Poem "Three Coffins" by Vyacheslav Ivanov: Sources and Symbolic Structure Part Two

The article is devoted to the sources, structure and system of symbols of the poem "Three Coffins" by Vyacheslav Ivanov. The novelty of the proposed approach lays in the wide involvement of folklore and literary sources, which have been probably used by Vyacheslav Ivanov. In the notes to the "Rosarium" book (1912) Vyach. Ivanov commented the poem "Three Coffins" quoted from the article by A. N. Veselovsky "From the rose's poetics" (1898). Probably, the poet also used as sources spiritual verses "Descent of the Virgin into Hell" or "Three Coffins in the Church" from the collection of P.A. Bessonov. The analysis lets us establish that individual motifs of the poem bring it closer not only to Russian and Belarusian spiritual verses, but also to Ukrainian, Belarusian and Moravian carols and the songs of Russian mystical sectarians. Lying in the tombs remind those deceased, whom the participants of Roman rosalias invited to their homes, and the poem itself is a spell designed to awaken the deceased from sleep. The author comes to the conclusion that the image of the rose in the Vyach. Ivanov poem is full of various ritual, mythological, religious and mystical meanings. This flower symbolizes suffering and beauty, death and it's overcoming, birth and resurrection, the Virgin Lady and Her heart, Christ and His crucifixion. Rose is an attribute of the antic Rosalia and the Garden of Eden, the Cross and the crown of thorns. The dove, fluttered from the petals of the blossoming rose, symbolises the birth of Christ and the presence of the Holy Spirit. The characters, lying in the tombs, resemble those who were invited to their homes by the participants of roman Rosalia, and the poem itself seems to be the spell designed to awaken the deceased from sleep.