Thickening Center
Sure there's an obesity crisis in America, but that's not the kind of "thickening center" Jeffers's speaker is referring to. This center is where all of the country's corruption is, represented in...
Monster
The monster in "Shine, Perishing Republic" is meant to look scary and evil since it's formed out of man's corruption. So we're not talking cuddly monsters, a la Where the Wild Things Are. This mons...
Decay
We bet you'll never look at a fruit the same way after this poem. Jeffers's speaker compares America's decaying empire to a flower that makes a fruit that then rots to make some more earth. Decay i...
Mountains
Sometimes we want to sing from the top of one; sometimes we just want to sit on the ground and check out their majestic beauty from below. Mountains are nature's go-to symbol for perseverance, stre...