Analysis of Boats In A Fog
Robinson Jeffers 1887 (Allegheny) – 1962 (Carmel-by-the-Sea)
Sports and gallantries, the stage, the arts, the antics of dancers,
The exuberant voices of music,
Have charm for children but lack nobility; it is bitter earnestness
That makes beauty; the mind
Knows, grown adult.
A sudden fog-drift muffled the ocean,
A throbbing of engines moved in it,
At length, a stone's throw out, between the rocks and the vapor,
One by one moved shadows
Out of the mystery, shadows, fishing-boats, trailing each other
Following the cliff for guidance,
Holding a difficult path between the peril of the sea-fog
And the foam on the shore granite.
One by one, trailing their leader, six crept by me,
Out of the vapor and into it,
The throb of their engines subdued by the fog, patient and
cautious,
Coasting all round the peninsula
Back to the buoys in Monterey harbor. A flight of pelicans
Is nothing lovelier to look at;
The flight of the planets is nothing nobler; all the arts lose virtue
Against the essential reality
Of creatures going about their business among the equally
Earnest elements of nature.
Scheme | ABCDEFGHIHJKLMGNCOPQRMMH |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1010101010110 0010010110 111101101001110100 111001 1101 0101110010 010110101 11011101010010 11111 110100110110110 10001110 1001001010101011 00110110 111101101111 110100011 01111001101100 10 101100100 1101000110011100 1101111 01101011010101110 01001010 1101001110010100 10100110 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 1,015 |
Words | 179 |
Sentences | 5 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 24 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 821 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 177 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 54 sec read
- 228 Views
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