III. 146
Oh, if true it is that by nightWhen resting are the livingAnd from the sky the rays of moonAlong the stones of church-yard glide;O, if true it is that emptied thenAre the quiet graves,I call thy shade, I wait my LilaCome hither, come hither, my friend, to me!
Appear, O shade of my belovedAs thou before our parting wert:Pale, cold, like a wintry dayDisfigured by thy struggle of death,Come like unto a distant star,Or like a fearful apparition,'T is all the same: Come hither, come hither
And I call thee, not in orderTo reproach him whose wickednessMy friend hath slain.Nor to fathom the grave's mysteries,Nor because at times I'm wornWith gnawing doubt ... but I sadlyWish to say that still I love thee,That wholly thine I am: hither come, O hither!
The extinguished joy of crazy yearsOn me rests heavy, like dull debauch.But of by-gone days the grief, like wineIn my soul the older, the stronger 't grows.Dark my path. Toil and pain promised are meBy the Future's roughened sea.
But not Death, O friends, I wish!But Life I wish: to think and suffer;Well I know, for me are joys in store'Mid struggles, toils, and sorrows:Yet 'gain at times shall harmony drink inAnd tears I'll shed over Fancy's fruit,--Yet mayhap at my saddened sunsetLove will beam with farewell and smile.
Words in this poem
- wintry a.
- Suitable to winter; resembling winter, or what belongs to winter; brumal; hyemal; cold; stormy; wintery. [AS. wintrig.]
- sadly adv.
- Wearily; heavily; firmly.
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- mayhap adv.
- Perhaps; peradventure. [Prov. or Dialectic]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
III. 146 is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems With Introduction and Notes, Project Gutenberg ebook #54991; 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, III. 146, in Poems (1888), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #54991, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/pushkin-poems/iii-146.html, id L25542.
Form and metre
III. 146 is 37 lines in 5 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 83%).
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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 years · debauch · wine · grows · meA · seaA
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Oh, if true it is that by night | 8 | ········ |
| When resting are the living | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| And from the sky the rays of moon | 8 | ········ |
| Along the stones of church-yard glide; | 8 | ˘/······ |
| O, if true it is that emptied then | 9 | ······/˘· |
| Are the quiet graves, | 5 | ··/˘· |
| I call thy shade, I wait my Lila | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| Come hither, come hither, my friend, to me! | 10 | ·/˘·/˘···· |
| Appear, O shade of my beloved | 8 | ˘/····˘/ |
| As thou before our parting wert: | 8 | ····//˘· |
| Pale, cold, like a wintry day | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Disfigured by thy struggle of death, | 9 | ˘/˘··/˘·· |
| Come like unto a distant star, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Or like a fearful apparition, | 9 | ···/˘·˘/˘ |
| 'T is all the same: Come hither, come hither | 11 | ······/˘·/˘ |
| And I call thee, not in order | 8 | ······/˘ |
| To reproach him whose wickedness | 8 | ·˘/··/˘˘ |
| My friend hath slain. | 4 | ···· |
| Nor to fathom the grave's mysteries, | 9 | ··/˘··/˘˘ |
| Nor because at times I'm worn | 7 | ······· |
| With gnawing doubt ... but I sadly | 8 | ·/˘···/˘ |
| Wish to say that still I love thee, | 8 | ········ |
| That wholly thine I am: hither come, O hither! | 12 | ·/˘···/˘··/˘ |
| The extinguished joy of crazy years | 9 | ·˘/˘··/˘· |
| On me rests heavy, like dull debauch. | 9 | ···/˘··˘/ |
| But of by-gone days the grief, like wine | 9 | ········· |
| In my soul the older, the stronger 't grows. | 11 | ····/˘·/˘·· |
| Dark my path. Toil and pain promised are me | 10 | ······/˘·· |
| By the Future's roughened sea. | 8 | ··/˘··˘· |
| But not Death, O friends, I wish! | 7 | ······· |
| But Life I wish: to think and suffer; | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| Well I know, for me are joys in store | 9 | ········· |
| 'Mid struggles, toils, and sorrows: | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| Yet 'gain at times shall harmony drink in | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
| And tears I'll shed over Fancy's fruit,-- | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Yet mayhap at my saddened sunset | 9 | ·/˘··/˘/· |
| Love will beam with farewell and smile. | 8 | ·····/·· |
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.