Funny and Serious: Ironic and Metaphysical Perspectives in the Poems of I.A. Brodsky for Children

This article examines the poetics of I.A. Brodsky’s poems for children. In the artistic world of the poet’s “children’s” poems, there are features characteristic of his “adult” poetics: a metaphysical plan, language play, “elongated” lines, enjambment, parenthetical constructions, reminiscences, the use of “lists” and other features. One of the main techniques of Brodsky’s “children’s” lyrics is irony, the source of which is the “multidimensional nature” of these poetic texts, their “two-level” (as noted by J. Klotz) address. Irony in Brodsky’s “children’s” poems can be considered as a response of a free consciousness to reality, a commentary on its absurdity, a way of realizing the poet’s non-authoritarian consciousness (“Lev Skokov hochet poletet’ na Lunu…”, “Rabochaya azbuka”); in addition, irony becomes a way of playing with the reader (“Kto otkryl Ameriku”). Also in I.A. Brodsky’s poems for children, a self–portrait of the poet himself is presented in an ironic light; some facts of his biography turn out to be recognizable – the apartment “in the alley near the church”, leaving school, lack of work (“Samson, domashniy kot”). The article pays special attention to the image of cats as one of the most frequent in Brodsky’s “children’s” lyrics: male and female cats turn out to be symbols of independence and inner freedom (“Samson…”, “Slon i Marus’ka”, “Ariya koshek”). The study also considers the inclusion of a “metaphysical” plane in “children’s” poems (“500 odeyal”, “Chistoe utro”). An analysis of these works allows us to conclude that Brodsky’s poems for children are not peripheral texts, but an important and organic part of his creative heritage.