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

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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