Analysis of The Pine At Timber-Line

Harriet Monroe 1860 (Chicago) – 1936 (Arequipa)



What has bent you,
Warped and twisted you,
Torn and crippled you?
What has embittered you,
O lonely tree?
You search the rocks for a footing,
dragging scrawny roots;
You bare your thin breast to the storms,
and fling out wild arms behind you;
You throw back your witch-like head,
with wisps of hair stringing the wind.
You fight with the snows,
You rail and shriek at the tempests.
Old before your time, you challenge the cold stars.
Be still, be satisfied!
Stand straight like your brothers in the valley,
The soft green valley of summer down below.
Why front the endless winter of the peak?
Why seize the lightning in your riven hands?
Why cut the driven wind and shriek aloud?
Why tarry here?


Scheme AAAABCDEAFGHDIJBKLMNO
Poetic Form
Metre 1111 10101 10101 110101 1101 11011010 10101 11111101 01111011 1111111 11111001 11101 1101101 10111110011 11110 1111100010 01110110101 1101010101 1101001101 1101010101 1101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 703
Words 127
Sentences 12
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 21
Lines Amount 21
Letters per line (avg) 26
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 547
Words per stanza (avg) 125
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

38 sec read
130

Harriet Monroe

Harriet Monroe was an American editor, scholar, literary critic, poet and patron of the arts. more…

All Harriet Monroe poems | Harriet Monroe Books

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    Published in 1954, "Fighting Terms" was the first collection of poems by which poet?
    A Ted Hughes
    B Sylvia Plath
    C Thom Gunn
    D Philip Larkin