The Execution Of Stenka Razin Poem Rhyme Scheme

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In Moscow the white walled capital	A
a thief runs with a poppy seed loaf down the street	B
He is not afraid of being lynched today	C
There isn't time for loaves	D
They are bringing Stenka Razin	E
The tsar is milking a little bottle of malmsey	D
before the Swedish mirror he squeezes a pimple	A
and tries on an emerald seal ring	F
and into the square They are bringing Stenka Razin	E
Like a little barrel following a fat barrel	A
a baby boyar rolls along after his mother	G
gnawing a bar of toffee with his baby teeth	H
Today is a holiday They are bringing Stenka Razin	E
A merchant shoves his way in flatulent with peas	D
Two buffoons come rushing at a gallop	I
Drunkard rogues come mincing	F
They are bringing Stenka Razin	E
Old men scabs all over them hardly alive	J
thick cords round their necks	D
mumbling something dodder along	K
They are bringing Stenka Razin	E
And shameless girls also	D
jumping up tipsy from their sleeping mats	D
with cucumber smeared over their faces	D
come trotting up with an itch in their thighs	D
They are bringing Stenka Razin	E
And with screams from wives of the Royal Guard	L
amid spitting from all sides	D
on a ramshackle cart	M
he comes sailing in a white shirt	N
He is silent all covered with the spit of the mob	O
he does not wipe it away only grins wryly	P
smiles at himself 'Stenka Stenka you are like a branch	Q
that has lost its leaves	D
How you wanted to enter Moscow	D
And here you are entering Moscow now	E
All right then spit Spit Spit	R
after all it's a free show	D
Good people you always spit	R
at those who wish you well	S
I so much wished you well	S
on the shores of Persia	T
and then again when flying	F
down the Volga on a boat	U
What had I known Somebody's eyes	D
a saber a sail and the saddle	A
I wasn't much of a scholar	G
Perhaps this was what let me down	E
The tsar's scribe beat me deliberately across the teeth	H
repeating fervently	P
'Decided to go against the people did you	V
You'll find out about against '	W
I held my own without lowering my eyes	D
I spat my answer with my blood	X
'Against the boyars true	V
Against the people no '	W
I do not renounce myself	Y
I have chosen my own fate myself	Y
Before you the people I repent	Z
but not for what the tsar's scribe wanted	X
My head is to blame	A2
I can see sentencing myself	Y
I was halfway against things	D
when I ought to have gone to the very end	B2
No it is not in this I have sinned my people	A
for hanging boyars from the towers	D
I have sinned in my own eyes in this	D
that I hanged too few of them	C2
I have sinned in this that in a world of evil	A
I was a good idiot	D2
I sinned in this that being an enemy of serfdom	C2
I was something of a serf myself	Y
I sinned in this that I thought of doing battle	A
for a good tsar	E2
There are no good tsars fool	F2
Stenka you are perishing for nothing '	W
Bells boomed over Moscow	D
They are leading Stenka to the place of execution	E
In front of Stenka in the rising wind	G2
the leather apron of the headsman is flapping	F
and in his hands above the crowd	H2
is a blue ax blue as the Volga	T
And streaming silvery along the blade	I2
boats fly boats like seagulls in the morning	F
And over the snouts pig faces and ugly mugs	D
of tax collectors and money changers	D
like light through the fog	J2
Stenka saw faces	D
Distance and space was in those faces	D
and in their eyes morosely independent	K2
as if in smaller secret Volgas	D
Stenka's boats were sailing	F
It's worth bearing it all without a tear	L2
to be on the rack and wheel of execution	E
if sooner or later	G
faces sprout threateningly	P
on the face of the faceless ones	D
And calmly obviously he hadn't lived for nothing	F
Stenka laid his head down on the block	M2
settled his chin in the chopped out hollow	D
and with the back of his head gave the order	G
'Strike ax '	W
The head started rolling burning in its blood	X
and hoarsely the head spoke 'Not for nothing '	W
And along the ax there were no longer ships	D
but little streams little streams	D
Why good folk are you standing not celebrating	F
Caps into sky and dance	D
But the Red Square is frozen stiff	N2
the halberds are scarcely swaying	F
Even the buffoons have fallen silent	K2
Amid the deadly silence	D
fleas jumped over	G
from peasants' jackets onto women's robes	D
The square had understood something	F
The square took off their caps	D
and the bells struck three times seething with rage	O2
But heavy from its bloody forelock	F
the head was still rocking alive	J
From the blood wet place of execution	E
there where the poor were	G
the head threw looks about like anonymous letters	D
Bustling the poor trembling priest ran up	I
wanting to close Stenka's eyelids	D
But straining frightful as a beast	P2
the pupils pushed away his hand	Q2
On the tsar's head chilled by those devilish eyes	D
the Cap of Monomakh began to tremble	A
and savagely not hiding anything of his triumph	R2
Stenka's head burst out laughing at the tsar	E2
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Translated by Tina Tupikina Glaessner Geoffrey Dutton and Igor Mezhakoff Koriakin revised	S2

Yevgeny Yevtushenko

The Execution Of Stenka Razin Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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