Dr. George Soltys
An indication of the topical and
psychological romantic elements
in Shevchenko’s poetry
UDC 123(45)
Dr. George Soltys
professor
(New York, SUNY, USA)
“Yo soy yo
Y mis circunstancias”
(José Ortega y Gasset)
B
The article is devoted to combining thematic
and psychological elements of romanticism
in the poetry of Taras Shevchenko.
Keywords : Romanticism, Shevchenko’s creativity,
political poetry, works of monumental Generation.
  
Поєднання тематичних та психологічних
елементів романтизму в поезіях Т. Шевченкаy
Солтис Дж.
Received: 17 Mar 2014
© Dr. George Soltys, 2014
ecause of a vast diversity of themes in Shevchenko’s
poems, any critical investigations or interpretations
may be in conflict with each other. At times, while
studying the poet’s works, it seems that we are dealing with more than one author. As a result, we envision Shevchenko as an atheist and, at the same time, as
a deeply religious person. His role as a rebel or revolutionary is negated by his appeals for brotherly love and
forgiveness. His optimism often turns into pessimism –
a pathological lack of faith or hope for a better future.
Also, since every literary work reflects some autobiographical elements, Shevchenko’s poetry compels us
to look at him as a mythical Prometheus, a martyr, the
father of Ukrainian nation and human rights.
Many critics, due to their respect for him, refer to
Shevchenko as a prophet, while pointing out an the
epithets that were mentioned above. But, according
to the definitions, which may be found in the dictionaries, a prophet foretells the future, he is the one who
receives God’s interpretation and who interprets God’s
will.
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Visnyk Akademii advokatury Ukrainy
Mykhailo Drahomanov was one of those
who was against exalting Shevchenko as a
national prophet. He maintained that we
never had any prophets in literature [3, 65].
He also criticized Shevchenko for not being
firm in his religious beliefs and not having
sufficient knowledge of history [3, 66]. That,
by the way, makes us doubt about Shevchenko’s ability to accomplish his prophetic
mission.
We have a tendency to look at everything
through a prism of today’s events or even
through a filter of our expectations. It means,
we want to see things that may not even exist
and aren’t part of reality which the poet had
felt and wanted to pass on to the readers of
the ХІХ century. In other words, our comprehension of Shevchenko’s poetry should
depend mainly on the complex social and
political processes that had influenced his
life.
A Spanish philosopher Jose Ortega-Gasset indicated that the psychological essence
of a person does not only depend on the biological code, but also on the environment –
everything that, in addition to nature, has on
impact on the person’s character. To mention
some of those environmental factors let us
point out the cultural revolution of the ХІХ
century in Europe. It was romanticism – a
revolution against the ideology of the former century. The foundation on which it was
built was substituted by a new world vision.
Consequently, new norms were instituted in
literature, as well as in other forms of cultural
endeavors. Nevertheless, the main slogan at
that time was liberty, which pertained to the
political ideology, literary topics and poetic
style.
At first, it is difficult to see some common
romantic trends in literature. It is only at
the end of the first half of the ХІХ century,
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when the ideas of romantic movement finally
arrive in Spain and, after analizing the variety
of approaches, that one can summarize the
characteristics utilized by the romantic poets.
As a result, there seams to be an agreement
by many to accept the following [11, 127/8):
1. The poet’s feelings are often the main
topic of his poetry. Also are important the
poet’s interactions with his environment.
2. Poetry strives to be subjective highlighting the negative attitude towards rules
pertaining to literature and politics.
3. Frequently, the poet imagines himself to be a leader of society and feels that
his ideas reflect the wishes and aspirations of
his people. Some social and political topics
become part of literature.
4. Many times, the themes presented
by the poet are of a historical or legendary
nature.
5. The outbursts of feelings, as well as the
usual interpretations of reality, imagination
and instinct seem to be more important than
common sense.
6. There is a predominance of pessimism
rather than optimism.
7. The poet pufers spontaneity instead of
following the neoclassical rules.
8. There is an attempt to comprehend the
role of nature in our lives.
9. Poets, who willingly or unwillingly
live outside of the borders of their countries,
express the type of nostalgia than goes hand
in hand with on extreme fuling of patriotism.
10. Many legends, popular songs and
other manifestations of folklore serve as a
source of poetic images, stylistic expressions
and vocabulary. Often, the poet intermingles
Dr. George Soltys
poetry and prose for a more vivid presentation of the topic.
It seems that all the above mentioned
statements may be applied to Shevchenko’s
poetry without them it would be indeed difficult to comprehend the variety of themes
and their historical, political and psychological interpretations. We can maintain,
without a doubt, than Shevchenko is one of
the most representative poets of the romantic period. Whereas even the most known
poets of the romantic era show only some
of the listed characteristics, Shevchenko’s world view embraces all the nuances of
romanticism.
A very important event occurs in
Shevchenko’s life in the year 1838. After
being a serf for 24 years, he becomes a free
man. He begins to study at the academy of
arts and prepares some verses for his first
“Kobzar” publication in 1840. Then, due to
the positive recognitation by his friends for
these undertakings, we notice an increase
in his creative abilities and a demonstration
of self confidence. In a letter to his brother
Mykyta, Shevchenko writes: “So here I live,
study and don’t bow to anybody. I am not
afraid of anyone – it’s great to be a free man.
You do whatever you want and nobody can
stop you” [1, 18]. Because of expressing these
thoughts, Shevchenko becomes some what
arrogant. In other words, he feels he can not
be a subject to any restrictions. So, in the
years 1843–1846, he publishes his first political poems that show a series of harsh critical
comments with regard to the tsarists on to
cratic policies. In addition, while being only
31 years old, Shevchenko writes his “Testament” (“Zapovit”) in which he appeals “to
brake the chains and gain liberty by spinning enemy’s blood”. We are not talking here
about following the idealogical premise of
the Cyril and Methodius brotherhood of
panslavism with its aim to only a federation
of the Slavic status [2, 138]. In his “Testament” Shevchenko calls for a popular uprising in Ukraine. Hence, it is hard to believe
that, being only 31 years old, Shevchenko
expresses, in this manner, his selfrighteousness by proposing that his poetry may have
such power to influence people.
In the year 1844 Shevchenko publishes
his monumental work, a satirical poem entitled “A dream” (“Son”). In it we find an
extremely negative position against the tzar
and his autocratic rule. It is also a satirical portrayal of tzar’s and his wife’s ridiculous appearance and behavior. A year later,
in “Caucasus” (“Kavkaz”), there is a sarcastic
depiction of tsarist government as a prison
of nations. Both of these poems are the cause
of Shevchenko’s arrest in 1847 and the subsequent exile or banishment to an unfriendly
and desolate part of the country.
To underscore the difference between the
deplorable political situation of the XIX century and prior historical events Shevchenko
reminds us of the old legends mentioned in
the ballads that showed the cossacks who, at
one time, were the masters of their own land.
In Shevchenko’s poetry we see a romantic
fascination with the cossack history to such
a degree that some historical figures may be
unjustly idealized [6, 23]. The poet himself
admits that perhaps some historical leaders
of the bloody wars were not described realistically [9, 120]. Ivan Pidkova, Taras Triasylo,
Yarema Halayda and Ivan Honta, according to Shevchenko, were the true national
heroes and avengers who brought punishment upon those that caused injustice and
harm. Thus, even though achieving their
goal meant spilling, sometimes, some innocent blood, for Shevchenko the aim justified
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Visnyk Akademii advokatury Ukrainy
its means. Therefore, in spite of the fact that
Honta kills his two sons, Shevchenko does
not consider him to be a romantic anti-hero.
He justifies Honta’s action in his poem “The
cold ravine” (“Kholodniy yar”) and attacks
his critics by calling them “sharks, crows and
good-for-nothings”. Again, in a short poem
“To Hohol” (“Hoholu”), Shevchenko complains that “now everything is lost… there are
not fighters for freedom… for nobody would
dare to kill his son, his only child” [9, 210].
The guilt of Honta’s two sons was that
they were brought up as catholics by their
mother. So, by looking at this solution to
a religious problem by Honta, it seems that
hetman Bohdan Khmelnytski should also
be perceived as a national hero. He did
attack the catholic Kingdom of Poland and
completely destroyed the polish army. Yet,
Shevchenko calls him in his poem “the plundered grave” (“Rozryta mohyla”) a mentally
deficient child… who should have been suffocated in his cradle [9, 185] for not being able
much later to defend and preserve the short
lived independence of the cossack state.
It is obvious, sometimes, that, as for as
religion is crucevned, Shevchenko comes to
some unclear and conflicting conclusions.
We also observe this uncertainty and hesitation when Shevchenko assumes the role of
a teacher, who intends to enlighten his people, criticize then and point out to them
the righteous way into the future. This attitude appears in one of Shevchenko’s poems
with a rather long title – “For those who had
died, to those who are still alive and to those
who have not been born yet, in Ukraine
and outside of Ukraine, my friendly epistle”.
Here, we are faced with Shevchenko’s definition of the word “nation”. It transcends
time and space. In other words, he understands all past, present and correct them.
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While analyzing “The epistle” (“Poslaniye”),
it becomes clear that Shevchenko is ready to
accept the role of a spokesman for his nation
and attain an important place in the Ukrainian history and literature.
These thoughts differ categorically from
the ones that Shevchenko had prior to his
becoming a known literary personality. In
the poem “Perebednya”, Shevchenko comes
out with a different picture of a poet – he
is a creator of verses, someone who is always
lonely. He is a person “who seems to know
everything and for that is being shunned by
everyone” [9, 26]. This, incidentally, coincides with the definition of the word “poet”
during the romantic period. Thus, poetry is
a conversation with nature. It is God’s word.
Poets feel that which is unclear and incomprehensible for an ordinary person.
By the way, during his exile, Shevchenko’s
former optimism that “his word”, once sown
in the fertile soil world bring the expected
results and “glorify those insignificant and
silent slaves” [9, 455], transforms itself into
a complete pessimism, while serving time
there, Shevchenko does not see any positive
results of his work and in his short poem
“Perhaps I should send a note to myself “he
complains – “My God!.. For whom do I
write and for what purpose?” [9, 416].
Although some romantic poets had to
live outside of their countries, none of them
ever expressed such intensive feelings of loneliness as Shevchenko. His poetic writings
are saturated with nostalgia and sadness. In
many verses the main topic is Shevchenko
himself, as well as his recollections of childhood and the “wasted year of his youth”.
There is also a preoccupation with death,
complaints about some wicked people
and “the worst thing of all, while living in
Dr. George Soltys
captivity, is to think about freedom” [9, 314].
Comparing the landscape of Ukraine with
the environment in exile, a Ukrainian village
for Shevchenko is “like a colorful Easter egg”
whereas the sky of island of Kos-Aral dirty
and “unwashed” [9, 369]. Fur there more,
poetry that at one time was the essence of
Shevchenko’s being is now a waste of time
[9, 340]. Everything is useless and “it is not
worth living any more” [9, 336].
happenings. We can also encounter in the
ballad “The poplar tree” (“Topola”). The
heroine’s death is represented as something
supernatural. In order not to get married
to someone whom she doesn’t love, the girl
transforms herself into a tree. A similar situation can be found in the short poem entitled
“Lily” (“Lileya”) where a girl, after being tormented throughout her life by others, upon
her death, is soon resurrected as a flower.
As a matter of fact, beside some criticism
of the policies of tzar’s government, the idealized description of Cossack history and
some attempts to assert his “ego” as a teacher,
a predominant motif in Shevchenko’s poetry
is pessimism. We witness the same attitude in
other romantic poets in France, this expression of spontaneous or long term pessimism is called “mal du siècle”. It pertains to
a psychological malady that afflicted the XIX
century romantic heroes. It is a blend of melancholy, a feeling of desolation and inability to accept reality [12, 110]. This feeling
of not being part of society and, at the same
time, being insulted as a result of the loss of
human dignity leads in Shevchenko’s ballads
to many illogical conclusions, namely insanity, killing and suicide.
It may also be indicated that in many
other poems or ballads Shevchenko tries to
show our interaction with nature. Many of
his verses start with a description of some
natural phenomena. The intention, without
a doubt, is to create a certain mood and to
influence our reaction to what is written. The
personified forces of nature are often identifiable with the heroes of Shevchenko’s poems.
In “Hamaliya”, for instance, nature reflects
the mood of Hamaliya and his Cossacks
before and after their battles.
In “Maryna” [9, 361], a newly wed woman
stabs her master to death because trying to
seduce her, he sends her husband to serve
in the army. One should mention that both
the woman and her husband were serves
and under the total control of their master. In the poem “A crazy woman” (“Prychynna”) a Cossack, after having found out
that his girlfriend was killed by mermaids,
commits suicide. In the poem “A drowned
woman (“Utoplena”) the girl’s mother, jelous
of her daughter’ beauty, causes death of
both of them. This type of exotic romanticism is filled with imagination and illogical
Same as in the case of other romantic poets, folklore serves for Shevchenko as
a source of symbolic expressions, multiple
metaphors, vocabulary and stylistic diversity. Furthermore, since Shevchenko was
well acquainted with many existing collections of popular songs and ballads [5, 177],
he repeatedly assimilates their themes in his
own works. At times, so as to convey the
complexity of ideas Shevchenko employs
a type of polyphony whereby two or more
people express their contradictory views.
This often comes up whenever the poet
mixes poetry and prose which we observe
in his dramatic poems. In the presented dialogues Shevchenko has a chance to deal with
many opinions and not to adhere to the old
classical rule of maintaining the unity of
time, place and action. A good example of
this approach, of mixing poetry and prose,
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Visnyk Akademii advokatury Ukrainy
some flashbacks and speculation about
the future can be found in the poem entitled “The witch” (“Vidjma”). The dialogue
between the gypsy and the witch indicates
two distinct ways of thinking a mixture of
illogical songs and narrations point to her
tragedies and the subsequent life of misery
and irrational behavior. This becomes even
more vivid once the witch is compared to the
gypsy’s common sense which he expresses by
using a series of simple questions and statements [9, 288].
A similar exchange of ideas, while combining poetry and prose, can be found
in other dramatic poems of Shevchenko.
However, the most representative example of this approach is the poem “Haidamaky”. Not only do we see the case of mixing
poetry and prose but also many other elements of romanticism. Thus, we encounter
twenty popular songs [5, 177] and a multitude of new types of versification. We also
notice the influence of historical events with
their heroes and antiheroes expressing their
bravery, despair and cruelty. While analyzing the poem, one could state that one of the
actors in the drama is Shevchenko himself.
He describes the uprising of 1768 against the
Polish domination as if he himself were the
witness to the bloody battles. While remembering the fighting that took in the city of
Chyhyryn, the poet introduces a group of
citizens – “hromada” that, in a way, plays the
role of a chorus in an ancient Greek drama. It
is a ploy to have this group assure Shevchenko’s participation and voice his justification
for the ruthless deeds of haidamaks. For
Shevchenko, the uprising was a just retribution for the many decades of suffering and
degradation. “Hromada” also reminds everyone to study history and never forget the
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good leaders or hetmans that Ukraine used
to have.
The poem “Haidamaky” is published
as a separate work in December of 1841
[4, 109]. It means, it is one of the exaruples
of Shevchenko’s works. After excluding the
fantastic or exotic appearances of mermaids
and changing people into trees or flowers,
the poem contains, partially or completely,
all known characteristic traits of romanticism. One may ask “How was it possible for Shevchenko in only three years, after
becoming a free man, to acquire the ability
to comprehend the multilateral approaches
to romanticism”. Let us not forget that the
powerful romantic revolution undermined
all cultural and political processes. Without a doubt, intuitively Shevchenko accepts
some of these new ideas. In addition, while
living in Petersburg, even before being liberated from serfdom, Shevchenko participates
in the city’s social and cultural life. He gets to
know some important people in the literary
circles and, according to Pantaleymon Kulish, he tries to get hold of any book so that
he can read [10, 12]. His knowledge of Russian, Polish and French enabled Shevchenko
to read in the original or translation almost
all the masterpieces of the important European authors [4, 2]. One has to admit that
the influence of these writers can be seen in
some of Shevchenko’s verses. Nevertheless, it
should be emphasized that the “borrowed”
topic usually assumes a different form due to
its interpretation or back ground. The reason for this is obvious. The reworked topic
depends on the circumstances that influenced Shevchenko’s life. For some poets
whose life was, more or less, normal or comfortable, writing poetry was sort of a fashionable entertainment. In order to see how the
lowest classes of society lived “they had to
Dr. George Soltys
climb down the social ladder” [8, 25]. One
feels, therefore, that they were only observers
and not true participant of the processes of
romantic revolution. For Shevchenko wasn’t
necessary to see the down trodden people.
He was born, grew up and, while in exile, a
member of the most disadvantaged people
on earth.
Shevchenko, as it has been stated before,
is one of the most representative poets of
romanticism. It is not only due to his poems
expressing the topical and psychological ideology of the romantic era. He is also a tragic
romantic figure, a true creation of “mal du
siècle”, with his hesitations, despair and frustration for nor being quite able to overcome
the abstacles in his life.
References:
1. Біленко В. Основні дати життя і творчості Т. Г. Шевченка : Путівник / В. Біленко,
Я. Данилов. – К. : Державне видавництво художньої літератури, 1960. – С. 105–120.
2. Івченко Р. Шевченко і Драгоманов. – Мюнхен, 1989. – Ч. 5. – С. 136–145.
3. Кедрин І. Шевченко і українська політична думка / І. Кедрин // Альманах УНС. –
Нью-Джерсі : Свобода, 1960. – С. 63–70.
4. Кедрин І. Актуальний Тарас Шевченко / І. Кедрин // Наше життя. – Нью-Йорк,
1990. – Ч. 3. – С. 2–8.
5. Ковалів П. Вплив народної поезії на поетичну мову Шевченка / П. Ковалів //
Альманах УНС. – Нью-Джерсі :Свобода, 1960. – С. 170–183.
6. Лесько І. Постаті національних провідників в поемах Шевченка / І. Лесько. – НьюДжерсі, 1989. – С. 22–33.
7. Середа С. Портрет / С. Середа // Нова газета. – 2013. – Березень (№ 219). – 12 с.
8. Скуратовський В. Шевченко в контексті світової літератури. Батькові Тарасові /
В. Скуратовський ; [ред. З. Снилик]. – Нью-Джерсі : Свобода, 1989. – С. 22–32.
9. Шевченко Т. Кобзар. –К. : Держ. вид-во худож. літератури. – 537 с.
10. Boyko I. Taras Shevchenko and west European literature. – London : association of
Ukrainians of Great Britain, 1956. – 64 р.
11. Sellese N.F. / Perej I.A. El romanticism en España: Vida y literatura / American Book Co,
1969. – Р. 125–141.
12. Zulli Floyd Jr. European literature / Ken Publishing Co. – New York, 1964. – 110 р.
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11.1 (2014)
Поєднання тематичних та психологічних елементів
романтизму в поезіях Т. Шевченка
Солтис Дж.(Юрій)
Резюме: Стаття присвячена питанням об’єднання тематичних і психологічних елементів романтизму в поезіях Т. Шевченка.
Ключові слова: романтизм, творчість Т. Шевченка, політичні поезії, монументальність праць, генерація.
  
Сочетание тематических и психологических
элементов романтизма в поэзии Т. Шевченко
Солтис Дж.
Резюме: Статья посвящена вопросам объединения тематических и психологических
элементов романтизма в поэзии Т. Шевченко.
Ключевые слова: романтизм, творчество Т. Шевченко, политические стихи, монументальность работ, генерация.
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