Flowers For Grandmother Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABAC DEAF GHIJ KLLA MLHL NLLO APGQ LRLS TUHV WXHY ZA2L HA2B2C2 D2E2AA F2G2H2I2 AGLJ2 K2LAL2J2M2MN2 UJ2HO2 LLLN2I came to the cemetery in the hazy heat of autumn | A |
where the crosses creak as they split | B |
to my grandmother Maria Iosefovna | A |
and bought flowers at the gate | C |
- | |
In the era of silent movies Grandmother's braids | D |
were formed into a tight wreath | E |
and neighbor ladies in the smoke filled kitchen | A |
called her the Commissar | F |
- | |
My grandmother beat me very little | G |
A shame that her hand grew tired of beating | H |
for in the opinion of a bathhouse attendant | I |
I deserved nothing but boiling water | J |
- | |
I teased her cat in utter bliss | K |
to be sure no one called me a sissy | L |
I swapped her eight volumes of history | L |
for three volumes of Man and Woman | A |
- | |
A great soccer game was at hand | M |
Yugoslavia versus the USSR | L |
I filched her gold wedding ring | H |
after hiding secretly in the chiffonier | L |
- | |
And that ring heavy and reddish | N |
from Grandfather's finger who is no more | L |
got into the clutches of a speculator | L |
for a mere standing room ticket | O |
- | |
My grandmother Maria Iosefovna | A |
by merely biting the edge of her lip | P |
so chilled the soup on the table | G |
it was covered with Siberian ice | Q |
- | |
In front of a Robert Taylor poster | L |
back in ration card times | R |
she slipped on the ice by the bakery | L |
and lost consciousness | S |
- | |
And with two fingers raised | T |
white faced like the Old Believer Morozova | U |
she repeated only one thing | H |
'Be thou accursed ' and I was | V |
- | |
Hiding behind the primus stove I thought | W |
that Grannie for sure from spite | X |
only pretended to be dying | H |
She punished me and died | Y |
- | |
To the neighbor's record Rio Rita | Z |
she fixed her stare straight up | A2 |
and all the relatives implored me | L |
'Confess Confess Confess ' | - |
- | |
They continued to curse without stopping | H |
from right and left I was fed up | A2 |
But Grandmother's curse | B2 |
alone stuck in my heart | C2 |
- | |
And the ring staring through the loamy soil | D2 |
torments avenges and glitters from out of the bones | E2 |
Remove your curse from me Grannie | A |
don't be sorry for me but for my children | A |
- | |
The guilty gentle flowers I | F2 |
place on the grave in silence | G2 |
It never enters my mind | H2 |
that their stems are suspiciously short | I2 |
- | |
By the small gray gravestone | A |
knowing all that goes on with people | G |
Mother whispers so Grandmother won't hear | L |
They steal flowers for resale here Break the stems | J2 |
- | |
All of us are caught up in resale | K2 |
Perhaps I had brought as my gesture | L |
flowers whose stems had once been broken | A |
but which had been cut clean at the break | L2 |
It makes one shudder in the subway or on a trolleybus | J2 |
to see a couple cheek to cheek | M2 |
with all the stems in the young girl's happy hand | M |
covered with cemetery clay | N2 |
- | |
All broken stems get cut off | U |
and in the shadow of departed shadows | J2 |
tragic is the sale of suffering | H |
but the resale is yet more tragic | O2 |
- | |
If there is a tiny mercenary dropp in me | L |
then I don't belong to my family | L |
Put a curse on me once more Grandmother | L |
and never take that curse away | N2 |
Yevgeny Yevtushenko
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
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