Analysis of The Bird With The Dark Plumes

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



The bird with the dark plumes in my blood,
That never for one moment however I patched my truces
Consented to make peace with the people,
It is pitiful now to watch her pleasure In a breath of
        tempest
Breaking the sad promise of spring.
Are these that morose hawk's wings, vaulting, a mere
        mad swallow's,
The snow-shed peak, the violent precipice?
Poor outlaw that would not value their praise do you
        prize their blame?
"Their liking" she said "was a long creance,
But let them be kind enough to hate me that opens the
        sky."
It is almost as foolish my poor falcon
To want hatred as to want love; and harder to win.

Submitted by Holt


Scheme XAXXXXXAAXXAXXXX X
Poetic Form
Metre 011011011 1101110101111 0101111010 111001110100011 10 10011011 11101111001 11 01110100100 11111101111 111 110111011 11111011111100 1 1111101110 1110111101011 01011
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 660
Words 121
Sentences 6
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 16, 1
Lines Amount 17
Letters per line (avg) 29
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 248
Words per stanza (avg) 59
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

36 sec read
114

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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