TWO CONCEPTIONS OF CHILDHOOD IN EUROPEAN AND RUSSIAN POETRY OF XVIII–XIX C.

Abstract

G. R. Derzhavin with his famous Ode on the birth of a future Emperor 1779 became in the Russian poetry of a new epoch the pioneer of Childhood and children theme. The poet except the rossoist topic of Childhood as clear headsprings innovatively revealed a different concept of Childhood as a School (educational) in the episode of fairies gifts who give a child – a future tsar both exceptional abilities and knowledge. Derzhavin outstripped an English poet W. Blake who also touched upon the topic of Childhood and children in his poetic cycles of 1789–1794. The article also discusses the motif of Childhood and children on the material of English (W. Blake and W. Wordsworth) and Russian (N. A. Neckrasov) poetry of the XX c. W. Blake’s cycles («The songs of virginity» (1789) and «The songs of experience» (1794) as well as W. Wordsworth’s cycles «Preludes» and his «Ode.News on immortality coming from early childhood memories» (1803–1807) give the images of children and childhood in the context of nature as a leading principle of Romanticism: a child with his initial natural piety as a real headspring of a man – a pure angel but a sage already. In the Russian poetry of the XIX c. N. A. Neckrasov as well as W.Blake and W. Wordsworth in England turned to the images and motifs of children and Childhood through his whole literary biography («Childhood», «On the Volga. Valezhnikov’s childhood», «A schoolboy» and so on).