The poem "The Black Man", Esenin. Analysis of the soul of generation

In the January issue of the magazine "New World" in 1926 appeared staggering

publication: "S. Yesenin. "Black man". The text of the poem made a particularly strong impression against the background of the recent tragic death of the young poet (as is known, on December 28, 1925 Yesenin was found dead in the Angleterre Hotel in Leningrad). Contemporaries found this work as a kind of penitential confession of the "scandalous poet". Indeed, such a merciless and painful self-denial, as in this work, did not know the Russian lyre. We give here its brief content.

"The Black Man": Yesenin alone with himself

The poem opens with an appeal that the poetwill repeat in the dying poem: "My friend, my friend," begins the confessional lyrical hero, "I am very, very sick ...". We understand that it is a matter of mental suffering. A metaphor is expressive: the head is compared with a bird, striving to fly away, "She can not rest her legs on her neck". What's going on? At the time of insanity, a mystical Black man comes to the hero and sits on the bed. Yesenin (an analysis of the sources of the creation of the poem confirms this) appeals to a certain extent to Pushkin's work Mozart and Salieri. The great composer on the eve of his death also saw some sinister black man. However, in Esenin this figure is comprehended in a completely different way. The black man is the poet's Alter-ego, his other "I". What torments the lyrical hero of the nasty Black man?

Yesenin: an analysis of the poet's inner world on the eve of suicide

In the third stanza of the poem arises the image of the book, inwhich to the smallest detail outlines the entire human life. In the Bible, in the Revelation of John the Theologian it is said that when reading the Book of Life, God judges every man according to his deeds. The letters in the hands of the Yesenin Black man demonstrate that the devil also closely follows the destinies of the people. In his notes, however, not a detailed history of the individual, but only its brief content. The black man (Esenin emphasizes this) chose the most ugly and evil. He talks about the "scoundrel and zabuldyge", about the adventurer of the "highest mark", about the "elegant poet" with the "grasping power". He says that happiness is only the "dexterity of the mind and hands", let them and bring "a lot of pain ... broken / and false gestures." Here it is worth mentioning the newfangled theory that developed in the decadent circles of the early 20th century, the special mission of sign language, the adherent of which was Yesenin, and the "queen" of which was the great dancer Isadora Duncan. Marriage with her was short-lived and did not bring the poet a blessing. "To seem smiling and simple" at a time when the heart was tearing the melancholy, he had to not only by the will of the then prevailing fashion. Only in this way could the poet conceal from himself the gloom of future hopelessness, connected not only with the internal contradictions of the individual, but also with the horrors of Bolshevism in Russia.

What lies at the bottom of the soul?

In the ninth stanza of the poem we see how the lyricthe hero refuses to talk to the intruder, he still wants to disown the terrible story that the Black man leads. Yesenin still does not accept the analysis of the everyday troubles of "some" moral "rogue and thief" as a study of his own life, but resists it. However, he himself understands that it is in vain. The poet reproaches the black guest for daring to invade the depths and get something from the very bottom, for he is "not in the service of ... a diver." This line is polemical to the work of the French poet Alfred Musset, who in the "December Night" uses the image of a diver wandering around the "abyss of oblivion". The grammatical construction ("diving service") appeals to the morphological delights of Mayakovsky, who futuristically bravely broke the established forms in the language.

One at the window

The image of the night crossroads in the twelfth stanzarecalls the Christian symbolism of the cross, which connects all directions of space and time, and contains the pagan idea of ​​a crossroads as a place of unclean plots and charms. Both of these symbols from childhood absorbed the impressionable peasant youth Sergei Yesenin. The verses "The Black Man" unite two opposing traditions, why the fear and torment of the lyric hero acquire a global metaphysical shade. He "alone at the window" ... The word "window" is etymologically connected in the Russian language with the word "eye". It is the eye of the hut through which light flows into it. The night window looks like a mirror, where everyone sees his reflection. So in the poem there is a hint of who is actually this Black man. Now, the mockery of the night visitor acquires a more concrete shade: it is a poet who appeared "perhaps in Ryazan" (Esenin was born there), about a fair-haired peasant boy "with blue eyes" ...

Murder of a double

Unable to contain fury and anger, lyricalThe hero tries to destroy the accursed double, throws a cane at him. This gesture - to throw something in the dreamed out feature - is found more than once in the literary works of Russian and foreign authors. After that the Black man disappears. Yesenin (analysis of the allegorical murder of a double in the world literature proves this) tries to save himself from the persecution of his other "I". But always such a finale is associated with suicide.

A poet standing alone in front of a brokenmirror, appears in the last stanza of the work. The symbolism of the mirror, as a guide to other worlds, leading a person out of reality into a deceptive demonic world, reinforces the gloomy and meaningful finale of the poem.

Requiem for hope

It is difficult, almost impossible, to scourge yourself like thateyes of a huge audience, as Yesenin does. His incredible sincerity, with which he reveals his pain to the world, makes a confession a reflection of the mental breakdown of all contemporaries of Yesenin. It is no accident that the famous writer Veniamin Levin spoke about the Black man as a judicial investigator "for the affairs of our entire generation", who fed many "most beautiful thoughts and plans." Levin noticed that in this sense the voluntary burden of Yesenin is somewhat akin to the sacrifice of Christ, who "took on himself the weaknesses" and suffered all human "diseases" on himself.