A Critical Analysis of The Attempt to Change the Dating of Shevchenko's Poem 'Well, It Would Seem, Mere Words This Discourse Spells!'
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17721/2410-4094.2025.1(28).5-16Keywords:
autograph, argument, factual basis, artistic conventionAbstract
Background. The preparation of a new academic edition of Shevchenko's literary heritage involves, in particular, a thorough review of proposals to adjust the established time and place of writing a particular work. In his time, Leonid Bolshakov attributed to 1849 the appearance of the poem 'Well, it would seem, mere words this discourse spells!', dated in the Complete Works in 12 volumes (according to the location of the autograph in 'Small Book' among the texts of 1848) to the end of September – December 1848. Therefore, it became necessary to examine his arguments in detail in order to determine the validity of his reasoning and to accept or reject the proposed dating.
Methods. Traditional textual methods were used.
Results. In his statement, L. Bolshakov relied on the following words in the poem: 'My countryman, who from Ostrivna hailed'. After analysing the serf registers of this Ukrainian village in the Orenburg region, he found Ivan Vasiliev, whom he identified as a sailor in the team of the Aral Sea Descriptive Expedition of 1849 (he did not participate in the voyage in 1848). The study of the handwritten manuscript of 'Small Book' once again confirmed the observation of scholars that Shevchenko recorded the poem together with the texts created in 1848, so there is no reason to change the time of its composition to 1849. This logically implies that the poet heard the singing of someone other than Ivan Vasiliev. Probably, Bolshakov was misled by a random coincidence of a common first and last name (for example, only in 'Orenburg Shevchenko Encyclopedia' there are six people with the surname 'Vasiliev'), which ultimately resulted in wrong conclusions. It seems that the impetus for writing the elegy was indeed a real incident on the schooner, but the poet could have fictionalised the plot situation.
Conclusion. The dating of the poem 'Well, it would seem, mere words this discourse spells!' should be expanded within the year 1848, taking into account the voyage by sea: August (not the end of September) – December 1848, the Aral Sea, Kosaral. L. Bolshakov's proposal to date the poem with the year 1849 should be finally rejected.
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