Analysis of Self-Criticism In February
Robinson Jeffers 1887 (Allegheny) – 1962 (Carmel-by-the-Sea)
The bay is not blue but sombre yellow
With wrack from the battered valley, it is speckled with violent
foam-heads
And tiger-striped with long lovely storm-shadows.
You love this better than the other mask; better eyes than yours
Would feel the equal beauty in the blue.
It is certain you have loved the beauty of storm disproportionately.
But the present time is not pastoral, but founded
On violence, pointed for more massive violence: perhaps it is not
Perversity but need that perceives the storm-beauty.
Well, bite on this: your poems are too full of ghosts and demons,
And people like phantoms how often life's are
And passion so strained that the clay mouths go praying for destruction
Alas, it is not unusual in life;
To every soul at some time. But 'why insist on it? And now
For the worst fault: you have never mistaken
Demon nor passion nor idealism for the real God.
Then what is most disliked in those verses
Remains most true. Unfortunately. If only you could sing
That God is love, or perhaps that social
Justice will soon prevail. I can tell lies in prose.
Scheme | ABCDEFGHIGJKLMNLOPQRD |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 011111110 1110101011101100 11 0101111011 111101010110111 1101010001 11101110101101000 1010111100110 110010111010001111 0100111010110 111111011111010 01011011011 0101110111101010 0111101001 1100111111011101 10111110010 10110101001011 1111010110 011101000110111 1111101110 101101111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 1,059 |
Words | 191 |
Sentences | 12 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 21 |
Lines Amount | 21 |
Letters per line (avg) | 41 |
Words per line (avg) | 9 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 854 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 189 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 57 sec read
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"Self-Criticism In February" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 6 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/32844/self-criticism-in-february>.
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