S. P. Shevyrev’s Poems for сhildren (1857–1858)

Abstract

The article is concerned with the analysis of S. P. Shevyrev’s poems for children that had been written in 1857–1858. These years were hard for the poet; the majority of magazines were rejecting his works. The reason for this was S. P. Shevyrev’s run-in with gr. V. A. Bobrinsky (cousin of Alexander II), which turned into a fist-fight. In 1857–1858 his poems regularly appeared only in two magazines: “Zvezdochka” and “Luchi, a magazine for girls”, published by A. O. Ishimova for the schoolgirls of noble boarding schools. The article considers two themes in S. P. Shevyrev’s poems for children. He
was writing religious poems for the children who were thoroughly familiar with the Bible and that allowed him to keep complexity of his plots. His second theme was the working life of Russian peasantry, which he depicted with exceptional love. S. P. Shevyrev in his poems always merges deep piety of Russian peasants and their hard labors. The article offers the poet’s unpublished poem about the fate of a poor orphan boy.

Keywords: Biography and creativity of S. P. Shevyrev, magazines of A. O. Ishimova, religious problems in poems for schoolgirls of noble boarding schools, poems for children about Russian peasants and their working life