Notes

The poem is included in the circle of works associated with the formation of the so-called. “new peasant” group of poets and, above all, with the creative relationship between Yesenin and Klyuev. In this regard, it can naturally be read in comparison with “O Rus', flap your wings...” and can be considered as a kind of continuation of it.

In the poem, one should rather see a kind of version of “O Rus', flap your wings...”, another view of the poet on the history of the formation of that poetic circle, which he later called “our peasant merchant.” This community was formed at the beginning of 1916, after successful performances in “Kras” and “Strada”. It was then that Yesenin’s creative ties with Klyuev strengthened and were defined, whom in relation to 1916 he could rightfully call “a gentle apostle.” Yesenin could say about that time: “He sang to us as a star.” fog Razumnikov's face." Opening the first collection of “Scythians,” R.V. Ivanov-Razumnik wrote that it “has been taking shape since the spring of 1916, in cloudy, timeless days, in the days of obediently bent backs, piously bowed to the ground.” At that time, an article by R.V. Ivanov-Razumnik “Earth and Iron” appeared, dedicated to Klyuev’s collection “Worldly Thoughts”, which formulated fundamental ideas for the group about Western civilization and urban culture (“iron” in the terminology of R.V. Ivanov -Razumnik), which are opposed by the wisdom of the earth and the strength of the people’s spirit (newspaper “Russian Vedomosti”, M., 1916, April 6, No. 79). When looking at the poem as written in 1917, other temporal definitions in it are easily and naturally read: “ again in the pouring rain", " again spring hum" - i.e. again in relation to the spring of 1916, the “bright holiday” - revolution, liberation, that “spring hum” that inspired Yesenin in the spring and summer of 1917, etc. “Now we have become more mature” - Yesenin could really characterize the group in this way at the beginning of 1917, but he could hardly say that in 1918, when it became clear that the unity was largely only “apparent.” It is also difficult to imagine that Yesenin, soon after extremely sharp attacks against N.A. Klyuev (“...for Lately became my enemy”, “only an isographer, but not a discoverer” - in a letter to R.V. Ivanov-Razumnik dated January 1918), no matter what adjustments to the immediate reaction and the specificity of the occasion one might make to these assessments, he could several months later call Klyuev a “tender apostle.”

It's already evening. Dew Where the cabbage beds Winter sings and echoes Under the wreath of forest daisies The night is dark, I can’t sleep Tanyusha was good, there was no more beautiful woman in the village, Behind the mountains, behind the yellow valleys Again spread out in a pattern Play, play, little Talyanochka, crimson furs. IMITATION OF A SONG The scarlet light of dawn was woven on the lake. Oh God, God, this depth - I left my beloved home, It’s good in the autumn freshness SONG ABOUT THE DOG The golden foliage is spinning Now my love is not the same The owl hoots like autumn SONG ABOUT BREAD HULLIGAN All living things have a special meaning The world is mysterious, my ancient world, Side or side you are my side!

Do not swear. Such a thing!

I don’t regret, I don’t call, I don’t cry, I won’t deceive myself, Yes! Now it's decided. No return They drink here again, fight and cry Rash, harmonica. Boredom... Boredom... Sing, sing. On a damned guitar This street is familiar to me, Young years with forgotten glory, LETTER TO MOTHER I have never been so tired.
This sadness can’t be scattered now. I have only one fun left: A blue fire has been rushing around, You are as simple as everyone else, Let others drink you, Darling, let’s sit next to you, I’m sad to look at you, Don’t torment me with the coolness The evening has raised black eyebrows.
We are now leaving little by little PUSHKIN Low house with blue shutters, SON OF A BITCH The golden grove dissuaded Blue May. Glowing warmth.
TO KACHALOV'S DOG Unspeakable, blue, tender... SONG Dawn calls out to another, Well, kiss me, kiss me, Goodbye, Baku! I won't see you.

I see a dream. The road is black.
The feather grass is sleeping. Dear plain, I will not return to my father’s house, There is a month above the window. There is wind under the window.
Bless every work, good luck!
Apparently, it’s been this way forever - Leaves are falling, leaves are falling.

Shine, my star, don't fall.
Life is a deception with enchanting melancholy, Rash, talyanka, ringing, rash, talyanka, boldly I have never seen such beautiful ones Oh, how many cats there are in the world You sing me that song that before In this world I am only a passer-by PERSIAN MOTIVES Oh you, sleigh ! And the horses, the horses!
The snow crush is crushed and pricked, You hear - the sleigh is rushing, you hear - the sleigh is rushing.
Blue jacket. Blue eyes. The snowy mush spins briskly, In the blue evening, in the moonlit evening, Don’t twist your smile, fiddling with your hands, Poor writer, is that you Blue fog. Snow expanse, The wind whistles, the silver wind, Small forests. The steppe and the distance.
Flowers say goodbye to me, Addition 1

“Oh muse, my flexible friend...” Sergei Yesenin
O muse, my flexible friend,
My jealous one.
Again in the pouring rain

We went out to the fields.
Again with the sound of spring
The valley greets us,
Wrapped as a baby

Then in a cheerful noise
Playful thoughts and forces
Tender Apostle Klyuev
He carried us in his arms.

Now we have become more mature
And the weight is heavier...
But it won’t drown out the trill
That nightingale holiday.

And this rain is crazy
It will not be washed away in us,
So that the ringing of your lamp
It didn't go out with the wind.

Analysis of Yesenin’s poem “Oh muse, my flexible friend...”

The exact date of writing the poem “O Muse, my flexible friend...” is still unknown. Most researchers are inclined to two options - 1917 and 1918. The work reflects the quest of a group of so-called “new peasant” poets. It is customary to include Oreshin, Yesenin, Klyuev, Shiryaevets, Klychkov. There were no manifestos, programs or formal associations. Nevertheless, common features were present in the works of the above authors. It's about about close attention to the theme of rural Rus', close connection with oral folk art and nature. At the same time, they were not completely alien to the stylistic features of the lyrics of the modernists.

In the work “Oh Muse, my flexible friend...” Yesenin calls the poet Klyuev “a gentle apostle.” The two geniuses had a rather complicated relationship. Sergei Alexandrovich at first considered Nikolai Alekseevich his teacher. In 1915-16 they often gave public readings of poetry together. Subsequently, their paths, both creative and personal, diverged and then crossed again.

It is worth paying attention to the following lines:
The valley greets us,
Wrapped as a baby
In them, Yesenin talks about the literary scholar, critic, sociologist and writer Ivanov-Razumnik. He was one of the editors of the collection "Scythians". The first book was published in 1918, but the main work on it was carried out even before October revolution- in 1916. Ivanov-Razumnik treated Klyuev, Oreshin, Yesenin with extraordinary enthusiasm, considering them “our first truly folk poets.” He also welcomed the coming to power of the Bolsheviks. The writer called the events of the autumn of 1917 great. Sergei Aleksandrovich, in the text analyzed within the framework of this article, adheres to similar views. In his interpretation, the revolution becomes a “bright holiday.”

The poem “O Muse, my flexible friend...” is often associated by literary scholars with another work by Yesenin - “O Rus', flap your wings...”. Its dating is also unknown with certainty. The most likely options are 1916 and 1917. Initially, the text had a title dedicated to “Nikolai Klyuev” and an epigraph (distorted lines from Lermontov):
I believe: under one star
You and I were born.
When the relationship between the poet deteriorated, both disappeared. It is not only the image of Klyuev that unites the two poems. In the work “O Rus', flap your wings...” there is a clear understanding of the movement of the “new peasant poets”.