History of creation
The poem “Soviet Rus'” was written in 1924 after Sergei Yesenin visited the village of Konstantinovo, located in the Ryazan region. The place where the poet grew up turned out to be foreign to him. The Creator experienced loneliness; all his relatives and friends either died or left their native lands long ago.
Sergei Yesenin noticed how much Konstantinovo has changed. The villagers completely “surrendered” to the Soviet state, the new government. They were imbued with the spirit of “October and May,” revolutionary sentiments alien to the poet. The poet did not share the ideology of the proletariat. He saw the problems that the new regime established in the country could lead to.
Yesenin hoped that changes would bypass his home, but the poet was very much mistaken. Returning to Konstantinovo, he could not find peace of mind. Even in his beloved village he was haunted by slogans and propaganda of the Soviet regime.
The creator poured out all his thoughts and emotions onto paper. This is how a sad work appeared about the inevitability of change, loneliness, returning to the homeland, where there are no longer people close to the heart.
Genre, direction, size
“Soviet Rus'” is a clearly expressed lyrical poem. The hero’s experiences and emotions come to the fore in the text. Readers watch the character's flow of thoughts. The lyrical subject in the work acts as an artistic double of the author, reflects the poet’s feelings from the reality around him. This feature is very characteristic of this genre. The creator gives a detailed description of the people the hero meets upon returning to his homeland, which further helps to reveal the character’s inner world.
The poem we are analyzing belongs to civil lyrics. Sergei Yesenin expresses his feelings about the fate of his beloved country, about how much the Russian people have changed after the October Revolution. In the poet’s work, two completely different moods can be traced; readers see the pain of the lyrical subject and the blind devotion of the people singing Demyan Bedny’s propaganda. Undoubtedly, “Soviet Rus'” can also be considered as a patriotic poem. However, it is worth saying here that the creator loves the country as it was before October and May. He is devoted not to the Soviet state, but to his native old Rus'.
The direction of Yesenin’s creativity is new peasant poetry. This is not even a direction, but a current flowing into Russian modernism.
The text of the poem “Soviet Rus'” is written in iambic, a two-syllable foot with stress on the second syllable. This poetic meter gives the work lightness and melody.
Size, rhyme, stanza
The poem is written in iambic hexameter with alternating feminine and masculine rhymes.
At times there are lines with a different meter, reminiscent of the folk verse raeshnik. The poet uses it when he strives to reliably convey the speech of his fellow villagers.
This work has 21 stanzas. Stanzas are not equal in number of lines and depend on the content. There are lines written in a “ladder” and replicas of dialogues. Cross predominates : ABAB, there are also parallel rhymes: AABB.
Composition
The work “Soviet Rus'” can be divided into several semantic parts.
- In the first, the lyrical subject reflects on his return to his homeland. He is sad that there are no more of his relatives and friends left there. “Who should I call,” the hero asks himself.
- The next part is in stark contrast to the previous one. Life in the village is in full swing: people gather together, sing propaganda, listen to each other’s stories. Only the lyrical subject feels superfluous and cannot find a place for himself. The character realizes that there is nothing wrong with a change of generations: young boys and girls have new views, different thinking. But still, he cannot calmly look at how much people spoil his native language with their “clumsy” speeches.
- So we gradually approach the third semantic part of Sergei Yesenin’s work. Two main motives appear here: the hero’s love for the place where he grew up, and the value of poetry, which will always reflect a person’s true feelings. The homeland for the poet will forever remain the same. “The feud of the tribes” will someday end, and the “gloomy pilgrim” will continue to sing about his beloved Rus' in his works.
Images
Let's start with the image of the lyrical subject in the poem “Soviet Rus'”. The hero is a sensitive person, gifted with extraordinary talent as a poet. It is very important for him that there are people with similar beliefs nearby, those with whom he can easily share his thoughts and experiences. As we see from the analyzed text, his native village was always a place where the character loved to return, because his relatives and friends were waiting for him there. The image of Russia in the poem “Soviet Rus'” is inextricably linked with the people inhabiting it. In Soviet Russia, villagers, naive and sincere, kind and simple, have become different: they are embittered by agitation, and not by their past, which for the time being suited them. Loneliness among this aggressive crowd gives the poet pain; it’s hard for him to be alone all the time.
The lyrical subject is not able to go against his own beliefs. The hero is ready to cope with misunderstanding and coldness on the part of others, but is unable to change his faith. The character loves antiquity, it is difficult for him to accept what is happening to the state in which he lives. The poet continues to consider himself a “citizen of the village.”
The hero of Yesenin’s poem is a man who knows how to look at the world philosophically. He reflects on the transience of life, the replacement of one generation by another. In addition, the lyrical subject notices details well and pays attention to the speech of the people who surround him. The poet highly values creativity and values his works. He is not ready to part with his beloved lyre under any circumstances.
Now let’s focus our attention on the images of the village residents. It’s worth saying right away that the new generation is not shown from the best side. The young boys and girls who support the Soviet regime are the complete opposites of the poet. The author imitates the speech of ordinary people, simplifying sentences and changing the spelling of some words. The villagers of the lyrical hero discuss not “life”, but “live”, and their speeches are “clumsy” and “unwashed”.
Readers see a portrait of a lame Red Army soldier who cannot clearly express his thoughts. When talking about Budyonny, he stammers and uses filler words. Seeing how the villagers from the peasant Komsomol sing propaganda, the poet understands that his works are no longer needed by the people. Now people prefer loud words about the significance of the revolution and the strength of the proletariat. They no longer need poems about the beauty of their native lands.
Analysis of Yesenin’s poem “Rus”
The most significant work was the small poem “Rus” (1914), in which Sergei Yesenin creates a generalized image of his native land, thinks about its fate, talks about the suffering and hopes of his people and tries to answer the question of why he loves his homeland.
The work consists of five chapter parts, which reveal the topic from a variety of points of view. In the first part, the author depicts rural Rus', intimidated by dense forests and wolf howls, evil spirits and sorcerers. The poet carefully and extremely laconically paints a picture of a poor and sad village:
In the long winter twilight, menacing wolves howl from the skinny fields, Through the courtyards in the burning frost Above the fences, the snoring of horses.
The winter landscape seemed to absorb the drama of the events taking place. People usually associated predictions of death with winter and winter blizzards; it is not without reason that Yesenin wrote “evil frost.” Twilight promises the same thing. The poet repeats this word twice in twelve lines of the first chapter: “long, winter twilight” and “hazy twilight.”
The picture of Rus' is so sad, dreary and frightening that it seems there is nothing to love it for. However, the second chapter is a declaration of love for the homeland and begins with the adversative conjunction “but”:
But I love you, gentle motherland! I can’t figure out why. Your short joy is merry With a loud song in the spring in the meadow.
In the third chapter there is again a sharp contrasting transition. The image of Rus' is historically concretized and a symbolic picture of the ensuing war is drawn:
The black crows cawed. There is a wide open space for terrible troubles. The whirlwind of the forest spins in all directions, the foam from the lakes waves like a shroud. Thunder struck, the cup of the sky was split, torn clouds enshrouded the forest. On pendants of light gold the lamps of heaven swayed.
The fourth chapter talks about the suffering of the native village while waiting for news from the battlefield. It begins with disturbing questions about the fate of the soldiers:
The village is overwhelmed by the daughter-in-law - Somehow dear in a distant land? Why didn’t they notify you with news - Didn’t they die in a hot battle?
In the fourth and last stanza of this chapter, the only heroine appears, whom the author calls by name. This is the Chetnitsa Lusha, to whom people come to “examine their favorite speeches.” The Chetnitsa reads letters, “piles of news” that came from the front. She talks about the “successes of her native strongmen” and personifies the cross-cutting leitmotif of the poem, associated with the desire to unravel why the poet loves his homeland and what awaits it in the future, as well as with the impossibility of fully comprehending its secret.
The last chapter is an inspired song to sweet fields, frail huts “with gray-haired mothers waiting,” the thoughts of village women who will not be frightened away by “neither thunder nor darkness.” This expresses a strong sense of unity with the nature of my native land (“I wish I could become a bush by the water”), its people (“I have unraveled their countless thoughts”) and a great love for the homeland, for which the poet wishes a peaceful and happy life:
I will fall to the birch bark little shoes, Peace be with you, rake, scythe and plow! I guess from the eyes of brides in war about the fate of the groom.
The last stanza of the poem, forming an almost complete strophic ring with the first stanza of the second chapter, completes the main leitmotif of this work and essentially answers the rhetorical question that begins the poet’s tender and heartfelt confession of his only love:
Oh, Rus', my meek homeland, I cherish my love only for you. Your short joy is merry With a loud song in the spring in the meadow.
All the signs of his native land are infinitely dear to the poet, but most of all - its great people, who, without complaints or tears, endure greater troubles and suffering and live with faith in its better future.
Themes
Let's look at the theme of the poem "Soviet Rus'". Below are the main themes that appear in the work of Sergei Yesenin.
- The theme of the Motherland is
key; it runs through the entire text. The lyrical subject returns to the region where he grew up. The character loves these places and misses his “father’s home.” The hero realizes that everything that surrounds him has long ago changed. For many residents, the poet is just a “gloomy pilgrim,” a stranger and stranger. Despite this, the lyrical subject remains faithful to his beloved land. He calls himself a "citizen of the village."
- The theme of generational change
appears throughout the poem. The hero realizes that the world is rapidly changing, people are becoming different. The views and beliefs of young boys and girls who are blindly devoted to the new government are alien to him. The lyrical subject is different, he is a man of a bygone era. The world of propaganda and “unwashed speeches” does not attract the character. “Blossom, young ones, and be healthy in body! //You have a different life. “You have a different tune,” says the hero. He looks at the new generation with sadness, but cannot change anything. - The theme of the poet and poetry
can undoubtedly also be seen in the analyzed text. Creativity is very important for a hero. He is ready to give everything to “October and May,” but is not able to part with the “dear lyre.” The character spent his entire life praising his land with the help of poetry. When his native place was going through hard times, the poet was nearby, devoting more and more new works to the beauty of his beloved village. The hero is so sensitive to his lines and the thoughts that are put into them that he does not want to entrust his lyre even to the closest people: his mother, friend, wife. Only a poet is able to fully master rhythmic melodies and understand the significance of every word written on paper.
Analysis of Yesenin's poem Rus
“Rus” is a large five-part poem by Sergei Yesenin, written in 1914, sometimes called a short poem.
The work has a frame composition. The “plot” third and fourth parts are framed by an introduction and conclusion. The chronotope of the plot is clearly not the poet’s contemporary reality, but, perhaps, the pre-Petrine or even earlier period. The atmosphere of time and space is created by the poet with the help of lexical means, primarily dialectisms and archaisms. The storyline is simple: from a certain village, women accompany fathers, husbands and sons to war, anxiously await news from them and, finally, receive letters from them and rejoice at their successes.
The framing parts contain certain references to the plot (especially the final fifth), but in general they represent rather lengthy discussions about nature and homeland, which the poet shares with readers through his lyrical hero.
In Yesenin's style, human images and pictures of nature are vividly and uniquely depicted in both the central and framing parts of the poem. To create them, the poet uses metaphors, comparisons, and personifications. The voice of the poet, “the last singer of the village”, sincerely in love with Rus' and admiring it, sounds loudly.
The poem is written in three-foot anapest, recognizable by Yesenin's meter. Despite the large volume of the work, and, for the most part, precise, rich rhymes, a feeling of monotony does not arise due to the alternation of dactylic and masculine clauses.
Problems
Let us also pay attention to the problems of the text of the poem “Soviet Rus'”. The work addresses the following issues:
- The problem of unwanted changes
sounds very clearly in the poem. The lyrical hero is not ready to accept the new government and sing propaganda at every step. He is devoted to old Rus' with all his soul. The character calls himself a “citizen of the village,” thereby once again emphasizing his commitment to bygone traditions, to the world, which cannot be returned. The poet is sad because his native land has undergone significant changes. Returning home, the creator hoped to hide from Soviet ideology and temporarily forget about what was happening in the state. But even Konstantinovo did not turn out to be similar to that long-gone Rus', so beloved by the lyrical subject.
- The problem of human loneliness
is very clearly illustrated in the text. The lyrical subject returns to his homeland, but does not find his relatives and friends there. Among the people of the new generation he feels like a stranger. The hero cannot understand the morals and beliefs of young boys and girls, he does not like their views. In his beloved land, the character is like a “sullen pilgrim.” The lyrical subject does not find “shelter” even when looking at passers-by. He is all alone in what should be a quiet refuge. His native village and home without close people make the hero feel real loneliness.
Central characters
The central characters of the poem are the lyrical hero and the inhabitants of the “new village”. The poet calls them “neighborhood villagers.”
He opposes himself to them, feels like a foreigner, admits that the “language of his fellow citizens” has become “like a stranger” to him. The image of a Red Army soldier talking about Budyon, “wrinkling his brow,” looks flawed. The youth who “sing Poor Demyan’s propaganda” to the accompaniment of a harmonica do not evoke pleasant thoughts either.
The poet has nothing in common with these people. “And the women groan into the mute semi-darkness” - this picture depicts a sigh of regret, as if escaping from the depths of the people’s soul.
main idea
In his poem, the poet says that every person needs a place that will become a refuge for his restless soul. Sergei Yesenin wants to return to the times when he was happy in the village of Konstantinovo. “Soviet Rus'” shows readers how difficult it is for a lonely person who is unable to find support and peace even in his homeland. This is the meaning of the poem “Soviet Rus',” reflecting the changes in the soul of the poet, who did not find himself in the new Russia.
The main idea of the poem “Soviet Rus'” teaches us to be calm about the changes taking place in the world, even if we don’t like them, to accept the fact that life does not stand still. Every day new people appear whose views may differ radically from our beliefs. We need to take this easier. In addition, it is important to always listen to your inner voice and not be led by the currently dominant way of thinking.
Means of expression
The work we are analyzing by Sergei Yesenin is replete with means of verbal expressiveness, which help the author to better convey the mood of the lyrical subject, describe the situation in the village where the character arrives, and characterize people who adhere to the ideology of the Soviet state. These are the paths in the poem “Soviet Rus'”:
- The poet uses rhetorical questions to show readers how lonely the hero feels after returning to his homeland. The lyrical subject seems to be conducting a silent dialogue with himself. He tries to calmly look at everything that is happening around him, to accept the changes taking place in the village he has loved since childhood.
- Rhetorical exclamations further enhance the emotional effect created by rhetorical questions.
- The text is filled with metaphors that decorate the entire figurative series of the work. Yesenin’s mill is like a bird with one wing, and his thoughts are like a huge swarm, tormenting the poet’s soul.
- We can also see comparisons in the work. So, for example, the line “And bare feet, like heifers under the gate” becomes more beautiful and figurative thanks to the use of the above-mentioned means of verbal expressiveness.
- Let us also pay attention to how Sergei Yesenin describes nature. He uses personification, thereby bringing the landscape to life. The sunset is able to “sprinkle” the fields, give them color, and the poplars in the poem “buried” bare feet in the ditches.
- The author deliberately replaces some modern words with their outdated equivalents. Thus, Russia turns into Rus, and the poet into a piita. With this, Sergei Yesenin shows how strong the lyrical subject’s love for bygone traditions is. The hero remains faithful to the pre-revolutionary country, a time when there were no loud slogans and agitations of Demyan Bedny.
- The poet also resorts to using such a trope as an oxymoron. He puts two words with opposite shades of meaning next to each other. The combination “sad joy” fully reflects the feelings of the lyrical subject after returning to his native village. On the one hand, the character is happy that he is at home. On the other hand, the hero experiences terrible, soul-crushing loneliness.
- The epithets scattered throughout the text add special beauty to the poem. In the very first quatrain a strong and significant image appears, giving readers an idea of how the lyrical subject now sees his native village. Sergei Yesenin uses the adjective “orphaned” when describing Konstantinovo. In the text of the work we see another important combination of words. The hero calls himself a “gloomy pilgrim,” realizing that there are no people close to him left in his homeland.
- In the poem “Soviet Rus'” there are also antitheses that allow the author to create a strong contrast between the lyrical subject and the rest of the villagers. People who remembered the poet managed to forget him long ago, his father's house turned into ashes, and the character himself began to feel like a foreigner in his native country.
Author: Diana Kuznetsova
Artistic Features
The three parts of the work (commencement, development of action, denouement) differ in style, rhythm, and intonation.
The beginning and end of the small poem are pronounced calmly and thoughtfully. The main part is pronounced excitedly, with internal irritation. A change in intonation indicates the movement of the author’s thoughts, the depth of his search.
An abundance of personifications and other means of artistic expression has always been characteristic of Yesenin’s work, but in this text nature and man come into conflict: “the maples wrinkle with the ears of their long branches,” hearing the speeches of the Red Army soldier; “bare feet, like heifers under the gate, buried in the poplar ditches”; “...a mill, a log bird, // Stands with a single wing, eyes closed...”
