“I Stood and Listened to the Spring…”

Today, on the birthday of Lesya Ukrainka, a special lesson dedicated to the poet’s intimate lyric poetry was held for ninth-grade students.

The students read and listened to poetry, worked in groups, shared their thoughts, sang, evaluated their own learning, reflected, and discussed love—a powerful, bright, and at the same time complex human feeling.

The poet’s own love story was dramatic. Yet despite pain and hardship, she preserved in her heart a flame that continues to burn through the centuries. She passed that flame on to us through her poetry. It is in moments like these, when we truly experience her poems, that we begin to understand the depth of her words.

Teachers of Ukrainian language and literature, Alla Fomina and Svitlana Bardak, created an atmosphere in which poetry became a living conversation about the deepest and most meaningful aspects of life.

Olena Romanenko, head of the traditional singing studio, prepared the girls whose performance became a special emotional highlight of the lesson, helping to convey its mood and meaning even more profoundly.

We sincerely thank everyone involved for a lesson that allowed students to touch the inner world of Lesya Ukrainka and, perhaps, gain a deeper understanding of their own.