Analysis of The Purse-Seine
Robinson Jeffers 1887 (Allegheny) – 1962 (Carmel-by-the-Sea)
Our sardine fishermen work at night in the dark
of the moon; daylight or moonlight
They could not tell where to spread the net,
unable to see the phosphorescence of the
shoals of fish.
They work northward from Monterey, coasting
Santa Cruz; off New Year's Point or off
Pigeon Point
The look-out man will see some lakes of milk-color
light on the sea's night-purple; he points,
and the helmsman
Turns the dark prow, the motorboat circles the
gleaming shoal and drifts out her seine-net.
They close the circle
And purse the bottom of the net, then with great
labor haul it in.
I cannot tell you
How beautiful the scene is, and a little terrible,
then, when the crowded fish
Know they are caught, and wildly beat from one wall
to the other of their closing destiny the
phosphorescent
Water to a pool of flame, each beautiful slender body
sheeted with flame, like a live rocket
A comet's tail wake of clear yellow flame; while outside
the narrowing
Floats and cordage of the net great sea-lions come up
to watch, sighing in the dark; the vast walls
of night
Stand erect to the stars.
Lately I was looking from a night mountain-top
On a wide city, the colored splendor, galaxies of light:
how could I help but recall the seine-net
Gathering the luminous fish? I cannot tell you how
beautiful the city appeared, and a little terrible.
I thought, We have geared the machines and locked all together
into inter-dependence; we have built the great cities; now
There is no escape. We have gathered vast populations incapable
of free survival, insulated
From the strong earth, each person in himself helpless, on all
dependent. The circle is closed, and the net
Is being hauled in. They hardly feel the cords drawing, yet
they shine already. The inevitable mass-disasters
Will not come in our time nor in our children's, but we
and our children
Must watch the net draw narrower, government take all
powers--or revolution, and the new government
Take more than all, add to kept bodies kept souls--or anarchy,
the mass-disasters.
These things are Progress;
Do you marvel our verse is troubled or frowning, while it keeps
its reason? Or it lets go, lets the mood flow
In the manner of the recent young men into mere hysteria,
splintered gleams, crackled laughter. But they are
quite wrong.
There is no reason for amazement: surely one always knew
that cultures decay, and life's end is death.
Scheme | XABCDEXXFXXCBGXX HGDICAJXXEXXAX XABKGFKGXIBBLJXIXJLXXXCXXHX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1001100111001 101111 111111101 01011001010 111 111010110 101111111 101 011111111110 110111011 001 1011010100 1010110101 11010 01010101111 10110 11011 11000110010100 110101 11110101111 101011101000 1 101011111001010 11110110 0101111101111 0100 1010101111011 1110001011 11 101101 101110101101 101100101010011 1111110101 10001001110111 100010010010100 11111001011010 010101011101101 11101111010100100 11010100 10111100011011 01001011001 11010110101101 110100010001010 111010110101011 01010 1101110010011 101010001100 111111110111100 01010 1111 1110101110110111 11011111011 00101010110110100 1011010111 11 11110101010111 1100101111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 2,707 |
Words | 416 |
Sentences | 16 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 16, 14, 27 |
Lines Amount | 57 |
Letters per line (avg) | 33 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 630 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 138 |
Font size:
Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 22, 2023
- 2:06 min read
- 538 Views
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"The Purse-Seine" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 1 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/32886/the-purse-seine>.
Discuss this Robinson Jeffers poem analysis with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In