Analysis of Second-Best
Robinson Jeffers 1887 (Allegheny) – 1962 (Carmel-by-the-Sea)
A Celtic spearman forcing the cromlech-builder's brown
daughter;
A blond Saxon, a slayer of Britons,
Building his farm outside the village he'd burned; a Norse
Voyager, wielder of oars and a sword,
Thridding the rocks at the fjord sea-end, hungry as a hawk;
A hungry Gaelic chiefling in Ulster,
Whose blood with the Norseman's rotted in the rain on a heather
hill:
These by the world's time were very recent
Forefathers of yours. And you are a maker of verses. The pallid
Pursuit of the world's beauty on paper,
Unless a tall angel comes to require it, is a pitiful pastime.
If, burnished new from God's eyes, an angel:
And the ardors of the simple blood showing clearly a little
ridiculous
In this changed world: write and be quiet.
Scheme | ABCDEFBBGHIBJKKLM |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 010101001101 10 0110010110 1011110101101 100111001 1011011110101 010101010 11101100011010 1 1101101010 1011011010110010 0110110110 01011011101101001 1101111110 001101011010010 0100 011110110 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 725 |
Words | 131 |
Sentences | 5 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 17 |
Lines Amount | 17 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 577 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 129 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 41 sec read
- 129 Views
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"Second-Best" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/32843/second-best>.
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