The presented work by Yu. N. Chumakov is a transcribed recording
of his brief theoretical summary of the relationship between semantic and
asemantic elements of verse. Chumakov’s intent was to demonstrate the interaction
between the semantic and asemantic elements and the resulting lyrical tension
within the verse structure which reveals itself in the presence or absence of
correspondences and convergences between these two aspects of verse. According
to Chumakov, it is the asemantic or phonorhythmic aspect rather than the
semantic one that is the dominant feature of a lyrical plot and therefore the only
true analogy of a lyrical theme is to be found in music. The emphasis on the
asemantic plane of lyrical texts and a focus toward purely phonic, “musical”
movement of verse brings about a view of lyrical poetry as a universal rather
than rational structure.
Following the theoretical summary, Chumakov presents an analysis of the
poem “Poetry” from Boris Pasternak’s collection “Themes and Variations”
(1923) which consists of a detailed review of the phonic aspect of the text that
avoids any discussion of thematic motifs or semantics. Looking at each line of
the poem without any use of lexico-semantic analysis, the scholar demonstrates
the dynamic movement of verse in a poem that, in accordance with its title and
Pasternak’s intent, was to embody the very essence of poetry. Assonance
and consonance, phonic repetitions and “reflections” (reverse repetitions), variations
of phonetic groups consisting of two, three or sometimes four sounds,
smooth or abrupt rearrangement of these groups in the development of the lyrical plot – it turns out that an analysis of these purely musical structural elements
is capable of producing an exhaustive and profound interpretation of the poem
in question as well as of the nature of lyrical poetry as a whole. This kind of
analysis, as applied to Pasternak’s text, is congenial to Pasternak’s particular
type of artistic gift which already in his childhood combined both poetic and
musical abilities. In Pasternak’s own words from his essay “People and Propositions”,
“the music of words is not at all an acoustic phenomenon, and consists
not in the harmony of vowels and consonants on their own, but in the interrelationship
between the speech and its sound.”
Bernshtejn S. I. Experience in analyzing “verbal instrumentation”: (First
stanza of Tyutchev's poem “Twilight”) // Poetics. L.: Academia, 1929, Vol. 5,
p. 156–192.
Buchstab B. On the question of the relationship between types of Russian
verse and pronunciation styles // Slavic Poetics: Essays in Honor of Kiril
Taranovsky. The Hague; Paris, 1973, pp. 67–74. (Slavistic Printings and Reprintings; [Vol.] 267).
Chumakov Ju. N. System of Assonances in A. Pushkin's Elegy “On the Hills
of Georgia” // Chumakov Ju. N. Lyrical poetics of Pushkin. SPb: State Pushkin
Theater Center, 1999. P. 319–325.
Chumakov Ju. N. Towards a lyrical plot. M.: Languages of Slavic Culture,
2010. 88 pp.
Culler J. Theory of Literature. Brief introduction. Moscow: Astrel: AST,
2006. 158 pp.
Gukovskij G. A. Pushkin and Russian Romantics. M .: Imaginative literature,
1965. 356 p.
Pasternak B. People and propositions. Autobiographical sketch // Pasternak
B. L. Collected Works in 11 vol. Moscow: The Word / Slovo, 2004.
Vol. 11, pp. 295–322.
Pasternak Boris. Themes and variations. The fourth book of poems.
Moscow, Berlin: Helicon, 1923. 126 p.
The Chronicle. 5 Seminar “Questions of the plot structure” // The plot structure in Russian literature. Daugavpils, 1980, pp. 158–163.
Tynjanov Ju. N. The problem of the poetic language. L.: Academia, 1924.
140 pp.