You have read the ballad “Svetlana” by Zhukovsky. What impression did the reading leave you with? IN

The main character of the ballad is a girl in love, Svetlana, waiting for her lover. She believes that the betrothed will return, and that God will not separate the engaged. Another hero is the ghost of the groom, who in Svetlana’s nightmare took the girl so far from home and showed the way to his own coffin.

The landscape enhances the impression received from the events taking place, and sometimes predicts them. While traveling with a ghost, the moon shines palely in the sky - the “eye” of the night.

Since ancient times, there has been a belief that this time of day is fraught with evil.

And darkness.

Also, “there is a blizzard and a blizzard all around” - the path back to the light is covered with snow, and therefore Svetlana is forced to go into the hut, where she will meet the dead man.

The events of the work originate from the distant past. Christmas fortune-telling leads Svetlana to the mirror, where she falls asleep. The night seems to be something vague, and the image of a dove, on the contrary, personifies goodness and hope - this reflects popular views and signs.

Svetlana herself has a meek and patient disposition, which is typical of a Russian girl. Thus, we see that this ballad is based on folklore.

I think that the ballad “Svetlana”, in a sense, is instructive. The lyrical hero at the end of the work indicates that “misfortune is a false dream; Happiness is awakening.” The ballad seems to sound like a call: reader, believe in the real world, and not in dreams and predictions!

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17. V. A. Zhukovsky is a famous poet, a master of the poetic word, a subtle connoisseur of Russian culture and folklore. In the ballad “Svetlana,” the author realistically described Russian life, folk rituals, and revealed the Russian soul, so large, generous, reverent and ardent. The life of a Russian person used to be closely connected with traditions and rituals. According to the signs of fate or nature, the life and activities of one [...]
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23. V. A. Zhukovsky introduced Russia to European folk legends (in ballads) and introduced many works unknown to Russian readers into the national artistic consciousness. All this great cultural work was vital for broadening the horizons of Russian society. All heroes and events are connected by faith in foresight, disagreement between reason and reality, and the struggle between good and evil. The plot of the work is […]...
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25. In this work, Zhukovsky compares the sea with a person, mentally addressing him as living and capable of thinking. The contrast between different states of the sea: silent, azure, calm and beating, howling, tearing - characterizes the state of the human soul, fighting evil and reaching for good. This reveals the problem of the work: the struggle between good and evil. When a person is motivated by goodness, he [...]
26. Zhukovsky is the founder of romanticism in Russian literature. His romanticism is usually called romantic or elegiac. The hero of many of Zhukovsky’s works is a dreamer, all of whose thoughts are directed towards an ideal world. This is where the opposition between “here” and “there” existence arises (“There will not be forever here”). Often in Zhukovsky, like other romantics, we encounter the motif of a dream. And this is natural, because with [...]
27. V. A. Zhukovsky introduced Russia to European folk legends (in ballads) and introduced many works unknown to Russian readers into the national artistic consciousness. All this great cultural work was vital for broadening the horizons of Russian society. Retelling and translating foreign authors, the poet included his own romantic ideas and his own philosophy into their works. He introduced into Russian literature […]...
28. The work of V. A. Zhukovsky opened the unexpected and mysterious world of romanticism to the Russian reader at the beginning of the 19th century. The great poet and translator composed many elegies, messages, romances, ballads and epic works. Ballads brought particular fame to the poet. It was this genre that he introduced into Russian poetry. Zhukovsky contains three types of ballads - “Russian”, “antique” and “medieval”. The name “Russians” […]...
29. “Lyudmila” is the first poem by V. A. Zhukovsky, which is an excellent example of the romantic genre. The plot of this poem is gloomy: the tragedy of a girl who lost her dear friend. After the death of her lover, Lyudmila ceases to rationally perceive reality. All the hopes of her youth were connected with her loved one, whose loss would mean the collapse of everything the girl had lived by. Lyudmila is a romantic heroine whose life could be [...]
30. Zhukovsky V. A. Svetlana Once on Epiphany evening the girls wondered: They took a shoe out of the gate, took it off their feet, and threw it. They wondered to find out their betrothed, their fate. Among the girls, only Svetlana is silent and sad, she does not sing, does not tell fortunes. Her sweetheart is far away, and there has been no news from him for a year now. It’s hard for Svetlana to experience separation from her loved one. Here in the bright room [...]
31. V. A. Zhukovsky Svetlana Once on Epiphany evening the girls wondered: They took the shoe off their feet behind the gate and threw it. They wondered to find out their betrothed, their fate. Among the girls, only Svetlana is silent and sad, she does not sing, does not tell fortunes. Her sweetheart is far away, and there has been no news from him for a year now. It’s hard for Svetlana to experience separation from her loved one. Here in the bright room [...]
32. Zhukovsky’s ballad “Svetlana” is one of the most famous works in the poet’s creative heritage. Zhukovsky's work is made in the tradition of a romantic ballad: it has a clearly defined plot (the beginning, development of the action, climax and denouement are revealed), dramatic action (tension, drama of the situation are felt), the presence of a love affair. The first stanzas of “Svetlana” give an almost ethnographic description of Christmas fortune-telling: Once on Epiphany evening the girls wondered: […]...
33. V. A. Zhukovsky entered the history of Russian literature primarily as the author of ballads. The ballad genre appeared in Russian literature long before Zhukovsky, but only he gave it poetic charm and made it popular. Among Zhukovsky’s ballads, a special place is occupied by the cycle about love: “Lyudmila”, “Svetlana”, “Leonora”, “Alina and Alsim”, “Elvina and Edwin”, “Eolian Harp”, “Knight Togenburg”, where […] ...
34. The name of Vasily Andreevich Zhukovsky, friend and teacher of A.S. Pushkin, entered Russian literature as the author of a number of ballads. He resurrected in ballads images of the feudal Middle Ages and folk legends full of naive faith. For the first time, the definition of ballad as a genre was given by V. G. Belinsky. He defined its originality as follows: “In a ballad, the poet takes some fantastic and folk legend […]...
35. He became a gray old man, And the strength of his muscles disappeared; From a branch the young Olive became a tree. Under it he often sits, solitary, immersed in an inexpressible sleep with his soul. V. Zhukovsky, “The Old Knight” Zhukovsky introduced Russia to European folk legends (in ballads), and introduced many works unknown to Russian readers into the national artistic consciousness. All this great cultural work was vital [...]
36. “Svetlana” is a romantic poem. The analogy between Zhukovsky’s poem “Lyudmila” and “Svetlana” is obvious. But in the poem “Lyudmila” a tragedy happens to the girl. In “Svetlana” everything turns out to be a bad dream. In this case, the reader has hope that supernatural forces can come to the aid of a person. In the poem, the girl’s dark thoughts contradict her youth, her best hopes and […]...
37. Svetlana (excerpt) Once on Epiphany evening the girls wondered: They took the shoe off their feet behind the gate and threw it; The snow was cleared; listened under the window; fed the Counting chicken grain; The ardent wax was heated. In a bowl of clean water they placed a gold ring, emerald earrings; They spread out a white cloth and sang in tune over the bowl, sublime songs. The moon glows dimly in the twilight of the fog - [...]
38. The appearance of the iconic Russian ballad, published in 1813, was preceded by the first attempt - the romantic work “Lyudmila”, which served as a free adaptation of Burger’s iconic “Lenora”. Zhukovsky, a famous and recognized poet, sought to transfer the genre features of the ballad to Russian soil. The plot of “Lyudmila and “Svetlana” is the same. It goes back to the archetypal plot of a dead groom who appears to the bride after a long separation and invites [...]
39. Prepare a short (plot) retelling of the ballad, defining the plot, climax, and denouement. At Christmas time, “on Epiphany evening,” as was customary, the girls tried to guess their fate through various fortune-telling, which Zhukovsky lists at the beginning of the ballad. Svetlana, bored in separation from her fiancé, was also advised to try her luck. This is an exposition of a ballad. Svetlana chooses one of the most terrible fortune telling - with mirrors. […]...
40. V. A. ZHUKOVSKY (1783-1852) SVETLANA Ballad Once on Epiphany evening The girls wondered: They took a shoe out of the gate, took it off their feet, and threw it; The snow was cleared; listened under the window; fed the Counting chicken grain; The ardent wax was heated; In a bowl of clean water they placed a gold ring, emerald earrings; They spread out a white cloth and sang in tune over the bowl, sublime songs. The moon glows dimly [...]

1. Prepare a short story about the life and work of V. A. Zhukovsky based on articles in the textbook.
2. You have read the ballad “Svetlana” by Zhukovsky. What impression did the reading leave you with?
3. What is the meaning of the ballad “Svetlana”? Why does the author begin it with a description of fortune-telling “on Epiphany evening”? Where does the heroine’s dream begin and how does it end?
4. Can we consider that Zhukovsky wrote this ballad in a humorous manner? Compare the plot of this ballad with the plots of other Zhukovsky ballads known to you (for example, “The Cup”).
5. Literary critic N.V. Izmailov writes that “the line of medieval ballads on plots drawn from folk legends, like the line of ancient ballads, runs through the entire central period of Zhukovsky’s work. “Svetlana” was a clear rethinking of the canons of the ballad” (it ends not with a tragic, but a happy ending; its fantasy is removed by the fact that the intervention of otherworldly forces turns out to be a dream, etc.). Do you agree with this judgment? Find confirmation of your point of view in the text of the ballad.

1. Zhukovsky admitted: “I often noticed that I have the brightest thoughts when they need to be improvised as an expression and in addition to other people’s thoughts. My mind is like a flint that needs to be struck on a flint so that a spark will jump out of it. This is generally the nature of my creative work; Almost everything I have is either someone else’s or about someone else’s - and everything, however, is mine.” Have you noticed this feature of the poet?
2. Why is Zhukovsky called an innovator in the field of poetic language?
3. Tell us about the ballad genre in Zhukovsky’s work and name the main features of his ballads.

   Motivate the judgment that Zhukovsky is an innovator in the field of the ballad genre, that he created a national ballad. Confirm your judgment using the example of the ballad “Svetlana”.

Develop the gift of words

1. Find synonyms for the words evil, sadness, zealous horses, gazes, face, timidly, hut, eyes, migratory fire. Which of these words can be used today? Give examples.
2. Prepare one of V. A. Zhukovsky’s poems or ballads for expressive reading aloud in class.

1. Prepare a short (plot) retelling of the ballad, defining the plot, climax, and denouement.

At Christmastide, “on Epiphany evening,” as was customary, the girls tried to guess their fate through various fortune-telling, which Zhukovsky lists at the beginning of the ballad. Svetlana, bored in separation from her fiancé, was also advised to try her luck. This is an exposition of a ballad. Svetlana chooses one of the most terrible fortune telling - with mirrors. The appearance of the groom and his invitation to go to church to get married is the beginning. The action develops rapidly. The horses are flying fast, there is a blizzard all around, and there is steppe desolation all around. The pale and despondent groom is silent. The horses rushed past the church in which a memorial service was being held for the deceased. Everything portends trouble. “The raven croaks: sadness!” The horses approached the hut under the snow. Everything disappeared: the horses, the sleigh, the groom. Lonely Svetlana entered the hut with a prayer and saw a coffin covered with a white blanket. A dove fawns over her. But then the dead man in the coffin began to stir. The climax of the ballad comes - Svetlana recognizes her fiancé in the dead man, and awakening occurs. Svetlana believes that the dream portends bad things. However, a happy ending is approaching: the groom joyfully arrives.

The same love is in his eyes, the same pleasant glances; The same conversations on Mila’s sweet lips. Open up, God's temple; You fly to heaven, Faithful vows.

The ballad ends with some morality, the author’s instruction in the spirit of the Orthodox worldview - not to believe in dreams and fortune-telling, but to believe in the Providence of God. Here are my sense of ballads:

“Our best friend in this life is Faith in Providence. The good of the Creator is the law: Here misfortune is a false dream; Happiness is awakening."
2. Remember the description of girls' fortune telling on Epiphany evening. Which of them do you especially remember?

At the beginning of the ballad, Zhukovsky gives a detailed picture of folk fortune-telling, which girls resorted to during Christmastide in order to find out their fate, mainly related to future marriage. They threw the shoes they had taken off their feet, listened under the window, fed the chickens with counting grain, and told fortunes with wax. But the most important and terrible fortune telling is waiting for the groom in front of mirrors and candles. According to descriptions in the research literature, for example in Sakharov’s book “Tales of the Russian People,” this fortune telling occurs like this. A table for two persons is set in a dark room. It is located between two mirrors facing each other, with a candle lit in front of each of them. The girl should be alone in the room and sit opposite the mirror. Another mirror is behind her. She waits a long time for the arrival of her fiancé. If he doesn't come, it means she's destined to remain unmarried this year. If there is a wedding coming up, then her husband will be the person who appears in the mirror. According to popular beliefs, something terrible can happen, like what happened to Svetlana or Lyudmila. Experienced people advised young fortune tellers not to wait for events to develop (they can be very tragic), but, when they see their betrothed, to cover the mirror with a handkerchief and stop further testing fate.

3. Try to tell about the heroine of the ballad - Svetlana, about her friends, her fiance. Which of these stories turned out to be more thorough and detailed? Why?

The most detailed story can be about Svetlana, since the ballad conveys her experiences, expectations and adventures. She is the heroine of the work. Svetlana is a highly moral and deeply religious person. She never once betrayed her faith in God: neither during separation from her fiancé, nor during the terrible race. Entering an unknown hut, she crossed herself, sat down under the holy images, and this saved her from Lyudmila’s terrible fate.

The friends are just a background for the development of the plot; they listen to Svetlana’s complaints and advise her to resort to fortune-telling. We know about the groom that he is stately, affectionate, loves Svetlana, did not forget her in separation, expresses love with pleasant speeches.

4. Describe the pictures of the winter landscape in the ballad. Which lines correspond to the mood and state of the heroine?

In the ballad, Svetlana’s dream depicts a winter blizzard night illuminated by moonlight; There is emptiness and deep snow around the galloping sleigh drawn by horses. This winter landscape is gloomy, it evokes Svetlana’s anxious mood. And even the temple standing to the side reinforces the feeling of darkness and anxiety: from its doors comes the funeral service, there is a coffin there and the words of the memorial service “Be taken by the grave” are heard. After Svetlana awakens, nature is already celebrating the victory of good over evil, happiness over misfortune, evening, night and the moon are replaced by morning, afternoon, and sun.

5. What artistic devices (comparisons, epithets, metaphors) are most often used in a ballad?

Among the artistic means, bright epithets should be noted: bitter fate, red light, dead silence, dead sleep, plank gates, black corvid, greyhound horses, menacing dream, sweet lips, etc. They are of folklore origin and fit well in folk ballad style. Metaphors and hyperboles are also actively used in them. Material from the site

6. How can one explain the dancing character of the sound of the verse? What poetic meter does the poet use?

Christmastide is a festive week from Christmas to Epiphany, filled with various folk festivities and entertainment. The happy ending of the ballad also puts us in a festive mood.

Hence the choice of the style of the work, its dance sound, which corresponds to the festive mood of the people. The poetic meter is trochee.

7. Look at Zhukovsky's drawings. What about them resembles the landscapes of a ballad?

Reference. Everyone chooses a drawing to answer this question according to their own discretion. You can use the book “Drawings of Russian Writers.”

8. Find lines in the ballad filled with playfulness and fun. How do you explain their appearance in the ballad?
Gather together, old and young; Having moved the bells of the cup, in harmony Sing: many years! or There are great miracles in it, Very little storage.

The first lines are taken from wedding folklore; the second is one of the endings to folk tales like “I drank honey, it flowed down my mustache, but it didn’t get into my mouth.” Or “A fairy tale is a lie, but there is a hint in it.”

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One of the most famous works of Russian romanticism is the ballad “Svetlana”. Zhukovsky took the plot from the work of the German poet Gottfried August Burger, reworked it, giving it a Russian flavor and replacing the tragic ending of the original with a happy ending. The creepy plot about a dead groom taking his bride away with him, common among Western romantics, in “Svetlana” turns into just a bad dream.

Translation from German into Russian

Surprisingly, the colorful Russian ballad “Svetlana” turned out from a German-romantic work. Zhukovsky had previously translated this ballad, and its heroine was called Lyudmila. In meaning and content, it is much closer to Burger’s “Lenora”, just as mystical and creepy. It was a success among readers, but the author continued to work on the plot, changing and supplementing it.

The content of the ballad “Svetlana” is reminiscent of a good Russian fairy tale, where everything ends with the victory of good over evil. The author instills fear and horror into the readers, but in the end all this turns out to be just a dream that does not come true. Perhaps this is exactly what the poet was striving for when reworking the plot. A happy ending and wishes for happiness to the heroine radiate kindness and light, this is exactly how Zhukovsky sees the world.

What is the meaning of the ballad “Svetlana”?

If you answer this question in a nutshell, then the meaning is the victory of love and faith over death and darkness.

Zhukovsky believed in goodness. His heroine is pure in soul, prays, turning to the “comforter angel”, sincerely believes in salvation, and it comes to her in the form of a white dove. This is how the author conveys to us his life conviction that devilish temptations cannot destroy a sinless soul.

Ballad “Svetlana”: summary

The action takes place on Epiphany evening, when, according to popular beliefs, with the help of fortune telling you can look into the future and find out your fate. The author describes the types of fortune-telling: girls throw a “shoe” outside the gate, feed a chicken with grain, sing fortune-telling songs and tell fortunes to their betrothed, looking in the mirror at night by candlelight. Svetlana is sad because there has been no news from her beloved for a long time, she dreams that he will return soon.

Suffering from anticipation, she decides to look in the mirror. Suddenly her fiancé appears, joyfully announcing that the heavens have been tamed and the murmur has been heard. He invites her to get married. Dragging Svetlana along with him, he puts Svetlana in a sleigh, and they set off across the snowy plain to a strange temple, where, instead of the expected wedding, a funeral service for the deceased is taking place.

The journey is cut short when the sleigh stops near a small hut. Suddenly the groom and horses disappear.

Left alone at night in an unfamiliar place, Svetlana, crossing herself, enters the house where the coffin stands. The creepy dead man, in whom Svetlana recognizes her lover, stands up and stretches out his dead hands to her. A white dove comes to the rescue, miraculously protecting the heroine from the terrible dead man.

Svetlana wakes up at home. Everything that happens turns out to be just a bad dream. At the same hour, the long-awaited groom returns, healthy and happy.

This is the ballad “Svetlana”. The summary ends with the wedding played by the heroes.

The secret power of a name

Few people remember that Svetlana came up with the name specifically for this ballad. It firmly entered into everyday life, became widespread and has survived to this day. You can hear light in it, it sounds very kind. It is this kind of bright joy that fills the girl’s quiet and pure soul; her love and faith will not fade or dissolve in anything. The meaning of the ballad “Svetlana” is already in its very name.

And night gives way to daylight

The action of eerie romantic ballads usually takes place under the cover of night - the darkest and most mysterious time of the day, covering various secrets with darkness. Zhukovsky ends the action with daylight, the ringing of a bell and the crow of a rooster. Darkness and fears are replaced by the return of a loved one and a long-awaited wedding, a terrible dream is left behind. And here the author himself tells us what the meaning of the ballad is: “Svetlana” is the triumph of light over darkness, the victory of love over death and faith over temptation.

Lines filled with light

Zhukovsky's ballad is a creative gift to Alexandra Andreevna Protasova (Voeykova), who, as the author puts it, was the muse that “inspired him to be in a poetic mood.”

The work became fateful for the author. Friends from the Arzamas literary society called the poet “Svetlana”. P. A. Vyazemsky wrote in his memoirs that Zhukovsky was “Svetlana not only in name, but also in soul.” Thus, by putting his ideals and essence into the work, the author conveyed to us a “bright” faith, worldview and attitude.

The ballad was also reflected in the works of many Russian writers and poets, including A. S. Pushkin, who borrowed the “silent and sad” image of Svetlana when describing the heroine of the novel “Eugene Onegin” Tatyana.

And, although the work took the basis for the plot in a German ballad, it can be considered originally Russian, it certainly has a Russian flavor, close to folklore and folk art. Svetlana herself resembles the heroine of a Russian fairy tale or folk song. The poet's personal authorship here is indisputable. He believed that Russian literature, having studied Western achievements, should not blindly copy them, but try to convey them to the Russian reader in its own way.