Analysis of Autumn

Boris Pasternak 1890 (Moscow) – 1960 (Peredelkino)



I have allowed my family to scatter,
All those who were my dearest to depart,
And once again an age-long loneliness
Comes in to fill all nature and my heart.

Alone this cottage shelters me and you:
The wood is an unpeopled wilderness
And ways and footpaths wear, as in the song.
Weeds almost overgrowing each recess;

And where we sit together by ourselves
The log walls gaze upon us mournfully.
We gave no promise to leap obstacles,
We shall yet face our end with honesty.

At one we'll sit, at three again we'll rise,
My book with me, your sewing in your hand,
Nor with the dawning shall we realize
When all our kissing shall have had an end.

You leaves, more richly and more recklessly
Rustle your dresses, spill yourselves away,
And fill a past day's cup of bitterness
Still higher with the anguish of today!

All this delight, devotion and desire!
We'll fling ourselves into September's riot!
Immure yourself within the autumn's rustle
Entirely: go crazy, or be quiet!

How when you fall into my gentle arms
Enrobed in that silk-tasselled dressing gown
You shake the dress you wear away from you
As only coppices shake their leaves down!-

You are the blessing on my baneful way,
When life has depths worse than disease can reach,
And courage is the only root of beauty,
And it is this that draws us each to each.


Scheme ABCB DCXX XEXF GXGX EHCH AIEI XJDJ HKFK
Poetic Form Quatrain  (63%)
Metre 11011100110 1110110101 0101111100 1011110011 0111010101 01111100 010111001 11010101 01110101001 01110111 1111011100 11111011100 1111110111 1111110011 110101110 11101011111 1111001100 1011010101 0101111100 1101010101 11010100010 110010101010 1010101010 01001101110 1111011101 10111101 1101110111 11011111 110101111 1111110111 01010101110 0111111111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 1,290
Words 240
Sentences 12
Stanzas 8
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 32
Letters per line (avg) 32
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 130
Words per stanza (avg) 30
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 02, 2023

1:13 min read
156

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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