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Notes
The poem stood out in criticism. One of the first to draw attention to it was D.N. Semenovsky, who noted the author’s “subtle observation” and cited the second stanza of the poem as proof (newspaper “Rabochy Krai”, Ivanovo-Voznesensk, 1918, July 20, No. 110). K.V. Mochulsky saw in the poem an example of Yesenin’s use of metaphors: “The favorite - and perhaps the only - technique that Yesenin uses is metaphor. He specialized in it. He has a huge verbal imagination and loves effects, unexpected juxtapositions and tricks. Here he is inexhaustible, often witty, always daring. The mythology of a primitive people should reflect their life; this “apperception” is discussed both in psychology textbooks and in aesthetics textbooks. The herder perceives the universe through his herd. Yesenin did this systematically.” Giving numerous examples from this (“lamb curly moon”) and other poems (“Dove”, “The winds did not blow in vain...”, “Clouds from the foal...”, “Hooligan”, “Autumn”, etc.) , the critic concluded: “The sharpness of this, I would say, zoological transformation of the world, is dulled very quickly. You are surprised at the ingenuity, but when you find out that the wind is also “red,” only not a foal, but a donkey, it ceases to please” (Zveno newspaper, Paris, 1923, September 3, No. 31).
A striking example of color painting was seen in the poem by R.B. Gul:
“The second gift of the peasant poet is painting with words.
There are poets and prose writers who perceive the sound side of the word to the detriment of its second essence - “color”. The most definite one here is Andrei Bely. Yesenin has almost the opposite. “Color” has been brought to an extraordinary, eye-catching brightness. He spells flowers. His images of colors are amazing. But there is no disharmony in this. Painting in friendship with organic songfulness.
Yesenin's poetic standard is blue and gold. This is Yesenin’s favorite color. The color of the Russian sky, of village melancholy from the surrounding vastness. Without this color he has almost no poem. And in these colors I would publish all his books.
“Blue Russia”, “blue aspen”, “blue evening”, “blue doors of the day”, “blueness of invisible bushes”, “blue valleys”, “blue clang”, “blue sucks the eyes”, “blue plateau of heaven”, “ blue road”, “unshakable blue”, “blue thicket”, “blue evening”, “plain blue”, “blue in the eyes”, “blue haze”, “blue bay”, “blue swan”.
Everything is filled with blue. And it is always decorated with the gold of stars, dawns, sunsets, golden aspens,” the critic wrote and further quoted this poem (Nak., 1923, October 21, No. 466).
Vulgar sociological and proletarian critics interpreted the poem as “the view of the owner,” “the housewife,” etc. Clearly having similar judgments in mind, A.P. Selivanovsky, in the article “Moscow tavern and Soviet Rus',” wrote about the poet’s pre-revolutionary poems: “True, he saw not only blue bells in the world. Even then, other motives cut through the silence of the village fields. Through the “black strand of woods,” through the steppe, waving “cherry smoke” over the canopy of green, he felt the centuries-old oppression that shackled the village, the weight of the shackles of tsarism, entangling it hand and foot.” Having quoted the last two stanzas of the poem, he concluded: “The peasant boys fled from these shackles into the forest, onto the high road, and became ‘robbers’. It is not for nothing that many of the old Russian revolutionary writers considered the robber to be a national-Russian type” (Zaboi magazine, Artemovsk, 1925, No. 7, April, p. 15).
“Behind the dark strand of woods…” Sergei Yesenin
Behind the dark strand of copses,
In the unshakable blue,
Curly lamb - month
Walking in the blue grass.
In a quiet lake with sedge
His horns butt, -
And it seems from the path far away -
The water shakes the banks.
And the steppe under the green canopy
Blows bird cherry smoke
And beyond the valleys along the slopes
He makes a flame over him.
O side of the feather grass forest,
You are close to my heart with evenness,
But there’s something deeper hidden in yours too
Salt marsh melancholy.
And you, like me, are in sad need,
Forgetting who is your friend and enemy,
You yearn for the pink sky
And dove clouds.
But also for you from the blue expanse
The darkness seems timid
And the shackles of your Siberia,
And the hump of the Ural ridge.
Analysis of Yesenin’s poem “Behind the dark strand of woodlands...”
From the first years of his life in Moscow, Sergei Yesenin gained fame as a rural poet. Capital connoisseurs of literature treated him with prejudice, believing that Yesenin’s work was completely devoid of relevance. Nevertheless, very soon the poet had his own admirers, who were able to discern, among simple and unpretentious phrases, the image of the Russia that was dear to them, close and understandable.
The capital made a contradictory impression on Yesenin. On the one hand, they admired high-rise buildings and very quickly got used to Moscow restaurants. But the constant bustle and alienation of people frightened the poet. Therefore, mentally, he preferred to return to his native village every time and dedicated all his poems to the ancient Ryazan region, which he loved so much since childhood. During this period (1914), the poem “Behind the dark strand of copse trees...” was written, which became another bright touch to the portrait of Russian nature - original, bright and amazingly beautiful.
Yesenin's work is characterized by imagery and the desire to endow inanimate objects with the traits of living people. That is why the poet associates the month with a curly-haired lamb that “walks in the blue grass,” and “water shakes the banks” due to the fact that this heavenly body seems to butt its horns with the river sedge. Thus, Yesenin fills the simple landscape with special magic and charm, giving every little detail meaning. His landscapes are light, like “cherry smoke” that falls over the Russian steppe, green and fragrant in spring.
Forests and meadows are for the poet best friends, Yesenin confides all his innermost thoughts and desires to them. However, the author also knows how to listen, discerning in the rustling of leaves the exquisite melody of the approaching summer. The amazing metaphorical nature of many of Yesenin’s poems gives rise to very memorable images. Thus, the poet equally successfully calls a grove not only a cluster of birch trees at the edge of a field, but also thickets of feather grass - steppe grass, which dries out by mid-summer, turning into a prickly and impenetrable wall. But now, while the feather grass is still gathering juice, the poet sincerely admires the “forest”, admitting: “You are close to my heart with evenness.” However, even in this green carpet the author sees flaws in the form of islands of salt marsh, which bring dreary thoughts to him.
The author resorts to a fairly common technique, getting used to the image of the heroes of his story. However, the situation is unusual in that Yesenin talks about the Russian steppe and tries on its external surroundings. If the green feather grass were an animate object and could speak, it would probably be able to tell about what it experiences while being under the hot spring sun all day. His thoughts are voiced by the author himself, claiming that the feather grass yearns for the pink sky and “pigeon clouds.” At the same time, Yesenin draws a parallel between himself and the hero of the poem, arguing that in this moment experiences similar feelings while being “in sad need.” He strives for transcendental heights, but realizes that what he dreams of is unattainable for him.
Instead of heavenly heights, the feather grass gets “the shackles of your Siberia and the hump of the Ural ridge.” The poet receives the same thing, for whom the homeland is associated not only with the beauty of the surrounding nature, but also with slave peasant labor. Attempts to escape from childhood memories in this case do not work, since Yesenin still remains a dream of his people. Since childhood, he has cherished a dream of the sublime, but is forced to be content with the earthly, like a steppe feather grass, whose life is devoid of ups and downs.
January 1918. This time especially attracts researchers of the work of Alexander Blok, because it was then that the poem “The Twelve” was created, with which the greatest poet of the late 19th century welcomed the onset of a new era. In January 1918, Blok experienced the highest upsurge of revolutionary sentiment. “The Twelve”, “Scythians”, the article “Intellectuals and Revolution” are the clearest evidence of this.
The last pages of the second book “The Life of Arsenyev” are dedicated to the time of young Arsenyev’s maturation. Amazing vigilance, a subtle sense of smell, perfect hearing open up to the young man all the new beauties of nature, all the new combinations between its components, all the new and beautiful forms of its maturation, spring blossoming.
Why only a month when I lived in Tashkent for at least three years? Yes, because that month was special for me. Forty-three years later, the difficult task of remembering the distant days when people did not leave their homes of their own free will arose: there was a war! With great reluctance, I moved to Tashkent from Moscow, Anna Akhmatova - from besieged Leningrad. It just so happened: both she and I are native Petersburgers, but we met many thousands of kilometers from our hometown. And this did not happen at all in the first months after arrival.
