Analysis of Lessons of English
Boris Pasternak 1890 (Moscow) – 1960 (Peredelkino)
When Desdemona sang a ditty-
In her last hours among the living-
It wasn't love that she lamented,
And not her star-she mourned a willow.
When Desdemona started singing,
With tears near choking off her voice,
Her evil demon for her evil day
Stored up of weeping rills a choice.
And when Ophelia sang a ballad-
In her last hours among the living-
All dryness of her soul was carried
Aloft by gusts of wind, like cinders.
The day Ophelia started singing,
By bitterness of daydreams jaded,
What trophies did she clutch, when sinking?
A bunch of buttercups and daisies.
Their shoulders stripped of passion's tatters,
They took, their hearts a-quake with fear,
The Universe's chilly baptism-
To stun their loving forms with spheres.
Scheme | xAxxabxb cAxd acax dxxx |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (25%) Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 111010 0011001010 110111010 01011101 111010 11110101 0101010101 11110101 010101010 0011001010 110101110 011111110 010101010 11001110 110111110 01110010 11011110 11110111 0110100 11110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 733 |
Words | 126 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 20 |
Letters per line (avg) | 29 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 145 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 31 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 07, 2023
- 38 sec read
- 79 Views
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"Lessons of English" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/4510/lessons-of-english>.
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