I wanted this set of ten-foot poles to help keep my yard inflatables standing, balanced, secure, and off the wet ground in a rainstorm, and that's exactly what I got. The height is fully ten feet above the ground, and they are attractively-finished steel poles, very substantial, and I don't see how you could possibly bend them. I suppose they might bow a bit with heavy weights over time, but I'm certainly not seeing it right now. They screw tightly together, and the joints are large enough that I see no weakness there. The prongs are indeed about 7 inches long, and even when our ground gets muddy, the posts aren't drooping at all. In fact, if anything, they're hard to remove to reposition them. I'm experimenting with a system, but at present I have a heavy, plastic-coated wire connecting the two, pulled fairly tight, and I have two, eight-foot decorative yard inflatables between them. The poles easily hold the inflatables upright, so no adjustments every night, and they keep the inflatables off ground wet from sprinklers and storms which tends to ruin the motors. The inflatables completely dry during the day, too, instead of puddling on the ground and soaking up mud. The poles aren't cheap, but it's nice to have ones that do the job without a fuss. I'd rather solve this problem just one time.I received no compensation for this review.