Alexander Pushkin

It Grows Thin

It Grows Thin - meaning Summary

Star-lit Nostalgia and Longing

Pushkin's "It Grows Thin" describes an evening scene under a solitary star that evokes sacred thoughts and memories of a southern landscape. The speaker recalls tranquil nature—poplars, myrtle, cypress—and idle, contemplative wanderings among rocks. Memories turn to intimacy: a lone young woman seeks him at night, whispering his name. The poem links celestial light to nostalgia, longing, and gentle yearning for past companionship.

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It grows thin -- the clouds flying bank; The evening star, that in deep sadness sank, Your beam had silvered the plains’ extinguished scopes. The dreamy bay, the highland’s tops and slopes. I like your frugal light on the celestial height: It woke the sacred thoughts, which slept inside my heart. I do recall your rise, star beautiful and sole, Above the peaceful land, that pleases every soul, Where slender poplars rise to skies in florid dells, Where sleeps a gentle myrtle, and blackens a cypress, And waves sing lullabies of the delightful South. There, full of hearty thoughts, I pointlessly browsed Amidst the silent rocks, and dragged the thoughtful sloth, When night was covering the huts with its dark cloth, And, in the dark, the lass was seeking me alone, And telling her girlfriends my name in ways her own. Translated by Yevgeny Bonver

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