The Machine

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



The little biplane that has the river-meadow for landing-field
And carries passengers brief rides,
Buzzed overhead on the tender blue above the orange of sundown.
Below it five troubled night-herons
Turned short over the shore from its course, four east, one northward.
        Beyond them
Swam the new moon in amber.
I don't know why, but lately the forms of things appear to me with time
One of their visible dimensions.
The thread brightness of the bent moon appeared enormous, unnumbered
Ages of years; the night-herons
Their natural size, they have croaked over the shore in the hush at sundown
Much longer than human language
Has fumbled with the air: but the plane having no past but a certain future,
Insect in size as in form,
Was also accepted, all these forms of power placed without preference
In the grave arrangement of the evening.

Submitted by Holt

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 16, 2023

44 sec read
136

Quick analysis:

Scheme AXBCXXDXCACBXDXXX X
Closest metre Iambic hexameter
Characters 855
Words 148
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 17, 1

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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