Time drives horses. Alexander Pushkin - The Cart of Life: Verse. A brief analysis of the verse “The Cart of Life” by A. S. Pushkin

Though the burden is heavy at times,
The cart is light on the move;
The dashing coachman, gray time,
Lucky, he won't get off the irradiation board.

In the morning we get into the cart;
We're happy to break our heads
And, despising laziness and bliss,
We shout: let's go! . . . .

But at noon there is no such courage;
Shocked us; we are more scared
And slopes and ravines;
We shout: take it easy, fools!

The cart is still rolling;
In the evening we got used to it
And, dozing, we go until the night -
And time drives horses.

Date of creation: 1823

Analysis of Pushkin’s poem “The Cart of Life”

During his southern exile, Alexander Pushkin was in a rather gloomy mood almost all the time, mentally cursing not only his own fate, but also the people involved in his expulsion from St. Petersburg. It was during this period that sarcastic and even mocking notes appeared in the poet’s work; the author tried to generalize everything that was happening and impart some philosophical meaning.

The result of such attempts can be considered the poem “The Cart of Life,” which was written in 1823. The poet was in Odessa at that time and was forced to serve in the office of Governor General Mikhail Vorontsov, carrying out small and unnecessary assignments. According to the recollections of eyewitnesses, the last straw that overflowed the poet’s patience was the train out of town in order to find out how much the wheat crops had suffered from the horde of locusts. It is believed that it was after this incident that Pushkin not only compiled a daring report for his boss, but also wrote the poem “The Cart of Life,” in which he poured out all his bile and causticity.

The philosophical attitude towards reality, which the poet was unable to change, prompted him to a very successful literary image. As a result, Pushkin compared human life to a cart, which is “light on the move,” although sometimes it is forced to carry a heavy load. The author includes the thoughts, feelings and actions of people who, nevertheless, are not able to speed up or slow down the course of life-cart. Only we ourselves can influence this when we are “happy to break our heads” in order to quickly get to our intended goal, no matter how illusory and absurd it may seem from the outside.

Pushkin compares youth with early morning, when a person just gets into a cart and rushes on it at full speed over potholes and off-road roads, regardless of time and his own strength. However, when noon comes, which in the author’s interpretation symbolizes the maturity of the mind and body, “both slopes and ravines are more terrible for us.” This means that over the years a person not only acquires some wisdom, but also becomes much more careful, realizing that on a winding path, even in a good-quality and durable cart, you can easily break your neck.

And finally, in the life of almost every person there comes a time when he no longer wants to go anywhere. For Pushkin, the evening symbolizes old age, when a person, having traveled a long distance, has become so close to his life-cart that he simply ceases to notice its attractive sides, to rejoice and be sad, to love and suffer. At this stage, we are all “dozing, driving to the overnight stop, and time drives the horses.”

Thus, Pushkin compared human life to a ride on a creaky cart, and this journey only at the beginning gives each of us a feeling of joy, inspires us to take daring actions and makes us not notice obstacles. However, with age, life becomes a burden even for optimists who, not seeing a more interesting path for themselves, lose all interest in such a trip and get irritated every time they hit potholes.

It is noteworthy that this poem was published almost immediately after Pushkin returned from southern exile. However, a modified version of this work was published in the Moscow Telegraph magazine, from which Peter Vyazemsky removed obscene expressions, which the poet liked to resort to in moments of extreme irritation. Pushkin, when sending the manuscript to Vyazemsky, warned in advance that he could make changes at his own discretion, thereby recognizing that “The Cart of Life” was written by him under the influence of a prolonged depression.

“Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin” - Biography and life at the Lyceum of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin. He published his first poem in the journal “Bulletin of Europe” in 1814. Thank you for your attention!!! In Mikhailovskoye the poet's talent undoubtedly reached its full maturity. And the era began to be called Pushkin’s. A.S. Pushkin. Topic: My favorite writer!

"Alexander Sergeevich" - Great poet. Natalya Alexandrovna. Pushkina Nadezhda Osipovna. The life of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin. Photo by Natalia Goncharova. Pushkin was wounded in the stomach and died two days later…….. Maria Alexandrovna. Pushkin Sergey Lvovich. Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin. Parents of the greatest poet. Children of Alexander Pushkin.

“A.S. Pushkin is a great poet” - A.S. Pushkin. After graduating from the Lyceum. On May 6, 1830, Pushkin’s engagement to N.N. Goncharova finally took place. Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin. Soon Pushkin went to St. George's Monastery and Bakhchisarai. At the beginning of 1834, a Dutch adoptee appeared in St. Petersburg. January 27, 1837, at 5 o’clock in the evening, on the Chernaya River in the suburbs.

“Pushkin’s Lyceum Friends” - Uncle Vasily Lvovich Pushkin is a popular poet of the early 19th century. Sentenced to hard labor in Siberia after the Decembrist uprising (“My first friend...”). The image of “friendship” in the lyrics: Brother Lev Sergeevich. Lyceum friends of the poet. Mother Nadezhda Osipovna, née Hannibal. Father - Sergei Lvovich Pushkin. “Old Derzhavin noticed us and, going into the grave, blessed us...”

“Goethe and Pushkin” - In Pushkin’s Faust, in the beginning there was an Act, not a word. I remember wonderful moment: You appeared before me, Like a fleeting vision, Like a genius of pure beauty. The rebellious gust of storms scattered my former dreams, And I forgot your tender voice, your heavenly features. In Goethe, man is saved by the Eternal Feminine. To Pushkin, the mysticism of the Eternal Feminine is alien.

“Poets of the times of Pushkin” - Svetlana. Batyushkov is an artist. Pushkin's parents. Kuchelbecker is a Decembrist. Correspondence between Delvig and Pushkin. Baratynsky enters as a private. Evening Star. Zhukovsky Vasily Andreevich. My good genius. Batyushkov Konstantin Nikolaevich. A.S. Pushkin. Wilhelm Kuchelbecker. Illegitimate son. Astrakhan Hussar Regiment.

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I dedicate the article to Barbara Polonskaya, who in one of the discussions at the Literary Salon showed interest in “The Cart of Life.” This became the impetus for my work.
A. Sapir

But here it’s already a matter (...) in the properties of that language,
on which was once written a brilliant
Pushkin's "Cart".

Annensky I. F. “On modern lyricism.”

Vyazemsky himself was one of the discoverers
"road" theme in Russian poetry. Back in 1818 Vyazemsky
created the poem “Bumps”, where the themes are “path” and “charioteer”
acquire an expansive, symbolic meaning,
preparing to some extent poetic material
for Pushkin's brilliant "Cart of Life".

G. M. Friedlander. Poetic dialogue between Pushkin and P. A. Vyazemsky.

On November 29, 1824, already in Mikhailovsky exile, A. Pushkin writes a letter to P. Vyazemsky. He expresses his opinion on literary novelties, reports plans for the publication of some works, and mentions the chapter of “Onegin”, given to his brother for printing in St. Petersburg. And at the very end of the letter, having already written the date, he asks a friend a question: “Do you know my Cart of Life?”
Then he reproduces the full text of the poem:

The cart is easy to move:
The dashing coachman, gray time,
Lucky, he won’t get off the irradiation board.

In the morning we get into the cart;
We're happy to break our heads
And, despising laziness and bliss,
We shout: go ahead* (...) mother!

And slopes and ravines:
We shout: take it easy, fools!

The cart is still rolling;
In the evening we got used to it
And dozing, we go until the night -
And time drives horses.
1823

*In the final version, instead of the word “go ahead,” the word “go” was used.

So, let's turn to the text of the poem “The Cart of Life”.
In the construction of the poem, as in the best works of the poet, there is “rigor and harmony” and laconicism. 4 stanzas, of which the first is a kind of exposition, each of the others is one of the periods of human life, like a stop along the way.
Let's read the first stanza:

Though the burden is heavy at times,
The cart is light on the move;
The dashing coachman, gray time,
Lucky, he won’t get off the irradiation board.

The title “The Cart of Life,” in which the main word is “cart,” and the exposition, which, at first glance, sets the circumstances of the action, set the tone for the fact that the poem will be about travel. However, already when reading the first stanza you pay attention to keywords. All of them are connected with travel, and all of them, except for the direct meaning, imply another - metaphorical one. The phrase that became the title of the poem sounds unusual, unconventional, and even, we agree with D. Blagiy, provocative. Together with other words of the first stanza, such as “burden”, “dashing coachman - gray time”, “lucky, will not get off the irradiation”, it becomes the key one. All these words can only be approximately explained by the content of the first stanza and are revealed only in the context of the entire poem. Deciphering the meaning of the word “burden,” D. Blagoy says that it alludes to heavy luggage, to the significant weight (physical) of the rider. This is true, but its content does not end there. Already in the first stanza one can guess its expansive meaning. If only because it and the word “time” that rhymes with it are still few words from the high vocabulary, while others gravitate toward everyday vocabulary. The same incident is in the title: the word “cart” is undoubtedly from the everyday and even colloquial vocabulary, but in combination with the word “life” it acquires a different, still mysterious meaning for the reader. Other key words behave in the same way: “dashing driver” - who does not understand this figure and this word? But it becomes a “mysterious stranger” in combination with the application “gray time”.
We will return to deciphering the meanings of the key words of the first stanza when analyzing the final quatrain.
Let's look at the second stanza:

In the morning we get into the cart;
We're happy to break our heads
And, despising laziness and bliss,
We shout: let's go! ...

If the first stanza warned us that we would be talking about travel, in the second it is already the subject of the image. The morning of life, as the beginning of life's journey, is depicted as full of vitality and energy of overcoming (“we are glad to break our heads, despite laziness and bliss”). The image of the rider also appears - this is the twice repeated “we”. All actions and experiences are depicted from the perspective of not one, but many, and are depicted as typical. The character of the character is guessed - adventurous and mischievous. The latter is evidenced by the very “Russian title” that Pushkin proposed to remove if the poem was published. An abundance of verbs and verbal forms: we sit down, we shout - in the present tense, conveying the typical, rooted nature of the action. The verb form - the gerund (despising) has the same meaning. Finally, the verb in the form of the imperative mood (went), the verbal phraseological unit (break your head) serve the same purpose - to convey the impatient character of the rider, striving to overcome the obstacles encountered along the way.
Let us note in this stanza the predominance of colloquial vocabulary, even obscene. And this, too, in its own way characterizes the rider - a person of any class, accustomed to traveling as a way of life, accustomed to the vocabulary of coachmen, inns, impatient guests, etc.
Let's move on to the third stanza:

But at noon there is no such courage;
Shocked us; we are more scared
And slopes and ravines;
We shout: take it easy, fools!

Perhaps the metamorphosis that occurred with the rider is most noticeable in this stanza, especially if you compare its content with the well-known myth. The middle of the path (in the sense that in Dante’s introduction to the Divine Comedy: “Having completed earthly life to the half...”), the midday of life is depicted not as a rise, but as a decline vital energy. And, perhaps, this is felt most strongly in the line in which the verb “shout” is repeated anaphorically: “We shout: take it easy, you fools!” It seems that the same verb has lost its power and poignancy. And there is no longer any sense of mischief in the continuation of the phrase - in the address to the cab driver: “Keep it down, you fools!” On the contrary, there is a desire not to rush, to slow down the too fast running of the horses. Compared to the many verbs and verbal forms of the previous stanza, in the third, in addition to the one named, there is also the verb “shaken” (not even “shaken”), the meaning of which, reinforced by another prefix, comes down to the following: “to shake a lot”, “to shake one after another” In addition, the duration and duration of the action are conveyed by pyrrhic (or peon - a four-syllable meter: three unstressed, one stressed), that is, at the level of the rhythmic organization of the line and stanza. And one more remark: one cannot help but see in this word a delicately expressed echo of Vyazemsky’s “Bump”: after all, one can “get shaken” primarily on potholes.
The predicates “there is no such courage” and “we are worse off”, firstly, have lost a specific subject, become impersonal, and secondly, do not contain action. This is the degree of accuracy of Pushkin in showing the changes that the “rider” was subject to on his life’s path!
The last stanza sums up the life path of the rider and the entire poem:

The cart is still rolling;
In the evening we got used to it
And we doze off until we spend the night.
And time drives horses.

The main meaning of this stanza, its first three lines, is to show the power of habit (“Habit has been given to us from above, it is a substitute for happiness,” the wiser Pushkin will say through the mouth of one of the heroines in “Eugene Onegin.” But that will come later!) Here it is the mood is expressed not only by the verb “got used to”, but also by another phrase – “it rolls as before.” We are so used to it that it is as if there are no slopes or ravines on the way, but a smooth path stretches out. We are so used to it that we “doze off until we spend the night” - that is, until the natural end of life. The hero (“we”, the rider) is used to it, almost lulled by the smooth road. The almost lulled reader does not expect any shocks...
All the more explosive is the last line of the entire poem - “And time drives horses.” “Explosive” - because the word “drives” is read as “opposed to habit, the everyday course of things,” and because, although the line was prepared by the entire course of the plot, in a completely new and somewhat unexpected way, it reveals the essence of its movement . The line takes us back to the beginning of the poem, forcing us to re-read it again. This is the only way to understand its explosive character, its compositional role in the poem, built as the most perfect architectural structure.
But – a few more observations.

We saw how the rider, one of the heroes of the poem, gradually changed. This shown Pushkin and forms the basis of the developing plot. But there are two heroes in the poem. In order to understand whether the second one is changing, let’s compare them. They are directly related in the wording of the first and last stanzas. In the first - “dashing coachman, gray time”, in the last - simply Time (it seems that the capital letter in the word is not only a tribute to the poetic tradition - starting a line with it). It is also said about time in the first stanza: “You’re lucky, you won’t get off the irradiation board.” This characteristic already contains that inexorable force that will manifest itself so powerfully in the finale of the poem.
At first glance, it seems that in the middle stanzas the image of time is not in the frame, but behind it, and does not reveal its merciless essence. We even hear the rider commanding the driver. After all, he “screams” twice when giving orders. But we have already seen that as we move, the strength of the cry weakens, and it is not the driver who adapts to the rider, but the rider who becomes more and more resigned (gets used to) the movement of time and submits to it. It is Time that changes the rider and, therefore, “commands” him.
First of all, our discussions about the polysemy of images, about the different meanings inherent in them and about their interaction relate to Time. Let's consider this aspect.
As already mentioned, the duality of the image of Time is already set in the first stanza. The very first mention of Time, the first and instant portrait of it, albeit without details, is “a dashing coachman.” The details were filled in by the readers themselves. Let’s put ourselves in the shoes of these readers, think about these details, otherwise we won’t understand what D. Blagoy called “the challenge.”
Perhaps the reader remembered that the “Yamskaya chase”, “on bad roads” - “ characteristic feature exactly Russian way movement." Perhaps, like Pushkin himself, the “coachman class” was kind to him, and that it, this class, occupied a special place among other classes. Thus, a special decree of 1800 prescribed that coachmen should be no younger than 18 and no older than 40 years old, “of good behavior, sober and not suspicious in any way, with the specified passports and certificates confirming the reliability of their behavior.” (All information is taken from the Onegin Encyclopedia, vol. 2, article “Coachman”). In Pushkin, Time not only appears in the image of a coachman, but a coachman as a “dashing” one. That is, the poet uses a stable expression to characterize it, also drawn from the practice of the living spoken language. In this description, time (with a lowercase letter), likened to a coachman, is a figure well known to all travelers. Despite Pushkin’s youth, it is well known to him. In the future, we will make sure that the “man” is not a random guest in the poem. That this kind of “challenge” (that is, the presence of folk consciousness, folk traditions) is sufficient in the poem. But let’s not forget that in the same stanza, in the same line, Time appears as if written with capital letter, because it reveals its formidable face: this is “gray time”, which “is lucky, will not get off the irradiation.”
Returning to the first stanza, let’s listen again to the sound of the word “burden” and think about its second – metaphorical – meaning. After all, this is one of those words whose content is revealed throughout the poem. The weight of its sound is felt physically thanks to the epithet “heavy” (grammatically, “heavy” is a predicate, but it characterizes the word “burden”, that is, it also acts as an epithet). The severity is enhanced due to the fact that the epithet turned out to be far from the word being defined, and because it turned out to be broken by two syllables - iambic and pyrrhic (perhaps the first four syllables - three unstressed and stressed - constitute a peon. In the very first syllable, the stress is weakened so much that the syllable can be considered unstressed). All that has been said allows us to assert that the heaviness of this word is not accidental - it gives a metaphorical meaning to the word: we are talking not so much about physical heaviness, but about burden of life. And this is already discussed in the first stanza, where the concept of time is ambivalently deciphered, where variability and play of meanings are noticeable.
On the one hand, this is the very Time that “drives the horses,” on the other hand, it is the coachman who, as befits him, “will not get off the bench.” And throughout the entire poem there is the same duality that we have already talked about. The rider shouts at the driver as if he controls himself and time, but in fact he obeys him. As a coachman, he is “placed” in a vernacular language environment (obscene vocabulary and the address to him by “fools”), and meanwhile, before the gaze of the rider and before ours, a long road of life opens up with an inevitable “overnight” at the end of the road - a majestic picture of perpetual motion. As we see, the poet’s “challenge” does not mean a rejection of traditions, and in the image of time, along with the common folk features, we feel the presence of Chronos. God and the commoner in one person - this is Pushkin’s true discovery.
Noteworthy is the use of the epithet “gray-haired” in relation to time. The definition may also refer to the age of the coachman, although we remember that coachmen were no older than 40 years old, but this age was already considered respectable. But there is another connotation in this word (ambivalence again!). According to the dictionary, one of the meanings of the word “gray-haired” is deciphered as “relating to the distant past, ancient.” Thus, through the momentary, including human life, eternity shines through, and in the movement of “private” time, Time is felt - one and eternal.
In order to understand the image of Time, as it appears at the end of the poem, let’s bring together all its characteristics, both explicit and indirect throughout the poem. First of all, let's compare the definitions of the first and last stanzas.
In the first stanza, two definitions are expressed by adjectives - “dashing” and “gray-haired”. Let us not forget that the first of the definitions is given to time, which is represented in the role of the well-known coachman. The only definition relating to Time itself is expressed by the adjective “gray-haired”, as discussed above. All subsequent definitions are expressed in verbs. We will compare them.
In the first stanza it is “lucky, he won’t get off the irradiation board.” Let us note that both verbs characterize time in both of its forms. They relate to the coachman, giving him a “professional” characteristic (he performs his duty diligently, perhaps zealously), and to Time. The characterization emphasizes what is denoted by the lofty word “will” and inflexibility.
In the middle stanzas, where there are no direct characteristics, we nevertheless saw that Time influences the rider, changes him, forces him to obey.
In the last stanza "Time drives horses." This word has many meanings, but all meanings have something in common: force move, encourage to movement, guide movement, urge...
In other words, in the word “drive” we no longer feel will as potential, but an expression of will stronger than that of the one being persecuted; we feel inflexibility and mercilessness. Time appears as a symbol representing Fate or Fate, as they were understood in Greek tragedies.
N.N. Skatov, mentioned above, who gave his interpretation of the poem “The Cart of Life,” denies the poet a “lyrical experience” of the finitude of life, passing time, death: He writes: “In the openly and emphatically allegorical “Cart of Life” there has not yet been and there could be internal drama, “noon” itself looked more like a distant forecast than an experienced state”; and further he says that in the poem we are considering there was no problem “life - death”.
It is difficult to agree with such conclusions.
Firstly, because in the last stanza there is the word “overnight”, which is read like all key words, both in the literal and figurative sense. If you see in the poem the plot of a journey along bumpy Russian roads in a cart with a driver on the beam, then the word “overnight” is read as the longed-for rest of a road-weary rider. If you trace the movement of the allegorical plot, then the “overnight stay” is read as the natural end of life’s journey - like death.
We can agree that in other, later poems by Pushkin, the opposition life - death is felt more tragically, but the wing of death undoubtedly touched the poem “The Cart of Life”.
That is why the last line is read as an awareness of the fact that Time is omnipotent, that life is finite, like any journey, that a person, whether he wants it or not, submits to the inexorable course of Time.
It would seem that the reflections do not correspond to the age of the author. But let’s not forget the trials that befell him, because only the exile, which had already lasted four years, changed the prisoner’s place of residence three times, and each time not by his own will. The rest has already been said in due time. In addition, a feature of Pushkin’s creative and life path, as many researchers note, was the ability to change moods. When, seemingly following the flow of life, suddenly (but in fact naturally) there was a sharp slowdown, a pause. When, it would seem, in the midst of reckless fun, there suddenly came a time of thoughtfulness or even despair.
One of these pauses when it was necessary to comprehend life path, and it was time to write “The Cart of Life.” Reflecting on the problem of “man and time” in relation to his own and other people’s experience, Pushkin could not help but state that Time has a mystical power over man. It “drives the horses,” and the cart of life, in which every mortal makes his life’s journey, is subject to the time that rushes along, and not vice versa.

And now, as promised, let us consider the place of the poem “The Cart of Life” among later works on this or a similar topic by Pushkin himself and his contemporaries. We are observing an amazing thing: neither Pushkin himself nor his contemporaries managed to create a poem so deep and multidimensional, with such a rich palette and play of meanings. Rather, it should be said that each of the themes of “The Cart of Life” is developed as an independent one, and as such is brought to its logical end. Each topic has its own shades, but in none of them does the philosophical idea of the collision of man and time sound so intense. The focus of the image also shifts towards showing the hardships of the road, especially in winter.
Thus, in Pushkin’s poem “Winter Road” (1826), the theme of the road sounds elegiac; it is, as it were, illuminated and “ringed” by the light of the moon. The first stanza begins like this: “Through the wavy fogs / The moon makes its way...” The final stanza sounds almost the same: “The moon’s face is foggy.” The elegiac nature of feelings during the journey is accompanied, like a refrain, by a “monotonous bell” that “rattles tiresomely” and “long songs of the coachman” in which one can hear the “native”: “That daring revelry, / That heartfelt melancholy.” Relatively speaking, this bell will “come back to haunt” Vyazemsky’s later poems. G. M. Friedlander spoke wonderfully about this in the article “Poetic dialogue between Pushkin and P. A. Vyazemsky,” which was quoted above: “... Vyazemsky himself later, at a different stage of development, sought to master new, dissimilar ways of depicting the Russian winter ( This is how the topic of the road shifted - A.S.). (...) In the cycle “Winter Caricatures” (1828), and even later in such poems as “Road Duma”, “Another Troika” (1834), (...) follows Pushkin - the author of “Winter Road” "(1826), which combines the themes of the Russian winter, the road, the troika, the change of the "tiring" and "monotonous" ringing of the bell and the coachman's song, "daring revelry" and "heartfelt melancholy." (pp. 168 – 169).
In Pushkin’s poem “Road Complaints” (1830), attention is focused on road ordeals, each of which threatens the hero with death “Not in the hereditary den, / Not among the father’s graves,” but

On the stones under the hoof,
On the mountain under the wheel,
Or in a ditch washed away by water,
Under a dismantled bridge.

Or the plague will catch me,
Or the frost will ossify,
Or a barrier will hit my forehead
A non-agile disabled person.

Or in the forest under the knife of a villain
I'll get caught on the side
Or I'll die out of boredom
Somewhere in quarantine...

But, despite the fact that many ordeals threaten the hero with death, her arrival is not depicted as a tragic confrontation between life and death, man and Time. Firstly, because the poem is heavily flavored with irony, which reduces the intensity of passion and reduces the tragedy itself. Secondly, in the poem itself there is something that contrasts with death - the desired goal of any journey: home comfort or, at worst, the warmth and satiety of a restaurant.
In Vyazemsky’s poem “Russian God” (1828), written even before Pushkin’s “Road Complaints”, but after “The Winter Road,” we again encounter the hardships of the road, which appear here in the most concentrated form:

God of blizzards, god of potholes,
God of painful roads,
Stations - cockroach headquarters,
Here it is, here it is, the Russian god.

All road disasters that torment the traveler are presented as eternal and inevitable - they are sanctified by the “Russian god”.
An interesting roll call of themes and images in the already analyzed poems of Pushkin and in E. Baratynsky’s poem “The Road of Life” (1825). Let's quote it in full:

Equipping for the road of life
Your sons, us madmen,
Golden dreams of good fortune
Gives us the reserve we know.

Us quickly years postal
From tavern to tavern,
And those fatal dreams
We pay for the runs of life.

The poem was written in the same year at the very beginning of which Pushkin’s poem “The Cart of Life” was published. It seems to us that the title of the poem is given by analogy with Pushkin’s. It also seems to be a work that is closest in spirit to Pushkin. (It is no coincidence that Pushkin loved the work of his younger contemporary so much, defending his talent in disputes with Vyazemsky).
Baratynsky, like Pushkin, has combined plans - real and metaphorical: life seems to be a road along which “post years” fly (a wonderful image!) from tavern to tavern. But, if in Pushkin’s man at some point on this path he begins to see clearly and almost sees with his own eyes Time and its inexorable course, then in Baratynsky’s man on the path of life parts with illusions, dreams - “golden dreams”, with which he is generously endowed in himself. the beginning of life's journey. The loss of dreams pays for the “passages of life”, pays for “fatal themes.” Speaking about the “golden dreams” of “us madmen,” Baratynsky judges from the height of a more mature age (if you see the author’s alter ego in the lyrical hero, then he is 25–26 years old at that moment), and not from the position of a person just “equipping for the road.” life." And what melancholy and disappointment sound in his words! Meanwhile, in “The Cart of Life,” a poem undoubtedly more tragic, there is neither disappointment nor melancholy. There is insight, and there is the courage to see reality.
Baratynsky's poem is remarkable for its purely poetic means of resolving the theme, for the philosophical richness of the same images as Pushkin's. But we prefer Pushkin’s concept and his position.
So, let's summarize some results.

In 1823, a crisis year for Pushkin, since he was parting with his youth, moving into a different age period, parting with illusions, gaining more and more real look for life, the poet creates the poem “The Cart of Life.” Perhaps it is the author’s crisis state that determines such a keen perception of the problem “Man and Time” and its deeply personal solution. The harsh philosophy of life, its irrevocable laws, demanded equally truthful answers, first of all, from the lyrical subject himself (this is the collective “we” in the poem). But, since the path of life itself is personified in the image of a road and a cart rolling along it, “we” also appears in the image of a “rider.” Pushkin’s main discovery is that Time itself appears in the image of a coachman. It is this that moves the cart, rolls out the path, changes the rider’s ideas about life, “drives the horses.” Whether Pushkin wanted it or not, he, having inherited from Vyazemsky, “ road theme", treated the inheritance creatively. Intertwining real and metaphorical meaning in the plot, he not only enriched our understanding of ancient myth or the traditional idea of life-path, he for the first time equalized the two elements of language - vernacular and high vocabulary. And this gave him the opportunity to give an idea of all the components of the plot: life as a path and as a journey in a cart, time as a coachman and Time as a philosophical category, the lyrical subject as a generalizing “we” and as a “rider” in two plans, sometimes diverging, sometimes intertwined and indissoluble.
Personal experiences of a dramatic turning point year, as always with Pushkin, were melted into perfect lines, perfect architectonics and perfect images of the poem. A perfect example of philosophical lyrics, without speculation and reasoning, but in living images that awaken thought and feelings. And, as it was before and will always be, the poem, which embodied so much for Pushkin himself, became healing for him.

Asya Sapir

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Philosophical analysis of the poem “The Cart of Life” by Alexander Pushkin

Though the burden is heavy at times,
The cart is light on the move;
The dashing coachman, gray time,
Lucky, he won't get off the irradiation board.

In the morning we get into the cart;
We're happy to break our heads
And, despising laziness and bliss,
We shout: let's go! . . . . . . .

But at noon there is no such courage;
Shocked us: we are more scared
And slopes and ravines:
We shout: take it easy, fools!

The cart is still rolling;
In the evening we got used to it
And dozing we go until the night,
And time drives horses.

The result of such attempts can be considered the poem “The Cart of Life,” which was written in 1823.

Though the burden is heavy at times,
The cart is light on the move;
The dashing coachman, gray time,
Lucky, he won't get off the irradiation board.

In the morning we get into the cart;
We're happy to break our heads
And, despising laziness and bliss,
We shout: let's go! Fuck your mother!

But at noon there is no such courage;
Shocked us; we are more scared
And slopes and ravines;
We shout: take it easy, fools!

The cart is still rolling;
In the evening we got used to it
And, dozing, we go until the night -
And time drives horses.

Analysis of the poem “The Cart of Life” by Pushkin

Pushkin's literary work affects almost all aspects of our lives. Philosophical themes, observations about the laws of the Universe, about the place of man in it, are one of the most extensive in the poet’s works.

The poem “The Cart of Life” was written in 1823, during the period of Alexander Sergeevich’s service in the office of the Odessa Governor-General. The daily routine did not add to his good mood, drove him into depression and contributed to a philosophical approach to the perception of reality. About the status inner world The poet during this period is clearly demonstrated by the fact that before the publication of this poem, at his own request, some obscene expressions were removed from the text, which the author sometimes allowed himself when he was not in the best frame of mind.

From the very first lines of the poem, we see a certain amount of pessimism in the symbolism: Pushkin compares a person’s life not with a team of three horses or a luxurious carriage, but with a cart, where the “dashing coachman” plays the role of inexorable, intractable time.

In “The Cart of Life,” the poet very aptly describes the psychology of all stages of human existence. Morning, symbolizing youth, carries within itself the joy and fullness of life: “the cart is light on the move,” and we sit in it “despising laziness and bliss.” This is followed by a period of maturity - midday - in which “there is no such courage.” The accumulated experience dictates the need for a sober assessment of the situation, decisions become more thoughtful, subordinate to logic, and we shout to the driver “take it easy!” And finally, evening comes, the time when a person becomes so accustomed to his cart and the path already traveled that he does not feel much joy from the trip. The optimistic mood recedes, and is replaced by irritation from frequent bumps.

The last line of the poem symbolizes the inevitable cycle of life. The laws of time are inexorable, people are born, die, and others come to replace them. And it is beyond the power of man to change anything in the existing order. Everything is provided in advance.

The generalized nature of the sentences in the poem, using personal pronouns of the 1st person in plural, indicates that the hero is a very ordinary person. He does not oppose himself to the general mass and, like everyone else, obeys the laws of the Universe.

“The Cart of Life” belongs to Pushkin’s early philosophical works and, like most of his poems, is filled with an amazing understanding of reality and its laws, inherent in all the poet’s work with a love of life.