The Execution Of Stenka Razin Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEDAFEAGHEDIFEJDK EDDDDELDMNOPQDDERDRS STFUDAGEHPVWDXVWYYZX A2YDB2ADDC2AD2C2YAE2 F2WDEG2FH2TI2FDDJ2DD K2DFL2EGPDFM2DGWXWDD FDN2FK2DGDFDO2FJEGDI DP2Q2DAR2E2 S2In 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
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
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