by Paul Schingle

Created on: January 22, 2012   Last Updated: January 23, 2012

Childhood naivete is explored in many ways, and the use of a short punch to the gut through poetry can be a most effective way to display this.  Robinson Jeffers expresses this feeling, and the disillusionment of adulthood that goes along with it in his excellent poem, "End of the World."  All quotes are taken directly from the poem, which can be found in its entirety at the

Poemhunter website. 

Jeffers begins the poem, as many begin, "When I was young," and continues to tell of his youth in school in Switzerland and how his view, then, was that mankind would last until the earth came to an end.  He refers to an early poem he wrote as a child, of the last man "walking in stoic dignity along the dead shore.  Of the last sea, alone, alone, alone, remembering all."  With this image, the reader can envision the lone survivor, remembering his, and man's, past, as the world dies around him.

However, as happens to many of us, the poet tells the reader that his view has changed.  That, now that he's older and wiser, he realizes the earth will continue on forever, with or without man.  The poet's words: "They'll die faceless in flocks.  And the earth flourish long after mankind is out."  This works on many levels.  Not only is the writer realizing that the the earth will long outlast man, but one can almost hear his disappointment in his own realization.  He's saddened by the thought, but even more so by his seeming loss of innocence.

Some words on the structure of the poem are probably in order.  This is a free verse poem, with no particular rhyme scheme.   There are seven lines, with no special meter, but the piece reads with an even, matter-of-fact cadence.  However, there is no mistaking this for anything else but a piece of poetry.  The word choice is adept.  The imagery, powerful.  He chooses the phrase, "We used to take it for known..." rather than "take it for granted."  This gives the image more strength, and thereby, more beauty.  The vision of "the last sea," and of the last man walking, "alone, alone, alone" burns forever in the reader's imagination.

Poems don't have to rhyme.  They don't have to be long or epic.  They need to express an image that's not easily forgotten.  Imagery.  Word choice.  All these are important factors in good poetry.  Robinson Jeffers shows this to his followers with his wonderful piece, "End of the World." 

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