Ф. И. Тютчев: Вариации на тему “Бессонницы Ночной”

We analyze two Tiutchev poems of the same title ‘Bessonnitsa’ (‘Insomnia’) (further B1 and B2) written in 1829 and 1873, in comparison with each other, as well as in connection with their poetic prototype found by L.V. Pumpianskii in Derzhavin's ode ‘On the Death of Prince Meshcherskii’. The main goal of this paper is to reevaluate Tiutchev's poem (B2) entitled ‘Insomnia: The Night's Passing Moment’. B2 is shown to be a variation on the most famous early poem B1, whose main theme, lexicon, rhyme vowel structure and a system of vowel sound repetition (assonance) are explored in B2. Many features of B2 prove the novelty of its genre and composition. Tiutchev's poem B2 turns out to belong to so-called “suggestive” poetry. Within the synaesthetic composition of B2, there are four parallel lines of images (temporal, spacial, auditory, and visual). The three-part composition of B2 is built similarly to a musical form; its focus on the vowel repetition in the sound texture indicates the “musicality” of Tiutchev's late poem (the most characteristic feature of suggestive lyrics).