"Music of meaning": linguopoetic analysis of A. Fet’s poem "The smile of tedious boredom..." (to the 205th anniversary of the birth)

Abstract

The article analyses a late version of one of A. Fet’s poems included in the genre-thematic section "Melodies". The study focuses on the techniques used to organise the figurative semantic structure of the text, i. e., the phenomenon which can be called the "music of meaning". The methods of linguopoetics (to identify the aesthetic role of linguistic units and the relationship between content and form) as well as elements of opposition, motif, contextual, and componential analysis were employed. Using them, the author examines the main aspects of the structure of the poem (composition and development of the lyrical plot, key semantic fields and oppositions, spatiotemporal and subject-object organisation). Meticulous attention is given to the analysis of the lexico-semantic level and the "grammar of poetry" of the text. It is concluded that the understatement and linguistic uncertainty characteristic of A. Fet’s poetics in general and the poem being analysed in particular increase the associative potential and enable an ambiguous understanding of the text. This contributes to the multidimensionality and the absence of distinct definiteness of the key images and oppositions, which brings poetry and music closer together ("the music of meaning" and the meaning of music).