S. A. Yesenin, works

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Golden curls, reminiscent of ripening spikelets… A benevolent and enthusiastic face with blue eyes that radiate light and warmth… Constant thirst for activity, striving forward… Boundless love for the native land and everything connected with it… Short, but incredibly bright creative life … Such thoughts come to mind at the mention of the poet with the brightest name - Sergei Yesenin. His works are well known to every Russian person, including those who, in principle, have little interest in poetry.

On the way to creativity

His homeland is Konstantinovo, a small village in the Ryazan region. Primordial Russian nature and its indescribable beauty forever entered the heart of the boy, captivated by its greatness, early awakened in him a penchant for poetry. By the age of eighteen, the young poet already had a notebook containing his first works. Yesenin, who sent them to Petersburg and was confident of soon recognition, was very surprised,that they never got into the capital's magazines. Then he decides to personally go towards glory. And the memories of his native home will warm his soul all his life and inspire new creative searches.

First compilations

In St. Petersburg, the young man was warmly welcomed. “Goy you, my dear Russia …” - these and other works of Yesenin impressed Blok, Gorodetsky, and later Klyuev. His poems brought joy, sounded sincere and unique. Real fame is brought by the first collections, which are published one after another: "Radunitsa", "Dove", "Rural Book of Hours", "Transfiguration". They are mainly Yesenin's works about nature: “Bird cherry”, “A month with a horn a cloud gores”, “Nivas are compressed …”, “I left my dear home …” and many others. The reader is presented with a special world in which nature is humanized and becomes the main character. Here everything is harmonious, colorful, picturesque and without falsehood inherent in people.

With trepidation and tenderness, young Yesenin treats animals, which is most clearly manifested in the "Song of the Dog", which tragically experiences the death of only born puppies.

After the revolution

Changes taking place in the country, the poet at first perceived with delight. He associated with the revolution "transformation", which should go for the benefit of the people. Yesenin's works appear in this perild: "Jordanian Dove", "Heavenly Drummer"and others. However, very soon the tone of the poems changes, and instead of delight, dreary notes are heard more and more often, caused by observations of the changes taking place in the country - the poet increasingly sees “life torn apart by the storm” - and turmoil in his personal life. These moods were most fully reflected in the collections of the early 20s "Confession of a Hooligan" and "Moscow Tavern". Yes, and the attitude towards him becomes contradictory: for some, he is still a singer of blue Russia, for others - a brawler and rowdy. The same contrast is visible in the poems of 21-24 years, including "A blue fire swept", "I am the last poet of the village", "I do not regret, I do not call …", "Honey, let's sit next to me"…

"Fun" - perhaps the most famous work of Yesenin from the cycle about Moscow, conveying the thoughts and feelings of the poet. In it, he seems to sum up his life, shares his innermost with the reader.

And soon followed by an acquaintance with A. Duncan and a European trip. Being away from his homeland, Sergei Alexandrovich took a fresh look at his country. Now he was full of hope and dreamed of serving the Motherland and the people. It was after the return that the poems “The grove dissuaded …” appear, in which autumn is correlated with human life, the incredibly warm and gentle “Letter from a mother.”

Trip to the Caucasus

Speaking of Yesenin, one cannot but recall his "Persian motives". They were inspired by a trip to the Caucasus, where Sergei Alexandrovich most acutely felt how dear his native places were to him. He expressed his feelings, contrasting the Russian open spaces with a distantPersian nature - the dream to visit this country never came true. The verses of the cycle resemble a picturesque canvas, complemented by live sounds. But love lyrics, including Yesenin's most famous work from this cycle, Shagane, became a real poetic masterpiece. This is a monologue addressed to a distant Persian woman, to whom the author told her innermost thoughts about her native Ryazan land, about the girl who remained there.

Goodbye my friend…

Those words begin a poem written by the poet before his death. It is more like an epitaph, which the poet addressed to himself. Frank, born of prolonged mental anguish, this poem is, in fact, Yesenin's farewell to life and people.