Analysis of The Animals

Edwin Muir 1887 (Orkney) – 1959 (Cambridge)



They do not live in the world,
Are not in time and space.
From birth to death hurled
No word do they have, not one
To plant a foot upon,
Were never in any place.

For with names the world was called
Out of the empty air,
With names was built and walled,
Line and circle and square,
Dust and emerald;
Snatched from deceiving death
By the articulate breath.

But these have never trod
Twice the familiar track,
Never never turned back
Into the memoried day.
All is new and near
In the unchanging Here
Of the fifth great day of God,
That shall remain the same,
Never shall pass away.


Scheme ABAXXB CDCDXEE FGGHXXFXH
Poetic Form
Metre 1111001 110101 11111 1111111 110101 0100101 1110111 110101 111101 101001 1010 110101 100101 111101 100101 101011 01011 11101 000101 1011111 110101 101101
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 586
Words 113
Sentences 6
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 6, 7, 9
Lines Amount 22
Letters per line (avg) 21
Words per line (avg) 5
Letters per stanza (avg) 151
Words per stanza (avg) 37
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 20, 2023

33 sec read
192

Edwin Muir

Edwin Muir was an Orcadian poet, novelist and translator, born on a farm in Deerness on the Orkney Islands. He is remembered for his deeply felt and vivid poetry in plain language with few stylistic preoccupations. more…

All Edwin Muir poems | Edwin Muir Books

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