The Singer

What it is

This is a short poem titled The Singer, in English, from Pushkin's early verse. The source dates it 1816, with a later 1819 date also listed in the record. The poem is written as a series of questions to a listener about a singer of love who sings of sadness, heard in the morning from a pipe and met in a dark forest.

Why it matters

The poem comes from the years when Pushkin was a young writer. Its soft, melancholy voice shows the kind of feeling that appealed to poets of the period, and it helps students see how his style began before his later famous works.

Look closer

• The poem asks the listener many questions. What does this repeated questioning make you feel about the singer?
• Which images in the poem, such as the pipe, the forest or the tears, help create its mood?
• The English text is a translation. What details might a reader of the original Russian see differently?