Analysis of Ascent To The Sierras
Robinson Jeffers 1887 (Allegheny) – 1962 (Carmel-by-the-Sea)
Beyond the great valley an odd instinctive rising
Begins to possess the ground, the flatness gathers
to little humps and
barrows, low aimless ridges,
A sudden violence of rock crowns them. The crowded
orchards end, they
have come to a stone knife;
The farms are finished; the sudden foot of the
slerra. Hill over hill,
snow-ridge beyond mountain gather
The blue air of their height about them.
Here at the foot of the pass
The fierce clans of the mountain you'd think for
thousands of years,
Men with harsh mouths and eyes like the eagles' hunger,
Have gathered among these rocks at the dead hour
Of the morning star and the stars waning
To raid the plain and at moonrise returning driven
Their scared booty to the highlands, the tossing horns
And glazed eyes in the light of torches. The men have
looked back
Standing above these rock-heads to bark laughter
At the burning granaries and the farms and the town
That sow the dark flat land with terrible rubies...
lighting the dead...
It is not true: from this land
The curse was lifted; the highlands have kept peace
with the valleys; no
blood in the sod; there is no old sword
Keeping grim rust, no primal sorrow. The people are
all one people, their
homes never knew harrying;
The tribes before them were acorn-eaters, harmless
as deer. Oh, fortunate
earth; you must find someone
To make you bitter music; how else will you take bonds
of the future,
against the wolf in men's hearts?
Submitted by Holt
Scheme | AXXXXXXXXBX XXXBBACXXXBXXXXXXXXXAXXCXBX X |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 0101101101010 011010101010 11010 1011010 0101001111010 1011 111011 01110010110 11101 11011010 011111011 1101101 0111010111 1011 111101101010 110011110110 1010100110 110101101010 111010100101 011001110011 11 10011111110 10101001001 110111110010 1001 1111111 01110010111 10101 100111111 1011110100101 11101 11011 010110101010 111100 11111 1111010111111 1010 0101011 01011 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,540 |
Words | 260 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 11, 27, 1 |
Lines Amount | 39 |
Letters per line (avg) | 30 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 385 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 86 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:18 min read
- 117 Views
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