Analysis of Hope Is Not For The Wise
Robinson Jeffers 1887 (Allegheny) – 1962 (Carmel-by-the-Sea)
Hope is not for the wise, fear is for fools;
Change and the world, we think, are racing to a fall,
Open-eyed and helpless, in every newscast that is the news:
The time's events would seem mere chaos but all
Drift the one deadly direction. But this is only
The August thunder of the age, not the November.
Wise men hope nothing, the wise are naturally lonely
And think November as good as April, the wise remember
That Caesar and even final Augustulus had heirs,
And men lived on; rich unplanned life on earth
After the foreign wars and the civil wars, the border wars
And the barbarians: music and religion, honor and mirth
Renewed life's lost enchantments. But if life even
Had perished utterly, Oh perfect loveliness of earth and heaven.
Scheme | ABCBDEDEFGHGIJ |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111011111 100111110101 101010010011101 01011111011 1011001011110 0101010110010 11110011100010 010101111001010 11001010111 0111101111 100101001010101 0001001000101001 0111111110 110100101111010 |
Closest metre | Iambic heptameter |
Characters | 734 |
Words | 134 |
Sentences | 5 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 14 |
Lines Amount | 14 |
Letters per line (avg) | 42 |
Words per line (avg) | 9 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 585 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 132 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 40 sec read
- 168 Views
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