The People
ONE OF THE PEOPLE. Will the tsar soon come out of theCathedral?ANOTHER. The mass is ended; now the Te Deum is going on.
THE FIRST. What? A mass for the dead sung for a livingMan? They'll suffer for it, the godless wretches!
IDIOT. (Seats himself on the ground and sings:)
The moon sails on,The kitten cries,Nick, arise,Pray to God.
IDIOT. But I have got a penny.
BOYS. That's not true; now, show it.
IDIOT. Boris, Boris! The boys are hurting Nick.
BOYARS. Go away, fool! Seize the fool!
TSAR. Leave him alone. Pray thou for me, Nick.
Words in this poem
- tsar n.
- The title of the emperor of Russia. See Czar.
- godless a.
- Having, or acknowledging, no God; without reverence for God; impious; wicked.
- idiot n.
- A man in private station, as distinguished from one holding a public office. [F. idiot, L. idiota an uneducated, ignorant, ill- informed person, Gr. Idiom.]
- nick n.
- A notch cut into something; as: (a) A score for keeping an account; a reckoning. [Akin to Nock.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The People is in the public domain. This text is taken from Boris Godunov: a drama in verse, Project Gutenberg ebook #5089; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Alexander Pushkin, The People, in Boris Godunov (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #5089, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/pushkin-boris-godunov/the-people-2.html, id L25486.
Form and metre
The People is 15 lines in 9 stanzas. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic pentameter.
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 4 -AA- on · criesA · ariseA · god
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| ONE OF THE PEOPLE. Will the tsar soon come out of the | 13 | ···/˘········ |
| Cathedral? | 3 | ˘/˘ |
| ANOTHER. The mass is ended; now the Te Deum is going on. | 15 | ˘/˘···/˘·····/· |
| THE FIRST. What? A mass for the dead sung for a living | 13 | ···········/˘ |
| Man? They'll suffer for it, the godless wretches! | 11 | ··/˘···/˘·· |
| IDIOT. (Seats himself on the ground and sings:) | 10 | /˘·˘/····· |
| The moon sails on, | 4 | ···· |
| The kitten cries, | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Nick, arise, | 3 | ·˘/ |
| Pray to God. | 3 | ··· |
| IDIOT. But I have got a penny. | 10 | /˘˘·····/˘ |
| BOYS. That's not true; now, show it. | 7 | ······· |
| IDIOT. Boris, Boris! The boys are hurting Nick. | 12 | /˘/˘/˘···/˘· |
| BOYARS. Go away, fool! Seize the fool! | 9 | ˘/·˘/···· |
| TSAR. Leave him alone. Pray thou for me, Nick. | 10 | ···˘/····· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.