Disbelief In Yourself Is Indispensable Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDE FGHAIJKLM NOGL PQRS GGFT UVWX FYZA2 XRB2C C2D2E2XF2C2E2E2E2C XG2H2E2 I2J2CK2 L2| While you're alive it's shameful to worm your way into | A |
| the Calendar of Saints | B |
| Disbelief in yourself is more saintly | C |
| It takes real talent not to dread being terrified | D |
| by your own agonizing lack of talent | E |
| - | |
| Disbelief in yourself is indispensable | F |
| Indispensable to us is the loneliness | G |
| of being gripped in the vise | H |
| so that in the darkest night the sky will enter you | A |
| and skin your temples with the stars | I |
| so that streetcars will crash into the room | J |
| wheels cutting across your face | K |
| so the dangling rope terrible and alive | L |
| will float into the room and dance invitingly in the air | M |
| - | |
| Indispensable is any mangy ghost | N |
| in tattered overplayed stage rags | O |
| and if even the ghosts are capricious | G |
| I swear they are no more capricious than those who are alive | L |
| - | |
| Indispensable amidst babbling boredom | P |
| are the deadly fear of uttering the right words | Q |
| and the fear of shaving because across your cheekbone | R |
| graveyard grass already grows | S |
| - | |
| It is indispensable to be sleeplessly delirious | G |
| to fail to leap into emptiness | G |
| Probably only in despair is it possible | F |
| to speak all the truth to this age | T |
| - | |
| It is indispensable after throwing out dirty drafts | U |
| to explode yourself and crawl before ridicule | V |
| to reassemble your shattered hands | W |
| from fingers that rolled under the dresser | X |
| - | |
| Indispensable is the cowardice to be cruel | F |
| and the observation of the small mercies | Y |
| when a step toward falsely high goals | Z |
| makes the trampled stars squeal out | A2 |
| - | |
| It's indispensable with a misfit's hunger | X |
| to gnaw a verb right down to the bone | R |
| Only one who is by nature from the naked poor | B2 |
| is neither naked nor poor before fastidious eternity | C |
| - | |
| And if from out of the dirt | C2 |
| you have become a prince | D2 |
| but without principles | E2 |
| unprince yourself and consider | X |
| how much less dirt there was before | F2 |
| when you were in the real pure dirt | C2 |
| Our self esteem is such baseness | E2 |
| The Creator raises to the heights | E2 |
| only those who even with tiny movements | E2 |
| tremble with the fear of uncertainty | C |
| - | |
| Better to cut open your veins with a can opener | X |
| to lie like a wino on a spit spattered bench in the park | G2 |
| than to come to that very comfortable belief | H2 |
| in your own special significance | E2 |
| - | |
| Blessed is the madcap artist | I2 |
| who smashes his sculpture with relish | J2 |
| hungry and cold but free | C |
| from degrading belief in himself | K2 |
| - | |
| - | |
| Translated by Antonina W Bouis Albert C Todd and Yevgeny Yevtushenko | L2 |
Yevgeny Yevtushenko
(1)
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About Disbelief In Yourself Is Indispensable
Disbelief In Yourself Is Indispensable is a poem by Yevgeny Yevtushenko. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.