The wood-spirit code of the poetic cycle “Rural impressions and sketches” in A.M. Zhemchuzhnikov's Russian cosmo-psycho-logos

The object of the article is the wood-spirit code in the Russian verbal culture. The subject is the symbolic meaning of a sallow, willow in the Russian folklore and literature. The material for the article is the poetic heritage of A.M. Zhemchuzhnikov whose 200th jubilee we celebrate this year. The ethos of life and death in the poet’s lyrics yields to hermeneutic reconstruction. Special attention is paid to the poetic cycle “Rural impressions and sketches” with its images of a sallow or a sallow alley - the dendronyms analysed closely as a system. The methodology of the research centres on holistic ontohermeneutical analysis aimed at highlighting the apophatic paradigm of the given literary material. Parallels with the Russian folklore, lullabies and children’s games are drawn. The results lie in identification of the cultural potential of dendronyms, in particular the sallow, willow, osier, that have a different-worldly semantics and act as a means of conveying initiatory transmissions in the verbal culture. The work results can also be used in teaching courses on the Russian culture, 19th-century poetry and philosophy.