Symbolic images in the poem by Semyon Bobrov "The Ancient Night of the Universe, or the Wandering Blind"

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of symbolic images in the philosophical and esoteric poem by Semen Bobrov "The Ancient Night of the Universe, or the Wandering Blind". The poet's interest in traditional symbolism is due to both the transitional situation that characterized the end of the 18th century and the influence of Masonic ideas on the poet. S. Bobrov's dialectical thinking manifested itself in the transformation of the traditional dichotomous structure of the world. Endowed with opposite semantics, the concepts underlying the symbols grouped around the archetypal images of Chaos and Cosmos reveal a deep relationship in the poem. For this, the poet combines the dyads of oppositions, forms a system of reflections, introduces semantic intermediaries, endows images with ambivalent meanings and allows the inversion of the dyads. Light and ray, acting as the main symbols in the poem, pull together many images (wheel, sun, moon, lamp, night, eye, etc.) around themselves and embody the idea of movement, which is the meaning and formative in the poem.