Age Quote by Robinson Jeffers
“When the sun shouts and people abound One thinks there were the ages of stone and the age of bronze And the iron age; iron the unstable metal; Steel made of iron, unstable as his mother; the tow-ered-up cities Will be stains of rust on mounds of plaster. Roots will not pierce the heaps for a time, kind rains will cure them, Then nothing will remain of the iron age And all these people but a thigh-bone or so, a poem Stuck in the world's thought, splinters of glass In the rubbish dumps, a concrete dam far off in the mountain...”
About This Quote
Source Poem: "The Iron Age" by Robinson Jeffers, 1923
The poem reflects on the fleeting nature of human civilizations, likening their rise and fall to unstable metals that eventually rust and disappear, leaving only fragments in memory.
In simple terms: Civilizations rise and fall, leaving only remnants.
Key Takeaway
Recognize impermanence and value the present.
Themes
impermanence
civilization
legacy
environment
history
Mood
melancholic
reflective
Type
poetic
philosophical
When to use this quote
- urban decay
- archaeology
- environmental planning
- historical reflection
- artistic inspiration
Key Concepts
entropy
mortality
human hubris
ecology
Questions to Reflect On
- What modern "iron age" are we building?
- How can we preserve meaning amid decay?
A Different Perspective
The metaphor may oversimplify complex societal changes and ignore resilience.
![“[describing Aaron, hero's brother] His hair was shorter and lighter, and his eyes were more green than blue. And even though he was tall, he wasn’t quite super-sized. He was more sculpted, more … elegant. more slender and beautiful and less raw-boned. Less Stone Age and more Bronze Age—but till…” quote by Suzanne Brockmann](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/422/suzanne-brockmann-2175_alpha-hero_describing-aaron-hero-s-brother-his-hair_982418.jpg)
