“Somewhere in the distance there are native fields remained”: motifs of the collection “100 poems” by Borys Oleksandriv-Hrybinsky

Abstract

The relevance of the study is determined by the need to understand and rethink the literary works by poets of the Ukrainian diaspora, namely the works by Borys Oleksandriv-Hrybinskyi. The subject of the study is the originality of the motifs in the collection “100 Poems”. The purpose of this article is to determine the variety of motifs in the collection “100 Poems” by Borys Oleksandriv-Hrybinskyi and to investigate the specifics of the nostalgic motifs related to the reasons for the poet’s external and internal emigration. Special emphasis is placed on the difficulty of going beyond strong melancholy and a new understanding of history and Ukraine in history by the emigrant poet from an older generation. Borys Oleksandriv-Hrybinskyi left a part of his life, and people close to him in his homeland, which is why sad, sensual and emotional poems appeared. The study was made possible by biographical and cultural methods, thanks to which the genesis of the motifs was clarified, and their artistic originality was assessed.

The result of the research is the conclusion that the lyrics of B. Oleksandriv-Hrybinskyi from the collection “100 Poems” demonstrate both the optimistic and pessimistic moods of the author, as well as the fact that the poet is able to captivate with both a romantic poem and a civil-sounding poem, and a poem — a memory of the everyday life of his native land, about the reasons that led to the difficult path of emigration. The “missing the sun” and separation from Ukraine became tragic for the poet.

Living in Canada, he was never able to completely separate from his homeland. Therefore, his nostalgic lyrics are sometimes likened to love lyrics. The collection is dominated by nostalgic motifs, based on the impression of what was experienced under the burden of the Soviet system, feelings of longing and sadness manifested in dreams and memories, and separation from the native land and family (the author’s mother). The most important device that the poet uses is antithesis, which expresses the reproduction of the struggle that was going on in the soul of the author and was caused by the forced departure abroad.

The poetry of this collection has not yet been considered from this perspective, and that is the novelty of the investigation. In the future, other motifs of the collection, perhaps not so expressive, can be explored.