has appeared in Blok’s work since 1899. All its connotations manifested in 1901, and 1902 marked the culmination of its unfolding. Initially, the image of the church/temple appears as a dual one; the light dominant element of the poetic landscape is coupled with fog and inner darkness, and is not a sense-generating center of the lyrical theme development in poem structure. The situation of standing on the threshold or at the entrance to the temple and the general obscurity of the image symptomatically reflects the character’s incomplete involvement in the temple’s inner world. Only in a few poems does the image of the white church convey light that affects the outcome of lyrical dynamics. The symbolic image of the church/temple reveals the poetic features of the “antithesis” within the very “thesis” of Blok’s work and retains irresistible spiritual duality up until his latest creative works.