Subjective-modal syntagmas in the lyrical discourse of E. A. Baratynsky

Abstract

The article is devoted to the semantics and functioning of introductory constructions in the poetic texts of E. A. Baratynsky. The complex syntax of Baratynsky shows that the desire for clarity and accuracy of expression, characteristic of the representatives of the “school of harmonic accuracy”, headed by V. A. Zhukovsky and K. N. Batyushkov, is not always compatible with the simplicity and clarity of the syllable: the task of embodying the “poetry of thought” required Baratynsky to complicate the poetic form at the syntactic level. Subjective-modal constructions, reflecting the conflict, the paradoxical nature of poetic consciousness, saturating the text with the intonations of a lively dialogue, were widely used in the lyrics of Baratynsky in the 1820s. The lyrical theme is often revealed by the young elegiac Baratynsky through the struggle, clash of voices, ideas, internal dispute, doubts and hesitations of the inner subject of the poem. The high activity of introductory syntagmas causes drama and "increased" dialogism, including in the form of auto-communication. Sometimes the form of conversation, dispute is in an open form. From the 1830s, the recognized author of psychological elegies turns into a "poet of thought", Baratynsky undergoes a significant creative evolution on an intensive path of saturation of a closed, "close" lyrical form with the most complex metaphysical content, when he creates the cycle of poems "Twilight" (1842). In the last lyrical cycle of Baratynsky, the activity of the introductory syntagmas is much lower than in the early elegies, the monologism of the utterance, the preaching pathos, is intensified. The complication of syntax in accordance with the desire for maximum informative saturation while saving verbal space is achieved by saturating the lyrical text not with introductory constructions, but with unattached phrases, semantically capacious, violating the smoothness of the melody and enhancing the rhythmic tension of the verse. The desire of the late Baratynsky to avoid the use of introductory constructions as a whole corresponded to the general trend towards the archaization of the syllable, the "loftiness" of expression, the strengthening of oratorical declamation, preaching pathos, characteristic of the "weaving of words" style and the biblical style.