Nevertheless
Marianne Moore 1887 (Kirkwood) – 1972 (New York City)
you've seen a strawberry
that's had a struggle; yet
was, where the fragments met,
a hedgehog or a star-
fish for the multitude
of seeds. What better food
than apple seeds - the fruit
within the fruit - locked in
like counter-curved twin
hazelnuts? Frost that kills
the little rubber-plant -
leaves of kok-sagyyz-stalks, can't
harm the roots; they still grow
in frozen ground. Once where
there was a prickley-pear -
leaf clinging to a barbed wire,
a root shot down to grow
in earth two feet below;
as carrots from mandrakes
or a ram's-horn root some-
times. Victory won't come
to me unless I go
to it; a grape tendril
ties a knot in knots till
knotted thirty times - so
the bound twig that's under-
gone and over-gone, can't stir.
The weak overcomes its
menace, the strong over-
comes itself. What is there
like fortitude! What sap
went through that little thread
to make the cherry red!
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 24, 2023
- 50 sec read
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Quick analysis:
Scheme | XAA XBB XCC DEE FGG HFF DII FJJ FHH XHG XKK |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 864 |
Words | 161 |
Stanzas | 11 |
Stanza Lengths | 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3 |
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"Nevertheless" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 4 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/26352/nevertheless>.
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