Analysis of The Deer Lay Down Their Bones
Robinson Jeffers 1887 (Allegheny) – 1962 (Carmel-by-the-Sea)
I followed the narrow cliffside trail half way up the mountain
Above the deep river-canyon. There was a little cataract crossed the path,
flinging itself
Over tree roots and rocks, shaking the jeweled fern-fronds, bright bubbling
water
Pure from the mountain, but a bad smell came up. Wondering at it I clam-
bered down the steep stream
Some forty feet, and found in the midst of bush-oak and laurel,
Hung like a bird's nest on the precipice brink a small hidden clearing,
Grass and a shallow pool. But all about there were bones Iying in the grass,
clean bones and stinking bones,
Antlers and bones: I understood that the place was a refuge for wounded
deer; there are so many
Hurt ones escape the hunters and limp away to lie hidden; here they have
water for the awful thirst
And peace to die in; dense green laurel and grim cliff
Make sanctuary, and a sweet wind blows upward from the deep gorge.--I
wish my bones were with theirs.
But that's a foolish thing to confess, and a little cowardly. We know that life
Is on the whole quite equally good and bad, mostly gray neutral, and can
be endured
To the dim end, no matter what magic of grass, water and precipice, and
pain of wounds,
Makes death look dear. We have been given life and have used it--not a
great gift perhaps--but in honesty
Should use it all. Mine's empty since my love died--Empty? The flame-
haired grandchild with great blue eyes
That look like hers?--What can I do for the child? I gaze at her and wonder
what sort of man
In the fall of the world . . . I am growing old, that is the trouble. My chil-
dren and little grandchildren
Will find their way, and why should I wait ten years yet, having lived sixty-
seven, ten years more or less,
Before I crawl out on a ledge of rock and die snapping, like a wolf
Who has lost his mate?--I am bound by my own thirty-year-old decision:
who drinks the wine
Should take the dregs; even in the bitter lees and sediment
New discovery may lie. The deer in that beautiful place lay down their
bones: I must wear mine.
Scheme | AXXBCXXDBXXXEXXX XXXFXXXXEXXCFDAEXXAGXXG |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11001011111010 0101101011010100101 1001 1011011001111100 10 110101011111001111 11011 110101001111010 11011101001011010 10010111011011001 110101 10011011011010110 111110 110101001011110111 1010101 011101110011 1100001111010111 111011 11010110100101001111 110111001011011001 101 1011110110111001000 111 1111111101011110 110110100 111111011111001 111111 111011111011110010 1111 001101111011101011 101010 11110111111110110 1011111 01111101110110101 111111111111011010 1101 110110001010100 101001101011001111 11111 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 2,072 |
Words | 379 |
Sentences | 19 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 16, 23 |
Lines Amount | 39 |
Letters per line (avg) | 40 |
Words per line (avg) | 10 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 790 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 189 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 18, 2023
- 1:54 min read
- 156 Views
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