Traditions of Russian Folklore in P.A. Vyazemsky’s Poems “Another Troika” and “In Memory of the Painter Orlovsky”

The article considers the problem of the relationship between literature and folklore based on two poems by the 19th-century Russian poet and literary critic P.A. Vyazemsky (1792– 1878), “Another Troika” (1834) and “In Memory of the Painter Orlovsky” (between 1832 and 1837). The poems merge folk song imagery, traditional folk motifs and heartfelt lyricism. The author notes that Vyazemsky’s appeal to folklore is deeply organic and quite natural for him, inextricably linked with his understanding of the national character of literature, nature poetry, and originality. The author demonstrates that the connection of Vyazemsky’s poems with oral folk art manifests itself in an extensive and functionally diverse use of the poetics of folk songs, proverbs and sayings, as well as in references to mythological characters of Russian folklore. Using folk images and motifs, Vyazemsky downplays the depiction of local, national color (socalled “couleur locale”). The introduction of poetic formulas of Russian folklore is due to the poet’s ideological and artistic design and corresponds to the poem’s content and image structure. It is the organic, indissoluble and deep connection of Vyazemsky’s poetry with the Russian national element — literary and folk poetic traditions — that provides his works with enduring value and aesthetic significance.