Lyrics

In the first period of ancient Greek lyrics, she was sung mainly to the accompaniment of the Avlos , which survived later. An improved string guitar attributed to Terpander appears on Lesbos . Alkey , who composed choral political songs, hymns to the gods, as well as songs dedicated to wine and love, belonged to a lesbian or Aeolian school. A contemporary and compatriot of Alkey was the famous Sappho . The Dorian school was of a different nature; it was developed from a round dance song associated with liturgical rites. The oldest authors of choral songs singing political events were Alkman and Stesichore . The latter is considered the first author of a bucolic shepherd’s song. The influence of the Dorian school spread to southern Italy, where the poet Ivic lived, whose works are purely erotic in nature. Erotic lyrics reached its highest perfection with the poet of the Ionian school of Anacreont ( VI century BC. E. ).

Another poet of the same school, Simonides , turned in his lyrics to political events. He wrote songs of praise in honor of the winners of public games ( epinikia ), which received the highest development from Pindar (also of the VI century). Pindar combined the influence of the Dorian and Aeolian schools. He wrote in all kinds of choral poetry: hymns to the gods, praises , songs for processions, or prose, dance or mimic songs, girlish round dance, table and laudatory odes . Victories in games brought glory not only to the winner himself, but also to his people or tribe. Therefore, the odes of Pindar were given high importance, and he himself saw in them a social feat. In the V and IV centuries. elegy and table songs were composed by Ion of Chios , Dionysius the Athenian, Critius , etc.

Of the lyrics of the last period of Greek literature, the so-called Alexandrian period, Callimachus stands out. In the III century. in Sicily shepherd’s poetry is reviving again. Her supreme exponent was Theocritus , whose plays are lyrical and epic in nature. Theocritus is followed by Mosch and Bion . Greek poetry, having developed from a folk song, thus developed certain types of poetry: an ode, an elegy, a love song, and a bucolic poem (see Ancient Greek literature ).

The oldest types of Latin lyric poetry are of folk origin and belong to religious lyrics; such are the songs of the Arval brothers and the songs of the priests of Saliah . They did not receive literary development; all subsequent lyric poetry imitates Greek patterns. Latin poetry in the person of poets of the 1st century achieved high perfection. BC e. - Catullus , Virgil , Horace , Tibulla , Properia , Ovid .

Catullus wrote in all kinds of lyrics worked out by the Greeks; an outstanding role in his poems is love . The long poem of Lucretius "On Nature" is also lyrical in nature. Virgil's Bucolics consist of eclogues (so-called short poems in Rome), partly imitating Theocritus; putting into the mouth of the shepherds unusual thoughts and spite of the day, they form the basis of conventional shepherd’s poetry. Horace imitated Archilochus in his studies.

The odes of Horace are of a completely different character than the odes of Pindar; some of them express the poet’s personal feelings or moods, others have a moralizing content, and others relate to political events.

Tibull - the creator of the Latin erotic elegy ; Propertius followed a more Alexandrian school than ancient Greek, as a result of which its elegy shine with scholarship and is mottled with mythological subtleties. Ovid in his youth worked in the genre of love elegy; these are his famous Amores.

Christianity brought to life the poetry corresponding to it in the form of hymns (for example, the hymns of Fortunatus of the 6th century) and sequents - a special poetic form that belonged to the so-called folk Latin. Both of these lyrical forms were sung during worship. Similar works were composed very early and in the old English, by the Anglo-Saxons. Latin and Old English translations of the psalms are also distributed. In the 9th century, in the circle of Charlemagne, secular lyrics were revived: these are the small plays of Alquin and Paul the Deacon , which have the character of an epigram.

Further Latin literature is increasingly moving away from classical forms and approaching folk ones: from the 11th century. even one ballad, written in Latin, has reached us. In France in the 11th and 12th centuries folk lyrics developed several types of songs that are closer to everyday life (conzo, chanson), for example, estrabot (hence the Italian strambotto), retroence, joc partit, débat (debate and transformation), alba (morning song), reverdie (spring song), pastoreta (shepherd’s song, also spring), chanson de toile (lyric-epic song behind the spinning wheel), ballata - female dance song (thème de la mal mariée). Most of these songs relate to spring ceremonies.

French lyric poetry took personal character first of all in Provence due to the existence of a special class of professional singers here - jugglers and troubadours. Consisting temporarily or permanently at the courts of the feudal lords, they sang the lords of the lord and the beauty of his wife; hence their songs were called official (sirventes).

They also composed political songs (for example, on the Crusades: chanson d'outrée) and various others, re-processing the above folk types. In the midst of the troubadours, a special understanding of platonic love was created, that is, mainly love for a woman who stands high in society. Reflecting in itself the turbulent, warlike life of the feudal lords, the poetry of the troubadours also contains moral instructions, however - most often intertwined with love motives.

The perfection of form among the troubadours was great: the theorists of poetry in the Middle Ages believed that the lyrics are best expressed in the language of southern France. The main blow of Provencal poetry was inflicted by a campaign against the Albigensians . Many troubadours sympathized with this sect and were among the associates of Raimund Toulouse ; they had to leave their homeland, and they scattered throughout Italy and Spain. They entered northern France as early as the 12th century .; their first imitators, truvers, appeared here. Northern French lyrics also developed semi-popular forms, such as romance and pasture.

In Germany, the poetry of the troubadours penetrated with the French mods at the end of the 12th century through Flanders and supplanted the German folk lyrics so much that no trace remained of it. At the same time, conditional lyrics originated in Austria.

Walter von der Vogelweide managed to free himself from the imitation of the Provencal and can be considered the founder of the national German lyrics. Pieces singing “lower love”, that is, contrary to the troubadour understanding of love, are especially peculiar and popular. Glimpses of this national lyrics can also be seen in the older songs of Kurenberg , similar to the Northern French romances (chanson de toile).

More national in character are plays by Neidhart , who revived the folk winter and spring dance song. The lyric poetry of the Minnesingers soon passed from the midst of the knights to the midst of urban philistinism and, mutating in accordance with the new environment, was called the Meisterszang. Here she became closer to the folk song and greatly influenced the latter.

Knightly lyrics have much in common with Arabic. In ancient Arabic poetry we find the same belligerence, the same enthusiastic attitude towards a woman, the same panegyrics to princes. The Arabic lyrics of the era reached Mohammed in the collections of songs " Hamas " and " Kitab al-Aghani ", which reflected the steppe nomadic lifestyle of the then Arabs. After Muhammad, lyric poetry continues to imitate desert poetry: these are the so-called Nedzmis or Menszums.

Al-Mutanabbi is recognized as the most outstanding poet of the Mohammedan period of Arabic literature. He wrote, by the way, satires (geje), generally not very common among Arabs. Near the Arabic lyrics you can put the ancient Persian. The greatest Persian poet Hafiz lived in the XIV century. and, in spite of the spiritual rank to which he belonged, he wrote poems chanting wine and love. Some of his plays bear a mystical imprint.

European lyrics were especially developed in Italy in the 14th century . As early as the 13th century , Italian troubadours began to appear under the influence of the Provencal; there were especially many of them at the court of the emperor-poet Frederick II (see Italian literature ).

The poets of the so-called Sicilian school prepared the future flowering of Italian lyrics and developed its two most important forms: Canzon and sonnet . At the same time, spiritual lyrics developed in Central Italy - laude, songs of praise to God, imbued with extreme mysticism.

In the so-called philosophical lyric school of Florentine poets, platonic love takes on a moral and allegorical meaning, which is often impossible to open without comment. In Dante , however, allegorism is somewhat less complicated; among his canzon there are plays related to "inferior" love. The high perfection of form and psychological artistry are achieved by the canons and sonnets of Petrarch , singing or mourning his beloved Laura ; love platonism reaches its highest expression here, based on the aesthetic tact and taste of the poet. The influence of Petrarch sonnets on subsequent lyric poetry, even far beyond the borders of Italy, is gradually increasing, reaching a climax in the so-called petrarchism of the 16th century.

However, a more popular form of lyric poetry is developing: these are the political songs of the Florentine poet Burciello and strambotti Lionardo Giustiniani.

The lyric works of Lorenzo Medici the Magnificent are also of a folk character. Ballate, barzellette, frottoli go back to the folk dance song, known in the early days of Provencal lyrics; they were usually confined to celebratory ceremonies and in Italy were associated with the carnival (canti Carnavaleschi). In northern France, where Truver poetry was always closer to folk poetry than in the south, at the end of the 13th century. it becomes even more popular when it passes from the feudal castle to the town square.

Literary societies (puis) ​​formed among the urban population, giving out prizes for the best plays. Different types of philistine lyrics of France are called dits, chansons, complaintes, etc. Among this philistine poetry came one very personal poet, Rutbeuf , a poor Parisian who was responsive to the spite of the day. Vagant poetry is international in nature; Carmina Burana , the largest collection of their works, originated in Germany.

The echoes of Truver lyricism continue in France in the fourteenth century; all attention is paid to a form somewhat updated by popular influence. Favorite types of lyrics were rondeau (round dance), vireloi, ballade, chant royal.

Especially ballads are in vogue, as common as sonnets in Italy. The last knight poet was Carl, Duke of Orleans . Another outstanding poet of the 15th century in France, François Villon , again introduces us to the environment of the poorest class of population, close to Rutbeuf.

French lyrics enter a new phase of independent development at the beginning of the 16th century . The ideas of humanism and the Reformation renew it, but the form has not yet torn itself away from the Middle Ages. The collection of poems by Margarita of Navarre vividly reflects the bright hopes and broad views of the beginning of the French Renaissance. The most talented poet of that time was Clement Marot .

The Reformation movement in Germany caused a revival in the lyrics, mainly of a religious nature. Already in the XV century. He composed spiritual plays by Heinrich von Laufenberg , using the form of a folk song; it was this kind of lyric poetry that renewed Luther .

Religious lyrics include polemic plays by Ulrich von Gutten . German lyrics of the sixteenth century, like French, are of a national character and are close to the Meistersinger; but in both France and Germany, national lyrics recede before Petrarchism , that is, imitation of Petrarch sonnets. The main petrarchist of the XVI century. in Italy was Pietro Bembo . In France, the first copycat of Petrarch is Mellen de Saint-Gel .

This movement was especially strongly reflected in England. Here until the XVI century. the lyrics were generally underdeveloped: there was a folk song ceremonial and everyday, as can be assumed from Shakespeare's excerpts of songs, but the lyric-epic song, singing the exploits of Robin Hood , was especially favored .

Chaucer's attempt to introduce a French ballad did not take root. Thus, here the sonnets did not have to supplant the national lyrics. A number of English sonetists begin with T. Wyatt and G. Surrey ; they are followed by F. Sidney , Shakespeare and others. Sonetism continues in the literature of Italy, France, England and in the XVII century. and here, along with madrigal and epigram, takes on a saloon character ridiculed by Moliere .

In Italy and Spain, it was renewed with a new manner under the influence of the poets J. Marino and L. de Gongora . From the French sonnets of the XVI and XVII century. P. de Ronsard , W. Vuatur , J.-L. de Balzac . P. Cornell did not neglect this kind of poetry either. In Germany, sonetism flourished among the so-called Pegnitzschäfer ( German: Pegnitzschäfer ). Italian fashion, spread throughout Europe along with humanism, brought more interest in the ancients.

Joachen du Belle (in the middle of the 16th century), rejecting all types of poetry inherited from the Middle Ages, recommended primarily antique lyrics: odes, elegies, anacreonic songs, epigrams, satires, etc., and only in addition pointed to sonnets. Since then, throughout the entire dominance of the so-called pseudo-classical trend, we see in the lyrics precisely these kinds of it. They flourished both in France, and in Germany, and in Russia, as soon as she adopted Western European civilization.

Pompous False Classic ^{[ style ]} Ronsard introduced the court ode to France for the first time. He was followed by F. de Mahlerb ; The odes of N. Boileau , S. Perrault , A. de Lamotte and others are also known, but in general the entire false-classical period is very poor in lyrics and did not produce anything significant in this area . Lyric poetry comes to life in France only at the end of the 18th century. in the elegies and iambas of Andre Chenier , who drew inspiration from the ancient Greek lyricists.

In Germany, the pseudo-classicism and imitation of France also produced a court ode . The national tradition lasted for a long time only in the form of a student's Leipzig song and woke to a new life only under the influence of patriotism. These are the Prussian War Songs of the Grenadiers by I. Glaim , which caused many imitations.

A long series of Russian odes begins with an ode to capture Danzig V.K. Trediakovsky , blindly following Boileau. Of the 19 odes of M.V. Lomonosov, many do not rise above the ordinary court ode, but there are those between them, the plots of which are close to Lomonosov’s heart and deeply felt; such, for example, the ode from the book of Job, “Reasoning for God's Majesty,” and many others.

G.R.Derzhavin was able to combine the bombast of the ode with a variety of satire and skillfully used descriptions of nature. His ode “God” is especially famous. He also wrote imitations of the psalms, anacreontic songs, and others. Near Derzhavin there were many composers, less talented and sincere. The need to compose odes became something of a disease of the century, and was finally ridiculed by Dmitriev in "Someone Else."

The 18th century , despite its fascination with false classicism, did not disdain a folk song. Catherine II loved this kind of lyrics and inserted folk songs into her comedies. Then rich people began to contain choirs of songwriters, which echoed in the so-called folk lyrics. "Lackey songs." One of the best songs of this kind, “The gentleman came out of the forest,” was sung at the beginning of the 20th century.

Romanticism gave a powerful impetus to the development of lyrics. On the revival of lyricism in the second half of the XVIII century. in Germany it was influenced by the fact that the literary taste went far beyond the narrow boundaries set by classicism ; the rights of individualism, both national and personal, were restored, and literature embraced an ardent desire to put new ideas into art . When German romanticism embraced all the literature of Europe, they also became lyrical; this was influenced by Goethe , F. Schiller , G. Buerger , L. Uland and L. Teak .

English romantics W. Wordsworth , S. Coleridge , R. Southy , Byron , P. Shelley , John Keats are mostly lyrical poets. The same can be said of the French romantics: A. de Lamartine , V. Hugo , A. de Vigny , A. de Musset , and the Italians V. Monti , W. Foscolo , J. Leopardi . The lyrical mood also inspires Russian poets of the early 19th century - V. A. Zhukovsky , K. N. Batyushkov , K. F. Ryleyev , A. S. Pushkin , M. Yu. Lermontov , P. A. Vyazemsky , E. A. Baratynsky , A.I. Odoevsky .

Lyricism permeates all kinds of poetry, even narrative poems. “The sufferings of young Werther ”, “Grandfathers” by A. Mitskevich , “Song of the Bell”, “Corsair”, “Queen Mab”, “Roll”, “ Gypsies ”, “ Prisoner of the Caucasus ” bear a lyrical imprint. The form of the lyrics becomes free and obeys only internal aesthetic-psychological laws. The lyric pieces of the romantic period and modern lyrics are simply called poems (Gedichte, poésies) and most often do not fit into any of the traditional forms. True, Goethe writes elegies, Wordsworth - sonnets , Victor Hugo - odes, but these types of lyrics are accepted along with the whole complex of poetic forms ever developed by mankind.

The ballad was specially developed by the romantics, the plots of which are taken either from the Middle Ages, or from modern folk life. Its occurrence was influenced, among other things, by great success in the 18th century. Ossian’s songs, partly composed, partly remade from Scottish ballads by J. MacPherson . Romantic ballads were written by Schiller, Burger, Uland in Germany, in England Wordsworth, Coleridge, Southey. Their ballad is more realistic in content. Mitskevich wrote such ballads.

The Russian ballad began with a translation, as, for example, with V. A. Zhukovsky , but later, as in Poland, acquired a national character, for example, with A. S. Pushkin , A. A. Tolstoy . Such is the only definite kind of romantic lyrics; the rest of the lyrics of the romantics can best be subdivided according to their internal content - into poems dedicated to the depiction of feelings, perceptions or ideas. The first group includes the most subjective plays, for example love ones.

Perceptual poems are primarily descriptions of nature. Goethe earlier than others turned to the depiction of nature in his lyric plays. Descriptive poems often coincide with depicting the poet’s personal mood, but are often limited to purely descriptive purposes, and this is a characteristic feature of romantic and later lyrics.

The last section of lyric poetry, ideological, reproduces any philosophical, political or social thought. In the romantic period, European lyrics reached its highest perfection; but romanticism was soon replaced by a realistic trend, and from then on poetry ceased to be primarily lyrical. More objective types of poetic creation come to the fore: a novel , a novel , etc. At the end of the 19th century, the lyrics partly continue to live on in the old tradition, like among the “ Parnassians ” in France, A. Tennyson in England, A.K. Tolstoy , A. N Maykova , J.P. Polonsky , F.I. Tyutchev , A.A. Fet , A.N. Pleshcheev in Russia, is partially influenced by realism, as in F. Coppe , S. Baudelaire , S. Leconte de Lily , J. Rishpin in France, partly imbued with social and political ideas, like Heine , N. A. Nekrasov , N. P. Ogaryov , S. Ya. Nadson and others. Philosophical ideas in The eka is also reflected in lyric poetry, mainly by R. Browning , V. Hugo and Sully-Prudom .

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