Rearmament

Robinson Jeffers 1887 (Allegheny) – 1962 (Carmel-by-the-Sea)



These grand and fatal movements toward death: the grandeur
of the mass
Makes pity a fool, the tearing pity
For the atoms of the mass, the persons, the victims, makes it
seem monstrous
To admire the tragic beauty they build.
It is beautiful as a river flowing or a slowly gathering
Glacier on a high mountain rock-face,
Bound to plow down a forest, or as frost in November,
The gold and flaming death-dance for leaves,
Or a girl in the night of her spent maidenhood, bleeding and
kissing.
I would burn my right hand in a slow fire
To change the future ... I should do foolishly. The beauty
of modern
Man is not in the persons but in the
Disastrous rhythm, the heavy and mobile masses, the dance of the
Dream-led masses down the dark mountain.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 29, 2023

41 sec read
251

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABCDEFGHIJKGICLMMN
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 732
Words 138
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 18

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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