To the Poetics of Early Pasternak: “Before All That There Was Winter” (Text Analysis)

Boris Pasternak's poem “Before All That There Was Winter” (from the book “My Sister, Life”) is enigmatic in many ways: its content is obscure, its syntax is not always clear, and the boundaries of its metaphors are not obvious. It requires a thorough and detailed analysis of each line. This analysis was carried out by Mikhail Gasparov and Irina Podgaetskaya. Their study is the only comprehensive analysis of the poem. The authors do not leave any detail unconsidered and try to answer all the questions that arise. However, their conclusions are not always flawless, and their proposed solutions are sometimes questionable. Gasparov and Podgaetskaya's research was published under the title “Verification of Understanding”. This article continues in this vein by presenting a new and refined analysis of Pasternak's poem for the reader's review.