ABSTRACT
Hayyim Nahman Bialik is considered to be the greatest modern Hebrew poet. Bialik, encouraged by Ravnitsky, first his mentor, then his close friend and collaborator, continued writing poetry. Bialik's poems during his early period often reflect his despondency at his "failure" in Odessa and his reluctant return to provincial Zhitomir. In 1900, Bialik settled in Odessa and, except for a short stay in Warsaw, lived in that city until he left Russia in 1921. After the Communist revolution in 1917, Bialik realized that Jewish culture had no future under an antireligious and anti-Zionist Bolshevik regime. Like Yehuda Halevi, his great medieval predecessor, Bialik expressed his dissatisfaction with the alien metrics and rhyme patterns adopted by Hebrew poetry throughout the ages. In Big Harry Bialik's style is slightly marred by digressions and lengthy descriptive passages. Elements of social realism abound in Bialik's stories.
