ABOUT GHOSTLY HORSES - «GUIDES» TO ANOTHER WORLD IN THE ACMEISTS’ BALLADS

The article deals with ghostly horses - «guides» to another world in acmeistic ballads. The works of N. Gumilev, Vs. Rozhdestvensky, O. Mandelstam, G. Ivanov and I. Odoevtseva are considered in the paper. The main characters of the ballads are most often riders, and their horses are endowed with demonic or just mystical functions, in some cases they save the characters acting as their defenders. Horses carry the rider to another space; horses kill characters or help them. In ironic ballads this image is reinterpreted - romantic features are weakened, deliberately strengthened, or disappear altogether (for example, «The ballad about a cabby» by I. Odoevtseva).