Analysis of Christ
Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev 1818 (Oryol, Oryol Governorate) – 1883 ( Bougival, Seine-et-Oise)
I saw myself, in dream, a youth, almost a boy, in a low-pitched wooden church. The slim wax candles gleamed, spots of red, before the old pictures of the saints.
A ring of coloured light encircled each tiny flame. Dark and dim it was in the church.... But there stood before me many people. All fair-haired, peasant heads. From time to time they began swaying, falling, rising again, like the ripe ears of wheat, when the wind of summer passes in slow undulation over them.
All at once some man came up from behind and stood beside me.
I did not turn towards him; but at once I felt that this man was Christ.
Emotion, curiosity, awe overmastered me suddenly. I made an effort ... and looked at my neighbour.
A face like every one's, a face like all men's faces. The eyes looked a little upwards, quietly and intently. The lips closed, but not compressed; the upper lip, as it were, resting on the lower; a small beard parted in two. The hands folded and still. And the clothes on him like every one's.
'What sort of Christ is this?' I thought. 'Such an ordinary, ordinary man! It can't be!'
I turned away. But I had hardly turned my eyes away from this ordinary man when I felt again that it really was none other than Christ standing beside me.
Again I made an effort over myself.... And again the same face, like all men's faces, the same everyday though unknown features.
And suddenly my heart sank, and I came to myself. Only then I realised that just such a face - a face like all men's faces - is the face of Christ.
Scheme | X X A B X X A A X B |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11101011010011101011101111010110101 011101010110110111001111011101011110111111011010100110111110111010011101 111111110101011 11110111111111111 01001001111001111001111 011100101111100110101010000100111101010111010101001110010110010011111001 11111111111001001111 1101111101110111100111101111011101110011 0111110101001011111100110110110 0100111011111011111101011111010111 |
Characters | 1,555 |
Words | 298 |
Sentences | 30 |
Stanzas | 10 |
Stanza Lengths | 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1 |
Lines Amount | 10 |
Letters per line (avg) | 116 |
Words per line (avg) | 29 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 116 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 29 |
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Submitted on August 03, 2020
Modified on April 18, 2023
- 1:30 min read
- 12 Views
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"Christ" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/55647/christ>.
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