Lessons 36–37 · 2 lessons · M. E. Rozhnova, U. T. Yaminova. Russian Language, Grade 8 (textbook for general secondary schools with Uzbek and other languages of instruction), 2nd revised edition. “Uzbekistan” Publishing and Printing Creative House, Tashkent, 2019
36
S. A. Yesenin: life and nature poems
Textbook: pp. 134–136
GoalLearn about S. A. Yesenin; read expressively his two poems («Задремали звёзды золотые…», «Прячет месяц за овинами…»); find personification and epithets.
S. A. Yesenin was born on 3 October 1895 in the village of Konstantinovo in Ryazan province, in a peasant family. He finished the village school and a church-parish school. In 1912 he moved to Moscow, worked in a printing house and attended a literary-musical circle and lectures at a people’s university. His first poems appeared in Moscow journals in 1914; from 1915 he lived in Petrograd and soon won fame as a “peasant poet”. In 1919–1921 he travelled a great deal and in 1921 visited Tashkent, Bukhara and Samarkand. In 1922–1923 he went to Germany, France, Italy, Canada and the USA; back home, he often visited his native Konstantinovo. He showed the spiritual beauty of the Russian person and the uniqueness of the Russian landscape and said of himself, “I am the last poet of the village”. He died tragically on 28 December 1925.
Worked examples
«Задремали звёзды золотые…»: the poem shows a summer dawn. Nature is like a living being waking from sleep: the stars doze, the birches smile and comb their hair, the dew sparkles, and even the nettle wishes everyone good morning. With personification and colourful epithets (golden, silver, green) the poet creates a joyful mood.
«Прячет месяц за овинами…»: night gives way to morning — the moon hides and a glow burns in the east. Spring arrives in the guise of a simple village wanderer, decorates the birches and flits into the garden as lightly as a butterfly. Personification makes spring a living, kindly guest.
Class activity
“Nature comes alive”. Find the personifications (березки улыбнулись, весна прибрела…) in the two poems, write them in a table and say what they mean.