Return as an elegiac element in the poetry of K. Batyushkov and O. Mandelstam

The influence of Batushkov’s elegiac tradition on the O.E. Mandelshtam’s poetry is being studied in the article. This takes into account that the genre, according to V.E. Khalizev, has a “cultural-historical personality”, which provides historical continuity. The theme of return (a lyric situation going back to the literature of the Antiquity) is emphasized. The return in K.N. Batushkov’s and O.E. Mandelshtam’s works becomes the way to incarnate artistically the idea of cyclicity that gives the lyric 97 protagonists of both authors the sense of static time, dating, in its turn, back to the intrinsic Russian “sad” and “cemeterial” melancholy elegy. Separation from a certain place or person is perceived as a way to return, so it becomes a motif free from the negative meaning, revealing itself, in particular, in love theme. The allusions to the works of Tibullus and Ovid are considered as common markers of this artistic style. The antiquity world common for both poets as a reference point, serves as the background of immersion in melancholy. Some of the poems (“Elegy of Tibullus”, “Taurida”, “Tibullus’s Elegy III” by K.N. Batushkov and “Tristia”, “The stream of Golden honey was flowing from the bottle...” O.E. Mandelshtam) show that this motif is an important genre element bringing into existence its elegiac origin, uniting space and time. The author also explores the topicality of the “spindle image”, the detail that symbolizes expectation. It is demonstrated that both authors of different epochs use a similar phonetic technique of image construction.