Analysis of First Snow

Boris Pasternak 1890 (Moscow) – 1960 (Peredelkino)



Outside the snowstorm spins, and hides
The world beneath a pall.
Snowed under are the paper-girl,
The papers and the stall.

Quite often our experience
Has led us to believe
That snow falls out of reticence,
In order to deceive.

Concealing unrepentantly
And trimming you in white,
How often he has brought you home
Into the town at night!

While snowflakes blind and blanket out
The distance more and more,
A tipsy shadow gropes his way
And staggers to the door.

And then he enters hastily…
Again, for all I know,
Someone has something sinful to
Conceal in all this snow!


Scheme XAXX BCBC ADXD XEXE XFXF
Poetic Form Quatrain  (80%)
Etheree  (30%)
Tetractys  (20%)
Metre 1101101 010101 11010101 010001 110100100 111101 11111100 010101 0101 010101 11011111 010111 1110101 010101 0101111 010101 01110100 011111 1110101 010111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 560
Words 103
Sentences 7
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 20
Letters per line (avg) 23
Words per line (avg) 5
Letters per stanza (avg) 91
Words per stanza (avg) 20
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

30 sec read
65

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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    Who wrote the poem "Stopping by Woods On a Snowy Evening"?
    A Robert Frost
    B William Shakespeare
    C Elizabeth Barrett Browning
    D John Keats