Ornithological Metaphor as a Means of Creating a Visible Image in the Poetic Battles of the Early 19th Century

The study’s aim is to reveal the semantic component of the ornithological metaphor in the verbal battle poetry of the late 18th — early 19th centuries. In order to achieve the aim the article defines the sources of the artistic imagery of the battle poetry. On the material of the “The Collection of poems related to the unforgettable year 1812” we study the poetic mechanisms of creating a vivid image, which has a high impact. The article reveals that the ornithological metaphor, which forms a particularly significant stratum of “Collected...” metaphorics, functions as a stable nomination for presenting the opposition “soldier - enemy”, as an image-replacement for creating battle pictures and as an image-emblem, endowing the poetic text with additional meanings through visual symbolism. The article provides a comparison of usage tendencies and peculiarities of ornithological metaphors construction in byliny, historical songs, ancient Russian war stories, with the battle poetry by Lomonosov, Derzhavin, Zhukovsky, who were the witnesses of the Great Patriotic war events. As a result of the study it is proved that ornithological metaphor as a tool of visually oriented influence has evolved from traditionally fixed semantics to individual contextual meanings, while retaining its basic, nuclear meanings - creating the image of a warrior, enemy, battle or victory. It is argued that verbal battle poetry of the 1810s, which developed in the light of a change of artistic paradigms, was oriented towards a transformation of the representational system, a gradual abandonment of allegorical pictures in favour of an ontologically filled image. In the poetry written during the Patriotic War of 1812 the author reveals the process of individualization of metaphor, enriching ornithological images with additional symbolic connotations and meanings, correlating with the worldview, which took shape in the Russian society during the War of 1812.