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How to do analysis correctly. How to learn to competently analyze literary works (not to look for hidden meaning, but to do a correct comprehensive analysis)? Lyrical hero, mood

The question of how to analyze a poem usually arises among schoolchildren. Especially for those who need to take the Unified State Exam in literature. However, even an ordinary poetry lover cannot do without analysis of a poetic text, since some poems preliminary analysis It's almost impossible to understand.

Complexities of analysis

Despite the fact that clear algorithms for analyzing poems are offered at school and institutes, there is no strict analysis scheme. This is due to the fact that a poetic text is alive and fades when it is approached in a unified manner, trying to fit it into a pre-established framework.

It is more difficult to analyze a poem than prose, because it is easy to destroy the harmony of a verse. Then the thin fabric of meaning, which expresses the most intimate, can easily tear.

The perception of lyrical works is characterized by subjectivity, therefore the analysis of a poem is the real art of understanding the poet.

In addition, the uniqueness of each individual poem greatly complicates the analysis. After all, for one work the size of the verse is important, for another - the lyrical plot. The tasks of a poet, who can express the inner state of a lyrical hero, create the music of a poem, or express a philosophical thought in the form of images, can also be different.

Any scheme for analyzing a poetic text is conditional. Therefore, a free commentary or research text can begin from any direction of analysis. It all depends on the logic of reasoning dictated by the literary text itself.

Analysis scheme

History and biography

Often, in order to understand a poem, it is necessary to know the time of its creation, the history of publication, some facts of the author’s biography related to the lyrical plot or having anything to do with the history of the poem.

Poem in the poet's work

When determining the place of a poem in the poet’s work, it is necessary

first attribute the work to any of the periods of the poet’s work;
understand the context;
identify characteristic or atypical features of a poem for a specific poetic stage.

Main theme

The basis of any work of art is the theme. In order to make it easier to determine the theme of a poem and highlight its leading theme, a thematic classification of lyrical works has been developed. The following lyrical themes are distinguished:

love (intimate),
landscape,
friendship lyrics,
patriotic and civil,
meditative or philosophical,
theme of poetry and poet.

This is a tentative classification, but it helps to begin the analysis of the poem and serves as its starting point.

Most often, a leading theme can be identified in a poem, by defining which it is necessary to correlate the thematic classification with the “eternal” themes of rock, death, beauty, love, and so on. But any poetic text represents a complex interweaving of motives and themes.

At the same time, the motive differs from the theme in its verbal consolidation in the text and the stability of the formal-substantive component. Thus, Lermontov’s lyrics are characterized by the motif of exile, present in such poems as “Clouds”, “No, I’m not Byron, I’m different...”.

With the help of motive it is easier to understand the subtext of the poem. Traditional for poetry are the motives of meeting, loneliness, path, longing, disappointment, flight, struggle, retribution, and so on.

To determine the leading motive, it is necessary to identify the leitmotif of the work, which is understood as the prevailing mood, the main idea and emotion of the entire work or the poet’s creativity, as well as an image or turn of artistic speech that is constantly repeated and characterizes the hero, situation or experience.

The plot of the lyrical work

The plot is inextricably linked with the event. The impulse of a lyrical experience or a special emotional state of a hero can be a chance meeting, contemplation of nature, a memory, a plot scene or a thought. If the poem has a developed plot, then the work should be classified as a lyric-epic genre. In a lyrical work, the plot may be weakened.

The most difficult thing is to find words that could convey the events that became the basis of the plot. At the same time, it is very easy to maintain accuracy and retell the plot of the poem, but the essence of the poem will be destroyed.

Problems of the poem

To determine the problems of a poem, you need to ask questions about the text or subtext of the work. There are no fundamental differences from the problems of other literary genres in poetic works. Poets ask the same social and ethical questions and respond to “eternal problems” in their own way. Most often, the problem is introduced into the subtext of the work. Less often the problem is formulated directly in the poem. Analysis of problems depends on the ability to formulate and see the problem that organizes poetic thought.

Poem composition

The poem can be divided into semantic parts. Thanks to this, you can follow how the theme develops, notice how the mood changes, feel the compositional harmony of the poem and its harmony, and highlight the poetic thought. Sometimes it is impossible to divide the text into semantic parts, since this does not allow for the miniature or meaningful integrity of the poem.

Lyrical hero

Literary scholars are still arguing about the boundaries and content of the concept of “lyrical hero,” but without it it is difficult to comprehend the image of a poet. If a dramatic or epic hero manifests his character through actions and interactions with other heroes, then a lyrical hero manifests himself through emotional experiences.

When analyzing a poem, you need to take into account the complexity of the relationship between the author and the lyrical hero. There may be different relationships between them. Lyrical hero may turn out to be a “double” of the author, then they say that the lyrical “I” reveals the author’s consciousness.

When the world passes through the prism of a fictional "I", then we speak of a lyrical subject, and not of a lyrical hero. This subject is generated by the author's fantasy in order to reveal someone else's consciousness.

It is not always possible to find a lyrical hero in a poem. When the poet’s task becomes the formulation of a philosophical problem, and not the depiction of a person’s inner experiences, then it becomes difficult to talk about the image of a lyrical hero.

Basic mood and its changes

In a poem, specificity can be intertwined with symbolism and allegory. Nevertheless, the basis is the emotional component associated with the hero’s experiences.

When perceiving a poetic text, it is necessary to connect to the mood of the work, be able to feel changes in the hero’s mental states and give an explanation of the motives. The feelings of lyrical heroes of poetic works are most often presented in dynamics.

But not in all poems it is possible to trace changes in mood, since emotions and feelings can be stable and static.

Genre of the poem

The genre system of lyrics began to collapse in the 19th century. The reasons for this phenomenon were:

fluid boundaries between different genres,
the creative will of the poet,
uncertainty of genre characteristics.

Most poems are quite difficult to attribute to one genre or another. However, the genre division in the lyrics has been preserved, but is of a conditional nature. By analyzing the genre form of a poem, you can better understand the content, notice the combination of genres or innovative changes in the traditional genre.

In the process of development of literature, some genres were forgotten. This fate befell the madrigal (a love poem based on compliments to the beloved) and the dithyramb (a hymn to the god Dionysus). These genres in the modern period were used only as imitations.

The main genre of lyricism remains the lyric poem, which is a short work in verse. The concept of “poem” is universal today. It denotes lyrical works of all genres. But poets in some cases specify the genre of the written poem. Thus, Pushkin calls the poem “The Faded Fun of Crazy Years...” an elegy.

The elegies of the ancient Greeks were written in a strictly defined size and were varied in subject matter. The Romans narrowed this genre and depicted only love experiences. In modern times, the genre of elegy was associated with reflections on fate, contemplation of nature, love experiences, accompanied by melancholy, sadness and regret.

The elegy was most often written in iambic. There was a specific poetic vocabulary for this genre. Over time, elegy lost these features, but retained tonality and theme as the main genre features.

There are also genres that have clear genre characteristics. For this they are called solid poetic forms. Such, for example, is a sonnet, which consists of 14 verses, has a strict strophic composition and a specific rhyme system.

Using this scheme, it is quite possible to analyze the poem. Of course, you can go deeper and analyze poetic speech, syntax, phonetics. The main thing is not to forget about the purpose for which a poetic work is analyzed. And it should not be about getting a positive mark on the exam, but about revealing all the beauties of the poem, understanding its meaning more deeply, plunging into its context and discovering a lot of amazing things.

I used to read a lot of books on efficiency, time management, management and the like. But 6 months ago I came up with my own tool, which has become an indispensable self-development technology for me. This is daily self-reflection. It brings me great benefits and has replaced all other technologies. Hope it helps you too!

Here's how I use this tool. EVERY day at 22:00 my mobile alarm goes off. Consistency is a must! During this time, I MUST set aside at least 20-30 minutes to review the day's activities. I carry out the analysis according to the following list and always in writing (for this I have a separate notebook):

1. What did I do right/well? How can these benefits be enhanced in the future?

2. What I did wrong? What could have been done better? How to deal with similar situations in the future and correct mistakes?

3. What else could have been done? Why wasn't this done? How to avoid repeating this situation in the future?

(This is a mandatory point! You can do nothing all day and pass the first two points like a handsome guy).

4. Has this day brought me closer to achieving my long-term goals? What needed to be done to get even closer to the goals? (Accordingly, you must have goals.)

5. What will I do tomorrow to strengthen strengths, overcome weaknesses and get closer to achieving your long-term goals? This point comes as a conclusion from the previous 4.

To further strengthen this point, you can work through the tasks for the next day in the organizer. Very often, people around us “throw” tasks at us, and without thinking, we write them down in our organizers. If you look at these tasks with a sober head in a calm atmosphere and analyze them from the point of view of your goals, then you can refuse half, and another quarter can be delegated to someone else.

Mandatory rules when performing self-analysis:

1. Analyze only the current day's affairs. You won’t remember with whom and how you “wrongly” communicated or had a telephone conversation yesterday. Everything must be done in hot pursuit.

2. Everything is subject to analysis: why does it take me so long to get to work? How many times and who called me? Why did they call me? Could you call one of the employees? How did the negotiations go and what did I miss? How to optimize the financial scheme of my companies? How to reduce the tax burden in light of the last payment of income tax?..

I review the calls that I received on my mobile phone, look at my email, and my organizer.

3. Do it constantly. It is very difficult to force yourself to do self-analysis constantly. It often happens that in the evening you are tired and want to rest, you have no energy, you want to eat, etc. But you need to use this tool constantly! Otherwise there will be no sense from it.

4. Do everything in writing.

This way the analysis becomes deeper and more meaningful, and you can write down conclusions and important points that are worth paying attention to.

5. Once a month you need to review the conclusions (point 5) and analyze whether all of them have been completed and whether everything is going smoothly. If not, then you need to set a goal for yourself for the week and focus on one aspect. It is very important. Because we all know that there is a huge difference between how it should be done and how I do it.

It would seem that the tool is very simple, but as a result of using it I received real benefits:

1. The load has decreased - I began to give up a large number of tasks, businesses and projects that contradict my goals.

2. Life has become more conscious - daily analysis very clearly emphasizes my strengths and weaknesses, right and wrong actions, relationships with time.

3. Daily small improvements - in essence, my system helps to implement the same principle as “kaizen”.

4. Before use of this instrument I was in Brownian motion - a lot of things to do, meetings, projects, tasks. After you start using it, everything is laid out on the shelves and becomes clear and understandable.

I'm sure you know the feeling of being constantly busy. You do something, seemingly a lot, all day long. But when a year passes and you ask yourself: “What have I achieved this year, what significant things have I done?” – then all that comes to mind is a new iPhone and a couple of stupid noisy get-togethers with friends, and that’s it. But a whole year has passed! And you promise yourself that next year fix everything, you will do something meaningful, but this year passes and nothing really changes. The tool I have described allows you to break this vicious circle.

There is only one difficulty in using this tool - you need to have enough high level self-criticism. A test for self-criticism is the question “what are my weaknesses?” If you don’t have a single answer to this question, then the tool is probably not for you. And to further simplify the analysis of the day’s events, you can approach everything that happened from the point of view of the following chain: what did you want to get? – what did you really get? – why did this happen?

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When you analyze a verse for the first time, the plan of what to do can be overwhelming. However, there is no need to panic. After carefully reading the work, there should be no difficulties in analyzing it.

Sit in a quiet, peaceful room. It is very important that no one disturbs you and nothing distracts you from the work.
Read it once. Then read it again. If you come across unfamiliar words or phrases, look up their meaning in a dictionary.
It's a good idea to stock up on a pen and notepad. If you have a copy of the poem in front of you, you can use a highlighter to highlight unfamiliar and impressive parts.
After reading the work several times, ask yourself: “What is it about?”, “Who main character poem, whether he is positive or negative, what determines his actions?” Think about what the author wanted to convey to the reader by creating this poem.
Make a few notes about the most striking characters and situations, about the emotions that pierce each line.
Read the work again, only out loud. Remember when reading about all the punctuation marks, pause where necessary, and not at the end of each row.
Try to determine the rhythm of the verse.
Pay attention to the last letters of each line to see if they match. If yes, then in what order: in pairs, through one or through several.

If necessary, read the work several more times, only to yourself. Then lay out all your thoughts according to this plan.

Author and title

In the first paragraph of the analysis of the poem, indicate the name of the author and the title of his work.

If there is no title, write the reason why the author decided to leave the work without a title.

History of creation

At this point, indicate to whom the poem is addressed. Under whose impression did the author create it, what prompted him to write it, who inspired him, what life moments influenced the plot of the work.

Main thought

The third point of analysis always indicates the theme, idea and main idea that runs through the entire work.

Subject indicates what the work is about. Very often it coincides with the title of the work.
Idea consists of what exactly the author wants to convey to us with the help of verse.
Main thought– a broader concept. When describing it, you should indicate what the author approves of in the work - which hero, which human trait, action, situation, view.

Perhaps the meaning of the verse is very deep, or its plot has an open ending. Perhaps there are controversial points in the work that can be considered based on different points vision.

It is advisable to support each of your opinions with quotes from the work.

Artistic techniques

This is a very important point in the process of analyzing a poem. To enhance the meaning and saturate the content with creative elements, authors use many techniques:

Metaphor.

Artistic description, comparison.

Gradation.

Increasing events.

Personification.

Providing inanimate objects signs of the living.

Litotes.

Downplaying characteristics in an artistic sense.

Hyperbola.

Exaggeration of features in an artistic sense.

Inversion.

Incorrect word order on the line.

Epithets.

Signs of a hero, phenomenon, object.

Comparisons.

A comparison of the characteristics of two characters, situations, moments or objects, irony - hidden mockery and many others.

It is necessary to indicate the presence of certain artistic techniques and support your thoughts with quotes. Quotes may be repeated in technique descriptions.

Rhyme, meter

To determine the rhyme of a verse, read it several times. Pay attention to the last letters of the lines. Depending on the frequency of their coincidences, you can determine the type of rhyme:

Parallel– if every two consecutive lines rhyme;
Cross– if the lines rhyme after one;
Ring- if in a quatrain the first line rhymes with the fourth line, and the second line rhymes with the third line.

The meter of the verse should also be indicated.

2. The history of the creation of the poem / when it was written, for what reason, to whom it is dedicated/.

3.Genre of the poem:epigram (satirical portrait), epitaph (posthumous), elegy (sad poem, most often about love), ode, poem, ballad, novel in verse, song, sonnet, etc.

4. Theme, idea, main idea / what the poem is about /. If the author belongs to any literary group: symbolist, acmeist, futurist, then it is necessary to select examples that prove that this is the work of a symbolist poet, acmeist or futurist.Quotes from the text to support conclusions. What mood becomes determining for the poem as a whole. Do the author’s feelings change throughout the poem, and if so, through what words do we guess about this?

5. The composition of the poem, its division into stanzas / how the meaning of the poem and its division into stanzas relate. Does each stanza present a complete thought or does the stanza reveal part of the main idea. The meaning of the stanzas is compared or contrasted. Is the last stanza significant for revealing the idea of the poem, does it contain a conclusion?

6. The image of the lyrical hero, the author's "I".
- the author himself,
- story from the point of view of the character,
- the author plays some role.

7. By what artistic means is the author’s main idea, theme and idea of the poem revealed:

Select in text "key" words and samples that reveal the poet’s main idea, create “chains” of keywords.

Analyze artistic techniques ( trails), which he uses

Which vocabulary uses

- household, everyday
- literary, bookish
- journalistic
- archaisms, outdated words

-Peculiarities poetic syntax(syntactic devices or figures of poetic speech):
- antithesis/contrast;
- gradation - for example: light - pale - barely noticeable;
- inversion - an unusual word order in a sentence with an obvious violation of the syntactic structure;
- repetitions/refrain;
- rhetorical question, appeal - increase the reader’s attention and do not require an answer;
- silence - an unfinished, unexpectedly broken sentence in which the idea is not fully expressed; the reader thinks it out himself.

-Poetic phonetics:
The use of onomatopoeia, sound recording - sound repetitions that create a unique sound “pattern” of speech.
- alliteration - repetition of identical consonants;
- anaphora - unity of beginning, repetition of a word or group of words at the beginning of several phrases or stanzas;
- assonance - repetition of vowels;
- epiphora - the opposite of anaphora - repetition of the same words at the end of several phrases or stanzas.

8.Rhythm of the verse, poetic meter, rhyme.
Size:
accent verse;
_ _" _ amphibrachium;
_ _ _" anapest;
free verse (free or blank verse);
"_ _ _ dactyl;
dolnik;
"_ _ / "_ _ / "_ _ trochee 3-foot;
_ _" / _ _" / _ _" /_ _" iambic tetrameter (stress on every second syllable);

Rhyme:
aabb - steam room;
abab - cross;
abba - ring.
anaphors (the same beginning of lines) - like an additional rhyme, only at the beginning of the verse.
hyphenations (the meaning of the word being transferred is emphasized, semantic emphasis is placed on it).

We are dealing with text if the sentences are combined a single theme and are related to each other grammatically and in content. Compositional unity and relative completeness make it possible to give a general title and highlight semantic parts. Literature lessons require a comprehensive analysis of the text, the compilation of which is the subject of this article. As an example, we will consider the parable “About the Weary Traveler.”

Concept

The purpose of the analysis is to develop the ability to understand the ideological and aesthetic value of works and explain the origins of their expressiveness. Thanks to them, students will be able to write reflective essays and other texts, expanding their vocabulary and using different styles of speech. What is text analysis, and how to do it correctly?

M. Gasparov identifies three levels that need to be mastered in the study of a work:

Ideological and figurative (impressions and emotions, author’s ideas and motives for writing, main characters and the writer’s attitude towards them).
Stylistic (analysis of syntax and vocabulary).
Phonic (strophic, rhythmic, metric), used for lyrical works.

Complex text analysis requires certain preparation and knowledge, which we will discuss in more detail in the next subheading.

Algorithm of actions

Most often, literature deals with works of art - the smallest units of literary creativity, where the word spoken by the author about his understanding of life is refracted through the perception of the reader. Analysis of a literary text requires the following actions:

careful reading, highlighting individual parts (chapters, subheadings, paragraphs);
reflections on the title, which carries the main idea of the essay;
drawing up a text plan;
studying vocabulary and finding out the meaning of unfamiliar words using the dictionary;
collecting information about the author and his worldview, historical era and features of the creation of the work;
knowledge of literary theory, revealing what genre, composition, chronotrope are;
mastering the skills of highlighting artistic means of expression (epithets, metaphors, hyperboles).

Analysis plan

In order to consider a work in the unity of form and content, the plan must include literary and linguistic aspects. Its diagram must precede the analysis of the text. How to do research on a work of art? The following plan option is proposed:

Topic, main problem and meaning of the title.
Author's position.
Microthemes.
Parts of the text and means of communication between them.
Speech, style, genre of work.
The means of expression used, their role.
Composition of the text.
The reader's attitude to the problem of the work, emotional perception.

Text analysis, an example of which will be discussed in the article, is based on the content of a literary work. The short parable “About the Weary Traveler” tells the story of a group of people climbing a mountain. Everyone walked cheerfully and easily, and only one lagged behind the others and complained of fatigue. At first he was hampered by heavy luggage, and his friends decided to free him from the burden. After some time, the traveler again began to delay those walking and grumble that his legs hurt. The comrades decided to carry their friend in their arms, but heard groans that he was tired even when he was carried. The traveler was carefully lowered to the ground, but the dissatisfied man again talked about how hard it was for him to lie down.

The Lord heard the groans and sent the young man eternal rest. Death from laziness frightened his companions, who considered such an end to life despicable. For them, to die with honor is to die from work, raising their soul to the Mountain of Life.

Text analysis: how to do it using the example of a specific work

The theme of the parable is the attitude towards life as an act and constant work, which is the essence human life. The author is interested in the problem of the relationship between man and society, life and death, work and inaction. His conclusion: only work leads a person to self-improvement and spiritual beauty. And that means to God.

The text contains four stanzas that develop micro-themes: a tired man and travelers, people and God, a moral aspect, and the author’s conclusion. The first two stanzas are connected by a chain connection, and the subsequent ones are connected by a parallel connection. This helps to reflect the sequence and logic of events and the formation of the author’s thoughts.

Analysis of the text, an example of which is discussed in the article, allows us to define the work as a parable - a story containing a lesson. This is a small form of epic work in which there is a didactic idea. The action is not tied to a specific place, but it could take place in any era and in any place.

The style of the work is artistic. Colloquial speech intertwined with bookish, solemn vocabulary.

Completing the analysis

A rich synonymous row for the central character, which makes his image more voluminous ( tired - alone - traveler - dissatisfied - unfortunate traveler - road-weary).
Repetitions of words that help emphasize the annoyingness of the main character.
Paired antonyms that turn the work into a complete antithesis: everything is one, fun is grumbling, work is laziness, life is death.
Variety of vocabulary: from pretentious words ( despicable, dust) to negative-evaluative ( grumbled), which allows us to convey the author’s irony towards the traveler.

When analyzing a text, how do you make the transition to composition? First you need to determine how the plot develops. In this example - linearly. There is a plot - the lag of a tired traveler and his dialogue with his comrades. The culmination is the remark addressed to God that “he is also tired of lying down.” The denouement is the attainment of eternal peace.

The system of images is built in the shape of a triangle: travelers - tired - God. The Almighty is not in a state of interaction with the characters, he is above them, essentially fulfilling the dream of the suffering.

The phraseological units used and the author’s final thoughts about the departure of the tired traveler contribute to the fact that instead of a negative attitude towards the hero, the reader experiences sympathy. He used his life so unreasonably and absurdly. God remains with those who continue their difficult ascent to the Mountain of Life.

Analysis of a text based on literature cannot do without a personal attitude to what is read, because any piece of art designed to influence human emotions.