My friend, my friend
I am very, very sick.
Is the wind whistling
Or, like a grove in September,
Showers brains with alcohol.
My head flaps its ears
Like the wings of a bird.
She has legs on her neck
Loom more unbearable.
Black man,
black, black,
Black man
He sits down on my bed,
Black man
Doesn't let me sleep all night.
Black man
Runs a finger over a vile book
And, sneering at me,
Like a monk over the dead
Reads my life
Some scoundrel and bastard,
Bringing sadness and fear to the soul.
Black man
Black, black…
"Listen, listen, -
He mumbles to me -
There are many wonderful things in the book.
Thoughts and plans.
This person
Lived in the country
the most disgusting
Thugs and charlatans.
In December in that country
The snow is pure as hell
And the blizzards start
Funny spinning wheels.
There was a man that adventurer
But the highest
And the best brand.
He was graceful
Besides, the poet
Even with a small
But with gripping strength,
And some woman
Forty plus years
Called me a bad girl
And my dear."
"Happiness," he said,
There is dexterity of mind and hands.
All the awkward souls
For the unfortunate are always known.
It's nothing,
What a lot of torment
Bring broken
And false gestures.
In thunderstorms, in storms
Into the hell of life
For severe loss
And when you're sad
To seem smiling and simple -
The highest art in the world."
"Black man!
You dare not!
You are not in service.
You live as a diver.
What do I care about life
Scandalous poet.
Please others
Read and tell."
Black man
He looks straight at me.
And the eyes are covered
Blue puke.
Like he wants to tell me
That I'm a crook and a thief
So shameless and brazen
Robbed someone.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
My friend, my friend
I am very, very sick.
I don't know where this pain came from.
Is the wind whistling
Over an empty and deserted field,
Or, like a grove in September,
Showers brains with alcohol.
Frosty night...
Quiet crossroads.
I'm alone at the window
I am not expecting a guest or a friend.
The whole plain is covered
Loose and soft lime,
And trees like riders
We gathered in our garden.
Somewhere crying
Night ominous bird.
wooden riders
They sow a hoof knock.
Here again this black
He sits on my chair,
Raising your top hat
And casually throwing back his coat.
"Listen, listen! -
He wheezes, looking into my face,
Himself getting closer
And leans closer.-
I didn't see anyone
Of scoundrels
So useless and stupid
Suffered from insomnia.
Ah, let's say I was wrong!
Because today is the moon.
What more do you need
To a world filled with slumber?
Maybe with thick thighs
Secretly "she" will come,
And you will read
Your dead languid lyrics?
Ah, I love poets!
Funny people.
I always find in them
History, familiar to the heart,
Like a pimply student
long haired freak
Talking about worlds
Sexual languor.
I don't know, I don't remember
In one village
Maybe in Kaluga,
Or maybe in Ryazan,
There lived a boy
In a simple peasant family,
yellow-haired,
With blue eyes…
And then he became an adult
Besides, the poet
Even with a small
But with gripping strength,
And some woman
Forty plus years
Called me a bad girl
And my dear."
"Black man!
You are a bad guest!
It's glory for a long time
It's spreading about you."
I'm furious, furious
And my cane flies
Straight to his face
Into the carry...
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
... The month died,
Dawn shines through the window.
Oh you night!
What have you done, night?
I'm in a top hat.
Nobody is with me.
I am alone…
And a broken mirror...
Analysis of the poem "The Black Man" by Yesenin
The poem "The Black Man" is perhaps Yesenin's most gloomy and sinister work. The idea of the poem came to the poet during a trip abroad with A. Duncan. In 1923 he read the first version to his friends. They were struck by the hopelessness emanating from the poem. Yesenin worked on the text for a long time. The final version for publication was ready only towards the end of 1925. Those who heard the original version claimed that it was longer and much more tragic and terrible.
From the very first lines, Yesenin declares his painful illness associated with alcohol. Given the circumstances of his life, this statement is quite natural. Immoderate drunkenness with violent antics seriously affected the poet. The psyche of a creative person is especially sensitive to external stimuli.
Yesenin says with horror that every night he suffers from visits from a mysterious black man. It is known that the poet was repeatedly subjected to attacks of delirium tremens and even underwent a course of treatment. Probably, the image of a black man is generated by these bouts of a semi-crazy state. According to the book, he tells Yesenin all the circumstances of the crazy life of "some scoundrel and bastard." The stranger mentions not only negative things, he notes that the man was "moreover, a poet", full of "the most beautiful thoughts and plans." The book features "a woman of more than forty", in the image of which A. Duncan is guessed.
Exhausted by the story, the lyrical hero begins to scream desperately, trying to drive the black man away and stop this torture with reading someone's useless life. But this does not help: the stranger stubbornly sits and does not tear his heavy gaze from him.
The next night the visit is repeated. The author tries to get rid of the unbearable vision and curses his insomnia. Yesenin begins to reminisce about his childhood, about a simple village boy "with blue eyes." Having reached in his memories to "a woman of more than forty years old", he realizes with sudden horror that the book that the black man is reading tells about himself. The enraged poet throws his cane right into the "face" of the stranger...
"The Black Man" is not just the nonsense of a poet suffering from alcoholism. Yesenin was a genius. True talent is always regarded as a certain kind of madness. "The Black Man" is a merciless self-analysis of the author, caused by the desire to convey to the reader all the horror of his spiritual conflict.
In the January issue of Novy Mir magazine in 1926, a stunning
publication: S. Yesenin. "Black man". The text of the poem made a particularly strong impression against the backdrop of the recent tragic death of a young poet (as you know, on December 28, 1925, Yesenin was found dead in the Angleterre hotel in Leningrad). Contemporaries considered this work a kind of penitential confession of a "scandalous poet." And indeed, the Russian lyre did not know such a merciless and painful self-accusation as in this work. Here is a brief summary of it.
"Black Man": Yesenin alone with himself
The poem opens with an appeal, which the poet will repeat in his dying poem: “My friend, my friend,” the lyrical hero begins to confess, “I am very, very sick ...”. We understand that we are talking about mental suffering. The metaphor is expressive: the head is compared to a bird seeking to fly away, “She has legs on her neck / she can no longer loom”. What is going on? At the time of tormenting insomnia, the mystical Black Man comes to the hero and sits on the bed. Yesenin (an analysis of the sources for the creation of the poem confirms this) appeals to some extent to Pushkin's Mozart and Salieri. on the eve of death, a certain sinister black man was also seen. However, Yesenin interprets this figure in a completely different way. The black man is the alter ego of the poet, his other "I". What does the bad Black Man torment the lyrical hero with?
Yesenin: analysis of the poet's inner world on the eve of suicide
In the third stanza of the poem, the image of a book arises, in which all human life is described to the smallest detail. The Bible says that when reading the Book of Life, God judges each person according to his deeds. The letters in the hands of Yesenin's Black Man demonstrate that the devil is also closely following the fate of people. True, his notes do not contain a detailed history of the personality, but only a brief summary of it. The black man (Yesenin emphasizes this) chose all the most unattractive and evil. He talks about "a scoundrel and a bastard", about an adventurer "of the highest brand", about a "graceful poet" with "grasping strength". He argues that happiness is only "sleight of mind and hands", even if they bring "a lot of torment ... broken / And deceitful gestures." Here it is worth mentioning the newfangled theory that developed in the decadent circles of the early 20th century, about the special mission of sign language, to which Yesenin was an adherent, and the “queen” of which was the great dancer. Marriage with her was short-lived and did not bring blessings to the poet. “To seem smiling and simple” at a time when melancholy, he had to do not only at the behest of the then prevailing fashion. Only in this way could the poet hide from himself the darkness of impending hopelessness, connected not only with the internal contradictions of the personality, 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 lyrical hero refuses to speak with the intruder, he still wants to disown the terrible story that the Black Man is leading. Yesenin still does not accept the analysis of everyday troubles of "some" moral "swindler and thief" as a study of his own life, he resists this. However, he himself already 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, because he is "not in the service of ... diving." This line is polemically addressed to the work of Alfred Musset, who in "December Night" uses the image of a diver wandering along the "chasm of oblivion". The grammatical construction (“diving service”) appeals to the morphological delights of Mayakovsky, who boldly broke the established forms in the language in a futuristic way.
One by the window
The image of the night crossroads in the twelfth stanza is reminiscent of the Christian symbolism of the cross, which connects all directions of space and time, and contains a pagan idea of the crossroads as a place of unclean conspiracies and charms. Both of these symbols were absorbed by the impressionable peasant youth Sergei Yesenin from childhood. The poems "The Black Man" combine two opposite traditions, which is why the fear and torment of the lyrical hero acquire a global metaphysical connotation. He is “alone at the window”... The word “window” is etymologically connected in Russian with the word “eye”. This is the eye of the hut, through which light pours into it. The night window resembles a mirror where everyone sees their own reflection. So in the poem there is a hint of who this Black Man really is. Now the mockery of the night guest takes on a more concrete tone: we are talking about a poet who was born “maybe in Ryazan” (Yesenin was born there), about a fair-haired peasant boy “with blue eyes” ...
Doppelgänger murder
Unable to restrain his rage and anger, the lyrical hero tries to destroy the damned double, throws a cane at him. This gesture - to throw something at a dreaming devil - is found more than once in the literary works of Russian and foreign authors. After that, the Black Man disappears. Yesenin (an analysis of the allegorical murder of a double in world literature proves this) is trying, as it were, to protect himself from the persecution of his other "I". But such an ending is always associated with suicide.
The poet standing alone in front appears in the last stanza of the work. The symbolism of the mirror, as a guide to other worlds, leading a person away from reality into a deceitful demonic world, enhances the gloomy and meaningful ending of the poem.
Requiem for Hope
It is difficult, almost impossible, to castigate oneself in front of a huge audience, as Yesenin does. His incredible sincerity, with which he reveals his pain to the world, makes confession a reflection of the spiritual breakdown of all Yesenin's contemporaries. It is no coincidence that the writer Veniamin Levin, who knew the poet, spoke of the Black Man as an investigating judge "on the affairs of our entire generation," who had many "the most beautiful thoughts and plans." Levin noted that in this sense, Yesenin's voluntary burden is somewhat akin to the sacrifice of Christ, who "took infirmities" upon himself and bore all human "diseases."
Some time after the death of S. Yesenin, his last work, the poem "The Black Man", was published. It's no secret that the poet foresaw his death a few more years in advance, which he often mentioned in his poems. And this monumental work was no exception: in it, the author prophesies death and the spiritual crisis that became its forerunner.
Yesenin began to work on this poem back in 1923, but, according to his contemporaries, it came out too big and gloomy. What prompted the author to shorten it remains a mystery, but even in a simplified version, the work shocks with its depressiveness and depth of suffering. The history of the creation of the poem "The Black Man" is closely intertwined with its plot. Then the poet already had problems with alcohol, they were also reflected in the text. His relatives were seriously worried about him, because every day the internal discord became more obvious, the work became darker, and the creator himself behaved more and more nervously and restlessly.
Work on the creation of the work began during the American tour, after which an unending black streak began in the life of the poet. He felt that the new government was alien to him, that Soviet Russia did not need him, that everyone was waiting for the subtle lyricism of his poetry to replace revolutionary marches. Besides, there was a bitter aftertaste from the breakup with Isadora Duncan. All these events and moods formed the basis of the poem. In 1925, The Black Man was completed, and was first published in the Novy Mir magazine for January 1926.
Genre, size and composition
Creation is an appeal, a message from the lyrical hero to a friend, to whom he informs from the very beginning that he is “very ill”. The monologues of the man in black are written in the same form, in which he addresses the author of the letter. With this method, Yesenin shows the attitude to the life of two characters. The composition in the poem "The Black Man" is dialogic, reminiscent of a play - it is a conversation between two characters, in which the poet's remarks are interspersed, indicating what should happen on stage during the conversation. There is also a prologue and an epilogue: an introduction (addressing a friend) and a conclusion (the disappearance of a guest and debunking a mirage). The main part is divided into two acts.
The theatrical composition is not typical for this kind of work, because the genre chosen by Yesenin is a lyrical epic poem. It shows not only the inner state of the narrator, but also depicts his story, that is, a very specific plot appears.
The work is written using a tonic versification system based on an equal number of stresses in a line. The size of the poem "The Black Man" is dolniks.
Issues
- Disappointment. The main question that the author raises is a critical view from the side of his own insignificance. Some summing up of life. The man in the top hat is not the personification of death, he does not want to harm the lyrical hero. With the help of his image, the poet wants to look at himself from the outside, to realize how he lives. The poem became Yesenin's full-scale confession before his death. Accordingly, we are faced with the main problem of the "Black Man" - disappointment in oneself.
- Alcoholism. In the epilogue, the author dispelled gloomy fantasies, his judge turned out to be a lead, an alcoholic nightmare. He very self-critically remarks that he fought with a mirror, that is, a black man is his alter ego, which denounced itself. Other considerations come to him under the influence of alcohol, and it is obvious that the effect of hallucination for some time completely took possession of the narrator. Yes, and he himself admits that he is already ill with this.
- The breakdown of love. “Bad girl of more than forty years” is Isadora Duncan, a dancer with whom Yesenin had an affair. It ended, and the poet realized that he was mistaken in his feelings, and maybe in his beloved. In any case, he sarcastically pokes fun at his passion, showing the contrast between who he imagined and who he really was with.
- Disappointment in creativity. The author calls his lyrics “dead and languid”, emphasizing that it serves only to seduce pimply female students.
What's the point?
By introducing a double into the book, who, according to the writer's idea, slanders the most terrible things about the lyrical hero, the poet exposes all his vices. A. S. Pushkin once wrote about the difficulty of public confession, and I would like to say that Yesenin managed to fully express his sincerity in this matter, despite the complexity. He spared neither love, nor creativity, nor himself. The meaning of the poem "The Black Man" is in an attempt to lighten the soul before death. The author believed in only one god - art, so he gave him the last repentance.
His soul was scorched, like a field that he wanted to tell Shagana. He in turn abuses everything that is dear to him, and devastates his heart, he does not want to feel pain and disappointment anymore. Creativity withered him, a stormy life burned, because he lived for three - there were so many impressions in his fate. But he did not leave without a trace, in the last lines he breathed his whole essence, giving it immortality.
means of expression
The poet actively uses such means of artistic expression as metaphors: "Alcohol showers brains." So he depicts the autumn of his own life, the withering and mortification of the body and soul. The suicidal comparison is also not indifferent, as if the author was already thinking about hanging:
My head flaps its ears
Like the wings of a bird.
She can no longer loom on the neck of her legsAnd, sneering at me,
Like a dead monk
Epithets that evoke melancholy and fear are also presented in abundance in the work: “sinister bird”, “broken and deceitful gestures”. Also, there were personifications that interpret nature in unison with the gloomy worldview of the poet: “wooden horsemen”, “What have you, night, distorted?”. In addition, jargon is striking, which gives the narrative drama and frankness: “swindler”, “muzzle”, “scoundrel”, etc.
But the kings of the means of artistic expression in the poem "The Black Man" are repetitions, not only lexical, but also compositional (the first and second parts begin with the words "my friend, my friend ..."). For example: "listen, listen", "black man, black man", etc.
Black man - Yesenin's requiem
The poem became the most merciless self-accusation in Russian literature. Many compare this creation with Mozart's Requiem, the last work of the great composer, in which he expressed the abyss of his despair. Yesenin did the same in The Black Man, which is why the book is so attractive to his biographers.
In each line, the inevitability of what is happening is felt, from the very beginning he talks about his poor health, and not physical, but spiritual. At the end, a secret is revealed to us: the man in coal gloves is the lyrical hero. He is aware of the bitterness of the situation from which there is no way out. Endless self-deception, hypocrisy in public, designed to demonstrate to everyone that everything is fine - all this led him to a dead end. Pride did not allow complaining and seeking indulgence. The narrator carefully concealed the drama of his soul, no one helped him cope with it, and now he doesn’t even have the strength to ask for friendly participation, he never finished his message, because the phantoms overcome him. "The greatest art in the world" turned into the greatest suffering in the world, which he was able to throw out only posthumously.
Interesting? Save it on your wall!
The last years of Sergei Yesenin's life are haunted by fears and uncertainty. Whether the poet tried to drown them out with alcohol, or vice versa, they developed against the background of addiction to alcohol - this is a question. One way or another, against this background of inner uncertainty, fears and disappointment, Yesenin writes the poem "The Black Man", the analysis of which I offer.
The poem was written for a long time and completed shortly before the tragic death of Sergei. The original draft was much larger, but his poet's score is too complex to understand and has been almost halved. This did not make the lines less depressing, they literally feel fear and uncertainty about the future.
Contacting a friend
In this poem, as in several other Yesenin works, there is an appeal to an unknown friend “My friend, my friend”, with the same lines the poem begins:
My friend, my friend
I am very, very sick.
What did Yesenin mean by illness? Most likely, a combination of mental and physical ailments. We do not forget that alcohol and depression more than once brought the poet to a mental hospital, he visited this institution shortly before his death, when, presumably, the final editing of the poem was in progress.
In the last years of his life, the poet critically evaluates his path - he never managed to break away from the village, and he did not become a city one. Old friends are gone, new ones are not trusted. Some people love the poet's poems, others turn away because of them. Glory is illusory, and the meaning of life is lost.
Collective image
The poem talks about a black man many times, and only at the end is his secret revealed. The black man symbolizes all the problems of the author, all the troubles and hardships of fate are generated in him. Here and non-recognition, and butting with the authorities, and problems in his personal life, and alcohol.
The lines say about the spiritual loneliness of the poet at the time of work on the poem:
I'm alone at the window
I am not expecting a guest or a friend.
Nimbus of loneliness
Not only is he alone, but he does not wait for anyone. No, Yesenin, even in the last year of his life, had no shortage of comrades, especially in a tavern, but it was not that, it was "get it, but throw it away." In addition, in the process of working on the poem, Ganin is shot, and Yesenin's last wife Tolstaya is more a friend than a wife ....
In the lines, Yesenin also recalls Duncan:
And some woman
Forty plus years
Called me a bad girl
And my sweetheart.
And it repeats several times about insomnia, which comes against the background of alcohol and mental discord with oneself. The protagonist of the poem, in which Yesenin himself is guessed, the poet calls names more than once, either a scoundrel, or a thief .... This shows dissatisfaction with oneself against the background of a depressive state. What proves that the main character is Yesenin? At least these lines:
Maybe in Kaluga,
Or maybe in Ryazan,
There lived a boy
In a simple peasant family,
yellow-haired,
With blue eyes...
Let me remind you that Yesenin is “yellow-haired” with blue eyes, and was born in Konstantinovo near Ryazan.
black dialogue
The conversation with the black man at the end of the poem does not go well, the hero is dissatisfied with his truth and is furious, after which he grabs a cane and hits the guest in the “muzzle, in the bridge of the nose”.
In the last lines of the work, the hero finds himself in front of a broken mirror in a top hat, in which a black man was dressed. That is, there was no guest, a black man is Yesenin's second "I", his black side, which he tried to kill in himself ....
From the poem it is clearly seen that the last year is hard for the poet. External and internal obstacles literally prevent him from living. The poet does not give up, fights with them, but one killed fear gives birth to two others.
"The Black Man" is Yesenin's requiem for himself and one of the last attempts of the poet to free himself from the fetters that do not allow him to breathe deeply. The lines are full of pain, fear and depression, but they must be read in order to see Yesenin in full, without cuts and clippings.
My friend, my friend
I am very, very sick.
Is the wind whistling
Over an empty and deserted field,
Or, like a grove in September,
Showers brains with alcohol.
My head flaps its ears
Like the wings of a bird.
She has legs on her neck
Loom more unbearable.
Black man,
black, black,
Black man
He sits down on my bed,
Black man
Doesn't let me sleep all night.
Black man
Runs a finger over a vile book
And, sneering at me,
Like a monk over the dead
Reads my life
Some scoundrel and bastard,
Bringing sadness and fear to the soul.
Black man
Black, black...
"Listen, listen, -
He mumbles to me -
There are many wonderful things in the book.
Thoughts and plans.
This person
Lived in the country
the most disgusting
Thugs and charlatans.
In December in that country
The snow is pure as hell
And the blizzards start
Funny spinning wheels.
There was a man that adventurer
But the highest
And the best brand.
He was graceful
Besides, the poet
Even with a small
But with gripping strength,
And some woman
Forty plus years
Called me a bad girl
And my sweetheart."
"Happiness," he said,
There is dexterity of mind and hands.
All the awkward souls
For the unfortunate are always known.
It's nothing,
What a lot of torment
Bring broken
And false gestures.
In thunderstorms, in storms
Into the hell of life
For severe loss
And when you're sad
To seem smiling and simple -
The highest art in the world."
"Black man!
You dare not!
You are not in service.
You live as a diver.
What do I care about life
Scandalous poet.
Please others
Read and tell."
Black man
He looks straight at me.
And the eyes are covered
Blue puke.
Like he wants to tell me
That I'm a crook and a thief
So shameless and brazen
Robbed someone.
My friend, my friend
I am very, very sick.
I don't know where this pain came from.
Is the wind whistling
Over an empty and deserted field,
Or, like a grove in September,
Showers brains with alcohol.
Frosty night...
Quiet crossroads.
I'm alone at the window
I am not expecting a guest or a friend.
The whole plain is covered
Loose and soft lime,
And trees like riders
We gathered in our garden.
Somewhere crying
Night ominous bird.
wooden riders
They sow a hoof knock.
Here again this black
He sits on my chair,
Raising your top hat
And casually throwing back his coat.
"Listen, listen!-
He wheezes, looking into my face,
Himself getting closer
And leans closer.-
I didn't see anyone
Of scoundrels
So useless and stupid
Suffered from insomnia.
"Black Man" Sergei Yesenin
My friend, my friend
I am very, very sick.
Is the wind whistling
Or, like a grove in September,
Showers brains with alcohol.My head flaps its ears
Like the wings of a bird.
She has legs on her neck
Loom more unbearable.
Black man,
black, black,
Black man
He sits down on my bed,
Black man
Doesn't let me sleep all night.Black man
Runs a finger over a vile book
And, sneering at me,
Like a monk over the dead
Reads my life
Some scoundrel and bastard,
Bringing sadness and fear to the soul.
Black man
Black, black…"Listen, listen, -
He mumbles to me -
There are many wonderful things in the book.
Thoughts and plans.
This person
Lived in the country
the most disgusting
Thugs and charlatans.In December in that country
The snow is pure as hell
And the blizzards start
Funny spinning wheels.
There was a man that adventurer
But the highest
And the best brand.He was graceful
Besides, the poet
Even with a small
But with gripping strength,
And some woman
Forty plus years
Called me a bad girl
And my dear.""Happiness," he said,
There is dexterity of mind and hands.
All the awkward souls
For the unfortunate are always known.
It's nothing,
What a lot of torment
Bring broken
And false gestures.In thunderstorms, in storms
Into the hell of life
For severe loss
And when you're sad
To seem smiling and simple -
The highest art in the world.""Black man!
You dare not!
You are not in service.
You live as a diver.
What do I care about life
Scandalous poet.
Please others
Read and tell."Black man
He looks straight at me.
And the eyes are covered
Blue puke.
Like he wants to tell me
That I'm a crook and a thief
So shameless and brazen
Robbed someone.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .My friend, my friend
I am very, very sick.
I don't know where this pain came from.
Is the wind whistling
Over an empty and deserted field,
Or, like a grove in September,
Showers brains with alcohol.Frosty night...
Quiet crossroads.
I'm alone at the window
I am not expecting a guest or a friend.
The whole plain is covered
Loose and soft lime,
And trees like riders
We gathered in our garden.Somewhere crying
Night ominous bird.
wooden riders
They sow a hoof knock.
Here again this black
He sits on my chair,
Raising your top hat
And casually throwing back his coat."Listen, listen! -
He wheezes, looking into my face,
Himself getting closer
And leans closer.-
I didn't see anyone
Of scoundrels
So useless and stupid
Suffered from insomnia.Ah, let's say I was wrong!
Because today is the moon.
What more do you need
To a world filled with slumber?
Maybe with thick thighs
Secretly "she" will come,
And you will read
Your dead languid lyrics?Ah, I love poets!
Funny people.
I always find in them
History, familiar to the heart,
Like a pimply student
long haired freak
Talking about worlds
Sexual languor.I don't know, I don't remember
In one village
Maybe in Kaluga,
Or maybe in Ryazan,
There lived a boy
In a simple peasant family,
yellow-haired,
With blue eyes…And then he became an adult
Besides, the poet
Even with a small
But with gripping strength,
And some woman
Forty plus years
Called me a bad girl
And my dear.""Black man!
You are a bad guest!
It's glory for a long time
It's spreading about you."
I'm furious, furious
And my cane flies
Straight to his face
Into the carry.... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
... The month died,
Dawn shines through the window.
Oh you night!
What have you done, night?
I'm in a top hat.
Nobody is with me.
I am alone…
And a broken mirror...
Analysis of Yesenin's poem "The Black Man"
It is no secret that for several years Sergei Yesenin had a premonition of his tragic death, which can be found multiple references in his poems. No, the poet did not know exactly how and when this would happen. However, he understood that he did not fit into the world around him, which had become alien and unfriendly to him. And that means that the moment will soon come when, according to the universal logic, it should be left.
Death is seen by the poet in the form of a black man, and it is to him that he dedicates his poem of the same name, the first version of which was completed in 1923. Eyewitnesses recall that this work turned out to be too cumbersome, gloomy and not entirely clear to ordinary people. Therefore, Yesenin soon decided to make adjustments to the poem and finished work on this work only in 1925. He did not tell anyone about the new version of this work, which was published only in 1926, a few weeks after the tragic death of Yesenin.
Already in the first lines of the poem, the poet declares that he is “very, very sick,” although he does not fully understand the reason for his malaise. Moreover, this is not about the physical, but about the state of mind of Yesenin, who is trying to drown out his fears with alcohol. But that doesn't help, because "the black man keeps me up all night."
If you delve into the essence of the image of a mysterious stranger that the author recreates, it becomes clear that a black man is not only a harbinger of death, but also accumulates in himself all the fears of the poet. He makes Yesenin listen and hear what the poet does not want to know, and also touches upon the immortality of the human soul. To save it, you need to go through a hard path of deprivation and suffering. At the same time, a black man reads Yesenin a book every night about the life of a certain person, and the poet realizes with horror that it is about his own fate, broken, bizarre and ending very tragically. “I am furious, furious, and my cane flies right to his muzzle, into the bridge of his nose,” the poet says, while admitting that such a shocking act does not bring the expected relief. The black man himself continues to visit Yesenin every night, harassing him with his stories, terrible laughter and gloomy prophecies.
The epilogue of this poem is rather unexpected, but quite understandable. The poet wants to smooth out the impression that he made on the readers. And he presents the situation in such a way that he himself acted as a black man, in a drunken stupor, talking all night long with a mirror. As a result, after a well-aimed throw with a cane, it turns out to be broken, and the poet himself admits: “I am standing in a top hat, there is no one with me.” For what happened, the author blames only the night, which "wrong" something there. However, the essence of the work does not change from this, as Yesenin is more and more convinced that his life is coming to its logical conclusion, and there is very little time left for repentance.
Yes, and there will be no repentance, because Yesenin is not interested in life after death. It is much more important for him to understand why his own fate has developed so ridiculously and stupidly.. There is fame, but there is no ordinary human happiness, a lot of money, but there is no freedom, which the poet intuitively strives for. The poet does not have answers to all these questions, and he hopes to get them from a mysterious black man, even if he exists only in his imagination. Each line of this work is filled with tragedy and a sense of the inevitability of what is happening. And the author humbles himself before such fatalism, entrusting his fate to higher powers, although he never distinguished himself by love for mysticism and did not believe in the existence of other worlds.
