National Research Ogarev Mordovia State University, Saransk, Russian Federation, [email protected] ABSTRACT Introduction: the article is devoted to the study of the poetics of the natural code of modern Erzya women’s lyrics. The subject of the study is a complex of floristic and faunal images in women’s poetic discourse, their semantic and structural features, and aesthetic functions. Objective: to identify the natural symbolic images represented in the works of the Erzya poets; to reveal their functional and semantic features. Research materials: poems by L. Ryabova, A. Podgornova, M. Slugina, T. Mokshanova. Results and novelty of the research: as a result of the study, we come to the conclusion that in the aesthetic system of the Erzya women’s lyrics, various natural images are presented – floristic (trees, flowers), faunistic (animalistic, ornithological, insectic), which are endowed with original metaphorical semantics, symbolic significance. They correlate with the national and world folklore and mythological tradition, allow to implicate the worldview, emotional and psychological state of a lyrical heroine, concretize spatial and temporal markers, reveal the author’s individual creative concept and value preferences. They lead to the understanding of complex ontological, existential, axiological categories, problems of ethnic and ecological content. The scientific novelty of the article is determined by the fact that Erzya women’s lyrics in the aspect of natural landscape imagery for the first time becomes the object of scientific reflection. Most of the works are introduced into the context of Finno-Ugric literary studies for the first time. Key words: modern Erzya poetry, women’s lyrics, natural imagery, natural landscape code, lyrical heroine, symbolic image Acknowledgments: the study was supported by the Russian Science Foundation grant No. 24-28-00098, https://rscf.ru/ project/24-28-00098/. For citation: Sheyanova S. V. Natural imagery in Erzya women’s lyrics // Vestnik ugrovedenia = Bulletin of Ugric Studies. 2024; 14 (1/56): 128–136.