Fire On The Hills
Robinson Jeffers 1887 (Allegheny) – 1962 (Carmel-by-the-Sea)
The deer were bounding like blown leaves
Under the smoke in front the roaring wave of the brush-fire;
I thought of the smaller lives that were caught.
Beauty is not always lovely; the fire was beautiful, the terror
Of the deer was beautiful; and when I returned
Down the back slopes after the fire had gone by, an eagle
Was perched on the jag of a burnt pine,
Insolent and gorged, cloaked in the folded storms of his shoulders
He had come from far off for the good hunting
With fire for his beater to drive the game; the sky was merciless
Blue, and the hills merciless black,
The sombre-feathered great bird sleepily merciless between them.
I thought, painfully, but the whole mind,
The destruction that brings an eagle from heaven is better than mercy.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 41 sec read
- 190 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | ABCBDEFGHIJKLM |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic heptameter |
Characters | 748 |
Words | 137 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 14 |
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"Fire On The Hills" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/32795/fire-on-the-hills>.
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