Lyrical phenomenology of thought in Russian poetry of the XIX-XX centuries

The article analyzes one of the key thematic lines of Russian poetry the theme of thought, mind, consciousness. This topic has not been highlighted and considered earlier by the researchers of Russian lyrics, whereas it is important for revealing the poet’s worldview, being one of the semantic peaks of the his worldview concept, expressed in lyrics. The poetic thoughts of thought form a kind of lyrical phenomenology of consciousness. The material for analysis is formed by the poems about thought, mind, consciousness, selected from Pushkin, Bоratynsky, Solovyov, A. Bely, Losev; these poems make a single text with its own development. Thus, a number of deep and subtle observations of the mental life of a man are revealed by Pushkin, who considered thinking to be the meaning of life. The cold devaluing life thought is revealed in the poems of Bоratynsky noting the tendency to skepticism in the interpretation of the topic. Рoems including the ideas of well known philosophers as direct quotations are investigated; this technique is studied in the poems of Bоratynsky, Solovyov, A. Bely. The article notes a clear separation of thought from contemplations and visions in Solovyov’s lyrics. The line of mind is shown to have reached a culmination in the poetic gnosis of Andrei Bely on the anthroposophical path and in the poetic speculations of Losev, associated with the tradition of Russian Orthodox spirituality. As a conclusion, Russian poems about thought, mind, consciousness and self awareness indicate that Russian classical poetry and the lyrics of the Silver Age that continue it can be considered, in accordance with A. Bely’s characterization, in the context of the stage of self awareness of Russian culture as a whole.