“Confession of a Suicide” Sergei Yesenin
Say goodbye to me, my mother,
I'm dying, I'm dying!
Keeping painful sorrow in my chest,
Don't you mourn for me.I couldn't live among people
Cold poison in my soul.
And what he lived and what he loved,
I poisoned myself insanely.With my proud soul
I passed by happiness.
I saw the blood spilled
And he cursed faith and love.I drank my cup to the dregs,
The soul is full of poison.
And so I fade into silence,
But before my death I feel better.I erased the seal of the earth from my forehead,
I am higher than those who tremble in the dust.
And let the slaves of passion live -
Passion is disgusting to my soul.Crazy world, nightmare,
And life is a funeral song.
And so I ended my life,
I sing the last hymn to myself.And you are sick with anxiety
Don't cry in vain
Above me.
Analysis of Yesenin’s poem “Confession of a Suicide”
Sergei Yesenin had been nurturing the decision to conquer Moscow for quite some time. However, the future poet understood that if he left his native village of Konstantinovo, his life would change dramatically. Moreover, he will cut off his path to the past, which from now on will exist only in memories.
Therefore it is not surprising that Yesenin perceived his desire to settle in the Russian capital as an act of spiritual suicide. He understood that without native birches and rowan trees, life would lose its purity and attractiveness. However, the poet consciously made this sacrifice for the opportunity to realize his own talent, since he knew very well: in his native village of Konstantinovo, no one needed his poems.
After moving to Moscow, Yesenin began work on a short poem called Confession of a Suicide, which was completed only in 1915. This is not surprising, since the first part of this work was written under the impression of the first months of life in the capital. It was at this moment that the author began to identify himself with a suicide - a person who, for the sake of a certain idea, voluntarily gives up life. In this case, the poet put an end to his past, renouncing rural life with its regularity, orderliness and simplicity. Subsequently, Yesenin repeatedly regretted that his fate had developed this way, although he understood that fame and literary success had to be paid for. However, this payment turned out to be too high for the poet, and the poet admits: “I myself madly poisoned both what I lived and what I loved.”
Yesenin knows that in order to achieve his goal, he will have to change not only externally, but also internally, giving up everything that is truly dear to him. Therefore, the author admits that he “cursed faith and love,” becoming one of those metropolitan dandies for whom the manifestation of sincere feelings is a sign of bad taste. Realizing everything that is happening to him, the poet believes that the best way out of the situation is death. “And let the slaves of passion live - passion is disgusting to my soul,” the author emphasizes.
The ending of the poem, written already in 1915, is dedicated to farewell to his mother, whom Yesenin persuades not to mourn his sinful soul. “And so I ended my life, I sing the last hymn to myself,” the poet notes, complaining that the “crazy world” is structured so absurdly, and man’s earthly existence is more like a “nightmare dream.”
Almost all Russian lyrics are confessional in nature. Apparently, this is how the Russian soul works: sometimes it is easier to confess sins not to close people, but to complete strangers. The form of a poem is best suited for this, since the "I" in a poem is usually an expression lyrical hero, and not the author himself.
Sometimes for such a confession you need to wear a mask, which is what Sergei Yesenin does in his poem "Confession of a Suicide". Of course, knowing the fate of Sergei Alexandrovich, one can try to find some premonitions in this poem, they say, he knew in advance that this was how he would die. Nikolai Rubtsov once predicted his death:
I will die in the Epiphany frosts...
But Yesenin most likely had a different meaning in his poem: a suicide is one who abandoned his native land, in which he lives so calmly and happily. The village of Konstantinovo, where the poet was born and raised, forever remained a shrine for him, which can only be spoken of with a sacred meaning.
It is no coincidence that many critics noted that in Yesenin’s early poems, even behind the colorfulness and polyphony of the poetic lines, something sad and melancholy is always visible. This is exactly the kind of sadness that sounds in “Confession of a Suicide.” The poem was written in 1912, but the final version is dated 1915 - a time when Yesenin was already recognized as a talented poet in wide circles of St. Petersburg.
Suicide is the worst sin for a true Christian. However, during this period Sergei Alexandrovich himself experienced peculiar streaks in his creativity: he read the Gospel and found a lot of new things for himself. Even in childhood, according to the poet himself, he was visited early by religious doubts, so he had either a “prayer streak” or “unusual mischief, even blasphemy.”
This poem, too, is obviously dictated by such a streak. From the first lines, the hero says goodbye to his mother and asks not to mourn him, because now in the hero’s soul "cold poison", since he himself poisoned it, “what he lived and what he loved”. Obviously, this is largely due to issues of faith, because then we are talking about pride ( “With my proud soul I passed by happiness”), so he "and cursed faith and love".
It should be noted that the style of the poem is very reminiscent of Mtsyri’s confession from the poem of the same name by M. Lermontov: the same size - iambic tetrameter, the same symbolism - "Cold poison in my soul", "I'm fading into silence", "I ended my life". But if Lermontov’s hero dies from longing for freedom, which he experienced for the first time in his life, then the title of Yesenin’s poem clearly indicates the path of his hero - this is a suicide who himself chose such a road and can no longer turn off it, because “I drank my cup to the dregs”.
This Christian idea of a cup that must be drunk to the bottom is changed by the poet, obviously intentionally. After all, the cup is an integral attribute of drunkenness and debauchery. This is exactly how the life he led recently seemed to the hero, because his “the soul is full of poison”, He “erased the seal of the earth from the forehead”. In general, these are terrible confessions for a Christian. Therefore, the hero understands perfectly well that he can no longer count on forgiveness, which means that no matter how his life ends now - by his own free will, or in a drunken stupor - he will not see heaven.
However, the hero is distinguished from sinners like him by the awareness of his own sinfulness: he understands that he was all this time in "mad world", V "nightmare dream", yes, that's just where they stayed "slaves of passion", and his soul "passion is disgusting". But since he "ended his life", and definitely no one will perform his funeral service (after all, suicides are not buried), then the hero sings the last hymn to himself, still chanting that he got this happiness - to live.
The last lines of the poem are again addressed to the hero’s mother: they break out of the usual form of the poem (this is a couplet, like in William Shakespeare’s sonnets, but framed in three lines), reminiscent of a real farewell, as if interrupted suddenly, in which he asks his mother not to cry over him "anxiously ill".
This poem is truly stunning in its gloomy mood. After all, the general reader is more familiar with other poems of these years, included in Yesenin’s first collection of poems “Radunitsa”. The title actually reflected the mood of these poems - they evoked joy from the beauty and richness of Russian nature. One can only guess what caused the gloomy tone of this poem. But it is quite obvious that these motives did not leave the poet’s soul for a long time, because they will sound later in “Moscow Tavern”.
- “I left my home…”, analysis of Yesenin’s poem
- “You are my Shagane, Shagane!..”, analysis of Yesenin’s poem, essay