10 best poems by Sergei Yesenin

Review of the best according to the editorial board. On the selection criteria. This material is subjective, does not constitute advertising and does not serve as a purchase guide. Before buying, you need to consult with a specialist.

Sergei Yesenin has always been the most diverse personality among writers. The first works belong to the new peasant poetry. At the beginning of his work, Yesenin manifested subtle lyrics, mastery of deep psychological landscapes with the voice of the people. He is considered an expert in the vernacular and a “master over the soul”. The closeness to the people and the simplicity of the presentation of thoughts made poems publicly available. He is 'noisy', and even after so many years makes people's hearts filled with awe, sadness, tough disposition, recklessness, youthful maximalism with a slight touch of a hangover.

Review of the best poems by Sergei Yesenin: from tragedy to tenderness and down again

Nomination	a place	Composition	rating
10 best poems by Sergei Yesenin: from tragedy to tenderness and down again	10	'You do not love me, do not regret'	4.1
	9	'Sing now sing, on the damn guitar'	4.2
	8	'Letter to a woman'	4.3
	7	'Goy you, Russia, my dear …'	4.4
	6	'A blue fire swept around …'	4.5
	5	'Let you be drunk by others …'	4.6
	4	'I have only one fun left …'	4.7
	3	'I do not regret, do not call, do not cry…'	4.8
	2	'Letter to mother'	4.9
	1	'Confessions of a Bully'	5.0

10th place: 'You do not love me, do not regret me'

Rating: 4.1

Yesenin's love poetry continues to inspire millions of people almost 100 years after these works were written. By the content, it becomes clear that a woman of the most ancient profession is described in it. They were brought together with Yesenin by chance. Saturated with despair from thinking about his place in life, the writer often turned to the priestesses of love in search of regret, realizing that only for reward one can find the right feelings. Thanks to this, the lines of the poem “You do not love me, do not regret” appeared. The poet describes the unexpected stranger vividly and quite directly, saying: “Young, with a sensual grin.” But he himself shows that on her life path, their meeting is fleeting.

9th place: 'Sing, then, sing on the damned guitar'

Rating: 4.2

The actions of the October Revolution and the time of the Bolsheviks began to be reflected in the series 'Moscow tavern', which became a collection. The poetic hero drinks a lot on purpose in an attempt to forget real life and his problems. Bars and wine glasses are becoming the best places in the world where you can save yourself from torment. He is looking for salvation from mental anguish in the world of drinking establishments. This series of poems differs from the familiar Yesenin syllable:

1. a rainbow of colors and chanting of the fauna give way to gloomy night urban landscapes;
2. heartfelt sincerity and deep emotionality are replaced by naked sensitivity, hysterical intonations;
3. there appear plaintive tunes inherent in a gypsy romance.

Even after completing the poem in a joyful way, the lines leave a painful impression. The scenes depicted in it are a world with distorted love, which does not bring happiness to the heart, but destroys the hero like a plague.

8th place: 'Letter to a woman'

Rating: 4.3

'Letter to a Woman' is a confession poem, a poem – repentance dedicated to the ex-wife, begging for forgiveness from her. The author cannot take his actions towards his wife and spills it all out into his work.

“It's nice to say to me: I avoided falling from a steep,” says Sergei Yesenin, noticing changes in his character and life for the better. With a changed position in life, he thinks that now, most likely, he would not commit adultery and reproach her. And Yesenin notices that Zinaida Reich has changed for the better, having found a new love, which she notified her ex-spouse about. But he did not hold a grudge against the lady who had found her destiny. He forgets her offense, and false speeches, and looks of contempt, saying that their paths parted on the canvas of fate. And it’s no one's fault. Both she and he have their own paths, their own goals and different destinies, where they will no longer travel together.

7th place: 'Goy you, Russia, my dear …'

Rating: 4.4

The poet Sergei Yesenin has visited many countries throughout his life, but, at the same time, he constantly returns to Russia, to his historical homeland, to his father's house. Many poems from the author's collections are dedicated to the Fatherland, Fatherland, home, despite the fact that it was not ideal. He noticed many of the shortcomings of his own homeland, which brought him even closer to the people: the constant revelry of peasant workers and three eternal problems – fools, roads, money.

But all the same – the author had a certain admiration for his land.

In the work 'Goy you, Russia, my dear …' he recalls his usual sensations as past lives. What he felt while walking through the great Russian meadow and contemplating this beauty. Here he compares himself with a parishioner who pays tribute to the fatherland to clear his conscience and receive forgiveness. Even with all its minuses, Russia is identified with a huge church – pure and bright, capable of healing the soul of every traveler and returning to the spiritual beginning. It should be added that the best poems in creativity, in the opinion of writers, are precisely lyrical works about homeland and love.

6th place: 'A blue fire swept around …'

Rating: 4.5

For his beloved Miklashevskaya, Yesenin wrote a sensual collection called 'The Love of a Hooligan', which consists of seven works that are ranked among the real masterpieces of the twentieth century. He reads from the poem 'The blue fire swept around …', where the theme of not only one composition, but a complete collection, will be the hero and his rethinking of the past life and the desire to change the future for the better.

In the name of the strongest feelings experienced by the hero, he swears to her of his ability to change himself for the better for her: to give up drinking and swearing. His ambition is to provide evidence of “the bully's submissiveness and love.” An entertaining detail – the “bully” is ready to give up versification, and for Yesenin this sacrifice is even more serious than parties and drinking establishments.

Now he does not consider the meaning of life to be entertainment and the creation of lyrics.

5th place: 'Let you be drunk by others …'

Rating: 4.6

The poet created a collection of lyric poems called 'Notes of a Hooligan'. The list includes the work 'Let you be drunk by another …', full of tenderness with a touch of sadness.

No matter how the bully tries to settle down, he does it badly. Even realizing that the period of teenage buffoonery and drunken humor is rapidly disappearing, he cannot make the necessary metamorphoses.

The author tries not to think about what will happen in the future, although he subconsciously feels that his term is not long.

At this stage, lines unusual for Yesenin appear, where he unquestioningly resigns himself to everything. “Now I put up with a lot, without coercion, without loss,” he says. And the lines indicate that he is transforming inside from the influence that a woman, who has turned out to be a part of his fate, has on him. However, in the future, Yesenin realizes: the “bully” is not an inner lyrical hero and not a designation of a young age, but a way of life that firmly hooked him. And when such a period came where high-profile acquaintances, fights and booze were not nice, for him it meant only death, which is on the threshold and her 'unpretentious arrival' will soon distribute all the places on the chessboard.

4th place: 'I have only one fun left …'

Rating: 4.7

A simple village boy Sergei Yesenin has changed a lot after Moscow. In the series of the same name, this period of his life is covered in great detail with all the ups and downs. But after a while, full of unexpected high-profile acquaintances, the first literary success and subsequent readings, he began to dress more fashionably and became such a dude. Another side of success was the sadness for his native village, which the poet got rid of with booze, massacre, destruction in restaurants.

By sobering up, he realized that his ghoulish behavior was a style and character trait that he could not change. He was not embarrassed by the fact that the 'bawdy and brawler', even less interested in the opinions of the surrounding people on this matter. To a greater extent, Yesenin was worried about helping his own soul, while claiming that he did not have faith in God. At the moment of a glimpse, when Yesenin was being treated for drunkenness, his legendary work 'I have one fun left …' saw the light. The poem ends with a request to bury him in a Russian shirt, under the icons, as if anticipating an imminent departure.

3rd place: 'I don't regret, I don't call, I don't cry …'

Rating: 4.8

The poet rarely turns to philosophy in his poems, without thinking that reflections on the origin and end of life will be important aspects of his poetry. But in 1921 he created a light and full of philosophical thoughts work “I do not regret, I do not call, I do not cry …”, where he reflects on his creative and life path, admitting that his term is not long.

He is disappointed in almost all moments of life, not excluding creativity, the ability to admire the world and 'revere the female sex'. Noting that the 'hooligan's soul', inherent in him from the beginning of life, practically does not ask the owner of life to create something that is worthy of a true writer, recalling his past years, Yesenin is in a little confusion and confusion, thinking of his life as a mirage, like a dream in which he rides a 'pink horse'. The period of teenage buffoonery and drunken humor is rapidly disappearing, and this forces him to look again at his years, assuring that his youth is over, and with it the wonderful feeling of lightness and the time in which Yesenin existed on his own and acted as he thought was right, disappeared.

2nd place: 'Letter to the mother'

Rating: 4.9

Many poems from the author's collections are dedicated to the Fatherland, Fatherland, home, despite the fact that it was not ideal. In 1924, after an 8-year absence, Yesenin decided to come to his village of Konstantinovo and see his relatives. Before returning to his native land from Moscow, he created a sensual and sentimental 'Letter to Mother'. Having become a classic of literary creation, it is studied in the high school curriculum.

The creations of this author are always varied and unusual. The most important feature of many works is that they are full of honesty and revelation. This is how you can track the turns of the road of Sergei Yesenin's life. 'Letter to Mother' is filled with tenderness, remorse, sadness. With a light veil of aching joy, this is the repentance of a lost son who accepted himself as he is.

1st place: 'Confession of a bully'

Rating: 5.0

In the very middle of his career, Sergei Yesenin creates 'Confession of a Hooligan'. This is another repentance, where he changes the topic of reflection a couple of times, while leaving the main meaning – 'I'm a bully, but I'm on the board.' This repentance is in many respects great due to the fact that the author showed himself in it and brought this to those readers who consider the presence of Yesenin in their lives important. Ardent rudeness and the presence of colloquial words in the work try to etch out the inherent crumbs of sentimentality from the author's soul and make him see the deep fears of the Russian poet, feel his confusion and bewilderment, leaving the reader in mixed feelings.

It is this opposition, the nervousness of the poem that makes you read it over and over again in search of links connecting all the stanzas. And such a link is still there: this is the poet's inner world, the same spinning one that manifested itself from all sides.

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Attention! This rating is subjective and does not constitute an advertisement and does not serve as a purchase guide. Before buying, you need to consult with a specialist.