Yesenin's lyrics: sentimentality, peasant patriotism and tavern revelry

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

They say when the world splits, the crack will certainly pass through the restless heart of the poet. These lines perfectly characterize the creative path of Sergei Yesenin, who was destined by fate to live and create at the turn of two eras. Perhaps for this reason, Yesenin's lyrics are filled to the brim with the drama of feelings. The life path of the poet was thorny and difficult, despite breakdowns and falls, he stubbornly continued to move, drawing inspiration from the experience, maintaining an indissoluble bond with his people.

The power of poetry

Even in a very early period of the genius's work, the strongest side of his talent began to stand out - the ability to draw beautiful pictures of original Russian nature in a poetic style. The whole strength of his early lyrics lies in the fact that it clearly expresses a feeling of ardent love for the motherland through pictures of native landscapes. Nature in Yesenin's lyrics sometimes does not please the eye at all: “You are my abandoned land …”, but love for the destitute patrimony only becomes stronger from this. Since the beginningDuring the First World War, this feeling acquires special power and strength, which can be clearly seen in the work "Rus".

Yesenin's lyrics are filled with bright colors of native nature: in many poems about Russia, cheerful tones rage and play with all the colors of the rainbow - azure, crimson and blue. Also noticeable is a special love for all living things - birds, wild animals and domestic animals ("Song of the Dog", "Cow", etc.). Nature in Yesenin's lyrics is not deserted pictures, they are "interspersed", a person is inscribed - a poet, sincerely in love with his native land. Turning to nature for inspiration, he expresses his innermost thoughts about the present, past and future, his place in life. In rare moments of calm, he writes: “In the soul is the lemon light of sunset,” and continues, “the blue rustle of lilacs.” And in the hours of bitter doubts and reflections: "Soon I will grow cold without foliage." The depiction of one’s feelings and experiences through a picture of Russian nature often pushed the creator to humanize it: “The bird cherry is sleeping in a white cape”, “The golden grove dissuaded …”. This principle shows the author's special love for nature.

Colors of folk poetry

At the heart of many of Yesenin's works are the motives of Russian folk poetry. The homeland in Yesenin's lyrics is vividly captured not only in the content, but also in the poetics itself. The creator borrowed from her most of the colors that he used in his work. He not only copies each shade, but endows it with meaning and content. The romantic poet uses these symbolic shades more in a conventional way than indirect meaning. One of the reasons for the incredible emotional impact that Yesenin's lyrics have on the reader is hidden in the color display of feelings and thoughts.

• Blue and blue are the most common colors in Russian nature, symbolizing water and sky. In Yesenin, these shades evoke peace and silence, peace: “indescribable, blue, tender …”, or convey the joy of feeling freedom and spaciousness: “blue Russia …”, “blue field”, “blue star”.
• Scarlet and pink - the poet's favorite shades - denoted purity, virgin purity and purity of feelings (“The scarlet light of dawn wove itself on the lake …”). Youth is symbolized by the pink color - “thoughts of pink days…”, “pink horse”, “fresh rosy cheeks”.

The tragedy of parting with the past

Lyric feels as if tied to the past, the urgent need to part with him is perceived by Yesenin as his own doom. This gloomy feeling gives rise to a pessimistic mood in him and provokes a complete decline in mental strength. Yesenin's lyrics during this period are rather disturbing, the word "rock" is found too often in his works, and the imagination paints pictures of an impending "fatal disaster". These moods are reflected in the collection of poems "Moscow Tavern", the main motive of this cycle is indifference to what is happening, life in general, an attempt to forget with the help of alcohol and despair. However, the creator found inner strength in himself and came out of a hopeless impasse. But the tragedy of the poet's farewell to the pastimpressive influence on his work.

The first time I sang about love…

Esenin's early love lyrics paint a shy girlish image with pure and gentle colors. Through the creation of poetic pictures of his native nature, the poet embodies his youthful admiration for female beauty and desire to love. Later, the reader sees love in the works of the poet in different ways: beautiful and pure, sensual and passionate. The peak of Yesenin's love poetics is called the cycle "Persian Motifs", in which all the poems and the impulses revealed in them are beautiful. However, despite the glorified feelings for Shagane, Helia, Lale, the poet recalls both the beauty of the "Ryazan expanses" and "wavy rye in the moonlight." One can feel his desire to drown out the aching longing for the "far northerner".

For the first time I refuse to make a fuss…

Yesenin's love lyrics are still a fantastic success. He was admired by women not only for his unique poetic gift, but also for his extraordinary attractiveness. In each of his cycles of love poems, the poet, loving and singing real ladies, most of all valued the feeling itself - unrequited, sensual, divided, innocent, passionate, pure. The strongest impulses of the soul changed the creator, he decided to say goodbye to hooliganism and riotous life. This love became a salvation for the rake, who was now ready to submit to his beloved. Only his poetic associations and comparisons with nature remained unchanged: the name "rings like an August coolness", his hair - "the color in autumn." With this big lovein the life of the poet there were two female rivals - Isadora Duncan and Augusta Miklashevskaya.

Unprecedented sincerity

Sergey Yesenin lived very little - only thirty years, but his unique creative heritage contains significant artistic we alth. The themes of Yesenin's lyrics are diverse, they contain an unprecedented sincerity of tone, a direct vision of the world, a rare gift to look at things with an unbiased look. The poet is characterized by the ability to extract graceful beauty and unusual joy from objects that time and life did not spare. Yesenin's lyrics convey to the reader the great talent of the poet, his special characteristic ability to express his feelings in his work.