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Musicians and philologists jointly studied Boris Pasternak's verses using audio analysis and speech spectrography. Results show that Pasternak consciously constructed the sound architecture of verse to evoke specific auditory associations and even synesthetic experiences in readers. For instance, in the poem Waves, the use of certain consonants creates the effect of ocean noise, while the choice of vowels reproduces musical intervals. Pasternak's letters contain reflections that true poetry must be heard not just read. This understanding of poetry as synthesis of literature and music was revolutionary for the 1920s and received scientific confirmation only at the end of the 20th century with the development of neurolinguistics.