Metaphors of the forest in Anzelmas Matutis' poetry

[...] Straipsnio tikslas – išanalizuoti Anzelmo Matučio poezijos vaikams miško topiką semantiniu ir poetiniu aspektais aptarti sukurtus miško poetinius vaizdus, juos suklasifikuoti, atskleisti antropomorfizuotų miško būtybių savitumą. [...] Poetinis sumanymas mišką atskleisti miesto vaizdiniu – lietuvių vaikų poezijoje netikėtas, originalus. [...] Svarbu tai, kad šis topas arba, kitaip sakant, konceptualioji metafora „miškas – tai miestas“, jei kalbėtume kognityvinės lingvistikos terminais, yra svarbus miško vaizdavimo orientyras visoje Anzelmo Matučio poezijoje. Miesto realijos ir gyvenimo jame dinamiškumas perkeliama į miško erdves, taip kuriamas supasakintas poetinis vaizdas, gerai įsimenamas ir pagaulus. Miškas – ypatinga gamtos buveinė, į kurią Matutis vaiką skaitytoją kviečia įsižiūrėti, pamilti, globoti. Miško adoravimas pasireiškia ir gražių miško vaizdų, lakoniškų, bet taiklių peizažų perteikimu, ir atvirai didaktiniais vaizdais, kurie yra pakankamai meniški ir nesuardo meninio audinio. Miško topas neretai vaizduojamas kaip didaktinių aspiracijų scena. „Drevinukas“ (1974) – pats didaktiškiausias miško temos kūrinys. Tačiau didaktika nekenkia kūriniui, daugeliu atvejų ji organiškai įlydyta į kūrinį ir atliepia vaiko mąstymą, formuoja jo etines nuostatas. Pats ryškiausias miško topikos savitumas Anzelmo Matučio kūryboje – antropomorfizuotų miško būtybių sukūrimas. Nemenka jų įvairovė – Šilų berniukas, Drevinukas, penki nykštukai girinukai (Šilinukas, Dainorėlis, Žcmuogiukas, Kelmutis, Žibutis), Žilas Šilas, Žmogiukas. Visi yra tik teigiami personažai ir išreiškia didaktiškai nusiteikusio autoriaus etinę poziciją, apie tai kūrėjas pasakoja ir savo autobiografijoje.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 arc 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 arc 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 lmPortant landmark of depicting forest in all Anzelmas Matutis' poetry. The city realias and the dynamism of living there are transferred to the forest thus creating a mythical poetic image, which is hospitable and easy to remember. The forest is a special habitation of nature, which Matutis invites the child, his reader, to contemplate, to fall in love with and to protect. The adoration of the forest also manifests itself through beautiful views of a forest, laconic but apt conveyance of landscapes and openly didactic views which are artistic enough and do not destroy the artistic texture. The metaphor of the forest is often shown as a stage of didactic aspirations. Drevinukas (1974) is the most didactic piece of work on the topic of the forest. However, the didactics does not impair the work; in many cases it is organically molten in the text; it reflects a child's thinking and develops their ethical attitudes. The most vivid specificity of the Metaphor of the forest in Anzelmas Matutis' works is the creation of anthropomorphic beings of the forest. Their variety is also abundant – it is the Forest boy, the Hollow boy, fivee forest dwarfs ("Šilinukas", "Dainorėlis", "Žemuogiukas", "Kelmutis", "Žibutis"), the Grey forest, and the Little man. All of them are exclusively positive characters and express the ethical Position of the didactically minded author, which he also confirms in his autobiograph