M. Yu. Lermontov

«Мцыри» (1839) is Lermontov’s romantic poem. In Georgian «Мцыри» means “a monk who does not serve”, something like a novice («послушник»). As a boy, the hero was taken captive and brought to a monastery where he grew up; he calls monastery life “captivity”. He escapes for three days of freedom: he sees nature, endures heat and a storm, meets a girl by a stream, fights a snow leopard («барс»), but loses his strength, gets lost and ends up at the monastery again. Before his death, in a confession to an old monk, he says that his main feeling was love for his homeland and the thirst for freedom. The poem is written in iambic tetrameter; Belinsky called Mtsyri the poet’s favourite ideal hero.