In the shade of lovely birds, or About the “Farewell Ode” by Joseph Brodsky

Abstract

This article is another effort to analyze the “Farewell Ode” by Joseph Brodsky. The internal and external contexts of the creation of the poem are described. Some text levels are analyzed to recognize the author’s intention. The stanza of the poem refers to Russian and Polish syllabic poetry of the 18th century. The lexico-semantic composition of the poem allows us to see the influence of poet’s many great precursors, primarily Dante and Tsvetaeva. The ode is also a stylization of the genre of prayer, as indicated by many lexical means. Brodsky’s first great poem can rightly be called the most complex “symphonic work”, in which the poet reaches the heights of Christian forgiveness.