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.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 20, 2023
- 33 sec read
- 192 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | ABAXXB CDCDXEE FGGHXXFXH |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 586 |
Words | 113 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 7, 9 |
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"The Animals" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 13 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/10119/the-animals>.
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