Alexander Blok, two poems
Alexander Blok was born on 16 November 1880 in St Petersburg into a noble family. After his parents divorced he was raised in the family of his maternal grandfather, the well-known scientist and botanist A. N. Beketov. He began writing poems at about five. In 1898 he finished a St Petersburg gymnasium and entered St Petersburg University, graduating in 1906. His first collection «Стихи о Прекрасной Даме» came out in 1904; the second, «Нечаянная радость», made him known to a wide readership. The poem «О, весна без конца и без краю…» belongs to the cycle «Заклятие огнём и мраком» (1907). It is full of hope and confidence: the lyrical hero accepts life without reservation, greets both luck and misfortune, and is ready to fight (“I greet you with the ringing of a shield”). Spring here becomes a symbol of boundless dreams and renewal. Technique: the repeated word «Принимаю…» (anaphora) gives the poem a firm rhythm. The second poem (1912, «Ночь, улица, фонарь, аптека…») is in a completely different mood: in eight lines a cold, meaningless circle — everything repeats, there is no way out. In both poems the picture of the outer world reveals the hero's inner state, but the first is hope and the second is despair.
“Two moods”. The class splits in two: one half reads the first poem in a hopeful tone, the other the second poem in a cold, even voice; then they discuss what causes the difference of tone (words, repetition, images).