"The Spirit is Too Blunt an Instrument" was published in English poet Anne Stevenson's 1969 collection Reversals. The poem's speaker marvels at the incredible complexities of a newborn baby's body, something that, the speaker muses, could only have been created through "indifferent" and "ignorant" biological processes. The speaker contrasts this clean yet unfeeling scientific perfection with the painful messiness of "human passions," ultimately suggesting that it's both things—precise biology and the "vagaries" of the mind—that make human beings human.

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• “The Spirit Is Too Blunt an Instrument” Summary

• “The Spirit Is Too Blunt an Instrument” Themes

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    The Perfection of the Body vs. the Messiness of the Spirit

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-27

• Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “The Spirit Is Too Blunt an Instrument”

  • Lines 1-5

    The spirit is ...
    ... exacting particulars:

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 5-9

    the tiny ...
    ... the difficult spine.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 10-14

    Observe the distinct ...
    ... ossicles.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 14-18

    Imagine the ...
    ... to the brain.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 19-24

    Then name any ...
    ... body's ignorant precision.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 25-27

    It is left ...
    ... and their pain.

    

    

    

    

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• “The Spirit Is Too Blunt an Instrument” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

  • Alliteration

    

    

    

    

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    Where alliteration appears in the poem:

    • Line 1: “blunt”
    • Line 2: “baby”
    • Line 3: “passions”
    • Line 5: “particulars”
    • Line 6: “blind,” “bones”
    • Line 7: “knee,” “knucklebones”
    • Line 10: “sharp,” “crescent”
    • Line 11: “shell,” “complexity”
    • Line 12: “involutions”
    • Line 13: “concentric,” “miniature,” “minute”
    • Line 14: “Imagine”
    • Line 15: “infinitesimal,” “capillaries,” “connections”
    • Line 16: “invisible”
    • Line 19: “passion,” “sentiment”
    • Line 20: “possessed,” “simplest”
    • Line 22: “practice”
    • Line 23: “perfectly,” “indifferently”
    • Line 24: “ignorant,” “precision”

  • Enjambment

    

    

    

    

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    Where enjambment appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-2: “instrument / to”
    • Lines 3-4: “passions / could”
    • Lines 4-5: “intricate / exacting”
    • Lines 5-6: “tiny / blind”
    • Lines 7-8: “resilient / fine”
    • Lines 10-11: “crescent / fingernails”
    • Lines 11-12: “complexity / of”
    • Lines 12-13: “involutions / concentric”
    • Lines 13-14: “minute / ossicles”
    • Lines 14-15: “the / infinitesimal”
    • Lines 15-16: “connections / of”
    • Lines 16-17: “filaments / through”
    • Lines 17-18: “body / already”
    • Lines 19-20: “sentiment / possessed”
    • Lines 21-22: “done / with”
    • Lines 22-23: “habit / has”
    • Lines 25-26: “invent / love”
    • Lines 26-27: “anxiety / and”

  • Metaphor

    

    

    

    

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    Where metaphor appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-5: “The spirit is too blunt an instrument / to have made this baby. / Nothing so unskilful as human passions / could have managed the intricate / exacting particulars:”
    • Lines 21-27: “No, no desire or affection could have done / with practice what habit / has done perfectly, indifferently, / through the body's ignorant precision. / It is left to the vagaries of the mind to invent / love and despair and anxiety / and their pain.”

  • Imagery

    

    

    

    

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    Where imagery appears in the poem:

    • Lines 5-9: “the tiny / blind bones with their manipulating tendons, / the knee and the knucklebones, the resilient / fine meshings of ganglia and vertebrae, / the chain of the difficult spine.”
    • Lines 10-16: “Observe the distinct eyelashes and sharp crescent / fingernails, the shell-like complexity / of the ear, with its firm involutions / concentric in miniature to minute / ossicles. Imagine the / infinitesimal capillaries, the flawless connections / of the lungs, the invisible neural filaments”

  • Asyndeton

    

    

    

    

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    Where asyndeton appears in the poem:

    • Lines 5-9: “the tiny / blind bones with their manipulating tendons, / the knee and the knucklebones, the resilient / fine meshings of ganglia and vertebrae, / the chain of the difficult spine.”
    • Lines 10-12: “Observe the distinct eyelashes and sharp crescent / fingernails, the shell-like complexity / of the ear”
    • Lines 14-16: “Imagine the / infinitesimal capillaries, the flawless connections / of the lungs, the invisible neural filaments”

• “The Spirit Is Too Blunt an Instrument” Vocabulary

  Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

  • Instrument
  • Blunt
  • Intricate exacting particulars
  • Manipulating tendons
  • Resilient fine meshings of ganglia and vertebrae
  • Involutions
  • Concentric
  • Ossicles
  • Minute
  • Infinitesimal capillaries
  • Neural filaments
  • Possessed of
  • Indifferently
  • Ignorant precision
  • Vagaries
  • (Location in poem: Line 1: “The spirit is too blunt an instrument”)

• Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “The Spirit Is Too Blunt an Instrument”

  • Form

  • Meter

  • Rhyme Scheme

• “The Spirit Is Too Blunt an Instrument” Speaker

• “The Spirit Is Too Blunt an Instrument” Setting

• Literary and Historical Context of “The Spirit Is Too Blunt an Instrument”

• More “The Spirit Is Too Blunt an Instrument” Resources

  • External Resources

    • The Poem Out Loud — A Poetry Out Loud recital of the poem. 

    • More About Anne Stevenson — A brief introduction to the poet's life and work from the Poetry Foundation. 

    • An Obituary of the Poet — A Guardian obituary for Stevenson, who died in 2020. 

    • The Poets who Influenced Stevenson — A Reader's Loft interview with the poet in which she discusses her relationship to the poets Elizabeth Bishop and Sylvia Plath. 

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