Analysis of Shiva

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



There is a hawk that is picking the birds out of our sky,
She killed the pigeons of peace and security,
She has taken honesty and confidence from nations and men,
She is hunting the lonely heron of liberty.
She loads the arts with nonsense, she is very cunning
Science with dreams and the state with powers to catch them at last.
Nothing will escape her at last, flying nor running.
This is the hawk that picks out the star's eyes.
This is the only hunter that will ever catch the wild swan;
The prey she will take last is the wild white swan of the beauty of things.
Then she will be alone, pure destruction, achieved and supreme,
Empty darkness under the death-tent wings.
She will build a nest of the swan's bones and hatch  a new brood,
Hang new heavens with new birds, all be renewed.


Scheme ABCBDEDFGHIHJJ
Poetic Form
Metre 110111100111101 110101100100 1110100010011001 1110010101100 1101110111010 101100111011111 1010101110110 1101111011 110101011101011 01111110111101011 111101101001001 1010100111 11101101101011 11101111101
Closest metre Iambic heptameter
Characters 784
Words 150
Sentences 8
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 44
Words per line (avg) 11
Letters per stanza (avg) 620
Words per stanza (avg) 149
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 03, 2023

45 sec read
89

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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