Boyarin Orsha (Russian: Боярин Орша) is a poem by Mikhail Lermontov, written in 1835-1836 and first published by Andrey Krayevsky in the No.7, 1842, issue of Otechestvennye Zapiski.
[1] A romantic poem, influenced by Lord Byron's "Parisina" (from which comes the epigraph to Chapter I), "Boyarin Orsha" also reflects Lermontov's interest in Russian folklore and history.
[2] Arseny falls in love with his master Boyarin Orsha's daughter and plots to take her away from her father's home.
Having received the permission to come to his house and take the girl with him, Arseny goes there, breaks the lock on the door of the room which nobody has entered for years and finds a heap of bones on the bed where he once made love to Orsha's daughter.
The poem was praised by Vissarion Belinsky who admired the character of Arseny, a rebel, defying both his master and the church.