Analysis of Hamlet

Boris Pasternak 1890 (Moscow) – 1960 (Peredelkino)



The murmurs ebb; onto the stage I enter.
I am trying, standing in the door,
To discover in the distant echoes
What the coming years may hold in store.

The nocturnal darkness with a thousand
Binoculars is focused onto me.
Take away this cup, O Abba Father,
Everything is possible to Thee.

I am fond of this Thy stubborn project,
And to play my part I am content.
But another drama is in progress,
And, this once, O let me be exempt.

But the plan of action is determined,
And the end irrevocably sealed.
I am alone; all round me drowns in falsehood:
Life is not a walk across a field.


Scheme ABXB CDAD XXXX CEXE
Poetic Form Quatrain  (75%)
Metre 01011001110 111010001 1010001010 101011101 0010101010 0100110101 1011111010 10110011 1111111010 011111110 101010101 011111101 1011101010 001010001 1101111101 111010101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 575
Words 113
Sentences 9
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 28
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 113
Words per stanza (avg) 28
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on May 03, 2023

33 sec read
477

Boris Pasternak

Boris Leonidovich Pasternak was a Russian poet, novelist, and literary translator. more…

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