S. A. Yesenin is known as a poet who praised the beauty of Russian nature and love for a woman. Like no one else, the theme of love he sounds very bright, bewitching and, in most cases, sad. The peculiarity of Esenin's love lyrics is that it shows two sides of feeling: happiness and the subsequent sadness and disappointment. The loving poet dedicated verses to many women, each of which was unique for him, therefore each poem sounds in a special way.
Love Poem Objects
Esenin’s love lyrics cannot be understood without knowing about the women to whom the poet dedicated his poems. Yesenin had a reputation not only as a reckless bully, but also Don Juan, who had many women. Of course, poetic nature cannot live without love, and Yesenin was like that. In his own poems, he admitted that not a single woman loved him, and he was also in love more than once. One of the first bright passions of the poet was Anna Sardanovskaya. Then another 15-year-old Seryozha fell in love and dreamed that, having reached a certain age, he would marry her. It was about Anna’s house that the poet said: "A low house with blue shutters, I will never forget you."
It should be said that it was not always possible to determine exactly which woman became the addressee by the poet’s lyrics. For example, the heroine of the poem "Anna Snegina" has three prototypes at once: Anna Sardanovskaya, Lydia Kashina, Olga Sno. With the name of the latter, Yesenin had very vivid memories of his first steps in the literary field. The poet visited the salon of this writer, where he participated in debates and disputes, gradually getting used to the capital's life of writers.
It is impossible not to say about the poet’s wife, Zinaida Reich. Her image became important not only when creating love poems. She was also dedicated to the poem "Inonia". About Zinaida is said in Yesenin's poem "Letter from the mother": "He easily gave his wife to another." It is Reich who is the lyrical heroine of the poem "Kachalov’s Dog".
Perhaps the most striking and contradictory feeling in the fate of the poet is his love for Isadora Duncan. Until now, not everyone can understand what attracted a very young, fair-haired handsome man in the already mature woman Isadora. The result of relations with the famous dancer was a cycle of poems "Moscow Kabatskaya". “I was looking for happiness in this woman, but I accidentally found death,” the poet exclaims.
Poetry analysis
Already in the very first verses, the main feature of Yesenin's love lyrics is manifested: love for any person is a tragedy. As an example, the poem "Tanya was good." A light style emphasizes a distant young life, but contradicts the sound of the verse to its finale. Tanyusha kills herself because of unhappy love. Of course, the poet’s early lyrics are primarily a hymn to the Motherland. Most of the works of this period are devoted to Russia, faith in God, the village, animals. But in later years, Yesenin realized himself as a true chant of love.
Poems of the 20s
Surprisingly, the theme of love became one of the main ones precisely at the time when the poet began to call himself a bully. In the cycle of verses “Love of a bully” motives of love’s fleetingness, its fragility are clearly heard, but at the same time the feeling is described as a very bright moment in life, for which a person is ready for anything. In some texts, Yesenin uses vulgar, rude vocabulary, even sometimes obscene. Despite this, they are full of feelings, deep pain, they can hear the cry of the soul, thirsting for love, lost and entangled in the routine of everyday life (“Harmonic Rash”, “Sing, Sing”).
Analysis of the poem "There was a blue fire"
In this text, such a feature of Yesenin's love lyrics as the use of vivid metaphors and epithets was clearly manifested. The poet regrets that he spent a lot of time on binges and scandals, forgetting about what is most important in life. Yesenin utters such an idea: he would even deny poetry, if only to touch his delicate hand and hair with "color in the fall." Perhaps, not one of the poets could describe the feelings of a remote bully so touchingly. The poem demonstrates all the important features of Yesenin's love lyrics (an essay on this topic must necessarily contain his analysis), one of which is vitality. First of all, it is due to autobiographical. Each described feeling was experienced by the poet himself.
"Let others drink to you"
The poem is filled with noble sorrow for the past. The author expresses sympathy for all that was before, and for that which never happened. Esenin's love lyrics feature is that love is always sad. The poet focuses on the fact that in human life everything happens differently than in dreams. This is due to human stupidity, the desire for petty values, carelessness. In this text, the poet confesses to his lyrical heroine: only she alone could be his real friend and wife, but they both did not save themselves for each other.
The cycle "Persian motifs"
This is a real gem of love poetry. Beautiful oriental style, special musicality and vivid images - these are the features of Yesenin's love lyrics in this cycle. One of the most striking works of "Shagane you are mine, Shagane." It is unusual due to its composition. The first lines of the verse sound refrain and are repeated in the last stanza. But the main feature is that each stanza is built on the principle of a ring composition.
This text most clearly embodied the features of Esenin's love lyrics. An essay on literature written on this topic must certainly include a consideration of the means of artistic expression, because here the poet achieved tremendous beauty precisely thanks to unusual speech turns. How strange and at the same time the line "I am ready to tell you the field" sounds very strong. The abundance of epithets allows the author to express love for his native country and longing for it.
"I asked the money changer today ..."
In this work, Yesenin managed to express his attitude towards such a mysterious feeling as love, directly. The lyrical hero learns from the Persian money changer that love cannot be indicated by any words, only touches, glances and kisses can express it. An unusual composition again. The first line is repeated in each stanza, creating a special rhythm.
Features of Esenin's love lyrics (briefly)
Consider the main features of the poet's love poems:
- Love as an obsession, a disease, a description of the feeling that destroys a person - these are the features of Esenin's love lyrics. And Mayakovsky, and some other poets of that time. At the beginning of the 20th century, such a view of this feeling was very relevant among writers.
- A love feeling can pull a person out of everyday routine for a moment, but, unfortunately, it does not last forever. And after that there remain only pleasant, but at the same time, painful memories that pinch the chest.
- The use of vivid poetic images (comparisons, metaphors and epithets). By the way, these are the features of the love lyrics of Yesenin, Blok, Mayakovsky and other poets of the Silver Age who were looking for a new verse, a new form and word.
These are the features of Yesenin's love lyrics. A short essay should reflect all three points, and they need to be confirmed with concrete examples. This is easy to do, because almost every poem touches on this topic in one way or another. As a material for creating a work on the theme “Features of Esenin’s love lyrics” (composition or essay), one can take such memorable texts as “Cute hands - a pair of swans”, “Letter to a woman”, “Kachalov’s dog”, “I’ve never been on the Bosphorus. "