Mythological plot about a blue flower
in the Teffi’s collection of poems «The Seven Lights»

The paper is devoted to the mythological plot of the blue flower in the Teffi’s collection «The
Seven Lights», which was published in 1910 by the «Shipovnik» publishing house. The collection
is divided into several small cycles dedicated to the seven gemstones. However, floral symbols
are no less important. The main flower symbol is the lilac because the only collected «floral»
cycle is called «White Lilac» and it contains motifs, artistic techniques that will be maintained
in other poetic texts with floral symbolism. This work deals with another common floral symbol
of the cycle – a blue flower appearing in three poems of the collection. These poems are not assembled
into one cycle, but they can be considered as a whole according to the way how the cycle
about lilacs was made on the basis of a common symbolism. Any mention of the blue flower refers
to Novalis’s novel «Henry von Ofterdingen». The creativity of Novalis evoked interest in Symbolist writers, who were inspired by the ideas of Romanticism, its mystical and transcendental
search. It is no accident that this novel became a source of inspiration for Teffi because she
was a member of the circle of Symbolist writers. The blue flower in Teffi’s poetry is not a metaphor,
but has a specific physical image – it is iris. However, the general cultural idea that a blue
flower is a metaphor for an unattainable ideal remains the main semantic dominant in the collection
of Teffi. Teffi unites the image of the lyrical heroine with the image of Aphrodite, thereby
giving her the divine origin. For playing purposes, Teffi puts herself in the role of a character. Her
poetic works can be seen through the prism of irony. One of the poems dissolves the myth about
Cupid and Psyche, which is indirectly connected with the novel «Henry von Ofterdingen» because
Novalis recreates the plot from the novel of Apuleius in a refracted form in one of the plugin
novels. The actualization of the myth about Cupid and Psyche is also supported in two other
poetic texts of the cycle by means of details. The poems of Teffi are ahead of the poetics of their
time: she combines ancient myths with the myths of her modernity. Teffi uses all the borrowing
primarily as a parody. Any of her works, whether it is a story, a feuilleton, a novel or a memoir, is
full of irony, and the lyrics, despit The paper is devoted to the mythological plot of the blue flower
in the Teffi’s collection «The Seven Lights», which was published in 1910 by the «Shipovnik»
publishing house. The collection is divided into several small cycles dedicated to the seven gemstones.
However, floral symbols are no less important. The main flower symbol is the lilac because
the only collected «floral» cycle is called «White Lilac» and it contains motifs, artistic
techniques that will be maintained in other poetic texts with floral symbolism. This work deals
with another common floral symbol of the cycle – a blue flower appearing in three poems of the
collection. These poems are not assembled into one cycle, but they can be considered as a whole
according to the way how the cycle about lilacs was made on the basis of a common symbolism.
Any mention of the blue flower refers to Novalis’s novel «Henry von Ofterdingen». The creativity
of Novalis evoked interest in Symbolist writers, who were inspired by the ideas of Romanticism,
its mystical and transcendental search. It is no accident that this novel became a source
of inspiration for Teffi because she was a member of the circle of Symbolist writers. The blue
flower in Teffi’s poetry is not a metaphor, but has a specific physical image – it is iris. However,
the general cultural idea that a blue flower is a metaphor for an unattainable ideal remains the
main semantic dominant in the collection of Teffi. Teffi unites the image of the lyrical heroine
with the image of Aphrodite, thereby giving her the divine origin. For playing purposes, Teffi
puts herself in the role of a character. Her poetic works can be seen through the prism of irony.
One of the poems dissolves the myth about Cupid and Psyche, which is indirectly connected with
the novel «Henry von Ofterdingen» because Novalis recreates the plot from the novel of Apuleius
in a refracted form in one of the plug-in novels. The actualization of the myth about Cupid and
Psyche is also supported in two other poetic texts of the cycle by means of details. The poems
of Teffi are ahead of the poetics of their time: she combines ancient myths with the myths of her
modernity. Teffi uses all the borrowing primarily as a parody. Any of her works, whether it is
a story, a feuilleton, a novel or a memoir, is full of irony, and the lyrics, despite all its seeming
intimacy, is not an exception.