Angel (Translated by Yevgeny Bonver) - By: A.S. Pushkin

В дверях эдема ангел нежный
Главой поникшею сиял,
А демон мрачный и мятежный
Над адской бездною летал.

Дух отрицанья, дух сомненья
На духа чистого взирал
И жар невольный умиленья
Впервые смутно познавал.

"Прости,- он рек,- тебя я видел,
И ты недаром мне сиял:
Не все я в небе ненавидел,
Не все я в мире презирал".

By gates of Eden, Angel, gentle,
Shone with his softly drooped head,
And Demon, gloomy ad resentful
Over the hellish crevasse flapped.

The spirit of qualm and negation
Looked at another one - of good,
And fire of the forced elation
First time he vaguely understood.

"I've seen you," he enunciated, -
"And not in vain you've sent me light:
Not all in heaven I have hated,
Not all in world I have despised."


While researching Pushkin, many websites claimed that this poem by Pushkin is one of his finest. Also, I think of the 5 I have chosen I think this is the most elusive in meaning. Within this poem there is a CAESURA and a ANASTROPHE. Also, this poem is a LYRIC POEM. In line 6, Pushkin inserts a pause before saying, "of good". This is a CAESURA, which is an intended pause placed by the author to fill in and make the meter complete. The last two lines of the poem, "Not all in heaven I have hated, - Not all in world I have despised."is an anastrophe because the word order is rearranged. It should be, in correct english, "I have not hated all in heaven, I have not hated all in world." A lyric poem is a short poem in which the poet illuminates some life principle or expresses a very abstract thought via a story. What Pushkin is trying to express here, is something we could all try to guess what....