Badly Great

Abstract by Alena Vasilyeva. Moscow, 2006

MAIN MOTIVES IN THE LYRICS OF S. A. ESENINA

INTRODUCTION

Yesenin lived only thirty years, but the mark he left on poetry is indelible. The Russian land is rich in talents. Sergei Yesenin rose to the heights of poetry from the depths of people's life. The world of folk poetic images surrounded him from childhood. Over the years, all the beauty of the native land was depicted in poems full of love for the Russian land:

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.

The pains and hardships of peasant Rus', its joys and hopes - all this was reflected in the poetry of Sergei Yesenin. “My lyrics,” Yesenin said, not without pride, “are alive with one great love, love for the Motherland. The feeling of the Motherland is the main thing in my work.” Favorite region! The heart dreams of stacks of sun in the waters of the bosom, I would like to get lost in your hundred-ringed greenery, the poet wrote. Such lines, in my opinion, can only be born in the soul of a true artist, for whom the Motherland is life. Yesenin’s grandfather, “a bright personality, a broad nature,” according to the poet, had an excellent memory and knew by heart many folk songs and ditties. Yesenin himself knew Russian folklore perfectly, which he studied not from books. Yesenin’s mother knew many songs, which Yesenin recalled more than once. Yesenin knew songs as few people knew them, he loved them - sad and cheerful, ancient and modern. Songs, legends, sayings - this is what Sergei Yesenin was brought up on. About four thousand miniature masterpieces were recorded in his notebooks.

Over time, Yesenin's talent gained strength. Blok, whom he admired, helped Yesenin enter the literary world. He (Blok) wrote a letter to his friend Gorodetsky asking him to help the young talent. In his diary, Blok wrote: “The poems are fresh, clear, vociferous. I have not experienced such pleasure for a long time.” Later, metropolitan magazines began to publish Sergei Yesenin’s poems: A rural dreamer - I am in the capital I have become a first-class poet. One of the reviewers said about the poet’s early poems: “A tired, jaded city dweller, reading Yesenin’s poems, becomes familiar with the forgotten aroma of the fields, something joyful emanates from his poetry.”

The first one started World War. With all his heart, with all his soul, the poet is devoted to his homeland and his people in these long years of grief and sadness: Oh, you, Rus', my meek homeland, I cherish my love only for you. The poem "Rus" is a wonderful and widely famous work, it is the artistic credo of the poet. In terms of mood, “Rus” somehow echoes Blok’s mournful thoughts about the Motherland:

Russia, poor Russia,
I want your gray huts,

Your songs are windy to me,
Like the first tears of love!

The time of Yesenin’s creativity is a time of sharp turns in the history of Russia. He wrote in his autobiography: “I accepted the revolution, but with a peasant bias.” It couldn't have been any other way. Yesenin is not just a lyricist, he is a poet of great intelligence and deep philosophical reflection. The drama of his worldview, his intense search for truth, mistakes and weaknesses - all these are facets of his enormous talent, but, studying him creative path, we can safely say that Yesenin was always true to himself in the main thing - in his desire to comprehend the difficult fate of his people. The year and a half the poet spent abroad was an exceptional period in his life: he did not write poetry, nothing inspired the poet far from his native land. It was there that the idea for the tragic poem “The Black Man” arose. This is Yesenin's last poetic work. Only abroad did he understand what tremendous changes were taking place in his homeland. He notes in his diary that perhaps the Russian revolution will save the world from hopeless philistinism. After returning from abroad, Yesenin visits his native land. He is sad, it seems to him that the people do not remember him, that huge changes have taken place in the village, but in what direction, he could not determine. The poet writes: This is the country!

For many years at school they studied the poetry of Demyan Bedny, Lebedev-Kumach, but the youth did not know Khodasevich, who was talented from God, Yesenin’s lyrics were not included in school textbooks, falsely accusing him of lack of ideas, the best poets were erased from literature. But they are alive, their poems are read, loved, and believed. Yesenin wrote his poems “with the blood of feelings.” By giving himself away, he burned himself out early; his poetry is his destiny. Even earlier, in the poem “I’m tired of living in my native land,” he predicts his future:

I'm tired of living in my native land
Longing for the buckwheat expanses,
I will leave my hut, I will go as a vagabond and a thief...
And the month will float and float, dropping oars across the lakes,

And Rus' will still live, dance and cry at the fence.

In the poetry of subsequent years, the motif of sadness and regret for wasted strength is increasingly heard; his poetry emanates a kind of hopelessness. In “The Black Man” he writes tragic lines: “My friend, I am very, very sick, I don’t know where this pain came from, whether the wind is rustling over an empty and deserted field, or whether, like a grove in September, alcohol is showering my brains ". This is not a momentary weakness of the poet, this is a clear understanding that his life is coming to an end. Recently, a message appeared in our press that Yesenin did not commit suicide, that he was killed because he had a great influence on the minds of the Russian people. The question is controversial, but the lines (“in this life, dying is not new, but life, of course, is not new”) indicate that he is tired of fighting the surrounding reality. I would like to end my essay with lines from his poem “We are now leaving little by little.” His words are a tribute to the Motherland and descendants:

I thought a lot of thoughts in silence,
I composed many songs to myself,
And on this gloomy land
Happy that I breathed and lived.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY

Yesenin Sergei Alexandrovich (1895-1925 )

« About Me»

WORK OF S. A. ESENINA

The work of Sergei Aleksandrovich Yesenin, uniquely bright and deep, has now firmly entered our literature and enjoys enormous success among numerous Soviet and foreign readers. The poet's poems are full of heartfelt warmth and sincerity, passionate love for the boundless expanses of his native fields, the “inexhaustible sadness” of which he was able to convey so emotionally and so loudly.

Sergei Yesenin entered our literature as an outstanding lyricist. It is in the lyrics that everything that makes up the soul of Yesenin’s creativity is expressed. It contains the full-blooded, sparkling joy of a young man rediscovering amazing world, subtly feeling the fullness of earthly charm, and the deep tragedy of a person who remained for too long in the “narrow gap” of old feelings and views. And if in the best poems of Sergei Yesenin there is a “flood” of the most secret, most intimate human feelings, they are filled to the brim with the freshness of pictures of native nature, then in his other works there is despair, decay, hopeless sadness. Sergei Yesenin is, first of all, a singer of Rus', and in his poems, sincere and frank in Russian, we feel the beating of a restless, tender heart. They have a “Russian spirit”, they “smell of Russia”. Even in Yesenin’s love lyrics, the theme of love merges with the theme of the Motherland. The author of "Persian Motifs" is convinced of the fragility of serene happiness far from his native land. And the main character of the cycle becomes distant Russia: “No matter how beautiful Shiraz is, it is no better than the expanses of Ryazan.” Yesenin greeted the October Revolution with joy and warm sympathy. Together with Blok and Mayakovsky, he took her side without hesitation. The works written by Yesenin at that time ("Transfiguration", "Inonia", "Heavenly Drummer") are imbued with rebellious sentiments. The poet is captured by the storm of the revolution, its greatness and strives for something new, for the future. In one of his works, Yesenin exclaimed: “My motherland, I am a Bolshevik!” But Yesenin, as he himself wrote, perceived the revolution in his own way, “with a peasant bias,” “more spontaneously than consciously.” This left a special imprint on the poet’s work and largely predetermined his future path. The poet's ideas about the purpose of the revolution, about the future, about socialism were characteristic. In the poem "Inonia" he depicts the future as a kind of idyllic kingdom of peasant prosperity; socialism seems to him a blissful "peasant paradise." Such ideas were reflected in other works of Yesenin of that time:

I see you, green fields,
With a herd of dun horses.
With a shepherd's pipe in the willows
Apostle Andrew wanders.

But the fantastic visions of peasant Irony, naturally, were not destined to come true. The revolution was led by the proletariat, the village was led by the city. “After all, the socialism that is coming is completely different from what I thought,” Yesenin declares in one of his letters from that time. Yesenin begins to curse the “iron guest”, bringing death to the patriarchal village way of life, and to mourn the old, passing “wooden Rus'”. This explains the inconsistency of Yesenin’s poetry, who went through a difficult path from the singer of patriarchal, impoverished, dispossessed Russia to the singer of socialist Russia, Leninist Russia. After Yesenin’s trip abroad and to the Caucasus, a turning point occurs in the poet’s life and work and a new period is designated. She makes him fall in love with his socialist fatherland more deeply and strongly and appreciate everything that happens in it differently." ...I fell even more in love with communist construction," Yesenin wrote upon returning to his homeland in the essay "Iron Mirgorod." Already in the cycle “Love of a Hooligan,” written immediately upon arrival from abroad, the mood of loss and hopelessness is replaced by hope for happiness, faith in love and the future. The wonderful poem “A blue fire swept up...”, full of self-condemnation, pure and tender love, gives a clear idea of ​​the new motives in Yesenin’s lyrics:

A blue fire began to sweep,
Forgotten relatives.
For the first time I sang about love,
For the first time I refuse to make a scandal.

I was all like a neglected garden,
He was averse to women and potions.
I stopped liking singing and dancing
And lose your life without looking back.

Yesenin's work is one of the brightest, deeply moving pages in the history of Soviet literature. Yesenin's era has receded into the past, but his poetry continues to live, awakening a feeling of love for his native land, for everything close and different. We are concerned about the sincerity and spirituality of the poet, for whom Rus' was the most precious thing on the entire planet.

THE THEME OF HOMELAND AND NATURE IN THE LYRICS OF S. A. ESENINA

The theme of the homeland is one of the main themes in the work of S. Yesenin. It is customary to associate this poet, first of all, with the village, with his native Ryazan region. But the poet left the Ryazan village of Konstantinovo very young, then lived in Moscow, and in St. Petersburg, and abroad, and came to his native village from time to time as a guest. This is important to know to understand S. Yesenin’s position. It was the separation from his native land that gave his poems about it that warmth of memories that distinguishes them. In the very descriptions of nature, the poet has that measure of detachment that allows this beauty to be seen and felt more acutely.

Already in the early poems of S. Yesenin there are declarations of love for Russia. Thus, one of his most famous works is “Go away, my dear Rus'...” From the very beginning, Rus' appears here as something sacred, the key image of the poem is a comparison of peasant huts with icons, images in vestments, and behind this comparison there is a whole philosophy, value system. The world of the village is like a temple with its harmony of earth and sky, man and nature. The world of Rus' for S. Yesenin is also a world of wretched, poor, bitter peasant houses, an abandoned region, a “village in potholes,” where joy is short and sadness is endless:

"Sad song, you are Russian pain."

This feeling is especially intensified in the poet’s poems after 1914 - the beginning of the war: the village seems to him like a bride, abandoned by his beloved and awaiting news from him from the battlefield. For a poet, his native village in Russia is something unified; his homeland, especially in his early work, is first of all his native land, his native village, something that later, at the end of the 20th century, literary critics defined as the concept of a “small homeland” . With the inherent tendency of S. Yesenin, the lyricist, to animate all living things, everything around him, he also addresses Russia as a person close to him: “Oh, you, Rus', my meek homeland, / I cherish my love only for you.” Sometimes the poet’s poems take on a note of aching sadness, a feeling of restlessness arises in them, their lyrical hero is a wanderer who left his native hut, rejected and forgotten by everyone. And the only thing that remains unchanged, that retains eternal value, is nature and Russia:

And the month will float and float
Dropping oars across the lakes...
And Rus' will still live
Dance and cry at the fence.

S. Yesenin lived in a turning point, full of dramatic and even tragic events. In the memory of his generation - war, revolution, war again - now civil. The poet, like many artists of his circle, met the turning point year for Russia - 1917 - with hopes for renewal, for a happy turn in the peasant lot. The poets of S. Yesenin's circle of that time were N. Klyuev, P. Oreshin, S. Klychkov. These hopes are expressed in the words of N. Klyuev, a close friend and poetic mentor of S. Yesenin: “Now it is a peasant land, / And the church will not hire a government official.” In Yesenin’s poetry in 1917, a new feeling of Russia appears: “The tar has already been washed away, erased / Resurrected Rus'.” The feelings and moods of the poet of this time are very complex and contradictory - these are hopes and expectations of the bright and new, but this is also anxiety for the fate of his native land, philosophical thoughts on eternal topics. One of them - the theme of the collision of nature and the human mind, invading it and destroying its harmony - sounds in S. Yesenin's poem "Sorokoust". In it, the competition between the foal and the train, which takes on a deeply symbolic meaning, becomes central. At the same time, the foal embodies all the beauty of nature, its touching defenselessness. The locomotive takes on the features of an ominous monster. In Yesenin's "Sorokoust" the eternal theme of the confrontation between nature and reason, technological progress merges with reflections on the fate of Russia.

In the post-revolutionary poetry of S. Yesenin, the theme of the homeland is filled with difficult thoughts about the poet’s place in the new life, he painfully experiences alienation from his native land, it is difficult for him to find a common language with the new generation, for whom the calendar Lenin on the wall replaces the icon, and the “pot-bellied “Capital” - The Bible. It is especially bitter for the poet to realize that the new generation is singing new songs: “The propaganda of Poor Demyan is being sung.” This is all the more sad since S. Yesenin rightly notes: “I am a poet! And no match for some Demyans.” That’s why his lines sound so sad: “My poetry is no longer needed here, / And, perhaps, I myself am not needed here either.” But even the desire to merge with a new life does not force S. Yesenin to give up his calling as a Russian poet; he writes: “I will give my whole soul to October and May, / But I will not give up my sweet lyre.” And that is why his confession is filled with such deep pathos:

"I will chant
With the whole being in the poet
Sixth of the land

With a short name "Rus".

Today it is difficult for us, living in Russia, to fully understand the meaning of these lines, but they were written in 1924, when the very name - Rus' - was almost forbidden, and citizens were supposed to live in "Recefeser". S. Yesenin’s understanding of his poetic mission, his position as “the last singer of the village,” the keeper of its covenants, its memory, is connected with the theme of the homeland. One of the poet’s programmatic poems, important for understanding the theme of the homeland, was “The Feather Grass Is Sleeping”:

The feather grass is sleeping.Plain dear
And the leaden freshness of wormwood!
No other homeland
It will not pour my warmth into my chest.

Know that we all have such a fate,
And, perhaps, ask everyone -
Rejoicing, raging and tormented,
Life is good in Rus'.

The light of the moon, mysterious and long,
The willows are crying, the poplars are whispering,
But no one listens to the crane's cry
He will not stop loving his father's fields.

And now, when the new light
And my life was touched by fate,
I still remain a poet
Golden log hut.

At night, huddled against the headboard,
I see him as a strong enemy
How someone else's youth splashes with newness
To my glades and meadows.

But still pressed by that newness,
I can sing with feeling:
Give me in my beloved homeland,
Loving everything, die in peace."

This poem is dated 1925 and belongs to the poet’s mature lyricism. It expresses his innermost thoughts. In the line “rejoicing, raging and tormenting” - the difficult historical experience that befell the Yesenin generation. The poem is built on traditionally poetic images: feather grass as a symbol of the Russian landscape and at the same time a symbol of melancholy, wormwood with its rich symbolism and the cry of a crane as a sign of separation. The traditional landscape, in which the personification of poetry is the no less traditional “light of the moon,” is opposed by the “new light,” which is rather abstract, inanimate, and devoid of poetry. And in contrast to this, the lyrical hero of Yesenin’s poem recognizes his commitment to the age-old village way of life. The poet’s epithet “golden” is especially significant: “I will still remain a poet / of the Golden log hut.” It is one of the most frequently encountered in S. Yesenin’s lyrics, but it is usually associated with a color concept: golden - that is, yellow, but certainly with a connotation of the highest value: “golden grove”, “golden frog moon”. In this poem, the shade of value predominates: gold is not only the color of the hut, but a symbol of its enduring value as a symbol of the way of village life with its inherent beauty and harmony. A village hut is a whole world; its destruction is not redeemed for the poet by any tempting new thing. The ending of the poem sounds somewhat rhetorical, but in the general context of S. Yesenin’s poetry it is perceived as a deep and sincere recognition of the author. Thus, the theme of the homeland in S. Yesenin’s poetry develops from an unconscious, almost child-like natural attachment to the native land to a conscious, one that has withstood the test of difficult times of change and turning points of the author’s position.

I am not a new person, what to hide, I remain in the past with one foot, Trying to catch up with the “steel army”, I slide and fall with the other. Yesenin “My entire autobiography is in verse,” wrote Yesenin. The larger the artist, the larger his work, the more original his talent, the more difficult it is for his contemporaries to fully appreciate his contribution to the spiritual life of the nation. In later poems, Yesenin, as if summing up the results of his creative activity, wrote: “My village will only be famous for the fact that here a woman once gave birth to a Russian scandalous son.”

SPACE MOTIF IN THE POETRY OF S. YESENIN

“Cosmos” - (from the Greek order, universe) in the mythological and mythologized early philosophical tradition, the universe is understood as an integral universe, organized in accordance with a certain law.

All mythological systems have a common set of features that define the cosmos. It opposes chaos and is always secondary. The relationship between space and chaos occurs not only in time, but also in space. And in this case, space is often presented as something included within the chaos that surrounds space from the outside. Cosmic law connects the cosmos and man (macrocosm and microcosm) even more closely.

Cosmic motifs can be found in the works of many poets; Yesenin also has them. Almost every poem of his contains celestial phenomena and cosmic landscapes. For example, the month (moon) is mentioned in 52 poems, the sun (10), stars (32), sky (14).

If in mythologized concepts the vertical structure of the cosmos is three-membered and consists of the upper world (sky), middle (earth) and lower (underground kingdom), then S. Yesenin’s cosmic model of the world is two-membered (sky and earth). The first - upper world - includes celestial phenomena (sky, sun, moon, stars), the second tier - middle - includes the earth, trees, animals, humans, housing and other buildings. These tiers are very closely interconnected.

Near the forest clearing there are heaps of bread in the piles,
The spruce trees, like spears, pointed to the sky.
("The evening began to smoke...", 1912)

The sun went out. Quiet on the meadow.
("Herd", 1915)

I'll look into the field, I'll look into the sky -
There is paradise in the fields and in the sky.
(“I’ll look into the field...”, 1917)

Three star birch trees above the pond...

The house, being the center of the universe, is connected to space through the roof.

There is great light from the moon
Right on our roof.
(“It’s already evening. Dew...”, 1910)

The moon above the roof is like a golden hillock.
(“Under the red elm there is a porch and a yard...”, 1915)

A flock of jackdaws on the roof
Serves the evening star.
("Here it is, stupid happiness...", 1918)

Leaving home and going on a journey, the lyrical hero also feels his connection with the universe. This is where the “law of microcosm and macrocosm” comes into force. Man is a kind of microcosm, with all his sensations and impressions. He receives these impressions from interaction with nature, with other people, that is, from the macrocosm.

I want to measure the ends of the earth,
Trusting a ghostly star.
(“I will go to Skufya as a humble monk...”, 1914)

An overnight stay beckons, not far from the hut,
The garden smells of limp dill,
On the beds of gray wavy cabbage
The horn of the moon pours oil drop by drop.
("Dove", 1916)

The silent milkiness does not oppress,
Doesn't worry about star fear
I fell in love with the world and eternity,
Like a parent's hearth
(“The winds did not blow in vain…”, 1917)

Animals in Yesenin’s works are also part of the universe and their experiences and attitudes are also connected with space. For example, in the poem "Song of the Dog" the author shows the pain of the animal, its suffering through cosmic motifs.

A month seemed to her above the hut
One of her puppies.
(1915)

Golden frog moon
Spread out on the calm water.
(“I left my home…”, 1918)

Metaphor in these cases arises from shape, figure, silhouette. But the moon is not only heavenly body, but also moonlight, which evokes different moods in the lyrical hero.

Moonlight, mysterious and long
The willows are crying, the poplars are whispering.
But no one listens to the crane's cry

He will not stop loving his father's fields.
(“The feather grass is sleeping…”, 1925)

Blue fog. Snow expanse,
Subtle lemon moonlight.
("Blue Fog...", 1925)

Uncomfortable liquid lunarness
And the melancholy of endless plains...
("Uncomfortable liquid moon...", 1925)

Cosmic motifs closely coexist with religious ones.

From the blue of the invisible bush
Starry psalms flow.
(“It’s not the winds that shower the forests…”, 1914)

Quiet - quiet in the divine corner,
He's been kneading kutya on the floor for a month.
(“Night and the field, and the crow of roosters.”, 1917)

In this poem, “month” and “Kutya” are interconnected by ancient beliefs. In popular belief, the month is associated with the afterlife, and kutia is a dish that is prepared for the funeral of dead people. Also in the works, along with celestial phenomena, “paradise inhabitants” are also mentioned:

Oh mother of God,
Fall like a star
Off-road,

Into a deaf ravine.
("Oh Mother of God...", 1917)

"Oh Virgin Mary! -
The heavens are singing.
("Octoechos", 1917)

Religious ceremonies and holidays:

With a Maundy Thursday candle
A star is burning above you.
("Silver Road", 1918)

In works on revolutionary themes, Yesenin again turns to the “universal” space, trying to understand and rethink the events taking place:

But know this
Deep sleepers:
She caught fire

Star of the East!
("The Singing Call", 1917)

The sky is like a bell
The month is a language
My mother is my homeland,
I am a Bolshevik.
("Jordan Dove", 1918)

as well as the poems "Heavenly Drummer" (1918) and "Pantocrator" (1919). Yesenin, describing the heavenly bodies, turns to folklore themes in relation to the heavenly bodies. For example, in the poem “Martha the Posadnitsa” (1914).

Not the sister of the month from the dark swamp
In pearls, she threw the kokoshnik into the sky, -
Oh, how Martha walked out of the gate...

In folklore, the “sister of the month” is the sun, which is opposed to it as the source of life, warmth and light.

Thus, having examined the lyrics of S. Yesenin, we see that the poet turns to cosmic motifs in order to comprehend some events and understand the world around him.

"WOOD MOTIF" LYRICS BY S. Yesenin

Nature is the all-encompassing, main element of the poet’s creativity. Many of S. Yesenin’s early poems are imbued with a feeling of an inextricable connection with the life of nature (“ Mother in the Bathing Suit…", "I do not regret, do not call, do not cry..."). The poet constantly turns to nature when he expresses the most intimate thoughts about himself, about his past, present and future. In his poems, she lives a rich poetic life. Like a person, she is born, grows and dies, sings and whispers, is sad and rejoices.

Yesenin’s nature is anthropomorphic: birches are likened to girls, maples are like a tipsy watchman, a lyrical hero. The image of nature is built on associations from rural peasant life, and the human world is usually revealed through associations with the life of nature.

Spiritualization and humanization of nature is characteristic of folk poetry. " Ancient man“He almost didn’t know inanimate objects,” notes A. Afanasyev, “he found reason, feeling and will everywhere. In the noise of the forests, in the rustling of leaves, he heard those mysterious conversations that trees conduct among themselves.”

The central, comprehensive concept of the poetic views of the Slavs, according to A. Afanasyev, is the image of the world tree or “tree of life,” personifying world harmony, the unity of all things. Such is this image in folk poetry, such is it in Yesenin’s poetics, which is why the image of a tree is at the center of many of S. Yesenin’s poems.

From childhood, the poet absorbed this popular worldview; one might say that it formed his poetic individuality.

“Everything is from the tree - this is the religion of thought of our people... The tree is life. Wiping their faces on a canvas with a picture of a tree, our people silently say that they have not forgotten the secret of the ancient fathers of wiping themselves with leaves, that they remember themselves as the seed of a supermundane tree and, running under the cover of its branches, plunging their faces into a towel, they seem to want imprint on his cheeks at least a small branch of it, so that, like a tree, he can shed the cones of words and thoughts and stream from the branches of his hands the shadow of virtue,” wrote S. Yesenin in his poetic and philosophical treatise “The Keys of Mary.”

In ancient myths, the image of a tree had many meanings.

The tree, in particular, symbolized life and death (blooming or dry), ancient ideas about the universe (top is the sky, bottom is the underworld, the middle is the earth), the tree as a whole could be compared with a person (the head is the top going into the sky, legs are roots, feeling the strength in the earth, outstretched arms, like branches, hug the world around). So, a tree is a mythological symbol denoting the universe, the harmony of the universe.

However, for Yesenin, the likening of man to a tree is more than a “religion of thought”: he not only believed in the existence of a central connection between man and the natural world, he felt himself to be a part of this nature.

Yesenin’s “tree romance” motif, highlighted by M. Epstein, goes back to the traditional motive of assimilating man to nature. Relying on the traditional trope of “man-plant”, Yesenin creates a “woody novel”, the heroes of which are maple, birch and willow.

The humanized images of trees are overgrown with “portrait” details: the birch has “the waist, hips, breasts, legs, hairstyle, hem, braids,” and the maple has “the leg, the head.”

I just want to close my hands
Over the tree hips of the willows.

Green hairstyle,
Girlish breasts,
O thin birch tree,
Why did you look into the pond?
("Green Hairstyle", 1918)

I won't be back soon, not soon!
The blizzard will sing and ring for a long time.
Guards blue Rus'
Old maple on one leg.
(“I left my home…”, 1918)

According to M. Epstein, “the birch tree, largely thanks to Yesenin, became the national poetic symbol of Russia. Other favorite plants are linden, rowan, and bird cherry.”

Of the 339 poems examined by S. Yesenin, 199 poems contain a mention of one tree or another.

Birch most often becomes the heroine of his works - 47. Next come spruce (17), maple (15), bird cherry, willow, pine (14), linden (11), poplar, aspen (10), rowan (9), willow ( 8), apple tree (7), lilac (6), broom (5), viburnum (4), oak (3), willow (3), alder and cedar (1).

The most plot-length, the most significant in Yesenin’s poetry are still birches and maples.

The birch tree in Russian folk and classical poetry is a national symbol of Russia. This is one of the most revered trees among the Slavs. In ancient pagan rituals, the birch often served as a “Maypole,” a symbol of spring.

Yesenin, when describing folk spring holidays, mentions the birch tree in the meaning of this symbol in the poems “Trinity Morning...” (1914) and “The reeds rustled over the backwater...” (1914)

Trinity morning, morning canon,
In the grove, the birch trees are ringing white.

The poem “The reeds rustled over the backwater” talks about an important and fascinating event of the Semitic-Trinity week - fortune-telling with wreaths.

The beautiful girl told fortunes at seven o'clock.
A wave unraveled a wreath of dodder.

The girls wove wreaths and threw them into the river. By the wreath that floated far away, washed ashore, stopped or sank, they judged the fate that awaited them (distant or nearby marriage, girlhood, death of the betrothed).

Oh, a girl won’t marry in the spring,
He intimidated her with forest signs.

In the poem “Green Hairstyle” (1918), the humanization of the appearance of the birch tree in Yesenin’s work reaches full development. The birch tree becomes like a woman.

Green hairstyle,
Girlish breasts,
O thin birch tree,
Why did you look into the pond?

In poems such as “I don’t regret, I don’t call, I don’t cry...” (1921) and “The golden grove dissuaded...” (1924), the lyrical hero reflects on his life and his youth:

I do not regret, do not call, do not cry,
Everything will pass like smoke from white apple trees.
Withered in gold,
I won't be young anymore.
...And the country of birch chintz
It won't tempt you to wander around barefoot.

“Apple tree smoke” - the blossoming of trees in the spring, when everything around is reborn to new life. “Apple tree”, “apples” - in folk poetry this is a symbol of youth - “rejuvenating apples”, and “smoke” is a symbol of fragility, fleetingness, illusoryness. In combination, they mean the fleeting nature of happiness and youth. Birch, a symbol of spring, also has this meaning. “The country of birch chintz” is the “country” of childhood, the time of the most beautiful things. It’s not for nothing that Yesenin writes “to wander around barefoot,” a parallel can be drawn with the expression “barefoot childhood.”

All of us, all of us in this world are perishable,
Copper quietly pours from the maple leaves...
May you be blessed forever,
What has come to flourish and die.

Before us is a symbol of transience human life. The symbol is based on the trope: “life is the time of flowering”, withering is the approach of death. In nature, everything inevitably returns, repeats itself and blooms again. Man, unlike nature, is one-time, and his cycle, coinciding with the natural, is already unique.

The theme of the Motherland is closely intertwined with the image of the birch. Each Yesenin line is warmed by a feeling of boundless love for Russia. The strength of the poet's lyrics lies in the fact that in it the feeling of love for the Motherland is expressed not in the abstract, but concretely, in visible images, through pictures of the native landscape.

Maple, unlike other trees, it does not have such a definite, formed figurative core in Russian poetry. In folklore traditions associated with ancient pagan rituals, it did not play a significant role. Poetic views on it in Russian classical literature mainly took shape in the 20th century and therefore have not yet acquired clear outlines.

The image of the maple is most formed in the poetry of S. Yesenin, where he appears as a kind of lyrical hero of a “tree novel”. Maple is a daring, slightly rollicking guy, with a lush head of unkempt hair, as he has a round crown, similar to a head of hair or a hat. Hence the motive of likening, the primary similarity from which the image of the lyrical hero developed.

Because that old maple
The head looks like me.
(“I left my home…”, 1918)

In the poem “Son of a Bitch” (1924), the lyrical hero is sad about his lost youth, which “has faded away”

Like a maple tree rotting under the windows.

In folk poetry, a rotten or dried tree is a symbol of grief, the loss of something dear that cannot be returned.

The hero remembers his youthful love. The symbol of love here is the viburnum, with its “bitter” semantics; it is also combined with the “yellow pond”. Yellow in the superstitions of the people it is a symbol of separation and grief. Therefore, we can say that parting with the girl he loved was already destined by fate itself.

In the ethnological legends of the Slavs, maple or sycamore is a tree into which a person is turned ("sworn"). S. Yesenin also anthropomorphizes the maple tree; it appears as a person with all his inherent mental states and periods of life. In the poem “You are my fallen maple...” (1925), the lyrical hero is like a maple with his daring, he draws a parallel between himself and the maple:

And, like a drunken watchman, going out onto the road,
He drowned in a snowdrift and froze his leg.
Oh, and I myself have become somewhat unstable these days,
I won’t make it home from a friendly drinking party.

It’s not even always clear who this poem is talking about - a person or a tree.

There I met a willow, there I noticed a pine tree,
I sang songs to them during the snowstorm about summer.
I seemed to myself to be the same maple...

Resembling a maple with its “carefree-curly head”, poplar at the same time aristocratically “slim and straight.” This harmony, upward striving is distinctive feature poplars, right up to the poetry of our days.

In the poem “Village” (1914), S. Yesenin compares poplar leaves with silk:

In silk poplar leaves.

This comparison was made possible by the fact that poplar leaves have a double structure: on the outside the leaves are shiny green, as if polished, with inside– matte silver. Silk fabric also has a double color: the right side is shiny and smooth, and the left side is matte and expressionless. When silk shimmers, the shades of color can change, just as the leaves of poplar shimmer in the wind with a greenish-silver color.

Poplars grow along roads and are therefore sometimes associated with barefoot wanderers. This theme of wandering is reflected in the poem “Without a hat, with a bast knapsack...” (1916).

In Yesenin’s works, poplars are also a sign of the Motherland, like birch.

Saying goodbye to home, leaving for foreign lands, the hero is sad that

They will no longer be winged leaves
I need the poplars to ring.
(“Yes! Now it’s decided...”, 1922)

Yiwu called "crying". The image of the willow tree is more unambiguous and has the semantics of melancholy.

In Russian folk poetry, the willow is a symbol not only of love, but also of any separation, the grief of mothers parting with their sons.

In the poetry of S. Yesenin, the image of the willow is traditionally associated with sadness, loneliness, and separation. This sadness for past youth, for the loss of a loved one, for parting with one’s homeland.

For example, in the poem “Night and the Field, and the Cry of Roosters...” (1917)

“The dilapidated hem of the willows” is the past, the old time, something that is very dear, but something that will never return. The destroyed, distorted life of the people, the country.

The same poem also mentions aspen. It emphasizes bitterness and loneliness, since in folk poetry it is always a symbol of sadness.

In other poems, the willow, like the birch, is a heroine, a girl.

And they call to the rosary
Willows are meek nuns.
("Beloved Land...", 1914)

I just want to close my hands
Over the tree hips of the willows.
(“I’m wandering through the first snow…”, 1917)

The lyrical hero, remembering his youth and feeling sad about it, also turns to the image of a willow tree.

And he knocked on my window
September with a crimson willow branch,
So that I am ready and meet
His arrival is unpretentious.
(“Let you be drunk by others...”, 1923)

September is autumn, and the autumn of life is the imminent arrival of winter - old age. The hero meets this “age of autumn” calmly, although with a little sadness about “mischievous and rebellious courage,” because by this time he had acquired life experience and looks at the world around him from the heights of his years.

Everything that makes a tree stand out among other forms of vegetation (strength of the trunk, powerful crown) sets it apart oak among other trees, making him, as it were, the king of the tree kingdom. He personifies highest degree firmness, courage, strength, greatness.

Tall, mighty, blooming - these are the characteristic epithets of the oak, which poets use as an image of vital power.

In the poetry of S. Yesenin, the oak is not such a constant hero as the birch and maple. The oak is mentioned in only three poems ("The Heroic Whistle", 1914; "Oktoich" 1917; "Unspeakable, blue, tender..." 1925)

The poem "Octoechos" mentions the Mauritius oak. Yesenin subsequently explained the meaning of this image in his treatise “The Keys of Mary” (1918) “... that symbolic tree that means “family” is not at all important that in Judea this tree bore the name of the Mauritius oak...”

Under the Mauritian oak
My red-haired grandfather is sitting...

The introduction of the image of the Mauritius oak into this poem is not accidental, since it talks about the homeland:

O homeland, happy
And it’s an unstoppable hour!

about relatives -

"my red-haired grandfather."

In the poem “The Heroic Whistle,” Yesenin introduces the image of an oak tree to show the power and strength of Russia and its people. This work can be put on a par with Russian epics about heroes. Ilya Muromets and other heroes, jokingly, playfully felled oak trees. In this poem the man also “whistles”, and from his whistle

the hundred-year-old oaks trembled,
The leaves on the oak trees are falling from the whistling sound.

Coniferous trees convey a different mood and carry a different meaning than deciduous ones: not joy and sadness, not various emotional outbursts, but rather mysterious silence, numbness, self-absorption.

Pines and spruce trees are part of a gloomy, harsh landscape; wilderness, darkness, and silence reign around them. Permanent greenery evokes associations of coniferous trees with eternal peace, deep sleep, over which time and the cycle of nature have no power.

These trees are mentioned in poems from 1914 such as" It is not the winds that shower the forests..." , " Thawed clay dries" , " I smell God's rainbow..." , "Us", "A cloud tied lace in the grove" (1915).

In Yesenin's poem" Porosha" (1914) main character- the pine acts as an “old lady”:

Like a white scarf
The pine tree has tied up.
Bent over like an old lady
Leaned on a stick...

The forest where the heroine lives is fabulous, magical, also alive, just like her.

Bewitched by the invisible
The forest slumbers under the fairy tale of sleep...

We meet another fairy-tale, magical forest in the poem" Witch" (1915). But this forest is no longer bright and joyful, but rather formidable (“The grove threatens with spruce peaks”), gloomy, harsh.

The dark night is silently afraid,
The moon is covered with shawls of clouds.
The wind is a singer with a howl of whoops...

Having examined the poems where images of trees are found, we see that S. Yesenin’s poems are imbued with a feeling of an inextricable connection with the life of nature. It is inseparable from a person, from his thoughts and feelings. The image of a tree in Yesenin’s poetry appears in the same meaning as in folk poetry. The author's motif of the "tree novel" goes back to the traditional motif of likening man to nature and is based on the traditional trope of "man- plant".

Drawing nature, the poet introduces into the story a description of human life, holidays that are in one way or another connected with animals and flora. Yesenin seems to intertwine these two worlds, creating one harmonious and interpenetrating world. He often resorts to personification. Nature- This is not a frozen landscape background: it reacts passionately to the fate of people, the events of history. She is the poet's favorite hero.

IMAGES OF ANIMALS IN S. YESENIN'S LYRICS

Images of animals in literature- it is a kind of mirror of humanistic self-consciousness. Just as the self-determination of a person is impossible outside of his relationship to another person, so the self-determination of the entire human race cannot be accomplished outside of its relationship to the animal kingdom."

The cult of animals has existed for a very long time. In a distant era, when the main occupation of the Slavs was hunting, and not agriculture, they believed that wild animals and humans had common ancestors. Each tribe had its own totem, that is, a sacred animal that the tribe worshiped, believing that it was their blood relative.

In the literature of different times, images of animals have always been present. They served as material for the emergence of Aesopian language in fairy tales about animals, and later in fables. In the literature of “modern times,” in epic and lyric poetry, animals acquire equal rights with humans, becoming the object or subject of the narrative. Often a person is “tested for humanity” by his attitude towards an animal.

The poetry of the 19th century is dominated by images of domestic and farm animals tamed by man, sharing his life and work. After Pushkin, the everyday genre becomes predominant in animalistic poetry. All living things are placed within the framework of household equipment or a household yard (Pushkin, Nekrasov, Fet). In the poetry of the 20th century, images of wild animals became widespread (Bunin, Gumilyov, Mayakovsky). The reverence for the beast has disappeared. But the “new peasant poets” reintroduce the motif of “brotherhood of man and animal.” Pets dominate their poetic work- cow, horse, dog, cat. Relationships reveal features of a family structure.

Sergei Yesenin’s poetry also contains the motif of “blood relationship” with the animal world; he calls them “lesser brothers.”

I'm happy that I kissed women,
Crushed flowers, lying on the grass
And animals, like our smaller brothers

Never hit me on the head.
(“We are now leaving little by little,” 1924)

Along with his pets, we find images of representatives wildlife. Of the 339 poems examined, 123 mention animals, birds, insects, and fish.

Horse (13), cow (8), raven, dog, nightingale (6), calves, cat, dove, crane (5), sheep, mare, dog (4), foal, swan, rooster, owl (3), sparrow, wolf, capercaillie, cuckoo, horse, frog, fox, mouse, tit (2), stork, ram, butterfly, camel, rook, goose, gorilla, toad, snake, oriole, sandpiper, chickens, corncrake, donkey, parrot , magpies, catfish, pig, cockroaches, lapwing, bumblebee, pike, lamb (1).

S. Yesenin most often turns to the image of a horse or cow. He introduces these animals into the narrative of peasant life as an integral part of the life of the Russian peasant. Since ancient times, a horse, a cow, a dog and a cat have accompanied a person in his hard work, sharing both joys and troubles with him.

The horse was an assistant when working in the field, transporting goods, military battle. The dog brought prey and guarded the house. The cow was the waterer and wet nurse in a peasant family, and the cat caught mice and simply personified home comfort.

The image of a horse, as an integral part of everyday life, is found in the poems “The Herd” (1915), “Farewell, dear Pushcha...” (1916), “This sadness cannot be scattered now...” (1924). Pictures of village life change in connection with events taking place in the country. And if in the first poem we see "in the hills green herds of horses", then in subsequent ones:

A mowed hut,
The cry of a sheep, and in the distance in the wind
The little horse wags his skinny tail,
Looking into the unkind pond.
(“This sadness cannot now be scattered…”, 1924)

The village fell into decay and the proud and majestic horse “turned” into a “little horse,” which personifies the plight of the peasantry in those years.

The innovation and originality of S. Yesenin the poet was manifested in the fact that when drawing or mentioning animals in everyday space (field, river, village, yard, house, etc.), he is not an animalist, that is, he does not set the goal of recreating the image of one or another animal. Animals, being part of everyday space and environment, appear in his poetry as a source and means of artistic-philosophical understanding of the surrounding world, allow us to reveal the content of a person’s spiritual life.

In the poem "Cow" (1915) S. Yesenin uses the principle of anthropomorphism, endowing the animal with human thoughts and feelings. The author describes a specific everyday and life situation- old age of the animal

decrepit, teeth have fallen out,
scroll of years on the horns...

and his further fate, "soon... they will tie a noose around her neck // and will be taken to slaughter", he identifies the old animal and the old man

Thinks a sad thought...

If we turn to those works in which the image of a dog is found, then, for example, in the poem “Song of the Dog” (1915). “Song” (an emphatically “high” genre) is a kind of hymnography, made possible due to the fact that the subject of “chanting” is the sacred feeling of motherhood, characteristic of a dog to the same extent as a woman-mother. The animal is worried about the death of its cubs, which the “gloomy owner” drowned in an ice hole.

Introducing the image of a dog into poems, the poet writes about the long-standing friendship of this animal with man. The lyrical hero of S. Yesenin is also a peasant by birth, and in childhood and youth- villager. Loving his fellow villagers, he at the same time is completely different from them in his inner essence. In relation to animals this manifests itself most clearly. His affection and love for his “sisters-bitches” and “brothers-males”- these are feelings for equals. That's why the dog "was my youth Friend".

The poem “Son of a Bitch” reflects the tragedy of the consciousness of the lyrical hero, which arises because in the world of wildlife and animals everything looks unchanged:

That dog died a long time ago,
But in the same suit that has a blue tint,
With a maddened bark
Her young son shot me.

It seems that the “son” genetically received from his mother the love for the lyrical hero. However, the lyrical hero next to this dog especially acutely feels how he has changed externally and internally. For him, returning to his younger self is possible only at the level of feeling and for a moment.

With this pain I feel younger
And at least write notes again.

At the same time, the irrevocability of what has passed is realized.

Another animal that has been “accompanying” a person through life for a very long time,- It's a cat. It embodies home comfort, a warm hearth.

An old cat sneaks up to the makhotka
For fresh milk.
("In the Hut", 1914)

In this poem we also meet other representatives of the animal world, which are also an invariable “attribute” of the peasant hut. These are cockroaches, chickens, roosters.

Having examined the everyday meanings of animal images, we move on to their symbolic meanings. The symbols with which animals are endowed are very widespread in folklore and classical poetry. Each poet has his own symbolism, but basically they all rely on the folk basis of one or another image. Yesenin also uses folk beliefs about animals, but at the same time, many images of animals are reinterpreted by him and receive new significance. Let's return to the image of the horse.

The horse is one of the sacred animals in Slavic mythology, an attribute of the gods, but at the same time it is also a chthonic creature associated with fertility and death, the afterlife, and a guide to the “other world.” The horse was endowed with the ability to foretell fate, especially death. A. N. Afanasyev explains the meaning of the horse in the mythology of the ancient Slavs: “As the personification of gusty winds, storms and flying clouds, fairy-tale horses are endowed with wings, which makes them similar to mythological birds... fiery, fire-breathing... the horse serves as a poetic image of either the radiant sun or a cloud shining with lightning..."

In the poem "Dove" (1916), the horse appears in the image of "quiet fate." There are no signs of change and the lyrical hero lives a quiet, measured life, with his everyday worries day after day, just as his ancestors lived.

The day will go out, flashing like a shock of gold,
And in a box of years the work will settle down.

But in the history of the country, the revolutionary events of 1917 take place, and the hero’s soul becomes worried about the fate of Russia, his land. He understands that now a lot will change in his life. The lyrical hero recalls with sadness his strong, established way of life, which is now disrupted.

...My horse was taken away...
My horse - my strength and strength.

He knows that now his future depends on the future of his homeland, he tries to escape from the events that are happening

...he beats, rushes,
Pulling a tight lasso...
(“Open to me the guard above the clouds”, 1918)

but he fails to do this, he can only submit to fate. In this work we observe a poetic parallelism between the “behavior” of the horse and his fate and the mental state of the lyrical hero in a “storm-ravaged life.”

In the 1920 poem "Sorokoust" Yesenin introduces the image of a horse as a symbol of the old patriarchal village, which has not yet realized the transition to a new life. The image of this “past,” which is trying with all its might to fight change, is a foal, which appears as part of a generally symbolic situation of “competition” between the “cast-iron horse-train” and the “red-maned colt.”

Dear, dear, funny fool,
Well, where is he, where is he going?
Doesn't he really know that live horses
Did the steel cavalry win?

The village's struggle for survival is lost, and more and more preference is given to the city.

In other works, the horse becomes a symbol of past youth, a symbol of what a person cannot return; it remains only in memories.

I have now become more stingy in my desires,
My life? or did I dream about you?
As if I were a booming early spring
He rode on a pink horse.
(“I don’t regret, I don’t call, I don’t cry...”, 1921)

"Rided on a pink horse"- a symbol of quickly departed, irrevocable youth. Thanks to additional color symbolism, it appears as a “pink horse” What was the friend of my youth
("Son of a Bitch", 1924)

In this poem, the poet recalls his youth, his first love, which is gone, but lives in memories. However, old love is being replaced by a new one, replacing the older generation- young, that is, nothing in this life comes back, but also life cycle at the same time continuous.

That dog died a long time ago,
But in the same color that has a blue tint...
I was met by her young son.

If we turn to other representatives of the animal world, for example, crows, we will see that in Yesenin they have the same symbolism as in folk poetry.

The black crows cawed:
There is wide scope for terrible troubles.
("Rus", 1914)

In this poem, the raven is the harbinger of impending disaster, namely the 1914 war. The poet introduces the image of this bird not only as a folk symbol of misfortune, but also in order to show his negative attitude to current events, worries about the fate of the Motherland.

Many poets use to create images Various types transfer of words, including metaphor. In poetry, metaphor is used primarily in its secondary function, introducing attributive and evaluative meanings into nominal positions. For poetic speech characterized by a binary metaphor (metaphor-comparison). Thanks to the image, metaphor connects language and myth with a corresponding way of thinking- mythological. Poets create their own epithets, metaphors, comparisons and images. Metaphorization of images- these are features of the poet's artistic style. S. Yesenin also turns to the help of metaphors in his poems. He creates them according to folklore principles: he takes material for the image from the rural world and from the natural world and seeks to characterize one noun with another.

Here, for example, is the image of the moon:

"The moon, like a yellow bear, tosses and turns in the wet grass."

Yesenin’s nature motif is complemented in a unique way by images of animals. Most often, the names of animals are given in comparisons in which objects and phenomena are compared with animals, often not actually related to them, but united by some associative feature that serves as the basis for its isolation. ( "curly lamb", "foal", "golden frog", spring- "squirrel", clouds- "wolves." Objects, for example, a mill, are equated to animals and birds- "log bird", bake- "brick camel". Based on complex associative comparisons, natural phenomena acquire organs characteristic of animals and birds (paws, muzzles, snouts, claws, beaks):

Cleans the month in the thatched roof
Blue-rimmed horns.
(“The red wings of sunset are fading,” 1916)

Waves of white claws
Golden sand scraped.
("Heavenly Drummer", 1918)

Maple and linden in the windows of the rooms
Throwing away the branches with my paws,
They are looking for those they remember.
(“Darling, let’s sit next to each other,” 1923)

The colors of animals also acquire purely symbolic meaning: “red horse”- symbol of the revolution, "pink horse"- image of youth, "black horse"- the harbinger of death.

Imaginative embodiment, clear metaphor, sensitive perception of folklore are the basis of Sergei Yesenin’s artistic research. The metaphorical use of animalistic vocabulary in original comparisons creates the originality of the poet’s style.

Having examined the images of animals in the poetry of S. Yesenin, we can conclude that the poet solves the problem of using animals in his works in different ways.

In one case, he turns to them in order to show with their help some historical events, personal emotional experiences. In others- in order to more accurately and deeply convey the beauty of nature and the native land.

CONCLUSION

To summarize, it should be noted that S. Yesenin’s mythopoetic picture of the world is reflected, first of all, in the cosmism of consciousness. The lyrical hero is constantly turned to the sky, he sees and notes the components of celestial space: the sun, stars, moon-month, dawn.

Both in depicting the details of outer space and in recreating earthly realities, S. Yesenin’s poetry goes back to the mythopoetic archetype of the world tree, personifying world harmony. Yesenin's "wood romance" motif- the result of totemistic ideas, which are particularly manifested in the likening of a tree to a person. Drawing numerous trees, the poet does not confine himself to anthropomorphic personifications, but also carries out the reverse process: his lyrical hero feels like a maple, he is withering "bush of hair golden", maple tree by the porch home on him "He's similar in head."

Totemism is also manifested in animalistic motifs, which occupy a significant place in Yesenin’s poetry. The poet in the literal sense is not an animalist, that is, he does not set a goal to recreate the image of this or that animal. Some of them become a motive, that is, they periodically arise in certain situations, acquiring something new, additional in detail and meaning. So, for example, we can say that the image of a horse, one of the most mythologized animals, has a mythological meaning. In Slavic mythology, the horse was endowed with the ability to foretell fate. He appears in Yesenin's poetry in the form "quiet fate", symbol of the old patriarchal village ("red-maned foal"), "pink horse" - symbol of youth.

Raven in the works of S. Yesenin has the same meaning as in folk poetry. In a poem "Rus"(1914) he is a harbinger of misfortune.

Many animals, for example, a dog, in Yesenin acquire a different meaning than they have in folklore. The dog in mythology is a guide to the next world, the devil's assistant, guards the entrance to afterworld. In Yesenin's lyrics there is a dog- "friend of youth".

The poet, when drawing animals, most often turns to the principle of anthropomorphism, that is, he endows them with human qualities ("Cow", "Song of the Dog".). But not limiting himself to this, he also makes a reverse comparison, that is, he gives a person the features of an animal. ("I was like a horse driven into soap...").

Totemistic ideas are not widely developed by him, although they also occur. Particularly in the poem "We Now we’re leaving little by little.”(1924) there is a motif of “blood relationship” with the animal world, he calls "beast" "lesser brothers".

The mythological use of animalistic vocabulary in original comparisons creates the originality of the poet’s style. Most often, the names of animals are given in comparisons in which objects and phenomena are compared with them, often not actually related to them, but united by some associative feature that serves as the basis for its identification ("Across the pond as a swan" red // A quiet sunset floats...", "Autumn - chestnut mare - scratching his mane...".

Having examined the temporal characteristics of the model of the world in Yesenin’s works, one can see that his lyrics reflect a worldview formed on the basis of folk mythological ideas about the world, which were enshrined in peasant agricultural and calendar rituals and holidays. As a result, time, reflecting the annual circle, appears as cyclical and is indicated by an indication of a series of holidays and the change of seasons or time of day.

Turning to the spatial characteristics of S. Yesenin’s picture of the world, we can say that when describing space, the author also relies on the rich experience of folk and classical poetry. Space appears to him in " mosaic form", that is, it gradually expands from one poem to another and generally creates a picture of the author’s worldview.

Having traced the movement of the lyrical hero in this space, we can say that the path of Yesenin’s lyrical hero in its structure resembles the path of the hero in the plot fairy tale: a peasant son leaves home on a journey in order to get something or return something lost and achieves this goal. Yesenin's hero, leaving the friendly space of his home in search of the poet's glory, finally reaches the city he has long dreamed of getting to. The "conquest" of a city is analogous to hostile space in fairy tales. The “conquest” of this space was interpreted as the assertion of oneself as a poet:

They say I will soon become a famous Russian poet.

Creative affirmation has taken place, and as a result, a perception of the city arises as a space added to its own, friendly.

It is interesting to note that the comprehension of political and social realities is accomplished through a system of spatial archetypes. So, after October revolution during civil war the city that the hero loved ("I love this elm city..."), gradually receives a negative characterization. First, its space narrows to a tavern ("The noise and din in this terrible lair..."), the environment is seen as "rabble", with whom the hero is in conflict ("If before they hit me in the face, now the soul is all in blood..."). The space of the city thus acquires the features of an anti-home; it is hostile towards the lyrical hero, and their hostility is mutual.

Subsequently, the lyrical hero’s attention focuses on the opposition “city- village". The space of the city is perceived as hostile not only to the hero, but also to his native "space", his beloved home and region. The city is actively hostile towards the village, in contrast to the fairy-tale "Thirtieth Kingdom", as a rapist and destroyer (“pulling fingers to…the plains”, “the stone hands of the highway squeezed the neck of the village”).

When the lyrical hero returns to native home, then it is gone, it is destroyed, like the entire material and spiritual structure of rural Russia: in the space of the hut there are no icons, their "my sisters threw me out yesterday", but a book appeared - “Capital” by Marx, replacing the Bible. Even the musical culture has been destroyed: Komsomol members sing "Poor Demyan's propaganda."

We see that, unlike the end of the fairy tale, Yesenin’s returning hero does not find the friendly space that was at the beginning of the journey. Space is not being restored, and chaos reigns everywhere.

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