The Purse-seine Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIJKDCLMN OLEPDMMMMFQRMS TMMULIULMPMMVMWPMMVX YZDA2B2OC2| Our sardine fishermen work at night in the dark | A |
| of the moon daylight or moonlight | B |
| They could not tell where to spread the net | C |
| unable to see the phosphorescence of the | D |
| shoals of fish | E |
| They work northward from Monterey coasting | F |
| Santa Cruz off New Year's Point or off | G |
| Pigeon Point | H |
| The look out man will see some lakes of milk color | I |
| light on the sea's night purple he points | J |
| and the helmsman | K |
| Turns the dark prow the motorboat circles the | D |
| gleaming shoal and drifts out her seine net | C |
| They close the circle | L |
| And purse the bottom of the net then with great | M |
| labor haul it in | N |
| - | |
| I cannot tell you | O |
| How beautiful the scene is and a little terrible | L |
| then when the crowded fish | E |
| Know they are caught and wildly beat from one wall | P |
| to the other of their closing destiny the | D |
| phosphorescent | M |
| Water to a pool of flame each beautiful slender body | M |
| sheeted with flame like a live rocket | M |
| A comet's tail wake of clear yellow flame while outside | M |
| the narrowing | F |
| Floats and cordage of the net great sea lions come up | Q |
| to watch sighing in the dark the vast walls | R |
| of night | M |
| Stand erect to the stars | S |
| - | |
| Lately I was looking from a night mountain top | T |
| On a wide city the colored splendor galaxies of light | M |
| how could I help but recall the seine net | M |
| Gathering the luminous fish I cannot tell you how | U |
| beautiful the city appeared and a little terrible | L |
| I thought We have geared the machines and locked all together | I |
| into inter dependence we have built the great cities now | U |
| There is no escape We have gathered vast populations incapable | L |
| of free survival insulated | M |
| From the strong earth each person in himself helpless on all | P |
| dependent The circle is closed and the net | M |
| Is being hauled in They hardly feel the cords drawing yet | M |
| they shine already The inevitable mass disasters | V |
| Will not come in our time nor in our children's but we | M |
| and our children | W |
| Must watch the net draw narrower government take all | P |
| powers or revolution and the new government | M |
| Take more than all add to kept bodies kept souls or anarchy | M |
| the mass disasters | V |
| These things are Progress | X |
| Do you marvel our verse is troubled or frowning while it keeps | Y |
| its reason Or it lets go lets the mood flow | Z |
| In the manner of the recent young men into mere hysteria | D |
| splintered gleams crackled laughter But they are | A2 |
| quite wrong | B2 |
| There is no reason for amazement surely one always knew | O |
| that cultures decay and life's end is death | C2 |
Robinson Jeffers
(1)
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