The Theme of the Prophet in Alexander Pushkin's Poem “The Prophet”: A dialogue with the Tradition and the Epoch

The article argues that Alexander Pushkin, in his poem “The Prophet”, creates a multi-spectral dialogue with the ‘prophet canon' of Russian literature. The aim of the article is to distinguish precisely the elements of the ‘prophet canon' Pushkin referred to, their sources and the ways of their usage in Pushkin's poem. Against this background, the novelty brought to the tradition by Pushkin can be seen as a self-revealing and objective fact. Inheriting the interpretation of the prophet theme from Decembrists' poetry (Fyodor Glinka's poems “Isaiah's Vocation” (1822), “Elijah to God” (1826-7), “God to Elijah” (1826-7); Wilhelm Kuchelbecker's “Prophecy” (1822), “The Poets' Fate” (1823), “The Poet's Lot” (1824)), Pushkin creates an autobiographic image of the poet-prophet endowed with a divine talent and called to sacred service by the Lord. Arguing with this interpretation, the poet distances from the essence of this service as well as from its purpose, which are the two major elements forming the ‘Decembrist' plot of prophecy. Pushkin's poet-prophet, unlike that of Decembrists, is not ‘the conscience of the epoch', his mission is neither to denounce human vices (especially those of people in power according to the ancient tradition rooted in the Old Testament), nor (and here we see Decembrists' lucid debt to the ideas of European Enlightenment) to condemn and ruin the unjust social order so that a new society and a new state, on the basis of purity, honesty and justice, would arise. Another tradition reshaped and reevaluated in Pushkin's verse is the pre-Decembrist interpretation of the prophet theme created in the Russian philosophical poetry of the 18th century. Explicit allusions to the images and wording of the Old Testament, the motif of the poet inspired by the Holy Spirit to proclaim the Truth, the idea of inextricability between beauty (of the word) and the divine truth (permeating it): all these poetic elements in Pushkin's verse reproduce the tradition established by Gavrila Derzhavin (“Felitsa” (1782), “The Immortality of Soul” (1797), and others) and Ivan Dmitriyev (“A Spiritual Song” (1795)) who evoke images of the poet-prophet in their poems. However, Pushkin follows neither the idea of spiritual mentorship nor the pathos of denouncing human vices (again) although both are incorporated in this tradition. Combining the physicality of images borrowed from the Old Testament with the motif of profound pain and suffering, stressing the idea of painful transfiguration instead of pushing forward the mission of the poet-prophet, Pushkin - for the first time in Russian poetry - interprets the prophet theme in a purely liturgical - or evangelic - sense. The replacement of the hero's tongue and heart with a ‘sting' and a flaming ‘coal' (undoubtedly in accordance with his spiritual demand and ability) is that very ‘loss' of one's own soul (or life) for God that is preached by Christ (Mark 8:35) and Christianity. The mission of the poet-prophet - as it is revealed though the images and motifs of Pushkin's poem - consists not in denouncing vices, but, basically, in purifying people's souls and in bringing them closer to the Eternal through the beauty and truthfulness of divinely inspired poetry.

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