Image of Path in Works by Sergei Yesenin and Alexander Blok: Early Lyrics

Abstract

The image of path is analyzed in early lyrical poetry by Alexander Blok and Sergei Yesenin. The history of the relations of the two poets is commented. Attention is paid to what was Blok’s personality and creativity to Yesenin. It is shown that Blok was the ethical and moral compass for Esenin. The results of a comparative analysis of Blok’s poems “Poet v izgnanyi I somnenyi...,” “Vesna v reke lomayet ldiny...” and Yesenin’s poem “Tam, gde vechno dremlet tayna” are presented. It is concluded that the idyllic topos of Blok’s lyrics (“Golubaya dal” and “Miry inye”), on the one hand, is one of the origins of Yesenin’s image of “Blue Russia,” and on the other hand, is typologically homogeneous. The relevance of the study is determined by the fact that the work of Blok and Esenin is analyzed not only in the framework of opposition symbolism - post-symbolism , but also as the work of poets-modernists, which allows to identify the important system of meanings, typical for the image of path in the culture of modernism. It is proved that the logic of city-forming way in the work of Blok and Esenin is the same at the level of basic structural meanings: the difficult path of initiation to the mystery, secret knowledge and secret vision, overcoming spiritual vertical on the path to transformation and mission.