Pushkin: "The Bronze Horseman" (1837)

The famous statue of Peter the Great or "The Bronze Horseman."

A few years ago, I received word that my brother and sister-in-law passed away and that their estate was to either go into my hands or their son’s hands. I decided I had more or less become a citizen of Russia because of my long stay here, so I opted to let my nephew, Marvin, take over the estate until I returned (if ever) as long as he supplied me with the means to continue writing about Russia in Russia. Life has since become much more comfortable, and I was able to purchase an estate just outside of St. Petersburg. My friends often invite me to lecture at the university, so I have opportunities to associate with educated people and even receive some extra income.

Ford has become quite educated, and I often hesitate to call him my butler because I allow him so much independence. He recently expressed interest in acquiring a rank in the state service, so I encouraged him to pursue that and relay to me any interesting information I might be able to use for my research. I have plenty of other servants to help me at my estate.

In my never-ending perusal of literature, I have of course become familiar with the lauded Aleksandr Pushkin. He has recently published a narrative poem I find of particular significance. The poem is called “Медный всадник” or “The Bronze Horseman,” which refers to the famous statue of Peter the Great here in St. Petersburg. Because I was privileged to see the statue put in place and because of the controversy the poem has urged, I feel compelled to make a study of the poem.

A painting of Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin.

The poem itself is written in a way with which I am not familiar. The poem has an introduction and two subsequent parts. The introduction seems to be praising St. Petersburg and Tsar Peter the Great in an ode-like way, but the end of the introduction seems to be satirizing the ode-like attitude by pointing out the dangers of living in St. Petersburg, both from military and natural forces. Throughout the two parts after the introduction, Pushkin appears to be both noting how glorious St. Petersburg is and how tragic its history (Terras 212). This is all present along with the plot of the story that tells a story of a young man name Yevgeny who loses his love in a terrible flood and subsequently seems to encounter the supernatural (Terras 212).

Yevgeny loses his mind after experiencing the trauma of the flood and the loss of his beau and wanders through St. Petersburg (Pushkin and Dewey 67-68). After waking from a violent dream, Yevgeny makes his way back to the statue of Peter the Great (69). He remembers seeing the statue during the flood, above all the turmoil and curses the statue as if he were cursing Tsar Peter for forcing Russians to live in St. Petersburg (70). Yevgeny runs away and imagines he hears the bronze hooves of the horse sounding on the street as it follows him (70-1).

The poem follows a haphazard rhyme scheme because Pushkin seems to choose a different rhyme scheme for each stanza. For example, he writes:

A wave-swept shore, remote, forlorn: Here stood he, rapt in thought and drawn To distant prospects. Broad and chartless The river ran, along it borne A lonely skiff, rough-hewn and artless. Darke against the marshy green Of moss-grown banks appeared some mean Log huts: the poor Finns’ habitation; And forests which had never seen The mist-veiled sun’s illumination Were live with whispers. (Pushkin and Dewey 59)

На берегу пустынных волн Стоял он, дум великих полн, И вдаль глядел. Пред ним широко Река неслася; бедный чёлн По ней стремился одиноко. По мшистым, топким берегам Чернели избы здесь и там, Приют убогого чухонца; И лес, неведомый лучам В тумане спрятанного солнца, Кругом шумел. (Пушкин)

The English translation I have here does not follow Pushkin’s original rhyme scheme, but both resemble each other because of the lack of consistent rhyme. This lack of predictable rhyme persists throughout the rest of the stanzas in the poem (Pushkin and Dewey 59-71; Пушкин).

Pushkin’s poem is unique besides the fact that his rhyming scheme is unconventional. He uses quite a bit of contrast in this poem in order to make points about the history of St. Petersburg and about the character, Yevgenii (Zekulin 229). The fact that Yevgeii curses the statue of long-dead Peter the Great seems to indicate that the poem is blaming Tsar Peter for the misfortunes inherent with living in St. Petersburg (229). Additionally, the poem highlights the nature of Yevgenii as a small man who is up against the forces of nature and history. Yevgenii’s madness seems to come as a result of injustice and a realization of his powerlessness, but his madness seems to in part stem from the maddeningly treacherous experience of living in a place like St. Petersburg.

When reading this poem, I found it has some similarities to what Lomonosov has done in his poetry before as well. Pushkin wrote this poem as if he was allowing the narrator, who jumps through time to describe St. Petersburg and forward to describe Yevgenii’s misfortune, to speak on behalf of the Russians (Zekulin 235). This poem shows Pushkin allowing his narrator to be the mouthpiece for Russia experience in St. Petersburg. He followed another convention of Lomonosov’s when he used Church-Slavonic language. However, Pushkin diverted from Lomonosov’s pattern because he maintained some Russian conversational language as well.

Overall, I greatly appreciate Pushkin’s clear and enjoyable poetry that sheds light on some of the common issues of living in St. Petersburg. While the poem has a touch of the mythical, it still catches the imagination in a way that voices a common experience.

Works Cited

Pushkin, A.S. and John Dewey. "The Bronze Horseman: A St Petersburg Story." Translation & Literature, vol. 7, no. 1, May 1998, p. 59. EBSCOhost, ezproxy.uvu.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=prf&AN=4019686&site=eds-live.

Terras, Victor. A History of Russian Literature. Yale University Press, 1991.

Žekulin, Gleb. “On Rereading ‘The Bronze Horseman.’” Canadian Slavonic Papers / Revue Canadienne Des Slavistes, vol. 29, no. 2/3, 1987, pp. 228–240., www.jstor.org/stable/40868750.