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

Robinson Jeffers

John Robinson Jeffers was an American poet, known for his work about the central California coast. more…

All Robinson Jeffers poems | Robinson Jeffers Books

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