Analysis of Here a riddle has drawn a strange nailmark
Boris Pasternak 1890 (Moscow) – 1960 (Peredelkino)
Here a riddle has drawn a strange nailmark. To sleep now!
I'll reread, understand with the light of the sun,
But until I am wakened, to touch the beloved
As I do has been given to none.
How I touched you! So touched were you even by the copper
Of my lips, as an audience is touched by a play,
And the kiss was like summer; it lingered and lingered,
Only later the thunderstorm came.
And I drank in long draughts, like the birds, half-unconscious.
The stars trickle slowly through the throat to the crop,
While the nightingales roll up their eyes in a shudder
From the firmament draining the night drop by drop.
Scheme | XAXA BXXX XCBC |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (67%) |
Metre | 101011011111 11101101101 10111111001 111111011 11111101101010 1111110011101 0011110110010 10100101 011011101110 011010101101 10111110010 1011001111 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 607 |
Words | 116 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 12 |
Letters per line (avg) | 40 |
Words per line (avg) | 10 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 159 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 38 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 35 sec read
- 102 Views
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"Here a riddle has drawn a strange nailmark" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 10 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/4491/here-a-riddle-has-drawn-a-strange-nailmark>.
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