Analysis of Hands
Robinson Jeffers 1887 (Allegheny) – 1962 (Carmel-by-the-Sea)
Inside a cave in a narrow canyon near Tassajara
The vault of rock is painted with hands,
A multitude of hands in the twilight, a cloud of men's palms, no
more,
No other picture. There's no one to say
Whether the brown shy quiet people who are dead intended
Religion or magic, or made their tracings
In the idleness of art; but over the division of years these careful
Signs-manual are now like a sealed message
Saying: 'Look: we also were human; we had hands, not paws.
All hail
You people with the cleverer hands, our supplanters
In the beautiful country; enjoy her a season, her beauty, and
come down
And be supplanted; for you also are human.'
Scheme | ABCADEBFGHIBJKL |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (27%) |
Metre | 010100101011 011111011 01011001011111 1 1101011111 100111010111010 0101101111 0010011110001011110 11001110110 10111001011111 11 1101011101 00100100100100100 11 010101110110 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 640 |
Words | 121 |
Sentences | 4 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 15 |
Lines Amount | 15 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 506 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 118 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 30, 2023
- 36 sec read
- 107 Views
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"Hands" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 3 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/32805/hands>.
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