Lyric Narrative of Nikolai Klyuev's Cycle “Spas” as Poet's Spiritual Autobiography

This study explores the poetic cycle “Spas” (1918) by N. A. Klyuev, which stands as one of the pinnacle works in the poet’s creative evolution, uniquely and ambiguously capturing his religious and philosophical inquiries at the intersection of two eras — before and after the 1917 Revolution. The hypothesis posits that the cyclical narrative can be attributed as a story of soul salvation, embodying the key milestones of Klyuev's spiritual autobiography. It is asserted that the content of each of the eight poems in the cycle is artistically conceptualized through a specific metaphor, correlated with the idea of sacred transformation of the hero-author, while the development of the plot in “Spas” is determined by the sequential change of these metaphors. The study demonstrates that conceptual metaphors, as a crucial element of Klyuev's poetics, shape its imagistic and symbolic structure, rich in biblical allusions and reminiscences, reflecting the religious-ethical experience of the Olonets poet: from the contemplation of divine purpose behind the gift of song (the metaphor “salvation as predestination”) to the perception of the higher meaning of sacrificial Christian love (the metaphor “salvation as self-sacrifice”). It is noted that “Spas,” exhibiting characteristic features of a “Paschal text,” integrates genre traditions of Orthodox hagiography and becomes a subject of authorial reflection in Klyuev's prose from the 1920s.

Klyuev, poetic cycle, conceptual metaphor, hero-author, spiritual transformation, religious-philosophical inquiries