Analysis of Nevertheless
Marianne Moore 1887 (Kirkwood) – 1972 (New York City)
you've seen a strawberry
that's had a struggle; yet
was, where the fragments met,
a hedgehog or a star-
fish for the multitude
of seeds. What better food
than apple seeds - the fruit
within the fruit - locked in
like counter-curved twin
hazelnuts? Frost that kills
the little rubber-plant -
leaves of kok-sagyyz-stalks, can't
harm the roots; they still grow
in frozen ground. Once where
there was a prickley-pear -
leaf clinging to a barbed wire,
a root shot down to grow
in earth two feet below;
as carrots from mandrakes
or a ram's-horn root some-
times. Victory won't come
to me unless I go
to it; a grape tendril
ties a knot in knots till
knotted thirty times - so
the bound twig that's under-
gone and over-gone, can't stir.
The weak overcomes its
menace, the strong over-
comes itself. What is there
like fortitude! What sap
went through that little thread
to make the cherry red!
Scheme | XAA XBB XCC DEE FGG HFF DII FJJ FHH XHG XKK |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11010 110101 110101 01101 11010 111101 110101 010110 11011 10111 010101 111111 101111 010111 11011 11010110 011111 011101 11011 101111 110011 110111 11011 101011 101011 011110 1010111 01101 100110 101111 11011 111101 110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 864 |
Words | 161 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 11 |
Stanza Lengths | 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3 |
Lines Amount | 33 |
Letters per line (avg) | 21 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 62 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 14 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 24, 2023
- 50 sec read
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"Nevertheless" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/26352/nevertheless>.
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