| Abstract [eng] |
Anzelmas Matutis is a classical Lithuanian writer of children’s poetry (1923–1985), often called “the most childish children’s poet”. It could be said that Matutis is also the most “natural” poet; to be more exact, he is also an unsurpassable poet of the forest. No one among Lithuanian children’s poetry writers has written so much and so consistently about the forest throughout all his creative life as Anzelmas Matutis. This is testified by the titles of Matutis’ poetry books: Miško cirkas (A Forest Circus) (1958), Šilų berniukas ( The Boy of Pinewoods) (1967), Girios televizorius (Forest TV) (1973), Drevinukas (A Hollow Boy) (1974), Girinukai (Forest Creatures) (1978), Žilo šilo darbininkai (Workers of the Grey Forest) (1985), Kalbuosi su giria (I am Speaking to the Forest) (1998). Also in other books, although the motif of the forest is absent in the title, the forest and its dwellers are shown in a poetic light (Tai margumai genelio (The Patchiness of the Woodpecker) (1983), etc.). The aim of the present article is to analyse the metaphors of the forest in Anzelmas Matutis’ poetry for children, to discuss the created poetic images of the forest from the semantic and poetic aspects, to reveal the development of the creatures of the forest and their specificity. The paper employs the descriptive and interpretative perspectives. An attempt is made to answer the question why the images of the forest are close to the children’s psychology and what makes the artistic nucleus of the best texts about the forest. The poetic idea to reveal the forest through the image of the city is unexpected and original in Lithuanian poetry for children. The forest and the city are opposite spaces; however, when put together they produce a memorable poetic image. It is important that this conceptual metaphor FOREST IS A CITY, in terms of cognitive linguistics is an important landmark of depicting forest in all Anzelmas Matutis’ poetry. [...]. |
