Philosophical Poetry

The phenomenon of spiritual culture, formed at the intersection of philosophy and literature, often receiving a broad interpretation: "philosophical" is often called any "deep" poetic work affecting the common problems of life and death. It is necessary to distinguish between related but not merging concepts "philosophical poetry" and "scientific poetry", "philosophical lyrics" and "meditative lyrics". Reflection leading to the idea of generalization is the basis of philosophical poetry, but the subject of meditation of the poet-philosopher is special: the fundamental problems of the universe, society and man, the macro- and microcosm. Poetry, as such, is aimed at the embodiment of the living, private, casual, bodily-plastic, and philosophical poetry is not alien to the world of abstract ideas, its subject is universal, generic, substantial. In concentrated form, in artistic images, it expresses the self-consciousness of the epoch, connects the general and the concrete. However, philosophical poetry (or "poetry of thought"), unlike "scientific", does not gravitate to rational predetermination, tractability, illustrative scientism. Born in the mainstream of ancient didactic poetry (poetic exposition of the teachings of ancient Greek philosophers, the poem of Lucretia Kara "On the Nature of Things" and other works), in its development in the national literatures of modern times, philosophical poetry increasingly withdrew from didactics. In the XIX-XX centuries. works of philosophical poetry - is a psychologically complex act of cognition, verification of the "individual hypothesis of being" and the creation of a unique "poetic model of the world."

A special place in the development of philosophical poetry is occupied by the 20-30s of the XIX century, when as a phenomenon of literature it receives not only wide dissemination, but also theoretical comprehension. Following the German romantics, members of the circle of the philosophers are pushing the aesthetic program of combining poetry with philosophy and trying to confirm their theoretical views with a poetic thought. Philosophical poetry develops not only in the vein of romanticism, its artistic discoveries of the 1920s and 1930s are to a large extent determined by the emergence of a realistic method in the art. In lyrical poems, new ways of socio-historical and philosophical understanding of man are opened.

In the history of the development of philosophical poetry, its varieties are distinguished as natural philosophical, social-philosophical and moral-philosophical. A number of researchers also include works of a religious-philosophical and historical-philosophical plan. In the 18th and 20th centuries, the poetic transpositions of biblical texts became widespread. Subjectively, this verse of philosophical poetry is associated with poems that reflect the poet's direct reaction to any philosophical problem or philosopher's personality that has become the symbol of a certain system of ideas. Literature knows examples when, in order to recreate the historical portrait of the thinker and the disclosure of his philosophical views, the poet chose not the poetic miniature but the genre of the unfolded epic or dramatic work. Philosophical poetry artistically perceived all the main philosophical concepts that were created in Europe since antiquity, responded to the ancient teachings of the East, and to the search for contemporary philosophical schools of the West and Russia.

However, the influence of theoretical thought on the creation of a poetic work has a complex, often contradictory character. Ultimately, the degree of artistic freedom of the poet-interpreter of philosophical ideas depends on his creative individuality. Philosophical thought becomes the poet's thought, and it does not exist outside of artistic expression, outside the figurative fabric of the verse. Philosophical poetry does not create new concepts - all of its discoveries in the field of art. Philosophical poetry often acted as a form of unofficial philosophy, specifically analyzing the problems of death and immortality, the uniqueness of the spiritual world, attracting little academic scholars. It should be regarded not only as a phenomenon of artistic culture, but also as one of the sources and component of philosophy, as a form of knowledge of the essence of being and of man that is equitable with theoretical philosophical thought.