The image of Hamlet in Boris Poplavsky's lyrics

The article analyzes the image of Hamlet in the poetry of Boris Poplavsky, drawing on the material from his early lyric poetry and the poetic collections Automatic Poems, Flags, and Snowy Hour. It identifies a specific evolution of this canonical hero, driven by the poet's changing aesthetic principles and the metamorphoses of his artistic views. In his early works, the Hamlet theme emerges in poems dedicated to the creative act itself The most frequent image here is that of Ophelia. In this early lyric poetry, which is close to the avant-garde tradition, art is perceived as an aggressive force that brings death and mutilation to both the creator and the audience. Consequently, Ophelia, symbolizing creativity and universal beauty, is portrayed either as a victim devoured by monsters at a phantasmagorical feast arising in the mind of the mad poet, or as the heroine of a play during which an unknown force destroys the theater along with all its visitors and actors. The correlation between the theme of creativity and the Shakespearean plot is presented differently in the collection Automatic Poems, which features a Hamlet cycle. Here, the Shakespearean hero embodies the poet, who creates mysterious worlds within his consciousness - a concept represented through surrealistic symbols of mechanical devices. These devices symbolize the creator who, in accordance with the ideas of Andre Breton's French Surrealist School, is merely a phonograph, reproducing the images he witnesses in an oneiric state. However, the role of the creator is tragic; his poems transform into a scream and morbid sounds, signifying absolute solitude and the impossibility of reconciliation with reality. This theme continues in Flags, where Hamlet and Ophelia appear in connection with themes of eschatology, death, and madness. In this collection, the fate of the Shakespearean hero is presented as a cycle, which can be divided into the following stages: the rejection of paradise and existence on earth ("Hamlet's Childhood") - the desire for death as departure ("Pity for Europe") - disappearance/departure to Valhalla ("Hamlet") - existence in the otherworld and the vision of earthly nightmares ("Hamlet and the Angel"). The image of Hamlet is presented in a completely different way in the collection Snowy Hour, where it is endowed with multiple connotations. Primarily, he is a solar god, defeated by the darkness of an earthly world indifferent to him; his creative power proves unnecessary in reality. The Hamlet plot concerning Hamlet-Sun's descent into the kingdom of shadows and the womb of darkness is merged with the myth of Orpheus's descent into Hades. However, in Poplavsky's version, this occurs not for the sake of searching for Eurydice-Ophelia, but due to the incompatibility of sublime art with the earthly world ("Gazing into the Perdition of Summer Days"). Throughout Boris Poplavsky's body of work, Hamlet acts as a symbol of the creator and of art itself. Yet, whereas in the early lyrics this symbol signified creativity as madness, obsession, and the loss of sanity in the name of the creator's grand purpose, starting with Automatic Poems, the image of Hamlet-the-poet becomes associated with a tragic understanding of his alienation in a cold, wintry world. This introduces motifs of suicide and the desire to abandon the real world in order to attain spiritual harmony. The author declares no conflicts of interests.

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