«“Ice-cream!” The Sun...» by O.E. Mandelshtam: an Essay in the Analysis of Acmeist Text

Abstract

The goal of the study, determined by the pragmatic and didactic purposes, is to demonstrate by the example of the poem «“Ice-cream!” The Sun...”» by O.E. Mandelshtam how the theory and practice of acmeism, the aesthetic principles and poetics correspond to each other. The following structural levels are examined: the rhythmic organization, phonics, poetic lexis, syntax, composition, chronotope, and lyrical plot. The poem is viewed as a universally harmonious structure, which is an example of a form in which all the internal conflicts and contradictions are in equilibrium, and the structural shifts contribute to the internal dynamism of the text. The regular rhythmic arrangement creates an external frame; however, it is balanced by the energy of the shift at the level of variable syntax and by the deviation from the rule of alternance. The principle of consolidation, which characterizes the aesthetics of acmeism, is observed at all the levels of the text. The text is aesthetically completed by the idyllic merging of the boundaries of the lyrical ego of the poem and of the entire universe, accepting the Beauty of the World as the pivotal value of human existence.