Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, ROCK AND HAWK, by ROBINSON JEFFERS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ROCK AND HAWK, by             Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Here is a symbol in which
Last Line: Nor success make proud
Subject(s): Hawks; Pride; Stones; Self-esteem; Self-respect; Granite; Rocks


Here is a symbol in which
Many high tragic thoughts
Watch their own eyes.
This gray rock, standing tall
On the headland, where the seawind
Lets no tree grow,
Earthquake-proved, and signatured
By ages of storms: on its peak
A falcon has perched.
I think, here is your emblem
To hang in the future sky;
Not the cross, not the hive,
But this; bright power, dark peace;
Fierce consciousness joined with final
Disinterestedness;
Life with calm death; the falcon's
Realist eyes and act
Married to the massive
Mysticism of stone,
Which failure cannot cast down
Nor success make proud.
Poised how many centuries
Birds have quenched their thirst at it,
And not a pebble moved.
Moved—not by wind or rain,
Nor on the hard way of the world
Has this solitary granite
For its own sake shifted a pebble:
'Plainly there has been here
A great deal of God.'




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