The Torments Of Conscience Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCB DEFG HIJK LMNJ OPD JMJ QRSJ JTJT DU V TW D XJXJ D| We live dying is not our business | A |
| shame is another lost episode | B |
| but like an unseen madonna conscience | C |
| is standing at every crossroad | B |
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| And her children and her grandchildren | D |
| the torments of conscience strange torments | E |
| with vagrant's crutch and bag are wandering | F |
| a world which is everywhere dishonest | G |
| - | |
| From one gate once more to the next gate | H |
| once again from doorstep to doorstep | I |
| chanting like old Russian beggars | J |
| they travel with God for their heart's help | K |
| - | |
| Surely it was they who always haunted | L |
| the serfs tapping with one finger | M |
| secretly on their windows and who pounded | N |
| with their fists in the palaces of the Tsars | J |
| - | |
| Surely they hurried off dead Pushkin | O |
| on a sledge in the snow from a black sky | P |
| it was they who drove Dostoievsky to prison | D |
| it was they who whispered to Tolstoy 'Fly ' | - |
| - | |
| The executioners understood it thus | J |
| 'He who torments himself is a troublemaker | M |
| Torments of conscience this is dangerous | J |
| Conscience itself must be liquidated ' | - |
| - | |
| But like the clanging of an alarm bell | Q |
| rattling their houses at night time | R |
| torments of conscience terrible | S |
| frightened the executioners with their crimes | J |
| - | |
| For even the guardians of injustice | J |
| who abandoned all honor long ago | T |
| may no longer know the meaning of conscience | J |
| but the torments of conscience they do know | T |
| - | |
| And if in this wide world where no one | D |
| no one is guiltless someone has heard | U |
| within himself the cry 'What have I done ' | - |
| then something can be done with this world | V |
| - | |
| I do not believe in the prophets construing | T |
| the coming of the Second or the Thousandth Rome | W |
| I believe in the words 'What are you doing ' | - |
| in 'What are we doing ' bitterly spoken | D |
| - | |
| And on the slippery edge of lost faith | X |
| I am kissing your dark hands | J |
| for you alone are my last faith | X |
| torments of conscience fierce torments | J |
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| - | |
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| Translated by Geoffrey Dutton with Igor Mezhakoff Koriakin | D |
Yevgeny Yevtushenko
(1)
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About The Torments Of Conscience
The Torments Of Conscience is a poem by Yevgeny Yevtushenko. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.