Analysis of Shine, Republic
Robinson Jeffers 1887 (Allegheny) – 1962 (Carmel-by-the-Sea)
The quality of these trees, green height; of the sky, shining, of
water, a clear flow; of the rock, hardness
And reticence: each is noble in its quality. The love of freedom
has been the quality of Western man.
There is a stubborn torch that flames from Marathon to Concord,
its dangerous beauty binding three ages
Into one time; the waves of barbarism and civilization have
eclipsed but have never quenched it.
For the Greeks the love of beauty, for Rome of ruling; for the
present age the passionate love of discovery;
But in one noble passion we are one; and Washington, Luther,
Tacitus, Aeschylus, one kind of man.
And you, America, that passion made you. You were not born
to prosperity, you were born to love freedom.
You did not say 'en masse,' you said 'independence.' But we
cannot have all the luxuries and freedom also.
Freedom is poor and laborious; that torch is not safe but hungry,
and often requires blood for its fuel.
You will tame it against it burn too clearly, you will hood it
like a kept hawk, you will perch it on the wrist of Caesar.
But keep the tradition, conserve the forms, the observances, keep
the spot sore. Be great, carve deep your heel-marks.
The states of the next age will no doubt remember you, and edge
their love of freedom with contempt of luxury.
Scheme | XXAB XXXC XDEB XADX DXCE XXXD |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 010011111101101 1001110110 010011100110001110 1101001101 1101011111011 11001010110 0111011100000101 01111011 101011101111010 1010100110100 1011010111010010 111111 010100110111011 101001011110 1111111101011 1011010001010 10110010011111110 01001011110 111101111101111 10111111101110 1100100101001001 0111111111 011011111010101 111101011100 |
Closest metre | Iambic heptameter |
Characters | 1,273 |
Words | 236 |
Sentences | 14 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 42 |
Words per line (avg) | 10 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 168 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 39 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 03, 2023
- 1:10 min read
- 141 Views
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