Birth-Dues
Robinson Jeffers 1887 (Allegheny) – 1962 (Carmel-by-the-Sea)
Joy is a trick in the air; pleasure is merely
contemptible, the dangled
Carrot the ass follows to market or precipice;
But limitary pain -- the rock under the tower
and the hewn coping
That takes thunder at the head of the turret-
Terrible and real. Therefore a mindless dervish
carving himself
With knives will seem to have conquered the world.
The world's God is treacherous and full of
unreason; a torturer, but also
The only foundation and the only fountain.
Who fights him eats his own flesh and perishes
of hunger; who hides in the grave
To escape him is dead; who enters the Indian
Recession to escape him is dead; who falls in
love with the God is washed clean
Of death desired and of death dreaded.
He has joy, but Joy is a trick in the air; and
pleasure, but pleasure is contemptible;
And peace; and is based on solider than pain.
He has broken boundaries a little and that will
estrange him; he is monstrous, but not
To the measure of the God.... But I having told
you--
However I suppose that few in the world have
energy to hear effectively-
Have paid my birth-dues; am quits with the
people.
Submitted by Holt
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:03 min read
- 43 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | AXBXXXXXX XXCBXCXXX XDXXXXXXAXD X |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,163 |
Words | 209 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 9, 9, 11, 1 |
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