Analysis of Feasts

Boris Pasternak 1890 (Moscow) – 1960 (Peredelkino)



I drink the gall of skies in autumn, tuberoses'
Sweet bitterness in your betrayals burning stream;
I drink the gall of nights, of crowded parties' noises,
Of sobbing virgin verse, and of a throbbing dream.

We fiends of studious fight a battle everlasting
Against our daily bread - can't stand the sober mood.
The troubled wind of nights is merely a toastmaster
Whose toasts, as like as not, will do no one much good.

Heredity and death are our guests at table.
A quiet dawn will paint bright-red the tops of trees.
An anapaest, like mice, will on the bread-plate scrabble,
And Cinderella will rush in to change her dress.

The floors have all been swept, and everything is dainty,
And like a child's sweet kiss, breathes quietly my verse,
And Cinderella flees-by cab on days of plenty,
And on shanks' pony when the last small coin is lost.


Scheme ABAB XXXX CACA DADX
Poetic Form Quatrain  (25%)
Metre 1101110101 110001010101 1101111101010 110101010101 1111001010010 0110101110101 010111110010 111111111111 0100011101110 010111110111 11111101110 00101101101 011111010110 010111110011 001011111110 01111011111
Closest metre Iambic hexameter
Characters 846
Words 151
Sentences 8
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 41
Words per line (avg) 9
Letters per stanza (avg) 165
Words per stanza (avg) 37
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

45 sec read
61

Boris Pasternak

Boris Leonidovich Pasternak was a Russian poet, novelist, and literary translator. more…

All Boris Pasternak poems | Boris Pasternak Books

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