Analysis of Sparrow Hills
Boris Pasternak 1890 (Moscow) – 1960 (Peredelkino)
Breasts beneath kisses, as though under a tap!
Summer’s stream won’t run for ever.
We can’t pump out the accordion’s roar
night after night, in a dusty fever.
I’ve heard of age. Terrible prophecies!
No wave will lift its hands to the stars.
They say – who believes? No face in the leaves,
no gods in the air, in the ponds: no hearts.
Rouse your soul! Make the day, foaming.
It’s noon in the world. Where are your eyes?
See there, thoughts in the whiteness seething,
fir-cones, woodpeckers, cloud, heat, pines.
Here, the city’s trolley-lines end.
Beyond there’s no rails, it’s the trees.
Beyond – it’s Sunday, breaking branches,
the glade running off, sliding on leaves.
Scattering noons: Whitsuntide: walking,
‘The world’s always like this’, says the wood.
So the copse planned it, the clearing was told,
So it pours, from the clouds, towards us.
Scheme | XAXA BXCX DXDX XBXC DXXX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (20%) Etheree (20%) Quatrain (20%) |
Metre | 10110111001 10111110 1111001001 1101001010 1111100100 111111101 1110111001 1100100111 11110110 110011111 111001010 1110111 1011011 01111101 01111010 011011011 1001110 01111101 1011101011 111101011 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 865 |
Words | 147 |
Sentences | 19 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 20 |
Letters per line (avg) | 32 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 128 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 29 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 44 sec read
- 85 Views
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"Sparrow Hills" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/4535/sparrow-hills>.
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