Analysis of The patient watches

Boris Pasternak 1890 (Moscow) – 1960 (Peredelkino)



The patient watches. Six days long
In frenzy blizzards rave relentlessly,
Roll over rooftops, roar along,
Brace, rage, and fall, collapsing senselessly.

In snowstorms Christmas is consumed.
He dreams: they came and lifted someone.
He starts: 'Whom? Me?' There was a call,
A tolling bell… Not New Year's summons?

Far, in the Kremlin, booms Ivan,
Dives, drowns, resounds in swaying motion.
He sleeps. When great, a blizzard can
Be called Pacific, as the Ocean.


Scheme ABAB XCXX CCXC
Poetic Form Quatrain  (33%)
Metre 01010111 0101010100 1101101 11010101 0110101 11110101 11111101 010111110 10010110 11101010 11110101 110101010
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 457
Words 77
Sentences 11
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 12
Letters per line (avg) 30
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 118
Words per stanza (avg) 25
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

23 sec read
377

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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