Tweetspeak Poetry

  • Home
  • FREE prompts
  • Earth Song
  • Every Day Poems—Subscribe! ✨
  • Teaching Tools
  • Books, Etc.
  • Patron Love

Taras Shevchenko: The Poet of Ukraine

By Glynn Young 4 Comments

Torne River Taras Shevchenko

Poet Taras Shevchenko is the soul of a country

You read the newspaper and watch the television and social media reports, and you wonder how a tragedy like the Russian invasion of Ukraine could happen. You learn of atrocities and possible war crimes, and you say, “This is the 21st century?” Well, yes, it is. You might ask, “How does this happen?” In the case of Russia and Ukraine, the poet Taras Shevchenko might have an answer.

Shevchencko (1814-1861) was born in a village near Kyiv in Ukraine. Given his later literary fame, it’s surprising to learn he was born to a family of serfs. The region had been under the control of the kingdom of Poland, but various dismemberments of Poland had eventually led to control of Ukrainian territory by Russia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Russia controlled the area where Shevchenko was born, but it was a relatively recent control.

Young Taras Shevchenko

Young Taras Shevchenko

Ukrainians considered themselves Slavic but a distinct nationality. They remembered glorious times in the 17th and 18th centuries, times when they had their own rulers. But those times would return only 130 years after Shevchenko’s death. Ukraine would be ruled by Russia until the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Shevchenko was a gifted artist, but no one knew that until he was required to be a servant of a local landowner’s son. The son traveled widely, and his servant accompanied him to Warsaw and St. Petersburg. He was given art lessons when his master discovered the young man’s talent. Artists and academics were so impressed that they eventually arranged to purchase his freedom (much to his master’s chagrin). At 24, Shevchenko was a free man for the first time.

In addition to his art, he’d begun to write poems, historical ballads and stirring epics about Ukraine’s history, collected in 2020 in The Poet of Ukraine.

It was his poetry that got him into trouble; when published, it quickly sold out, in both Russia and Ukraine. The poet was associated with a group forming the Society of Saints Cyril and Methodius in Kyiv, about which there was nothing particularly dangerous except its existence. This was the time of Tsar Nicolas I, whose government dealt speedily with conspiracies both real and imagined.

Shevchenko was arrested in Kyiv, sent to St. Peterburg for trial, found guilty, “exiled” to the Russian army and forbidden to draw or write. Part of his crime apparently was uncharitable descriptions of the Russian imperial family. He continued to write poetry in secret and with sympathetic commanding officers looking the other way. His previously published poems were already passing into legend in Ukraine. (In the following poem, note that “Kozak” is how we would spell “Cossack.”)

Dumka

The Poet of Ukraine Taras ShevchenkoWater flows into the blue sea,
But never leaves it.
A young Kozak seeks his fortune,
Seeks, but does not find it.
He has gone where chance has beckoned,
Where the sea is playing,
But his thoughts arouse him:
“Where have you not gone, a stranger?
To what hands entrusting
Father and your aged mother
And your smiling sweetheart?
People there are not your family,
Life with them is very hard.
With them you cannot weep,
Cannot freely talk.”
Far from home the Kozak’s sitting,
While the sea is playing,
Thinking, he will find good fortune,
But he meets with sorrow.
And the cranes hie homeward swiftly
In their ordered row.
Weeps the Kozak, — on life’s pathway
Piercing thorns have grown.

He would spend years in the military, a life he hated. He was finally released in 1857 but remained under police supervision. He was only 43, but he’d prematurely aged, and his health had suffered. He continued to write and support Ukrainian causes. When he died in 1861, shortly before Alexander II freed the serfs, the outpouring of grief in Ukraine was staggering, with an enormous funeral in St. Petersburg, where he’d been living. Eventually permission was granted to have his body reburied in Kyiv, and huge throngs greeted the train at every station and in Kyiv. He was buried near the Dnieper River; later, the land was bought and became a memorial to the poet.

As a poet, he was strongly influenced early on by the Romanticism of the early 19th century. His poems about love, relationships, and family seem to stand for his beliefs about Ukraine, and both its soul and its subjugation. “The Kobzar” is a group of eight ballads told by bards. “The Haydamaki” is the longest of Shevchenko’s poems, describing a revolt against the Poles in 1768. “The Dream,” written about 1843, reflects his growing antagonism to Russia. “The Grave” describes the faults in Ukrainian history and national character. Other poems were celebrations of individuals and historical stories. One, “The Testament,” is considered the most famous of his poems and a clarion call for Ukrainian freedom.

The Testament

Taras Shevchenko at 45

Taras Shevchenko about 1859

When I die, O lay my body
In a lofty tomb
Out upon the steppes unbounded
In my own dear Ukraine;
So that I can see before me
The wide stretching meadows
And Dnipro, its banks so lofty,
And can hear its roaring,
As it carries far from Ukraine
Unto the blue sea
All of foeman’s blood—and then
I will leave the meadows
And the hills and fly away
Unto God Himself.
For a prayer…But till that moment
I will know no God.
Bury me and then rise boldly,
Break in twain your fetters
And with the foul blood of foemen
Sprinkle well your freedom,
And of me in your great family,
When it’s freed and new,
Do not fail to make a mention
With a soft, kind word.

Shevchenko, as one biographer has noted, “had been a serf for 24 years, a free man for nine, a Russian soldier for ten, and under police supervision for four.” And yet he gave his people something precious and priceless — a celebration of their history and a hope for their future. And for that, he’s deservedly known as “the poet of Ukraine.”

Photo by Nicklas Lundqvist, Creative Commons, via Flickr. Post by Glynn Young.

Browse more book reviews

How to Read a Poem by Tania Runyan

5 star

Buy How to Read a Poem Now!

How to Read a Poem uses images like the mouse, the hive, the switch (from the Billy Collins poem)—to guide readers into new ways of understanding poems. Anthology included.

“I require all our incoming poetry students—in the MFA I direct—to buy and read this book.”

—Jeanetta Calhoun Mish

  • Author
  • Recent Posts
Glynn Young
Glynn Young
Editor and Twitter-Party-Cool-Poem-Weaver at Tweetspeak Poetry
Glynn Young lives in St. Louis where he retired as the team leader for Online Strategy & Communications for a Fortune 500 company. Glynn writes poetry, short stories and fiction, and he loves to bike. He is the author of the Civil War romance Brookhaven, as well as Poetry at Work and the Dancing Priest Series. Find Glynn at Faith, Fiction, Friends.
Glynn Young
Latest posts by Glynn Young (see all)
  • “What the House Knows”: An Anthology by Diane Lockward - June 19, 2025
  • “108”: An Ecothriller by Former Poet Laura Dheepa Maturi - June 17, 2025
  • Dana Gioia Defines the Enchantment in Poetry - June 12, 2025

Filed Under: article, Books, Poems, poetry, Poets

Try Every Day Poems...

Comments

  1. Laura Lynn Brown says

    May 17, 2022 at 12:20 pm

    Oh, what a timely post. Thanks, Glynn, for introducing us to this poet, and giving us two of his poems.

    Reply
  2. L.L. Barkat says

    May 17, 2022 at 1:30 pm

    I appreciated this post so much, too, Glynn.

    For every struggle, there is more history than we know.

    (Beautiful poems.)

    Reply
  3. Sandra Heska King says

    May 19, 2022 at 9:40 am

    Wow! Thank you for this. I wonder what he would write today.

    Reply
  4. Bethany R. says

    May 20, 2022 at 4:10 pm

    Thank you for sharing this with us.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Take How to Read a Poem

Get the Introduction, the Billy Collins poem, and Chapter 1

get the sample now

Welcome to Tweetspeak

New to Tweetspeak Poetry? Start here, in The Mischief Café. You're a regular? Check out our June Menu

Patron Love

❤️

Welcome a little patron love, when you help keep the world poetic.

The Graphic Novel

"Stunning, heartbreaking, and relevant illustrations"

Callie Feyen, teacher

read a summary of The Yellow Wallpaper

meet The Yellow Wallpaper characters

How to Write Poetry

Your Comments

  • "What the House Knows": An Anthology by Diane Lockward - Tweetspeak Poetry on Poetry at Work: Ted Kooser, Insurance Underwriter (and Poet Laureate)
  • L.L. Barkat on Poetry Prompt: Gathering Flowers
  • "What the House Knows": An Anthology by Diane Lockward - Tweetspeak Poetry on An Evening with Billy Collins
  • Sandra Heska King on 50 States of Generosity: Rhode Island

Featured In

We're happy to have been featured in...

The Huffington Post

The Paris Review

The New York Observer

Tumblr Book News

Stay in Touch With Us

Categories

Learn to Write Form Poems

How to Write an Acrostic

How to Write a Ballad

How to Write a Catalog Poem

How to Write a Ghazal

How to Write a Haiku

How to Write an Ode

How to Write a Pantoum

How to Write a Rondeau

How to Write a Sestina

How to Write a Sonnet

How to Write a Villanelle

5 FREE POETRY PROMPTS

Get 5 FREE inbox poetry prompts from the popular book How to Write a Poem

Shakespeare Resources

Poetry Classroom: Sonnet 18

Common Core Picture Poems: Sonnet 73

Sonnet 104 Annotated

Sonnet 116 Annotated

Character Analysis: Romeo and Juliet

Character Analysis: Was Hamlet Sane or Insane?

Why Does Hamlet Wait to Kill the King?

10 Fun Shakespeare Resources

About Shakespeare: Poet and Playwright

Top 10 Shakespeare Sonnets

See all 154 Shakespeare sonnets in our Shakespeare Library!

Explore Work From Black Poets

About Us

  • • A Blessing for Writers
  • • Our Story
  • • Meet Our Team
  • • Literary Citizenship
  • • Poet Laura
  • • Poetry for Life: The 5 Vital Approaches
  • • T. S. Poetry Press – All Books
  • • Contact Us

Write With Us

  • • 5 FREE Poetry Prompts-Inbox Delivery
  • • 30 Days to Richer Writing Workshop
  • • Poetry Prompts
  • • Submissions
  • • The Write to Poetry

Read With Us

  • • All Our Books
  • • Book Club
  • • Every Day Poems—Subscribe! ✨
  • • Literacy Extras
  • • Poems to Listen By: Audio Series
  • • Poet-a-Day
  • • Poets and Poems
  • • 50 States Projects
  • • Charlotte Perkins Gilman Poems Library
  • • Edgar Allan Poe Poems Arts & Experience Library
  • • William Blake Poems Arts & Experience Library
  • • William Shakespeare Sonnet Library

Celebrate With Us

  • • Poem on Your Pillow Day
  • • Poetic Earth Month
  • • Poet in a Cupcake Day
  • • Poetry at Work Day
  • • Random Acts of Poetry Day
  • • Take Your Poet to School Week
  • • Take Your Poet to Work Day

Gift Ideas

  • • Every Day Poems
  • • Our Shop
  • • Everybody Loves a Book!

Connect

  • • Donate
  • • Blog Buttons
  • • By Heart
  • • Shop for Tweetspeak Fun Stuff

Copyright © 2025 Tweetspeak Poetry · FAQ, Disclosure & Privacy Policy