Lexico-semantic analysis of Gumilev’s “Gardens of the Soul” poem
Larisa Т. Kasperova
Abstract
This article presents a lexico-semantic analysis of Nikolay Gumilev’s “Garden of the Soul” poem (1907). In the early 20th century, there appeared a special type of depiction in art – a depiction of the author’s inner state. Analyzing the idiostyles (individual styles) of the poets from the Silver Age, we have defined it as a psychological self-portrait, the type of character depiction wherein the poet uses the artistic format to characterize his or her mental state when creating the work of art. One of Nikolay
Gumilev’s early poems, “Gardens of the Soul” (1907), fits into the category of the psychological self-portrait. In his early poems, the poet had already demonstrated the basic features of the future neo-romantic trend in Russian poetry, known as acmeism (from the Greek Üêìç (acme), the height of the blossoming season), founded by Nikolay Gumilev himself. By opposing themselves to the symbolists, the acmeists turned to the description of the material world. First and foremost, they tended to replace the referent with characterization in metaphorical constructions, and describe abstract notions through analogies with the material world. In his poem “Gardens of the Soul” the author describes his inner world through the metaphor of the garden. On route from referent denotations of the words garden and soul to the metaphorical meaning of the phrase “gardens of the soul”, the readers find themselves neutralizing the concrete semantic components, while other semantic components are actualized. The study uses lexicosemantic analysis and socio-philological experiments. The article summarizes the results of a survey, in which the respondents of various age and social groups interpret the text of the poem. The metaphorical transfer between the notions of the soul and the garden is carried out through not one, but several ways: epidigmatic (3%), lexicosemantic (39%), attributive (25%) and lexico-derivational (33%).
Keywords:
idiostyle, N. Gumilev, poetic text, poetic metaphor, lexico-semantic analysis, socio-philological experiments
Authors
Larisa Т. KasperovaStatistics
Downloads
License
1. Copyrights to published works are held by the University of Opole (to the collective work) and the Authors (to individual parts of the collective work that have an independent meaning).
2. Only previously undistributed works can be published in the scientific journal "Stylistics".
3. The University of Opole does not restrict the possibility of the author's further dissemination of his work on condition that the scientific journal "Stylistics" is indicated as the original place of publication and the consent of the University Publishing House.
4. Consent to the publication of the work in the scientific journal "Stylistics" is tantamount to granting the author a non-exclusive license to the University of Opole, including the right to use the work without territorial restrictions and time limits in the following fields of exploitation:
a) within the scope of recording and multiplication of the work - production of any number of copies of the work in whole or in part using a specified technique, including printing, reprography, magnetic recording and digital technique, introduction of the work into computer memory and computer networks,
b) within the scope of circulation of the original or copies on which the work has been recorded - circulation, lending or hiring of the original or copies,
c) within the scope of dissemination of the work in a manner other than specified in item 2 - making the work or its abstract available on the Internet by enabling the recipients to access the work on-line or enabling them to download the work to their own device that makes it possible to read it, placing the work in electronic databases that disseminate scientific works, including in particular the CEEOL database (Central and Eastern Online Libray) and the abstract in English in the CEJSH database (The Central Europaen Journal of Social Scienes and Humanites).
d) within the scope of creating and distributing dependent works created using the work - using them in the fields of exploitation specified in points 1-3.
5. The author is not entitled to compensation for granting the license to the work.
6. The author agrees that the University may grant further permission to use the work (sublicense) in the fields of exploitation specified in par. 2 paragraph 4.
7. The author agrees that, in connection with the distribution of the work, his or her personal information, that is, name, affiliation, and e-mail address, may be made public.
