The selected poems from Serge Esenin’s collection demonstrate a progression in the evolving attitude toward Russian lifestyle. This progression  reflects the rapid historical changes occurring during the tumultuous early 20th century. Stepping from one poem to the next, the reader can see how each next work features a shift in lifestyle, based on the contextof war and revolution.

First, the earliest poem in the collection purely praises the narrator’s pre-war countryside lifestyle. I assume it was written in 1914 still before the war. Esenin colors the traditional Russian countryside lifestyle in a pleasant way, celebrating the “never-ending land of wonder” of Mother Russia. He provides a full sensory depiction of the simple joys of this lifestyle: “Smelling of sweet honey and apples…/And the sounds of festive dancing/Fill the fields and meadows broad.” Esenin’s love for his country is rooted deeply in the countryside lifestyle, surrounded by nature.

In his next poem, “Land of mine in dire neglect…” Esenin reveals the loss of this countryside lifestyle which he so adores. I assume that this was written just months after his previous poem. Perhaps by this time, the war has begun, and the villagers have left their homes to fight in the war. He now looms sorrowfully on how the countryside lifestyle is being abandoned. It only remains as a distant “fairytale” whose remnants are only left in the feather-grass. Esenin depicts an eerie image of the disintegrating countryside and cottages that remain.

By the time Esenin writes his 1924 poem, “It can’t be dispelled…”, his tone devolves further into his feelings of loss. Whereas in the previous poem, the abandonment of the countryside lifestyle was just beginning, here he demonstrates his nostalgia for the past. He observes the decimated landscape, and laments that, “All this is familiar and close to me,/That’s why I so readily cry.” Esenin writes of post-revolution Russia, in which life as he knew it has been completely changed, and his “white linden blossom” can no-longer be revived.

Lastly, in his 1925 poem, “The disquiet of vaporous moonshine…”, Esenin takes a different approach, cautiously embracing the new industrialized lifestyle. He appears to denounce the old lifestyle: “For nothing on earth would I like now/To hear that sound [wagon wheels] ever again.” However, he continues to feel out of place in this new Russia, saying, “I’ve no place in the new life, I feel, Yet still wish to see poor drab Russia/ A prospering country of steel.” Esenin reveals his conflicted feelings, as he himself tries to abandon his love for Russia’s countryside, in favor of a new Russia.