THE POEM "I WAS ONLY WHAT" AS THE SEMANTIC CENTRE OF BRODSKY'S SUPERTEXTUAL UNITY.

This article presents a hypothesis about the functioning of a peculiar unconventional supertextual unity with lyrical metaplot of initiation, cognition and hero's creation by love in I. Brodsky's work. The poem "I was only what" is seen as the semantic centre of this unity: a work that embodies in concentrated form all the main features of the whole cycle. The content and poetic peculiarities of the poem are studied: lyrical plot and subject system, imagological and thematic structure, chronotopical wholeness, intertextual level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]