Analysis of Bixby's Landing
Robinson Jeffers 1887 (Allegheny) – 1962 (Carmel-by-the-Sea)
They burned lime on the hill and dropped it down
here in an iron car
On a long cable; here the ships warped in
And took their loads from the engine, the water
is deep to the cliff. The car
Hangs half way over in the gape of the gorge,
Stationed like a north star above the peaks of
the redwoods, iron perch
For the little red hawks when they cease from
hovering
When they've struck prey; the spider's fling of a
cable rust-glued to the pulleys.
The laborers are gone, but what a good multitude
Is here in return: the rich-lichened rock, the
rose-tipped stone-crop, the constant
Ocean's voices, the cloud-lighted space.
The kilns are cold on the hill but here in the
rust of the broken boiler
Quick lizards lighten, and a rattle-snake flows
Down the cracked masonry, over the crumbled
fire-brick. In the rotting timbers
And roofless platforms all the free companies
Of windy grasses have root and make seed; wild
buckwheat blooms in the fat
Weather-slacked lime from the bursted barrels.
Two duckhawks darting in the sky of their cliff-hung
nest are the voice of the headland.
Wine-hearted solitude, our mother the wilderness,
Men's failures are often as beautiful as men's
triumphs, but your returnings
Are even more precious than your first presence.
Submitted by Holt
Scheme | XAXBAXXXXXCDECXXCBXXXDXXXXEXXDX X |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111010111 101101 1011010110 01111010010 1110101 11110001101 10101101011 01101 1010111111 100 111101110 10111010 010011110110 1100101110 1111010 101001101 01111011100 1101010 11010001011 10110010010 101001010 011101100 11010110111 11001 101110110 11100011111 1101101 1101010100100 110110110011 10111 11011011110 01011 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,301 |
Words | 222 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 31, 1 |
Lines Amount | 32 |
Letters per line (avg) | 32 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 506 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 110 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 30, 2023
- 1:08 min read
- 102 Views
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