Analysis of Life From The Lifeless

Robinson Jeffers 1887 (Allegheny) – 1962 (Carmel-by-the-Sea)



Spirits and illusions have died,
The naked mind lives
In the beauty of inanimate things.

Flowers wither, grass fades, trees wilt,
The forest is burnt;
The rock is not burnt.

The deer starve, the winter birds
Die on their twigs and lie
In the blue dawns in the snow.

Men suffer want and become
Curiously ignoble; as prosperity
Made them curiously vile.

But look how noble the world is,
The lonely-flowing waters, the secret-
Keeping stones, the flowing sky.


Scheme XXX XAA XBX XXX XXB
Poetic Form
Metre 10001011 01011 0010101001 10101111 01011 01111 0110101 111101 0011001 1101001 100001010100 1110001 11110011 0101010010 1010101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 450
Words 81
Sentences 6
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 3, 3, 3, 3, 3
Lines Amount 15
Letters per line (avg) 24
Words per line (avg) 5
Letters per stanza (avg) 72
Words per stanza (avg) 16
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 05, 2023

24 sec read
428

Robinson Jeffers

John Robinson Jeffers was an American poet, known for his work about the central California coast. more…

All Robinson Jeffers poems | Robinson Jeffers Books

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