The selected articles in "Selected Poems of Lermontov" clearly reflect the poet's creative trajectory from romanticism to realism.
The tone of Lermontov's early poetry creation was positive romanticism. While studying Pushkin and Byron, he broke away from their patterns and maintained his own unique style from the beginning of his creation, becoming his own style. For this reason, Chernyshevsky pointed out: "Some of Lermontov's immature poems, in terms of external form, imitate Pushkin's creations, but this is only an imitation in external form, not in thought. Imitation, because the ideas in it are entirely Lermontov's and are original, it has exceeded the scope of Pushkin's thought." After 1837, "The Death of the Poet" marked the mature stage of his creation. This "most powerful poem in Russian poetry" (Golky's language) expresses the people's hatred of evil. At this time, realism gradually became his creative direction. In this development, his lyric poetry has always occupied an important place.
Patriotism and freedom are the most prominent themes in Lermontov's poems. During the reign of Tsar Nicholas I, Russia was dying under the reactionary tyranny, and the people were enslaved and oppressed. "The Lament of the Turks" uses the form of metaphor to tell the tragedy and misfortune of Russia groaning under "slavery and chains" through the mouths of the Turks. It expresses the poet's indignation against authoritarian politics and his feelings about social injustice. love for the motherland and people. "The Prophecy" (1830) predicted the coming of "Russia's bad years": at that time "fires all over the sky" would illuminate the mountains and rivers, and the day when the Tsar's crown fell to the ground would be when "a powerful great man" would appear. The poet placed his hope in the peasant uprising and combined the praise of the leaders of the peasant uprising with the hatred of the tsarist autocracy. The artistic conception is profound and sonorous.
Lermontov’s lyric poems reflect the poet’s ideological distress, spiritual uneasiness and concern for the country and the people. They also reflect his artistic exploration and career pursuit. . Lermontov learned a lot from Pushkin, but he was unique in his own way. If Pushkin's poems are as vast in artistic conception as the sea, then Lermontov's poems are like a waterfall, rushing and roaring. From his poems, we can see the inspiration of the poet from the history of the struggle of the people against tyranny and various enslavers.
The lingering sentiment of loneliness is also one of the basic images in Lermontov’s lyric poetry: a “lone sail”, a lonely ancient pine in the desert north, a “lonely and sad” palm tree in the far south ...The poet himself also said: "I walked on the road alone." This theme continued to develop and ran through the poet's life creation.
Lermontov’s love poems also have a lonely and sad color. Love brings not happiness, but loneliness and pain. Unlike Pushkin and other poets, Lermontov has almost never tasted happy love. His relationship with women is always at the mercy of bad luck and fails to fulfill his wishes. The lover described by the poet is beautiful and attractive, but it is just a romantic illusion. The loneliness and pain expressed by the poet in his love poems actually reflect the contradiction between his ideal and reality.
Lermontov’s lyric poems are also full of another kind of emotion and intention: affirmation hidden in negation, and dark emotions are replaced by a bright, positive, and fighting optimism. This is the true meaning of his poetic conception. The poet hopes to move from "thought" to "action", which was also the ambition and pursuit of progressive people at that time. That's why Gorky said that the loneliness and pessimism expressed in Lermontov's poems are characterized by "positive feelings", "denial of the contemporary world" and "desire for struggle."
The more than 20 romantic poems written by the poet also reflect the same thoughts, emotions and intentions as those in lyric poems. Different from the indifference and despair expressed in Pushkin's early poems, the characters in Lermontov's poems have a unique style. The mountain people in his works are enthusiastic, full of willpower, courageous and tenacious, and are closely connected with their own people, which is in sharp contrast to the loneliness and isolation of the romantic rebellious characters. The poet expressed his love for the Caucasus by describing the "land of freedom", the "homeland of freedom", and the Caucasian people who grew up as powerful as eagles. He also described the beauty of nature, the simplicity and strength of the people, misfortune and the trauma of war. and yearning for freedom.