Analysis of Georgia Dusk
Jean Toomer 1894 (Washington, D.C.) – 1967 (Doylestown)
The sky, lazily disdaining to pursue
The setting sun, too indolent to hold
A lengthened tournament for flashing gold,
Passively darkens for night's barbeque,
A feast of moon and men and barking hounds.
An orgy for some genius of the South
With blood-hot eyes and cane-lipped scented mouth,
Surprised in making folk-songs from soul sounds.
The sawmill blows its whistle, buzz-saws stop,
And silence breaks the bud of knoll and hill,
Soft settling pollen where plowed lands fulfill
Their early promise of a bumper crop.
Smoke from the pyramidal sawdust pile
Curls up, blue ghosts of trees, tarrying low
Where only chips and stumps are left to show
The solid proof of former domicile.
Meanwhile, the men, with vestiges of pomp,
Race memories of king and caravan,
High-priests, an ostrich, and a juju-man,
Go singing through the footpaths of the swamp.
Their voices rise...the pine trees are guitars,
Strumming, pine-needles fall like sheets of rain..
Their voices rise...the chorus of the cane
Is caroling a vesper to the stars..
O singers, resinous and soft your songs
Above the sacred whisper of the pines,
Give virgin lips to cornfield concubines,
Being dreams of Christ to dusky cane-lipped throngs.
Scheme | ABBA CDDC EFFE XGGF HIIH JKKJ LMML |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain |
Metre | 01100010101 0101110011 0101001101 10011110 0111010101 1101110101 1111011101 0101011111 011110111 0101011101 11001011101 1101010101 110010011 11111111 1101011111 01011101 101110011 110011010 1111000101 110101101 110111101 1011011111 110110101 11010101 11010111 0101010101 11011110 1011111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,181 |
Words | 201 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 28 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 137 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 28 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 19, 2023
- 1:00 min read
- 148 Views
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"Georgia Dusk" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/21312/georgia-dusk>.
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