Analysis of The Eye
Robinson Jeffers 1887 (Allegheny) – 1962 (Carmel-by-the-Sea)
The Atlantic is a stormy moat; and the Mediterranean,
The blue pool in the old garden,
More than five thousand years has drunk sacrifice
Of ships and blood, and shines in the sun; but here the Pacific--
Our ships, planes, wars are perfectly irrelevant.
Neither our present blood-feud with the brave dwarfs
Nor any future world-quarrel of westering
And eastering man, the bloody migrations, greed of power, clash of
faiths--
Is a speck of dust on the great scale-pan.
Here from this mountain shore, headland beyond stormy headland
plunging like dolphins through the blue sea-smoke
Into pale sea--look west at the hill of water: it is half the
planet:
this dome, this half-globe, this bulging
Eyeball of water, arched over to Asia,
Australia and white Antartica: those are the eyelids that never
close;
this is the staring unsleeping
Eye of the earth; and what it watches is not our wars.
Scheme | AABCDECFGHDIJKLJMNCO |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (30%) |
Metre | 0010101010000100 01100110 1111011110 110101001110010 1011111000100 101010111011 1101011011 011010010111011 1 1011110111 111101101101 1011010111 0111111011101110 10 11111110 1110110110 0100111101110 1 110101 11010111011101 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 905 |
Words | 152 |
Sentences | 4 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 20 |
Lines Amount | 20 |
Letters per line (avg) | 35 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 703 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 150 |
Font size:
Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 31, 2023
- 45 sec read
- 128 Views
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"The Eye" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/32876/the-eye>.
Discuss this Robinson Jeffers poem analysis with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In