Analysis of From early dawn the thirtieth of April...

Boris Pasternak 1890 (Moscow) – 1960 (Peredelkino)



From early dawn the thirtieth of April
Is given up to children of the town,
And caught in trying on the festive necklace,
By dusk it only just is settling down.

Like heaps of squashy berries under muslin
The town emerges out of crimson gauze.
Along the streets the boulevards are dragging
Their twilight with them, like a rank of dwarves.

The evening world is always eve and blossom,
But this one with a sprouting of its own
From May-day anniversaries will flower
One day into a commune fully blown.

For long it will remain a day of shifting,
Pre-festive cleaning, fanciful decor,
As once it used to be with Whitsun birches
Or pan-Athenian fires long before.

Just so they will go on, conveying actors
To their assembly points; beat sand; just so
Pull up towards illuminated ledges
The plywood boards, the crimson calico.

Just so in threes the sailors briskly walking
Will skirt the grass in gardens and in parks,
The moon at nightfall sink into the pavements
Like a dead city or a burnt-out hearth.

But with each year more splendid and more spreading
The taut beginning of the rose will bloom,
More clearly grow in health and sense of honour,
Sincerity more visibly will loom.

The living folksongs, customs and traditions
Will ever spreading, many-petalled lay
Their scent on fields and industries and meadows
From early buddings on the first of May,

Until the full fermented risen spirit
Of ripened years will shoot up, like the smell
Of humid centifolia. It will have to
Reveal itself, it cannot help but tell.


Scheme XABA XXCX XDED CFBF XGXG CXXX CHEH XIXI XJXJ
Poetic Form Quatrain  (78%)
Metre 11010100110 1101110101 01010101010 11110111001 11110101010 0101011101 0101010110 111110111 0101111010 1111010111 1110100110 1101010101 11110101110 1101010001 111111111 11010010101 11111101010 1101011111 1101010010 01101010 11010101010 1101010001 0111101010 1011010111 11111100110 0101010111 1101010111 0100110011 0101100010 110101011 1111010001 110110111 01010101010 1101111101 11011111 0101110111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 1,485
Words 266
Sentences 11
Stanzas 9
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 36
Letters per line (avg) 34
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 135
Words per stanza (avg) 29
Font size:
 

Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 14, 2023

1:19 min read
123

Boris Pasternak

Boris Leonidovich Pasternak was a Russian poet, novelist, and literary translator. more…

All Boris Pasternak poems | Boris Pasternak Books

3 fans

Discuss this Boris Pasternak poem analysis with the community:

0 Comments

    Citation

    Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:

    Style:MLAChicagoAPA

    "From early dawn the thirtieth of April..." Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/4488/from-early-dawn-the-thirtieth-of-april...>.

    Become a member!

    Join our community of poets and poetry lovers to share your work and offer feedback and encouragement to writers all over the world!

    April 2024

    Poetry Contest

    Join our monthly contest for an opportunity to win cash prizes and attain global acclaim for your talent.
    2
    days
    11
    hours
    42
    minutes

    Special Program

    Earn Rewards!

    Unlock exciting rewards such as a free mug and free contest pass by commenting on fellow members' poems today!

    Browse Poetry.com

    Quiz

    Are you a poetry master?

    »
    "I celebrate myself, and sing myself."
    A Billy Collins
    B William Wordsworth
    C Walt Whitman
    D Countee Cullen