Birth-Dues

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



Joy is a trick in the air; pleasure is merely
     contemptible, the dangled
Carrot the ass follows to market or precipice;
But limitary pain -- the rock under the tower
     and the hewn coping
That takes thunder at the head of the turret-
Terrible and real. Therefore a mindless dervish
     carving himself
With knives will seem to have conquered the world.

The world's God is treacherous and full of
     unreason; a torturer, but also
The only foundation and the only fountain.
Who fights him eats his own flesh and perishes
     of hunger; who hides in the grave
To escape him is dead; who enters the Indian
Recession to escape him is dead; who falls in
     love with the God is washed clean
Of death desired and of death dreaded.

He has joy, but Joy is a trick in the air; and
     pleasure, but pleasure is contemptible;
And peace; and is based on solider than pain.
He has broken boundaries a little and that will
estrange him; he is monstrous, but not
To the measure of the God.... But I having told
     you--
However I suppose that few in the world have
     energy to hear effectively-
Have paid my birth-dues; am quits with the
     people.

Submitted by Holt

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:03 min read
43

Quick analysis:

Scheme AXBXXXXXX XXCBXCXXX XDXXXXXXAXD X
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 1,163
Words 209
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 9, 9, 11, 1

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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