The Language of Symbols in the Poetry of "Young Muse"

Abstract

The article deals with the expression means of artistic imagery in the poetry of the Lviv literary group of the late 19th - early 20th century "Young Muse". Using the example from the texts of poetic works of "Young Muse's" representatives, the author proves their symbolic nature and suggests her own interpretation of the semantic loading of the symbolic images in young poets’ poetry. The symbolic continuum of this literary group is outlined by the author by means of the interpretation of symbolic images of "Young Muse" members’ poetic works. According to the author, the repetition of an image in a certain lexical environment indicates to its possible meanings and, despite the ambiguity of the artistic symbol, still tends to one or another semantic dominant in the semantic core of meanings. Analysing the achievements of modern studies of "Young Muse’s" works the author explains the artistic nature of this poetry and tends to the idea of eclecticism being a characteristic feature of "Young Muse’s" works. The author’s attention is drawn to the "Young Muse" poets’ artistic borrowings from various periods of the world literature, and antiquity in particular. A particular part of the paper is also devoted by the author to the illustration of artistic borrowings as well as the artistic reconsideration of images from the Holy Scripture. Thus the author also interprets Biblical images occurring in the texts of this literary group representatives.
 The study of the poetic texts of "Young Muse’s" members gives reason to claim that, apart from the decadent mood characteristic of the decadence era, the "Young Muse" poetry also contains life-affirming motives and characters. In general, the symbolic continuum of this literary group’s poetry is immersed not only into the Ukrainian mentality, but also extends as far as Eastern and Western cultures, that is, to a certain extent, claims the universality of its artistic codes.