Sergei Yesenin and the Russian land - two inextricably related phenomena. It is impossible to imagine another poet so rooted in the world of Russian nature. Yesenin writes with love about the signs of rural life associated with nature.
The poet notices familiar to the eye villager features of the world around him, but in his poetic vision he so figuratively describes them in verse that the dim beauty native land begins to glow from the inside: “the huts are in the robes of the image”, “the puddles of the sun rock the red face”, “the puddle shines with tin”, etc.
It is not surprising that quite often in Yesenin’s works one encounters the blue of skies and lakes, pink sunsets, the sounds of bird voices or the rustling of grass. The native inhabitant of the Ryazan land, the poet Yesenin, encountered all this every day. And the feeling of homeland, which, according to the poet, became fundamental in his work, permeates every work of Sergei Yesenin:
And you, like me, are in sad need,
Forgetting who is your friend and enemy,
You yearn for the pink sky
And dove clouds. ("For dark strand copses...")
Connection early creativity Yesenina's Russian way of life was evident even in the rhythmic pattern individual works. When you get acquainted with the poems “Tanyusha was good, there was no more beautiful thing in the village ...”, “The scarlet color of dawn was woven on the lake” involuntarily comes to mind folk songs and ditties with their rhythm. Yesenin often uses those familiar to oral folk art images and epithets: “dark night”, “feverish separation”, “brown curls”, etc.
Even after leaving the village, Yesenin retained signs in his heart native nature. He followed the changes in the village with pain and anxiety. One of the most touching and memorable images of this period of the poet’s work was the image of a red-maned foal, personifying rural life. The foal in the poem “Sorokoust” tries in vain to overtake the train - a symbol of the city advancing on the village. One can feel the pain and hopelessness of the poet saying goodbye to that
The Russia he knew and loved:
Soon the freeze will whiten with lime
That village and these meadows.
There is nowhere for you to hide from death,
There is no escape from the enemy.
Throughout his life, the poet remembered and retained the signs of his native nature; even after becoming a city resident and gaining fame, he remembers the Russian expanses with trepidation in his soul, and tenderly addresses the “outgoing” Russia:
Ineffable, blue, tender...
My land is quiet after storms, after thunderstorms,
And my soul is a boundless field -
Breathes the scent of honey and roses.
It is impossible to imagine S. Yesenin’s work without the theme of the homeland. It’s all about Russia, about its endless fields, blue sky, the rustle of grass and leaves, the voices of birds. In his poems, the poet turns either to a dog or a cow: for him, these animals become the personification of nature, part of the life that was familiar to him from childhood and inextricably connected him with his home and land. The feeling of homeland so organically permeates Yesenin’s work that the answer seems natural lyrical hero from the poem “Go you, Rus', my dear” to an imaginary proposal about life in paradise: “No need for paradise, give me my homeland.”
Oh, Rus', my gentle homeland,
I cherish my love only for you.
S. Yesenin
“My lyrics live alone great love, love for the Motherland. The feeling of the Motherland is fundamental in my work,” wrote the poet Sergei Aleksandrovich Yesenin. And indeed, the words “Russia”, “Rus” are probably most often found in Yesenin’s poems, and in almost every one of them there is a quiet declaration of love for the Motherland. And Yesenin’s love is as natural as breathing.
Love for Russia is not just a feeling, but it is also a philosophy of life, fundamental to Yesenin’s worldview. The nature of Russia for Yesenin is something spiritual, living.
I see a garden dotted with blue,
Quietly August lay down against the fence.
Holding linden trees in green paws
Bird noise and chirping.
For a poet, his homeland is everything he sees, feels, everything that surrounds him. That is why it is so difficult and sometimes impossible to separate this topic from others. Yesenin’s feelings for the Motherland are intertwined with feelings for women, nature, and life. Let us recall Yesenin’s poem about a woman, so visibly bordered by the autumn landscape:
Let others drink you,
But I have left, I have left
Your hair is glassy smoke
And the eyes are tired in autumn.
Yesenin's nature - living creature, endowed with an equally defenseless soul. Therefore, his poems about women, trees, and animals are equally tender.
But, probably, the poet’s lyrics about his native land would never have had such magical power if he had not seen the “big” one behind this “small” homeland. Yesenin was proud of the power and immensity of his country, the strength that lies in it:
I will chant
With the whole being of the poet
Sixth of the land
With a short name “Rus”.
He could not help but be tormented by the backwardness, savagery of Russia, and the hopeless burden of peasant labor. Therefore he enthusiastically accepts February revolution. October at first seemed to him to be a simple continuation of February. He saw only a whirlwind, “shaving the beard of the old world.” But it turned out that it was not his familiar Socialist Revolutionaries who commanded the storm, but obscure ones serious people- Bolsheviks, and that now no one is interested in the phenomenon of Russian national life.
Yesenin’s work reflects the struggle of two feelings: an understanding of the inevitability of changes, an attempt to accept them, to realize them, and at the same time the pain that the old “wooden Rus'” he praised, poor but dear to his heart, is becoming a thing of the past. Instead of the expected “peasant paradise”, the fabulous land of Inonia, there is a cloud-eaten sky, broken windows in the huts. It seemed as if the soul had left Russia.
The cycle of poems “Moscow Tavern” is evidence of the spiritual tragedy of a person who has lost support in life and, in spite of everything, hopes to find this support.
Remembering his childhood in the poem “Soviet Rus',” the poet feels his kinship with Russian nature. But if the former Yesenin seemed to be in a hurry to pour out the feelings that filled his heart in poetry, then the new Yesenin is trying to reflect on the peculiarities of his era, to comprehend its contradictions. Before us are the poet’s thoughts about life, about the Motherland.
In the early 20s, Yesenin made long trips abroad. As a result, he felt especially keenly what the Motherland is for a person, and for a Russian person, probably, in particular.
Yesenin perceived America as a crazy world of cleanliness and spiritual poverty. And now he is trying to see differently the new Russia he left and cursed:
Now I put up with a lot
Without coercion, without loss.
Rus' seems different to me,
Others are cemeteries and huts.
The poet tries to justify and accept the new Bolshevik Russia:
But Russia... this is a block...
If only it were Soviet Power!..
He wants to believe that Soviet power and socialism will elevate man, that everything is done in his name and for him. Yesenin seems to be away from native land Finally, “the hazy pool in my heart cleared up.” “I am learning to comprehend in every step/Rus, reared up by the Commune,” writes the poet. Let us remember “The Ballad of Twenty-Six”. The author’s people are “both the peasant and the proletariat.” The people have one goal: “Communism is the banner of all freedoms.” The poet wanted to find himself in new Russia, accept it and believe it. About this - “Song of the Great March”, “Stanzas”, “Anna Snegina”.
I became indifferent to the shacks.
Now I like something else...
Through stone and steel
I see the power of my native side.
“Soviet Rus'”, “About Russia and the Revolution”, “Soviet Country” - this is what Yesenin calls his new books. But the poet never became “a singer and a citizen in the great states of the USSR”:
I accept everything
I take everything as is.
Ready to follow the beaten tracks.
I will give my whole soul to October and May,
But I won’t give the lyre to my dear one.
The poet, in fact, chooses not a way out, but a dead end. Giving up your soul and not giving up your lyre means ceasing to be a poet. “Soviet Rus'” turns out to be alien.
“I still remained the poet of the golden log hut.” But the Russia that was before no longer exists. And therefore Yesenin is a stranger to her, unfamiliar, and “those who remembered have long forgotten.” Life goes on by. Villagers are “discussing life,” Komsomol members are “singing Poor Demyan’s propaganda.” The poet does not accept this. The old one is gone. He is nowhere. Emptiness. Loneliness. Everything around is alien:
I'm like a foreigner in my own country...
My poetry is no longer needed here,
And, perhaps, I myself am not needed here either.
However, already being, as it were, in another world, in non-existence, “in a country where there is peace and grace,” Yesenin blesses new life, that life in which he has no place, a new youth:
Bloom, young ones! And have a healthy body!
You have a different life, you have a different tune.
We live in a turning point. And again we go in circles. Russia is leaving - and Russia is new. And again, people have a feeling of being orphaned and restless. And isn’t that why Yesenin’s words sound so shrill today:
Aren't you the one crying in the sky?
Departed Rus'?
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The theme of the Motherland was repeatedly raised in the works of Russian writers and poets and was always accompanied by an abundance of colorful epithets and metaphors. Whether the author writes about the beauty of nature, about people living in Russia, or about the problems of the country, the work is always permeated with love, devotion and admiration.
One of the most famous poets who wrote about Russia is Sergei Yesenin. He himself stated: “The feeling of the Motherland is the main thing in my work.” Yesenin believed that the author is inextricably linked with his Fatherland, and said that there is no poet without a Motherland.
In his poem, written at the very beginning creative path, he writes a poem “Beloved Land!...” about his native village. From the very first sentence Yesenin shows his feelings, his unconditional love to the village of Konstantinovo. Next, the author turns to his native land:
...I would like to get lost
In your hundred-ringing greens.
He is endlessly admired by Russian nature, which awakens in him the desire to “get lost” among this beauty.
... I meet everything, I accept everything,
Glad and happy to take out my soul
Yesenin, as it were, opens up to Russian nature, bows before it, accepts it as it is, entirely and completely, and is ready to give everything for the landscapes of his native land.
In the poem “Rus,” Yesenin describes in detail everything that is so dear to him in his homeland. He talks about huts behind the forests, about the long winter twilight, about the snoring of horses... In great detail and detail, so that the reader is literally transported to the place described and imbued with the same feeling as the author. Again Yesenin declares his love and addresses the Russian land:
...I love you, gentle motherland!
He loves everything, without exception, he admires every detail. Yesenin also says that he loves frail huts and waits for gray-haired mothers. This suggests that the author is amazed not only by the beauty of Russia’s nature, but also by the way of life of our people, their way of life, and experiences everything that happens to Russians and the country as his own. Yesenin is concerned about the future of the country. In “Rus” he talks about the darkness and devastation in the village, dreams that the war that bled his village and his state would end soon.
Yesenin a true patriot, as every citizen of his country should be. Another proof of this is the poem “The hewn horns began to sing…”:
...Oh Rus', raspberry field
And the blue that fell into the river,
I love you to the point of joy and pain
Your lake melancholy"
“not to love you, not to believe -
I can't learn...
Sergei Yesenin, despite the melancholy and cold sorrow in the image of Rus', loves her and does not know how one can live without this love.
The poem “I’m here again, in my own family...”, written by the author about his native village, is permeated with melancholy and nostalgia. Living in Moscow and traveling around the world, Yesenin cannot forget his native place and always misses very much (And the evening sadness worries me irresistibly) for his “thoughtful and tender land.”
The theme of the Motherland is truly the basis in Yesenin’s work. He writes about her sincerely and emotionally. It is very important and great that Sergei Alexandrovich raised this topic, because thanks to his works we can analyze that time, think about our Motherland and remind ourselves how beautiful and unique it is!
Updated: 2018-02-20
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The theme of the Motherland in Yesenin’s works
I will chant
With the whole being in the poet
Sixth of the land
With a short name "Rus".
S. Yesenin.
Sergei Alexandrovich Yesenin rose from the depths to the heights of world poetry folk life. The Ryazan land became the cradle of his poetry, Russian songs, sad and dissolute, were reflected in his poems. The theme of the Motherland is the leading theme in Yesenin’s work. Yesenin himself said: “My lyrics are alive with one great love - love for the Motherland. The feeling of the Motherland is the main thing in my work.” For him, there was nothing outside of Russia: no poetry, no life, no love, no glory. Yesenin simply could not imagine himself outside of Russia. But the theme of the Motherland in the poet’s work has its own evolution. At first she was almost unconscious, childlike, serene.
I was born with songs in a grass blanket,
The spring dawns twisted me into a rainbow.
I grew to maturity, grandson of bathing night,
The enchanted cradle prophesied happiness for me.
And the fire of dawn, and the splash of the wave, and the silvery moonlight, and the rustle of the reeds over the years have been reflected in Yesenin’s poems with all their beauty.
About Rus' - raspberry field
And the blue that fell into the river,
I love you to the point of joy and pain
Your lake melancholy.
In Yesenin's heart with youth the Russian land has sunk, its sad and free songs, bright sadness and valiant prowess, the rebellious Ryazan spirit, cheerful girlish laughter. Each Yesenin line is warmed by a feeling of boundless love for Russia. He exclaims:
But most of all, love for the native land
I was tormented, tormented and burned.
The poet lovingly describes and poetizes the signs of his native country:
The light of the moon, mysterious and long.
The willows are crying, the poplars are crying.
But no one listens to the crane's cry
He will not stop loving his father's fields.
Yesenin’s favorite image is the image of a birch tree. He has a birch tree - “girl”, “bride”, she is the personification of everything pure and beautiful:
I am forever for fog and dew
I also fell in love with birch trees,
And her golden braids,
And her canvas sundress.
Yesenin's poetry can be used to study our history. Here is 1914. War. And the poet’s poems reflect the pain of the era. In the poem "Rus" Yesenin conveys pain and sadness for the fate of the country, anxiety for the lives of peasants involved in the whirlpool of the world war:
The black crows cawed:
There is wide scope for terrible troubles.
The whirlwind of the forest spins in all directions.
Foam from the lakes waves its shroud.
This Rus' is dear and close to Yesenin. At the very difficult time the poet is with the people with all his soul, with all his heart.
Oh, Rus', my meek homeland.
I cherish my love only for you.
The more bleak the pictures of Russian reality, the stronger the poet’s attachment to the Motherland. With the advent of the revolution begins new stage in the works of Yesenin. The fate of the Motherland, the people in a stormy revolutionary era- this is what worries him now:
Oh, Rus', flap your wings,
Put up another support!
With other names
Another steppe rises,
Yesenin welcomed the revolutionary renewal of the Motherland, but when the transformation of the village began, the poet perceived the invasion of the rural spaces of urban civilization as the arrival of a hostile “iron guest”.
Significant role in creative development The poet was played by his foreign trip in 1922-1923. After her, Yesenin “fell out of love with his poor Motherland.” The poet happily describes the changes that have occurred in the life of the Russian peasantry. He now accepts with all his heart and is ready to sing the beauty of the emerging “steel” Rus', because the future lies with it:
Field Russia! Enough
Dragging the plow across the fields!
It hurts to see your poverty
And birches and poplars.
I don't know what will happen to me...
Maybe I’m not fit for this new life.
But I still want steel
See poor, beggarly Rus'.
In Yesenin's books, which were published in 1924-1925, there is the voice of the new Russia, its dreams, hopes, anxieties, they contain the soul of the people, the soul of the poet. The appearance of the native land, historical destinies Motherland and people - Yesenin solves these most important topics in highest degree original, artistic, bright.
Yesenin's work is one of the bright, deeply moving pages in the history of Russian poetry, filled with love for people, the beauty of his native land, imbued with kindness and feeling constant worry for the fate of the people and all life on earth. Yesenin's poetry brings out the best in us human feelings. From the distant 20s, the poet invisibly stepped into our time and further into the future. “The further he goes from us, the closer he becomes to us,” the poet Lugovskoy rightly said about Yesenin.
The theme of the Motherland can be traced throughout the work of Sergei Yesenin. His poems amaze with their naturalness, their boundless love for the Motherland, for its native fields, for its open spaces and its village life.
Yesenin’s homeland is not Russia’s historical past, nor its present or future. The homeland for him is what he loves and sees in front of him, this is what the poet remembered from childhood: “You are my fallen maple, you are an icy maple, why are you standing, bending over the white blizzard?”, “The snow jam is crushed and pricked, the chilled moon shines from above. Again I see my native outskirts, through the snowstorm there is a light at the window.”
The poet in his poems glorifies his Motherland, his Rus', his “country of birch calico.” The poet’s concept of the Motherland consists of signs that are of little significance, but dear to his heart: “spring echoing early,” “maple leaf copper,” “a bell tower without a cross,” rising “like a tower with a birch tower.”
And for the poet,
No matter how beautiful Shiraz is,
It is no better than the expanses of Ryazan.
The Ryazan expanse is the Motherland that he glorifies and loves. This is “wavy rye in the moonlight”, and “dog barking in the moonlight”, and tallyanka, and arable land.
Oh arable lands, arable lands, arable lands,
Kolomna sadness,
Yesterday is in my heart,
And Rus' shines in the heart...
But the poet’s homeland is both homeless and fading Rus'. The homeless Rus' that the poet speaks of are homeless children who have “unwashed faces.” We see that Yesenin feels sorry for these boys, who, perhaps, could become , or , or Koltsov. The passing Rus' for the poet is the Rus' before Soviet power. Yesenin is sad that he has one foot left in the past, “trying to catch up with the steel army.”
The homeland of Sergei Yesenin is “a land of overflows of formidable and quiet spring forces,” where “an overnight stay beckons, not far from the hut, the garden smells of languid dill, the wavy horn of the moon pours oil drop by drop onto the gray cabbage beds.”
The poet's homeland is firmly connected with his thoughts about his mother. No wonder he asks in his poems: “Are you still alive, my old lady?”
His mother “in an old-fashioned shabby shushun”, who taught him to pray in the land where it spreads branches in spring white garden, where there are lovely birch thickets. The poet’s homeland is also his home, where he was born and raised, and a kitten who played near the stove and threw himself on a ball, and a birch tree in “fog and dew.” Parents' house, mother’s hands, a birch tree under the window - these are the parts that make up the concept of “Motherland”. The poet feels a blood connection with this world, with this land. And hence his strength. The weakening of the poet’s connection with his family becomes a tragedy, which is why his letter to his mother is sad. Yesenin feels not only the loss of his mother’s warmth and affection, but also the loss of part of his Motherland.
The poet becomes a prophet and senses the imminent death of peasant Rus' - the one he knew and loved. To the thin-legged colt with whom he compares peasant Rus', not to keep up with the steam locomotive, the iron horse of civilization. Yesenin is sad because what he loved is dying. And yet he says to sister Shura: “Without regretting the lost hope, I will be able to sing along with you...”
In conclusion, I want to say that the poet’s homeland is his home, his mother, Rus' with its wonderful nature and a thin-legged foal rushing at full speed. He loves her dearly. His love for his homeland is visible in all his poems.
