Analysis of Craft

Boris Pasternak 1890 (Moscow) – 1960 (Peredelkino)



When, having finished, I shall move my armchair,
The page will gasp, awakened from the strain.
Delirious, she is half asleep at present,
Obedient to suspense and to the rain.

The heaviness of burnt-out ships has numbed her,
Prostrated, weighted down her senseless form;
You cannot dupe this one by false pretences-
It is the poet who will keep her warm.

I told her at an hour (its secret shudder
Vouchsafed by fancy) when the winter will
Light up green screeching ice, fed up with waiting
Behind an office worker's window sill,

And clocks in banks and other public places,
While drinking in the snow and outside's dark,
Will suddenly jump up and strike-their faces
Crossed by the clockhands at the 'seven' mark-

At such a deep, at such a fateful hour,
I made the page wake up and take her chance,
To put on hood and scarf, and venture out to
Descendants, strangers, shaking off her trance.


Scheme XAXA BCDC BEXE DFDF BDXD
Poetic Form Quatrain 
Metre 1101011111 0111010101 010011101110 01001010101 011111110 11010101 110111111 1101011101 110111011010 111010101 11110111110 0111010101 01010101010 110001011 11001101110 110110101 11011101010 1101110101 11110101011 0101010101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 878
Words 160
Sentences 5
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 20
Letters per line (avg) 35
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 140
Words per stanza (avg) 32
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 13, 2023

48 sec read
115

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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