Analysis of The Cruel Falcon
Robinson Jeffers 1887 (Allegheny) – 1962 (Carmel-by-the-Sea)
Contemplation would make a good life, keep it strict, only
The eyes of a desert skull drinking the sun,
Too intense for flesh, lonely
Exultations of white bone;
Pure action would make a good life, let it be sharp-
Set between the throat and the knife.
A man who knows death by heart
Is the man for that life.
In pleasant peace and security
How suddenly the soul in a man begins to die.
He shall look up above the stalled oxen
Envying the cruel falcon,
And dig under the straw for a stone
To bruise himself on.
562
Scheme | ABACDEFEAGBBCHI |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 0101101111110 01101011001 1011110 1111 110110111111 10101001 0111111 101111 010100100 1100010010111 1111010110 101010 011001101 11011 1 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 507 |
Words | 101 |
Sentences | 5 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 15 |
Lines Amount | 15 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 403 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 99 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 29, 2023
- 30 sec read
- 130 Views
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