2019 №3 (64) Article 15

E.A. Andreeva

RUSSIA AND THE WEST IN DAVID SAMOYLOV’S POEM “QUEEN ANNA”

UDC 821.161.1-1.09«19»

In his works, a 20th-century poet David Samoylov often alludes to well-known fictional characters and historical personages. His poems are full of allusions and reminiscences. References to plots which are familiar to the reader enable the author to view past events from a different perspective, to discover new depths in familiar images, to ask urgent questions and to view eternal problems from an unorthodox point of view. In his poem “Queen Anna”, he focuses on the image of Anna Yaroslavna, a Russian princess and queen of France. On one hand, the information related to her life abroad is rather scarce, while Old Russian chronicles do not even mention her. On the other hand, people both in Russia and aboard are keenly interested in this historical figure. Therefore, the author ponders about the woman and her attitude to the motherland she had to leave. The poem is based upon antithesis, the opposition between home, Russ, warmth, femininity, and peaceful labor on one hand and France, a foreign land, a cold and brutal country where people fight and hunt on the other hand. The poet unveils his character’s inner world. The poet highlights that it is impossible to lose one’s spiritual connection with one’s motherland.

 

Anna Yaroslavna; antithesis; David Samoylov; motherland, poem

REFERENCES

  1. Beregovskaja Je. M. David Samoylov, a Lyricist: a Linguostylistic Portrait. Russkij jazyk v nauchnom osveshhenii [Russian Language Research]. Moscow, 2003, no. 2 (6), pp. 14–26. (In Russian).
  2. Karamzin N. M. Istorija gosudarstva Rossijskogo. Tom 2 [History of the Russian State]. Vol. Tula, Prioksky Publishing House, 1990, pp. 219–220. (In Russian).
  3. Morozova L. E. Velikie i neizvestnye zhenshhiny Drevnej Rusi [Great and Unknown Women of Ancient Russia]. Moscow, Academic Project Publ., 2017, 391 p. (In Russian).
  4. Musin A. Anne of Kiev: between Historiography and History. Knjazha doba: istorija i kul’tura [The Time of Princes: History and Culture]. Lvov, 2014, no. 8, pp. 146–147. (In Russian).
  5. Nemzer A. David Samoylov, a Poet. Schast’e remesla [Craft Benefits]. Moscow, Time Publ., 2010, pp. 5–24. (In Russian).
  6. Samojlov D. Queen Anne. Kogda my byli na vojne [When We were at War]. Moscow,
    E Publ., 2017, pp. 227–228. (In Russian).

 

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