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Taras Shevchenko, a pro-Ukrainian activist at a time when Ukraine was under a hard rule in Russia concentrated his poetry towards the liberation of Ukraine. Interestingly, his poetry did not so much dwell on the cruelty of the Russian authority but more on the negligence of Ukrainians towards their homeland. In his two poems, The Moonstruck Girl and The Testament are two of his greatest masterpieces. In the two poems, Shevchenko presents themes of longing, turbulence, abandonment and his absolute loyalty to ‘HOME!’ The primary concern for these poems is longing for an object that the persona has fond memories of but does not even seem to grasp its meaning very well. In this patriotic poem, the Ukraine has been depicted as the young girl who searches endlessly for her lover. In fact, Shevchenko indicates that she waits for the Cossack, the identity of men from Ukraine. –The Moonstruck Girl line 18-22- (Shevchenko 1) Here, Shevchenko suggests that the young people of Ukraine will have to engage themselves in liberating their homeland. In The Ransacked Grave Mound Shevchenko admonishes Ukrainian sons who have abandoned their country to work abroad. These men, he claims are collaborating with the enemy to ransack Ukraine. – line 34-41- (Shevchenko 1)He uses The Testament to demonstrate the necessity of struggle and engagement of Ukrainians in the liberation of Ukraine. He calls on Ukrainians to arise and sprinkle their freedom with the old of the enemy alluding to the fact that freedom must be achieved through struggle. Only an encounter with this freedom will satisfy the heart of the searcher. The most tragic fact about the object of affection for the persona is the
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