ALLEGORICAL IMAGES OF M. Y. LERMONTOV: TO THE THEME OF THE WEST AND THE EAST IN THE LYRICAL WORKS OF THE POET

The article analyzes the use of allegorical images in the poetry of M.Y. Lermontov in connection with the theme of the West and the East. It is shown that the poet's appeal to the West, having passed through the stage of deep infatuation, ended in disappointment in the allegory of the poem "The Dying Gladiator". The appeal to the East and the desire to know its spiritual foundations was expressed in a number of allegorical poems of oriental themes. The article suggests the interpretation of the poet's images not in line with the romantic concept of personality, but in a culturosophical and historiosophical way, reveals Lermontov's concept in his cycle "East" – in a kind of Western-Eastern divan of the poet. This reading of poetic parables reveals the depth of Lermontov's historiosophy, his understanding of the tragic complexity in the interaction of the East and the North (in the poem "Dispute"), as well as his understanding of eastern wisdom (in the poem "Three Palm Trees"). As a result, it is shown that the theme of the East, while retaining its spiritual significance for the poet to the end, did not find a final solution in his poems.