Studia Litterarum (Jun 2017)
FLOWER IMAGES IN THE POETIC WORLD OF INNOKENTY ANNENSKY
Abstract
The article examines the image of flowers / flower in the poetry by Innokenty Annen- The article examines the image of flowers / flower in the poetry by Innokenty Annen sky due to the high relevance of floral imagery in his work. It analyzes 22 poems chosen in accordance with the specific way the poet presented his poems to the reader based on the principle of the “ensemble.” Relying on the methodology of literary history and employing the analysis of poetic cyclization, the paper first examines two poetical col lections, Quiet Songs (1904) and Cypress Chest (1910), and then turns to the poems that were not included in those, in order to distinguish between mainstream and peripheral meanings in his poetical world. The semantics of Annensky’s poems draws on literary and popular traditions, both Russian and European, conceived as the solid mental space in his poetical system. At the same time, floral images in his poems often form unusual combinations such as steel color flowers — flies, flowers in the crystal — sparks from the hammer, etc. that show semantic shifts and original interpretation of poetic formulas. The floral imagery contributes to the development of such recurrent themes in Annen sky’s poetry as love, beauty, doom, passion, inspiration, remembrance, duality, death, nd resurrection. The article thus demonstrates the key role of floral images in the expression of the poet’s aesthetic view of the nature of Beauty in its different realms and contexts: real life, art, and the transcendent.
Keywords
