The Hut Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCD EFGH IJKL FFLF MLNF OPQR SFTU BCLV WFXO FFYC FZA2U B2ELC2 FCD2E2 LFFF CCF2N G2CAU E2UYC H2| And once again a fisherman's hut | A |
| opening to me late in the night | B |
| suddenly as much a part of me | C |
| as the one along whose floor I used to crawl | D |
| - | |
| Quietly I lay down in the corner | E |
| as if it were my old lost place | F |
| that shaky chinky floor | G |
| whose every knot and crack I knew | H |
| - | |
| And I was home again painfully at home | I |
| amid the smells of fish and tobacco | J |
| children kittens borscht | K |
| fumes rising purifying | L |
| - | |
| Already the room rocked with the fisherman's snores | F |
| the children already had climbed into their bunks | F |
| their teeth nibbling | L |
| on steamy pancakes | F |
| - | |
| Nobody but the housewife stirred | M |
| washing scrubbing | L |
| A poker a broom a needle | N |
| there must always be something in her hands | F |
| - | |
| Outside a storm was brewing on the Pechora | O |
| you could hear the river seethe | P |
| 'She's kicking up her heels ' she said | Q |
| as if speaking of a coffee colored cow | R |
| - | |
| A puff blowing out the smoky lamp | S |
| left the room to its own darkness | F |
| I could hear the slap slosh sound | T |
| of her laundry chores in the kitchen | U |
| - | |
| An old clock creaked in the night | B |
| dragging the weight of history | C |
| From the freshly laid kindling | L |
| a white fire broke and crackled | V |
| - | |
| And full of wonder and fear | W |
| untamed from the shadows | F |
| eight children's eyes gleamed | X |
| like eight sprays from your waters Pechora | O |
| - | |
| They leaned out over their bunks | F |
| from an impossibly distant distance | F |
| four little selves myself | Y |
| watching a grown up me | C |
| - | |
| A silent prayer crossed my lips | F |
| as I lay still pretending to sleep | Z |
| And the kitchen noises stopped | A2 |
| I heard the door squeak open | U |
| - | |
| And in the depth of solitude | B2 |
| through the veil of this slumber | E |
| I felt the touch of something | L |
| remembered from my childhood | C2 |
| - | |
| A sheepskin coat that's what it was | F |
| thrown on me snugly shaggily warmly | C |
| and a moment later from the kitchen tub | D2 |
| the slapping of the clothes again | E2 |
| - | |
| I could almost see those hands dancing | L |
| through diapers bed sheets dungarees | F |
| to the music of all our passions | F |
| to the roar of world events | F |
| - | |
| Certainly more than one pretentious nonentity | C |
| had wormed his rotten way into eternity | C |
| but only this recurring slap slosh | F2 |
| struck me in essence as eternal | N |
| - | |
| And a teeming sense of fate | G2 |
| overwhelmed me | C |
| like the exhalation of a hut | A |
| where life lies heavy on millions of women | U |
| - | |
| and where who knows when | E2 |
| after the mastery has been won | U |
| a million little selves myself | Y |
| will watch a grown up me | C |
| - | |
| - | |
| - | |
| Translated by Stanley Kunitz with Anthony Kahn | H2 |
Yevgeny Yevtushenko
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
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