Often we hear beautiful hymns and songs that tell us about long-standing historical and mythical events, describe real and fictional characters. In the literary world, these works are called spiritual poems and belong to the category of oral folk art.
The history of the emergence of spiritual verse dates back to the times of Kievan Rus, therefore the form of its presentation over the centuries often changed.
In order to avoid misunderstandings, literary critics have divided Russian spiritual poems into two groups:
- epic;
- lyrical.
Many people still distinguish the lyric-epic group, but it is more to the lyrical direction.
Epic Russian spiritual poems
The first notes about the epic spiritual poems we find in the culture of Kievan Rus, in the annals. These were worship songs of the gods of nature, with the help of which the old Slavs thanked for the harvest, asked for rain and salvation during the raging of the elements. They were also popular during the celebration of the birthday of the sun god, and the resurrection of all life from winter sleep.
After the adoption of Christianity, pagan songs were forbidden to perform - disobedience to the decree threatened with the death penalty. But instead of them, other works began to be born that glorified the courage of Christians and glorified God. They are based on scenes from the Bible and legends about the acts of Christ.
The authors of most spiritual poems were not only priests, monks and chroniclers, but also ordinary people. With their help, another direction of this type of creativity was born - the people's spiritual epic, in which the feats of brave knights, battles and campaigns were glorified, which were crowned with the victory with the help of God. The performers of such poems were the elders, homeless kaliki, pilgrims to the holy places of Constantinople, Jerusalem ... In most cases, the performers were also the authors of their works. They read them to the music of the lyre or kobza in a loud, high voice.
Among the most famous Russian spiritual poems can be identified legends of the “Pigeon Book”, lyrical stories about prince Josaph, about Joseph the Beautiful. In meaning, they very much resembled epic words, but differed from them in their sad execution and glorification of the Lord.
Today the names of only a few old songwriters are known: Hegumen Daniel, Archbishop Anthony, Archbishop Gregory Kaleka, monk Stephan the Novgorod. All these people occupied a high position in society, therefore their names were preserved.
Lyrical Russian spiritual poems
The birth of lyrical spiritual poems fell on the XVII-XVIII centuries, and they developed under the influence of Russian literature of that time. But, despite the fact that the basis of all the works was taken book source (the Bible, the Gospels, the teachings of princes, descriptions of the lives of saints, the apocrypha), folklore, soon, filled this niche. When the author's versions of lyrical spiritual poems fell into the people, then after a while, they were changed beyond recognition.
The development of lyrical spiritual poems was influenced by the literature of ancient Byzantium and Western Europe. Among the most valuable examples of this literary trend can be identified lyrics about Dmitry Solunsky, the Last Judgment, Paraskeva-Friday.
Spiritual poetry collections
Already in the 17th century, literary scholars, who studied Russian spiritual poems, gradually began to emerge. They also collected them in various ways in order to chronologically organize and preserve for other generations. The most complete is the collection of spiritual works. A.P. Bessonov "Kaliki perekhozhi"who saw the world in 1861. A much later book deserves attention. G.P. Fedotov "Spiritual Poems" (1936).
Nowadays, interest in this type of literary activity has revived, and in 2009, for the first time in many decades of silence, a new collection was published. "Echoes of Heaven", where were collected works of modern spiritual literature.
The birth and formation of Russian spiritual poems began hundreds of years ago. During this time, the works changed and transformed, but did not lose their main purpose - to glorify the good, pure and righteous in our lives.
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