Ballad About Drinking Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFG HIIJIIK L MIFN OIOGP OIEQ BRSIIEOI IL TII OUVWXEIY IOIZI A2B2I C2 IEIID2I E2EIOC2O OOOOOC2 EEEF2EG2| We had slaughtered a hundred white whales | A |
| civilization was quite forgotten | B |
| our lungs were burned out from smoking shag | C |
| but on sighting port we blew out our chests like barrels | D |
| and began to speak to one another politely | E |
| and with the noble goal of drinking | F |
| we went ashore from the schooner at Amderma | G |
| - | |
| In Amderma we walked like gods | H |
| swaggering along with our hands on our hips | I |
| and through the port our beards and sidewhiskers | I |
| kept their bearings on the pub | J |
| and passing girls and shellbacks | I |
| as well as all the local dogs | I |
| went along with us as escort | K |
| - | |
| But clouding the whole planet | L |
| a notice hung in the shop 'No Spirits ' | - |
| We looked at some sparkling wine from the Don | M |
| as if it were feeble fruit juice | I |
| and through our agonized yearning | F |
| we realized it wouldn't work | N |
| - | |
| Now who could have drunk our spirits our vodka | O |
| It's dreadful the way people drink simply ruinous | I |
| But skinny as a skeleton Petka Markovsky from Odessa | O |
| as it always happens with him | G |
| suddenly disappeared somewhere | P |
| giving a secretive 'Sh sshh ' | - |
| - | |
| And shortly afterward with much clinking | O |
| he turned up with a huge cardboard box | I |
| already slightly merry | E |
| and it was a sweet clinking the box made | Q |
| as we woke up to the fact 'There she is She's apples ' | - |
| and Markovsky gave us the wink 'She's right ' | - |
| - | |
| We made a splash waving to everyone | B |
| Chartered a deluxe room in the hotel | R |
| and sat down as we were on the bed | S |
| Cords flew off the box | I |
| and there in the glittering columns of the bottles | I |
| bulging stern cosy | E |
| absolutely hygienic | O |
| triple distilled eau de cologne stood before us | I |
| - | |
| And Markovsky rose lifting his glass | I |
| pulled down his seaman's jacket | L |
| and began 'I'd like to say something ' | - |
| 'Then say it ' everyone began to shout | T |
| But before anything else | I |
| they wanted to wet their whistles | I |
| - | |
| Markovsky said 'Come on let's have a swig | O |
| The doctor told me eau de cologne | U |
| is the best thing to keep the wrinkles away | V |
| Let them judge us We don't give a damn | W |
| We used to drink all sorts of wine | X |
| When we were in Germany | E |
| we filled the radiators of our tanks | I |
| with wine from the Mosel | Y |
| - | |
| We don't need consumer goods | I |
| We need the wind the sky | O |
| Old mates listen to this | I |
| in our souls as though in the safe deposit | Z |
| We have the sea our mothers and young brothers | I |
| All the rest is rubbish ' | - |
| - | |
| Bestriding the earth like a giant | A2 |
| Markovsky stood with a glass in his hand | B2 |
| that held the foaming seas | I |
| The skipper observed 'Everything is shipshape ' | - |
| and only the boatswain sobbed like a child | C2 |
| 'But my mother is dead ' | - |
| - | |
| And we all began to burst into tears | I |
| quite easily quite shamelessly | E |
| as if in the midst of our own families | I |
| mourning with bitter tears | I |
| at first for the boatswain's mother | D2 |
| and afterward simply for ourselves | I |
| - | |
| Already a rueful notice hung in the chemist's shop | E2 |
| 'No Triple Eau de Cologne' | E |
| but eight of us sea wolves | I |
| sobbed over almost all of Russia | O |
| And in our sobs we reeked | C2 |
| like eight barbershops | O |
| - | |
| Tears like squalls | O |
| swept away heaps of false values | O |
| of puffed up names | O |
| and quietly remaining inside us | O |
| was only the sea our mothers and young brothers | O |
| even the mother who was dead | C2 |
| - | |
| I wept as though I was being set free | E |
| I wept as if I was being born anew | E |
| a different person from what I'd been | E |
| and before God and before myself | F2 |
| like the tears of those drunken whalemen | E |
| my soul was pure | G2 |
Yevgeny Yevtushenko
(1)
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About Ballad About Drinking
Ballad About Drinking is a poem by Yevgeny Yevtushenko. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.