Analysis of Contemplation Of The Sword
Robinson Jeffers 1887 (Allegheny) – 1962 (Carmel-by-the-Sea)
Reason will not decide at last; the sword will decide.
The sword: an obsolete instrument of bronze or steel,
formerly used to kill men, but here
In the sense of a symbol. The sword: that is: the storms
and counter-storms of general destruction; killing
of men,
Destruction of all goods and materials; massacre, more or
less intentional, of children and women;
Destruction poured down from wings, the air made accomplice,
the innocent air
Perverted into assasin and poisoner.
The sword: that is: treachery and cowardice, incredible
baseness, incredible courage, loyalties, insanities.
The sword: weeping and despair, mass-enslavement,
mass-tourture, frustration of all hopes
That starred man's forhead. Tyranny for freedom, horror for
happiness, famine for bread, carrion for children.
Reason will not decide at last, the sword will decide.
Dear God, who are the whole splendor of things and the sacred
stars, but also the cruelty and greed, the treacheries
And vileness, insanities and filth and anguish: now that this
thing comes near us again I am finding it hard
To praise you with a whole heart.
I know what pain is, but pain can shine. I know what death is,
I have sometimes
Longed for it. But cruelty and slavery and degredation,
pestilence, filth, the pitifulness
Of men like hurt little birds and animals . . . if you were
only
Waves beating rock, the wind and the iron-cored earth,
With what a heart I could praise your beauty.
You will not repent, nor cancel life, nor free man from anguish
For many ages to come. You are the one that tortures himself to
discover himself: I am
One that watches you and discovers you, and praises you in little
parables, idyl or tragedy, beautiful
Intolerable God.
The sword: that is:
I have two sons whom I love. They are twins, they were born
in nineteen sixteen, which seemed to us a dark year
Of a great war, and they are now of the age
That war prefers. The first-born is like his mother, he is so
beautiful
That persons I hardly know have stopped me on the street to
speak of the grave beauty of the boy's face.
The second-born has strength for his beauty; when he strips
for swimming the hero shoulders and wrestler loins
Make him seem clothed. The sword: that is: loathsome disfigurements,
blindness, mutilation, locked lips of boys
Too proud to scream.
Reason will not decide at last: the sword will decide.
Scheme | Axbcxdefxxb gcxxefA xcxxxhxdcxixixjxggxhxxxxgjxxccxxA |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 10111110111 011101001111 100111111 0011010011101 0101110001010 11 0101110010010011 10100110010 0101111011010 01001 01001101 011110001000100 10100101001 01100011010 11010111 1111100110101 1001011100110 10111110111 11110110110010 11100100101 01101010111 111101111011 1111011 11111111111111 1101 111110010001 100101 11111010100110 10 110101001011 1101111110 111011101111110 11010111101110011 0100111 11101001010101010 10011100100 010001 0111 1111111111101 011011111011 10110111101 110101111110111 100 11011011111011 1101101011 0101111110111 1100101001001 11110111101 100101111 1111 10111110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 2,497 |
Words | 406 |
Sentences | 23 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 11, 7, 33 |
Lines Amount | 51 |
Letters per line (avg) | 37 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 621 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 136 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 2:02 min read
- 133 Views
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