Analysis of Things of great worth shall come to pass...
Boris Pasternak 1890 (Moscow) – 1960 (Peredelkino)
Things of great worth shall come to pass
By true foreknowledge and in fact,—
Names worthier than mine in fame
And words which earned me men's esteem.
Here breakers roar across the bay;
Wave follows wave unchangeably,
Their tracks, like letters traced in sand,
Erased by ebbing lines of foam.
So yet you're here at this resort.
I should have found you in this hall
At five, instead of vain small talk
I shared and wagging of my tongue.
I would have warned you, one so fair,
Mature, a woman brave and calm,
About the death in life-and bounds
No higher than the ant's low life.
Great poets, through experience,
Find words so simple and restrained
That in the end they can't do more
Than wait in silence and in awe.
In faith and kinship with real life
And with the future knit as one,
We're bound to find immortal words
Of unbelievable simplicity.
Yet keep them holy in your hearts
Or we shall not be spared at all.
Men quickly grasp the complex schemes
When simplicity's their greater need.
Scheme | XXXX XAXX XAXX XXXB XXXX BXXX XAXX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11111111 111001 11001101 01111101 11010101 11011 11110101 01110111 11111101 11111011 11011111 11010111 11111111 01010101 01010101 11010111 11010100 11110001 10011111 11010001 0101111 01010111 11110101 101000100 11110011 11111111 11010101 111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 970 |
Words | 183 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 28 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 111 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 26 |
Font size:
Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 56 sec read
- 62 Views
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"Things of great worth shall come to pass..." Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/4559/things-of-great-worth-shall-come-to-pass...>.
Discuss this Boris Pasternak poem analysis with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In