Alcohol, drunkenness and hop in poems of Klymentii Zinoviiv, Lazar Baranovych and Danylo Bratkovskyi

Abstract

The article deals with the topic of alcohol in the works of three Ukrainian writers of the Baroque epoch - Klymentii Zinoviyev, Lazar Baranovych and Danylo Bratkovskyi. Assessing Klymentii’s literary heritage, Panteleimon Kulish and Volodymyr Peretz came to the conclusion that this author was a true lover of good drinking, however, a detailed examination of the poems written by Klymentii Zinoviyev has shown that the poet was not a promoter of alcohol abuse, but an advocate of moderate drinking since he was well aware of the effect of excessive consumption of alcoholic beverages that led to impoverishment, fights and scandals. Klymentii characterizes drunken people as foolish and unwise, comparing them to the ignorant and the blind. Although some of the writer's works are reminiscent of an ode to drunkenness in their content and mood, they are still different from most of his works about the use and manufacture of alcoholic beverages. They are witty jokes rather than a life manifest. Alcohol themed poems can also be found among the works of Lazar Baranovych and Danyol Bratkovskyi. Bratkovskyi and Baranovich, unlike Klymentii, express irony rather than didacticism; however, the authors appear to be aware of the harmful effect of drinking as well as of an awful role this phenomenon plays in the process of human and social degradation