Analysis of March
Boris Pasternak 1890 (Moscow) – 1960 (Peredelkino)
The sun is hotter than the top ledge in a steam bath;
The ravine, crazed, is rampaging below.
Spring -- that corn-fed, husky milkmaid --
Is busy at her chores with never a letup.
The snow is wasting (pernicious anemia --
See those branching veinlets of impotent blue?)
Yet in the cowbarn life is burbling, steaming,
And the tines of pitchforks simply glow with health.
These days -- these days, and these nights also!
With eavesdrop thrumming its tattoos at noon,
With icicles (cachectic!) hanging on to gables,
And with the chattering of rills that never sleep!
All doors are flung open -- in stable and in cowbarn;
Pigeons peck at oats fallen in the snow;
And the culprit of all this and its life-begetter--
The pile of manure -- is pungent with ozone.
Scheme | XAXX XXXX ABXX BAXX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 0111010110011 001111001 1111101 11010111001 011100100100 1110111001 1001111010 0011110111 111101110 11110111 11001101110 010100111101 111110010001 1011110001 00101110111 0110111011 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 747 |
Words | 138 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 16 |
Letters per line (avg) | 36 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 146 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 34 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 19, 2023
- 41 sec read
- 35 Views
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"March" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 1 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/4512/march>.
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