‘February. Take ink and weep,’

Boris Pasternak 1890 (Moscow) – 1960 (Peredelkino)



February. Take ink and weep,
write February as you’re sobbing,
while black Spring burns deep
through the slush and throbbing.

Take a cab. For a clutch of copecks,
through bell-towers’ and wheel noise,
go where the rain-storm’s din breaks,
greater than crying or ink employs.

Where rooks in thousands falling,
like charred pears from the skies,
drop down into puddles, bringing
cold grief to the depths of eyes.

Below, the black shows through,
and the wind’s furrowed with cries:
the more freely, the more truly
then, sobbing verse is realised.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 30, 2023

27 sec read
228

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABAB CCCC BCBC XCXX
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 544
Words 92
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4

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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    "‘February. Take ink and weep,’" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Mar. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/4457/‘february.-take-ink-and-weep,’>.

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