hich made an impression in
Little Russia. In 1842 he began the publication of his famous poem, "The
Haidamak" (A Warrior of Ancient Ukraina). In 1843 he was arrested and
sent back to Little Russia, where he lived until 1847, and during this
period his talent bore its fairest blossoms, and his best works
appeared: "The Banquet of the Dead," "The Hired Woman," "The Dream,"
"The Prisoner," "Ivan Gus" (the goose), "The Cold Hillside," and so
forth. His literary fame reached its zenith, and brought with it the
friendship of the best intellectual forces of southern Russia, and with
the aid of Princess Ryepnin (cousin to the minister of public education)
and Count Uvaroff, he obtained the post of drawing-master in Kieff
University. But in 1847 some one overheard and distorted a conversation
in which Shevtchenko and several friends had taken part, the result
being that all were arrested, while Shevtchenko, after being taken to
St. Petersburg, was sent to the Orenburg government in the far
southeast, to serve as a common soldier in the ranks, and was forbidden
to paint or to write. There he remained for ten years, when he returned
to the capital, and settled down at the Academy of Arts, where he was
granted a studio, in accordance with his right as an academician. He
never produced anything of note in the literary line thereafter, and the
last three years of his life were chiefly devoted to releasing his
relatives from serfdom, and furnishing them with land for cottages,
which object he accomplished a few months before the general
emancipation of the serfs.

In the work of Shevtchenko it is possible to follow the curious
transformation from what may be called the collective-folk creative
power, to the purely individual. His figures, subjects, and the quiet,
heart-rending sadness of his poems are precisely the same as those to
be met with in any Little Russian folk-ballad. The majority of his poems
are not inventions, but are taken directly from popular legends and
traditions, and the personality of the poet vanishes in a flood of
purely popular poetry. Nevertheless, he is not a slavish copyist of this
folk-poetry. The language of his compositions is strikingly simple, and
comprehensible not only to native-born Little Russians, but also to
those who are not acquainted with the dialect of that region. Most
writers who have employed the Little Russian dialect are difficult of
comprehension not only to educated Great Russians, but a