Love is a mysterious, all-consuming feeling and it is not at all surprising that, “the father of Russian romanticism,” V.A. Zhukovsky addressed this topic more than once.

But it is absolutely impossible to write about love without experiencing these emotions that Aphrodite gives. Zhukovsky has his own story behind him, full of heartache and inspiration, happy moments and sad losses. This story became a life-giving source for the poet.

His love is a sublime, spiritual love for Maria Protasova.

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She became his ideal woman for life, but, unfortunately, fate was cruel and these two could not be together. Therefore, Vasily Zhukovsky left all his feelings and experiences on paper. On the leaves, yellowed by time, the love of Vasily and Maria lives on to this day, and it will never die!

The poem “The Sea,” in my opinion, can act as an allegorical illustration of the poet’s relationship with Maria Protasova. They, like the sky and the sea, are so close and yet far away. Their destiny is to admire each other, reflecting the love of the other.

Love is a multifaceted feeling, hence many motives appear in the poem: the motive of mystery, harmony, anxiety, deceptive silence and all these are parts of one whole.

I would call the main idea of ​​the poem the mystery of love, its riddle. What does a person hide under his serene appearance?

The main characters in the elegy are Sky and Sea. Of course, we understand that hidden under these allegorical images are the feelings of people, the people themselves. Perhaps Zhukovsky portrayed his beloved in the image of the Sea; he is trying to penetrate the secrets of the boundless Sea, into the secrets of his beloved.

Let's look at the images in more detail. The poet's main attention is focused precisely on the Sea. This image is changeable; in the poem we see it completely different sides. Like the human soul, the Sea cannot be static and cannot help but respond to external changes in the world. So, at the beginning “Silent sea, azure sea”, as soon as the clouds hide from the Sea, its beloved Sky, not a trace remains of the former calm “You fight, you howl, you raise waves...”. When the Sky opens again before the water surface, the Sea does not calm down, it is still agitated, and even when it completely calms down, it will not be possible to say with certainty that everything has passed and calmed down. Likewise, a lover never loses his vigilance; he always worries about his chosen one or chosen one. Every lover is afraid of losing his love, because when you love, the whole meaning of life is concentrated in the object of love, and losing this meaning of life is often tantamount to death.

The sky is presented more schematically; it is light, high and inaccessible. Perhaps the Sky personifies a certain ideal that the Sea is in love with and cannot touch. This fact suggests that love creates ideals; perhaps we do not even love the person himself, but are inspired by the ideal that our imagination created. We live by this illusion, we fear and tremble before it.

The composition of the work is also interesting; first, the poet introduces the reader to the main characters and describes the harmony of their existence. The next fragment is a storm, an obstacle that the sea in love is trying to overcome, and finally the finale - the return of harmony and silence, but this time it is not as serene as it was at the beginning. The heroes have already experienced separation and the harmony that was there can no longer be returned. Perhaps, over time, this storm will not be so memorable, but for now the silence that has come is only an illusion: “The appearance of your stillness is deceiving:\You hide confusion in the abyss of the deceased,\You, admiring the sky, tremble for it.”

Zhukovsky is not just an excellent poet of feeling, but also an inimitable artist. Reading his work, we vividly imagine this boundless sea, this pure blue sky with golden clouds. This picture captivates and fascinates. And the poet achieves this with the help of such tropes as epithets (Silent sea, mysterious, sweet, full of life, frightened waves, etc.), metaphors (Or is the distant, bright sky pulling you from earthly captivity to yourself?), personification (You alive; you breathe, caress its golden clouds, you, admiring the sky, tremble for it).

In creating the mood, the poet is helped by the rhythm of the poem, created thanks to the amphibrach tetrameter in combination with blank verse, which gives the work dynamics, a feeling of transition from serenity to the riot of sea waves.

Also in the poem there is alliteration (What your tense chest breathes), with the help of which the mysterious power of the sea is betrayed. Assonances (Silent sea, azure sea) convey the softness of the sea, its beauty, admiration for it. So these techniques of the phonetic structure of the poem once again show the contrast, the versatility of the soul, expressed in the polar states of the main character, the sea.

Thus, the poem “Sea” is not just a picturesque image of nature, but it is also a reflection on love, mystery, and the pursuit of an ideal. This is truly a magical work that reveals to the reader the mysterious life of the human soul, with its passions and affections, sorrows and joys, depth and versatility.

History of creation. The poem was written in 1822 during the period of Zhukovsky’s creative maturity. It belongs to the program works and is one of the poet’s poetic manifestos. It is known that this poem by Zhukovsky was especially highlighted by Pushkin, who wrote his elegy with the same name two years later.

Genre. In the subtitle of the poem, the author designated its genre - elegy. This is the poet's favorite genre. Turning to the genre of elegy marked Zhukovsky's transition to romanticism. Elegy - genre lyric poetry, conveying moods of sadness, grief, disappointment and sadness. Romantics preferred this genre because it makes it possible to express deeply personal, intimate experiences of a person, his philosophical thoughts about life, love, and feelings associated with the contemplation of nature. The elegy “The Sea” is exactly such a poem.

Topics and problems. Zhukovsky’s poem is not just a poetic picture of the sea element, but a “landscape of the soul,” as the famous philologist A.N. Veselovsky accurately defined such poems in romanticism. Indeed, this is not only a seascape, although, reading the poem, you vividly imagine the sea: it is either quiet, calm, an “azure sea”, or a terrible raging element that is immersed in darkness. But the romantic world of nature is also a mystery that he is trying to unravel. That is why it is so important that in the poem there is a constant roll call between the natural and human worlds - the state of the lyrical hero. But what is important is not only that Zhukovsky creates a psychological landscape, that is, he expresses a person’s feelings and thoughts through a description of nature. The peculiarity of this poem is that it is not individual parts of the landscape that are animated, but the sea itself becomes a living being. It seems that lyrical hero speaks with a thinking and feeling interlocutor, maybe with a friend, or maybe with some mysterious stranger. The romantic pose has no doubt that the sea can be endowed with a soul, just like a person. Indeed, in accordance with romantic ideas, it is in nature that the Divine dissolves; through communication with nature one can speak with God, penetrate into the mystery of being, and come into contact with the World Soul.

Zhukovsky is sure that the soul of the sea is similar to the human soul, where darkness and light, good and evil, joy and sorrow are united. It also reaches out to everything bright - to the sky, to God. But unlike many other romantics who paint this “free element,” Zhukovsky also sees that the sea is languishing, that something is weighing it down, it is rebelling against it. Like a person, the sea cannot feel absolute peace and harmony; its freedom is also relative. That is why the traditional romantic problems of freedom and bondage, storm and peace in Zhukovsky receive a very unusual interpretation.

Idea and composition. The poem “The Sea” is constructed in accordance with the idea contained in it. This is not so much a description of natural phenomena as a special lyrical plot. It shows movement, the development of the state of the lyrical hero, monitoring the changes that occur with the sea. But even more important is this. that behind this lies the dynamics of the internal state of the sea itself, its soul. This internal plot can be divided into three parts; "Silent Sea" -

1st part; “Storm” - 2nd part; “Deceptive peace” - part 3. In accordance with them, we will follow the development of the artistic thought of the poem.

In the 1st part, a beautiful picture of the “azure sea”, calm and silent, is painted. But “purity” and clarity are inherent in the sea soul “in the pure presence” of the “distant bright sky”:

You are pure in his pure presence:
You flow with its luminous azure,
You burn with evening and morning light.
You caress his golden clouds"
And you joyfully sparkle with its stars.

It is the “luminous azure” of the sky that gives the sea its amazing colors. The sky here is not just an element of air stretching over the abyss of the sea. This symbol is an expression of another world, divine, pure and beautiful. Endowed with the ability to capture even the most imperceptible shades, the lyrical hero of the poem, reflecting on the sea, realizes that some secret is hidden in it, which he is trying to comprehend:

Silent sea, azure sea,
Reveal to me your deep secret:
What moves your vast bosom?
What is your tense chest breathing?
Or pulls you from earthly bondage
Distant, bright sky to yourself?..

The 2nd part of the poem lifts the veil over this secret. We see the soul of the sea revealed during a storm. It turns out that when the light of the sky disappears and the darkness thickens, the sea, immersed in darkness, begins to tear, beat, the eye is filled with anxiety and fear:

When the dark clouds gather,
To take away the clear sky from you -
You fight, you howl, you raise waves,
You tear and torment the hostile darkness...

Zhukovsky paints a picture of a storm with amazing skill. It seems that you can hear the roar of the oncoming waves. And yet this is not just a picture of a raging disaster. The deeply hidden secret of the soul of the sea is revealed to us. It turns out, like everything on earth, the sea is in captivity, which it is not able to overcome: “or it pulls you out of earthly captivity.” This is a very important idea for Zhukovsky.

For the romantic poet, who believed in the “enchanted There,” that is, another world in which everything is beautiful, perfect and harmonious, the earth has always seemed like a world of suffering, sorrow and sadness, where there is no place for perfection. "Oh! The Genius of pure beauty does not live with us,” he wrote in one of his poems, depicting a Genius who visited the earth only for a moment and again rushed off into his beautiful, but inaccessible to earthly man, world.

It turns out that the sea, like man, suffers on earth, where everything is changeable and impermanent, full of losses and disappointments. Only there - in the sky - everything is eternal and beautiful. That is why the sea reaches there, as does the soul of the poet, striving to break earthly ties. The sea admires this distant, luminous sky, “trembles” for it, that is, it is afraid of losing it forever. But the sea is not allowed to connect with it.

This idea becomes clear only in the 3rd part of the poem, where the “returned heavens” can no longer completely restore the picture of peace and serenity:

And the sweet shine of the returned skies
It doesn’t give you back silence at all;
Deceiving your immobility appearance:
You hide confusion in the dead abyss.
You, admiring the sky, tremble for it.

This is how the secret of the sea is revealed to the lyrical hero. Now it’s clear why confusion is hidden in his “dead abyss.” But the poet’s confusion remains, facing the insoluble riddle of existence, the mystery of the universe.

Artistic originality. The poem is full of means poetic expressiveness, helping to make the picture of the sea elements not only visible, but also audible and tangible, and thereby make it easier for the reader to comprehend the author’s thought. Epithets play a special role in this. If in the 1st part they are intended to emphasize the purity of the sea and the light that permeates the entire picture (“bright sky”, “you are pure in the presence of its pure”, “golden clouds”), then in the 2nd part they create a menacing, alarming tone ( “hostile haze”, “dark clouds”). Very important for expressing the artistic idea of ​​a poem are epithets, saturated Christian symbolism divine: “azure”, “light”, “luminous”. Create a special rhythm anaphora to “you” (“you fight, you howl, you raise waves...”), syntactic parallelism, and glad interrogative sentences conveys tense emotional structure poems. It should also be noted the important role of the refrain: “silent sea, azure sea,” which not only sets the rhythm of the poem, but also asserts an important poetic idea. And, as elsewhere, Zhukovsky masterfully uses the melodic capabilities of speech, “The Sea” is written tetrameter amphibrachium, blank verse, which helps convey the rhythm of the rolling waves. Particularly impressive is the picture of a storm, to recreate which the poet uses the technique of alliteration, that is, repetition of the same consonant sounds in several words. Here it is an alliteration of hissing, moreover, supported by the rhythm of the line, imitating the movement of waves: “You fight, you howl, you raise waves, / You tear and torment the hostile darkness.” In general, we can say that Zhukovsky’s poetic mastery in this poem reaches unprecedented heights, which Pushkin surprisingly accurately said: “... his poems have a captivating sweetness.”

The meaning of the work. Zhukovsky’s artistic innovation in the poem “The Sea” did not go unnoticed in Russian poetry. Following him, many great Russian poets painted a romantic picture of the sea elements, for example Pushkin in his 1824 poem “The Sea.” Lermontov in his famous “Sail”, Tyutchev in the poem “How good you are, O night sea...”. But in each of them, the image of the sea is not only a romantic symbol, but also something that helps the author express his thoughts, feelings and moods.

Analysis of the poem

1. The history of the creation of the work.

2. Characteristics of the work lyrical genre(type of lyrics, artistic method, genre).

3. Analysis of the content of the work (analysis of the plot, characteristics of the lyrical hero, motives and tonality).

4. Features of the composition of the work.

5. Analysis of means of artistic expression and versification (presence of tropes and stylistic figures, rhythm, meter, rhyme, stanza).

6. The meaning of the poem for the poet’s entire work.

The poem “Sea” was written by V.A. Zhukovsky in 1822. This is one of the poet's best elegies. Moreover, the image of the sea was new to his work. The poem was published in the almanac “Northern Flowers” ​​for 1829. The genre was designated in the last lifetime edition of Zhukovsky's works.

In this elegy, the image of the sea is associated with the image of the lyrical hero. And we notice this parallel already at the beginning of the work. The poet uses the technique of personification, endowing the “silent sea” with the ability to think and love:

Silent sea, azure sea,
I stand, enchanted over your abyss.
You are alive, you are breathing, confused by love,
You are filled with anxious thoughts.

Researchers have repeatedly noted the motif of movement, life (as opposed to peace) that sounds in this poem. The poet depicts the sea at rest, during a storm and after it. All three landscapes are magnificent. The refrain “silent sea, azure sea” conveys the calm and tranquility of nature. In describing the storm, Zhukovsky uses alliteration, which creates the illusion of hissing and bubbling waves:

You fight, you howl, you raise waves,
You tear and torment the hostile darkness...

But the storm subsides, but the calm is deceptive:

Deceiving your immobility appearance:
You hide confusion in the dead abyss,
You, admiring the sky, tremble for it.

The sea at Zhukovsky reaches to the sky, but unity is impossible here. A powerful and unpredictable element contains a “deep secret”, an eternal riddle that uncontrollably attracts human soul:

Reveal to me your deep secret.
What moves your vast bosom?
What is your tense chest breathing?
Or pulls you from earthly bondage
Distant, bright sky to yourself?..

The solution to this mystery lies in the soul of the lyrical hero, through whose image the poet affirms his aesthetic and philosophical ideals of a romantic poet. “The sea is in captivity, like everything on earth. Everything on earth is changeable, impermanent, life is full of losses, disappointments and sadness. Only there, in heaven, is everything eternal and beautiful. That is why the sea reaches out “from earthly captivity” to the “distant, bright” sky, admires it and “trembles for it.” Thus, the sea symbolizes the human soul in Zhukovsky. Exactly the same uncontrollable impulses and passions are hidden in the soul of the lyrical hero. In the same way, she yearns for universal harmony, integrity and unity, rushing to the sky.

A characteristic difference is the perception of the image of the sea by V.A. Zhukovsky and A.S. Pushkin. Pushkin associates the sea with freedom, unbridled impulses of the soul, brilliant, ambiguous and talented personalities. And the overall sound of the poem “To the Sea” is optimistic. Pushkin’s lyrical hero refers to the sea as a friend; he uses the pronoun “you,” while simultaneously revealing own personality:

You waited, you called... I was chained;
My soul was torn in vain;
Enchanted by powerful passion,
I was left by the shores.

In Zhukovsky, the motive of anxiety, pessimism, sadness, and the impossibility of achieving the ideal is very significant. Earthly life This poet symbolizes the eternal struggle, the universal clash with the forces of evil, the eternal desire and aspiration of the soul towards the light, towards the heavenly, towards the unattainable. And this romantic conflict between the earthly and the heavenly takes on cosmic scale: the lyrical hero is clearly aware of the unattainability of the desired harmony. Researchers have repeatedly noted that in Zhukovsky’s elegy the pronoun “I” is not used - the hero denotes his own personality only by turning to the sea: “You tear and torment the hostile darkness...”, “You raise frightened waves for a long time,” “You hide confusion in the abyss of the deceased.” " But the sea is silent, and this conversation remains a monologue. The hero's feelings are not conveyed in the first person.

Thus, the composition of the poem is based on the antithesis: earthly - heavenly. This antithesis is illustrated by three successive landscapes, as we noted above. The final conclusion of the lyrical hero is pessimistic: the world is devoid of integrity and harmony, the desired ideal is unattainable on earth.

The elegy is written in amphibrach tetrameter and blank verse, which creates the impression of rhythm, mobility, and wave movement. “The Sea” amazes us with its musicality and melody. The work uses various means of artistic expression: metaphors (“Or is the distant, bright sky pulling you from earthly captivity to yourself?..”), personification (“You are filled with an anxious thought”), epithets (“azure sea”, “sweet shine” , “in the dead abyss”), rhetorical questions (“What moves your immense bosom?”, “What does your tense chest breathe?”), inversions (“Tell me your deep secret”). Analyzing phonetic system poems, we can note alliteration (“What moves your immense bosom?”, “You are pure in the presence of his pure...”), assonance (“I stand enchanted over your abyss...”).

Thus, the elegy can be called a programmatic work by V.A. Zhukovsky as a romantic poet. In addition, here he appears before us as a true master of landscape, which was noted by V.G. Belinsky. “We would miss one of the most characteristic features of Zhukovsky’s poetry if we did not mention this poet’s marvelous art of painting pictures of nature and putting romantic life into them. Whether it’s morning, noon, evening, night, a bucket, a storm, or a landscape - all this breathes in Zhukovsky’s bright paintings with some kind of mysterious, full of strength life.”

You can analyze poems in various ways. Some teachers require students to express their own views and reflect. For others, it is more important to search for various artistic and expressive techniques in the text. Therefore, the plans of different teachers look different. We invite you to familiarize yourself with the general approaches to the analysis of Zhukovsky’s “The Sea”.

Plan

In order for the analysis of a poetic text to be complete, a certain plan should be followed. Often teachers themselves dictate to students the sequence of points, but if this does not happen, it is recommended to adhere to this plan:

• General information about the poem: date of creation, history and interesting facts writing, place in creative path author. When disclosing this point, it is necessary to be brief.
• Main theme. What is the text about, what is the meaning of its title. The main ideas of the work, the thoughts of the author.
• Description of the lyrical plot. There is no need to completely retell in prose what the writer expressed in verse; it is enough to outline the important points for analysis.
• Features of the composition. How does the construction of the text work to reveal the author's intention: perhaps there is a ring composition, opposition, comparison of one phenomenon with another.
• Lyrical hero. What poetic devices does the author use to reveal his image?
• Other characters, their place and role in the overall plan.
• Author's position. Expanding this point, you should not strive to “answer correctly”; it is much more interesting to express your own judgments.
• Rhyme, meter, rhythm. It is important here to be able to use your knowledge of literary terms.
• Features of poetic vocabulary and syntax. Techniques of artistic expression used by the poet.
• The perception of the poem by the author’s contemporaries even today.

We will adhere to this plan when analyzing the elegy “The Sea” by Zhukovsky - one of the poet’s most famous texts.

General information about the poem

Zhukovsky is a romantic poet; Pushkin considered him his main teacher. The work of this author became the most important stage in the development of romanticism as a literary movement; personal experiences were reflected in his lyrics, intimacy appeared, and the main character became a person - a feeling, an experiencer.

Among the masterpieces is the elegy “The Sea”, created in 1822. It is interesting that the very image of the endless sea was new for Zhukovsky’s work, but it is he who sums up the poet’s romantic quest. Literary scholars believe that the text is dedicated to the poet’s beloved, Maria Protasova, whose feelings were deep and mutual, but reality harshly invaded the romance - Maria’s parents were against such an unequal marriage, and the girl did not dare to go against them.

It is known that the elegy was very highly appreciated by Pushkin, who a few years later wrote his own poetic text with a similar title.

Main theme and idea

According to the plan, the analysis of Zhukovsky’s “Sea” should be continued by defining the theme of the poem. So, if you read the lines, it becomes clear that it is dedicated azure sea. It is silent, but thinks an anxious thought.

Zhukovsky himself is also present in the text - the poet presented himself in the image of the sky, which creates a harmonious sensual union with the sea, but can never unite with it.

Lyrical plot

When analyzing the elegy “The Sea” by Zhukovsky, it is very important to outline the main stages in the development of the lyrical plot. First, the poet draws before the readers an ordinary sea, silent and azure, which the lyrical hero admires. Gradually, the element takes on the features of a living being: it breathes, filled with “anxious thoughts,” “confused love.”

Next, the image of the sky appears, another beautiful and free element, towards which the sea reaches. Then the poet figuratively and vividly depicts separation, from which the sea tears and torments the “hostile darkness.” But alas, separation is inevitable, and you have to come to terms with it. However, you cannot control your feelings, which is why the sad notes sound especially strong at the end of the text.

Zhukovsky writes that he refuses to fight for happiness, as the sky will never be able to reach the surface of the sea.

Specifics of the composition

The next stage of the analysis of V. Zhukovsky’s poem “The Sea” is a description of its composition. To do this, you should carefully re-read the text again, highlighting parts in it. It is immediately noticeable that the sea is depicted in front of us in three of its states:

• The calm of the sea. Silent sea.
• Condition in a storm.
• After the storm. Deceptive peace.

The lyrical hero carefully monitors all the changes that occur with the elements; it is these changes that drive the development of the plot. When analyzing “The Sea” by Zhukovsky, it is important to show why such a composition is used. Thanks to it, the poet manages to create a dynamic image, so the sea has a changing character.

• So, the first part of the elegy is a sketch of a calm and beautiful sea, which is not disturbed by passions. The sky in this fragment is also clear and beautiful.
• The second structural part is the state of the sea at the moment when the clouds cover the sky with their black veil, a storm begins. And the sea answers her, begins to “beat” and “tear,” and is filled with anxiety and fear. The elements are terrible at this moment, but not everyone realizes that the sea is suffering. The secret becomes clear - the all-powerful element, like all living things, cannot fully control its destiny, it is captive of circumstances.
• Finally, the third part - the sky is calm again and the sea, it seems, too, but this is only an appearance. Carefully hidden passions still rage in his soul.

Such a composition is aimed at embodying the author's intention - to show that even the elements cannot be completely free.

Lyrical hero

In the analysis of Zhukovsky’s “Sea” it is very important to reveal the main features of the lyrical hero. He subtly captures all the shades of the mood of the magnificent element and guesses that passions are raging under his apparent calm.

The lyrical hero not only admires the elements, but also humanizes them: the sea seems to be a living creature that hides a whole range of feelings behind its deceptive surface. That is why there are motives for comparing the sea with a woman in love who protects the secrets of her heart from strangers. Some researchers believe that in the image of the elements the poet embodied the features of his lost lover, Maria Protasova.

Author's position

Zhukovsky is a romantic poet, therefore, in his elegy, in the struggle between the darkness and the sea elements, the latter wins. But the poet shows that not everything is so simple, passions continue to rage in the depths of the waters, when the surface is calm and smooth.

Rhythm and rhyme

The next stage of the analysis of the elegy poem “The Sea” by Zhukovsky according to plan is to identify the features of rhyme and rhythm. To create a special sound, the poet uses blank verse - some lines do not rhyme with each other. The size of the verse is amphibrach tetrameter. In order to paint a vivid picture of the storm for the reader, in the second part the poet skillfully uses alliteration - the repetition of identical consonant sounds in standing nearby words. This enhances the feeling of rolling waves.

Techniques of artistic expression, syntax and vocabulary

The genre of Zhukovsky’s “The Sea”, which we are analyzing, is elegy. It's sad poetic genre, often filled with melancholy, sorrow and disappointment. It was he who was inherent in romanticism as literary movement, and the lyrics of V. Zhukovsky. The text expresses the poet’s deeply personal experiences, which the author was able to tell about using the following techniques of artistic expression:

• Epithets are main reception, there are quite a lot of them in a short text: “azure sea”, “silent sea”, “deep secret”, “hostile darkness”. They help the author to succinctly and figuratively show the state of the elements.
• The refrain - “silent sea, azure sea” - helps the author to emphasize the main idea of ​​the text, to show that the element is dual, that its true state is hidden.
• Anaphora - “you” - creates the rhythm and melody of the verse.
• Using syntactic repetition.

These techniques helped the poet create a deep psychological landscape; both the beautiful sea element and the subtlest shades of the experience of the human soul were reflected in a short text.

Conclusion

We have analyzed the elegy “The Sea” by Zhukovsky according to plan, now it is necessary to describe the meaning of this poetic text. For the poet’s contemporaries, the poem became a kind of hymn to romanticism, so many poets subsequently turned to the image of the majestic element. It has not lost its significance even today.

Reading and analyzing the poem “The Sea” by Zhukovsky allows you to immerse yourself in inner world poet and understand his thoughts and experiences.

Elegy by V. Zhukovsky “The Sea”. Analysis.
“The Sea” is one of the beautiful elegies written by Zhukovsky in moments of reflection. The poet paints the sea in a calm state, during a storm and after it.

In addressing the sea at the beginning of the poem, the poet uses many bright epithets, but only one of them characterizes the sea as a beautiful natural phenomenon - “azure”. This is an outdated and lofty word for the color light blue. All other visual means give the sea a resemblance to a living, thinking, feeling creature: “silent” (“you are alive,” (“you are breathing,” “you are filled with confused love, anxious thoughts.” No matter how beautiful the sea is in itself, not only The poet’s imagination is occupied by him. The sea seems to him to be a living, thinking creature, because something in his own soul excites and worries him.

“I stand enchanted over your abyss” - the lyrical hero seems to be looking at the sea from above, from some high cliff. The sea is vast and bottomless, it beckons, attracts with its “deep mystery.” The movement of the sea and its various states are conveyed by numerous verbs - metaphors and personifications: “you breathe”, “moves”; “caresses”, “burning”, “glittering”, “fighting”, “whining”, “lifting”, “tearing”, “tormenting”, “heaving”, “hiding”, “trembling”. Zhukovsky endows the sea with enormous strength, the ability to fight and tenderness, the ability to love.

As the mystery of the sea is unraveled, the views of the romantic poet are revealed: the sea is in earthly captivity, like all living things. Earthly life is full of struggle, loss, disappointment. Only there, in heaven, is everything beautiful and unchanged. Even clouds, seemingly belonging to the sky, exist on their own in Zhukovsky. They are only gathering to “take away” the sky, and it itself is “distant”, “light”, “clear”, “pure”. It is beautiful and defenseless. The contrast of “dark clouds” and “clear” skies emphasizes this. The struggle of the sea with dark, hostile forces symbolizes man's struggle with evil. The last picture - the sea after a storm - shows the psychological mastery of Zhukovsky the romantic. The calm that comes is only apparent, external:

Deceiving your immobility appearance:
You hide confusion in the calm abyss.
You, admiring the sky, tremble for it.
I can’t help but remember Lermontov’s Sail:
And he, the rebellious one, asks for a storm,
As if there is peace in the storms!

The sea at Zhukovsky and the sail at Lermontov - romantic heroes. They cannot exist without struggle. True, for Lermontov the ideal is the struggle itself, and for Zhukovsky something high and pure is “the sky.” This ideal is unattainable, but does this mean that there is no need to fight for it?

According to Belinsky, Zhukovsky gave Russian poetry a soul and heart. We clearly feel this when reading the poem “The Sea”. The moral dignity of a person, a sense of duty, is what Zhukovsky valued in people and affirmed in his poems.