Analysis of Peter
Marianne Moore 1887 (Kirkwood) – 1972 (New York City)
Strong and slippery, built for the midnight grass-party confronted by four cats,
he sleeps his time away -- the detached first claw on his foreleg which corresponds
to the thumb, retracted to its tip; the small tuft of fronds
or katydid legs above each eye, still numbering the units in each group;
the shadbones regularly set about his mouth, to droop or rise
in unison like the porcupine's quills -- motionless. He lets himself be flat
tened out by gravity, as it were a piece of seaweed tamed and weakened by
exposure to the sun; compelled when extended, to lie
stationary. Sleep is the result of his delusion that one must do as
well as one can for oneself; sleep -- epitome of what is to
him as to the average person, the end of life. Demonstrate on him how
the lady caught the dangerous southern snake, placing a forked stick on either
side of its innocuous neck; one need not try to stir
him up; his prune shaped head and alligator eyes are not a party to the
joke. Lifted and handled, he may be dangled like an eel or set
up on the forearm like a mouse; his eyes bisected by pupils of a pin's
width, are flickeringly exhibited, then covered up. May be? I should say,
might have been; when he has been got the better of in a
dream -- as in a fight with nature or with cats -- we all know it. Profound sleep is
not with him, a fixed illusion. Springing about with froglike ac
curacy, emitting jerky cries when taken in the hand, he is himself
again; to sit caged by the rungs of a domestic chair would be unprofit
able -- human. What is the good of hypocrisy? It
is permissible to choose one's employment, to abandon the wire nail, the
roly-poly, when it shows signs of being no longer a pleas
ure, to score the adjacent magazine with a double line of strokes. He can
talk, but insolently says nothing. What of it? When one is frank, one's very
presence is a compliment. It is clear that he can see
the virtue of naturalness, that he is one of those who do not regard
the published fact as a surrender. As for the disposition
invariably to affront, an animal with claws wants to have to use
them; that eel-like extension of trunk into tail is not an accident. To
leap, to lengthen out, divide the air -- to purloin, to pursue.
to tell the hen: fly over the fence, go in the wrong way -- in your perturba
tion -- this is life; to do less would be nothing but dishonesty.
Scheme | ABBXX CDDXE XFFGX AXGXH XCXGX XHHXX XEEDH |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 101001101110010111 11110100111111101 10101011101111 110101111100010011 011000101111111 01001011100110111 111100110011110101 01010101101011 100110011101011111 111111101001111 111010010011110111 0101010010110011110 11101001111111 111111010011101010 1100101111011111 11001101111110101 1110100110111111 11111111010100 1100111011111110111 1110101010011111 10101011100011101 01111101100101111 10101101101001 10100111010101001010 110111111011001 111001010101011111 1111101111111110 10101001111111 0101111111111101 010110010110010 0100010111001111111 1111010110111111001 111010101101101 11011100110011011 1111111111010100 |
Characters | 2,360 |
Words | 453 |
Sentences | 19 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5 |
Lines Amount | 35 |
Letters per line (avg) | 53 |
Words per line (avg) | 13 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 263 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 64 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 01, 2023
- 2:17 min read
- 112 Views
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