Analysis of July Fourth By The Ocean
Robinson Jeffers 1887 (Allegheny) – 1962 (Carmel-by-the-Sea)
The continent's a tamed ox, with all its mountains,
Powerful and servile; here is for plowland, here is
for park and playground, this helpless
Cataract for power; it lies behind us at heel
All docile between this ocean and the other. If
flood troubles the lowlands, or earthquake
Cracks walls, it is only a slave's blunder or the
natural
Shudder of a new made slave. Therefore we happy
masters about the solstice
Light bonfires on the shore and celebrate our power.
The bay's necklaced with fire, the bombs make crystal
fountains in the air, the rockets
Shower swan's-neck over the night water.... I
imagined
The stars drew apart a little as if from troublesome
children, coldly compassionate;
But the ocean neither seemed astonished nor in awe:
If this had been the little sea that Xerxes whipped,
how it would have feared us.
Submitted by Holt
Scheme | XXAXXXXBXXXBXXXXXXXA X |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 010001111110 100010111111 1101110 1001101101111 1100111000101 1100111 111110011010 100 10101111110 1001010 1101010101010 01111001110 10001010 10111001101 010 01101010111100 10100100 1010101010101 111101011101 111111 01011 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 873 |
Words | 147 |
Sentences | 6 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 20, 1 |
Lines Amount | 21 |
Letters per line (avg) | 32 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 337 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 73 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 45 sec read
- 90 Views
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