"The White Hair with the Black Thought". A Study on Baratynskij’s Poem "There Were Storms, Bad Weather…..."

Abstract

This study is dedicated to the poem There Were Storms, Bad Weather… (Byli buri, nepogody…) (1839) by Еvgenij Baratynskij. The study analyzes in detail the semantic development of the text, leading to a strong and somewhat paradoxical ending that causes a particular emotional experience for the reader. To understand how the meanings of the poem are shaped in its semantic development is one of the aims of our study. Additionally, we analyze the folkloric features of the poem: repetitions, a parallelism, and the use of paremia. A deep analysis of the text, considering both its semantic movement and lexical nuances, allows us to discuss the semantic paradox of Baratynskij’s poem and affirm that There were storms, bad weather… is part of a group of texts that by the very use of poetic speech overcomes the impossibility of the utterance.