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mattbeatty's review against another edition
5.0
This is my first real Robinson Jeffers reading (aside from random class-assigned poems), and is already one of my favorite poets. He called the Big Sur region home, and perhaps that's why he resonates with me, as I have a recently acquired particular love for that stretch of mid-California coastal gorgeousness (helped in part by Jack Kerouac's Big Sur
).
His themes consistently cover nature, the sea, God (both the existence of and a lack thereof), and mankind--its hypocrisies, its created conflicts, war and excess. There is often a hopelessness in his writing, a comeuppance that mankind has long deserved and awaited, and *will* come. He finds solace and innocence in animals and birds--hawks in particular--yet also sees them as manifestations of the strength and will of mother nature.
His poetry rarely rhymes yet is often structured. Some of his poems ring out like small tidbits of thought, and you can almost see that moment where this thought bubbled within him and he jotted it out and formed it and added his sweeping wave of closure that ensures each poem has an injection of significance and timeliness. Even today, almost 50 years after his death, his analogues and critiques of war hit home. He was a watcher, an analyst of man's motivations. He knew what made people tick, and he aimed for those tickers when he wrote. As a poet should.
--- ---
Some choice quotes (I love the last one):
"The tides are in our veins ... there is in me / Older and harder than life and more impartial, the eye / that watched before there was an ocean." -- "Continent's End"
"I have seen these ways of God: I know of no reason / For fire and change and torture and the old returnings. / He being sufficient might be still. I think they admit no / reason; they are the ways of my love." -- "Apology for Bad Dreams"
"Humanity / is the start of the race; I say / Humanity is the mould to break away from, the crust to / break through, the coal to break into fire, / The atom to be split." -- "Roan Stallion"
"When the ancient wisdom is / folded like a wine-stained cloth and laid up in dark- / ness. / And the old symbols forgotten, in the glory of that your / hawk's dream / Remember that the life of mankind is like the life of a / man, a flutter from darkness to darkness / Across the bright hair of a fire, so much of the ancient / Knowledge will not be annulled." -- "The Torch-Bearers' Race"
"What I see is / the enormous beauty of things, but what I attempt / Is nothing to that. I am helpless toward that." -- "An Artist"
"It is time for us to kiss the earth again, / It is time to let the leaves rain from the skies, / Let the rich life run to the roots again." -- "Return"
"It is easy to know the beauty of inhuman things, sea, / storm and mountain; it is their soul and their / meaning. / Humanity has its lesser beauty, impure and painful; we / have to harden our hearts to bear it." -- "The World's Wonders"
"If God has been good enough to give you a poet / Then listen to him." -- "Let Them Alone"
).His themes consistently cover nature, the sea, God (both the existence of and a lack thereof), and mankind--its hypocrisies, its created conflicts, war and excess. There is often a hopelessness in his writing, a comeuppance that mankind has long deserved and awaited, and *will* come. He finds solace and innocence in animals and birds--hawks in particular--yet also sees them as manifestations of the strength and will of mother nature.
His poetry rarely rhymes yet is often structured. Some of his poems ring out like small tidbits of thought, and you can almost see that moment where this thought bubbled within him and he jotted it out and formed it and added his sweeping wave of closure that ensures each poem has an injection of significance and timeliness. Even today, almost 50 years after his death, his analogues and critiques of war hit home. He was a watcher, an analyst of man's motivations. He knew what made people tick, and he aimed for those tickers when he wrote. As a poet should.
--- ---
Some choice quotes (I love the last one):
"The tides are in our veins ... there is in me / Older and harder than life and more impartial, the eye / that watched before there was an ocean." -- "Continent's End"
"I have seen these ways of God: I know of no reason / For fire and change and torture and the old returnings. / He being sufficient might be still. I think they admit no / reason; they are the ways of my love." -- "Apology for Bad Dreams"
"Humanity / is the start of the race; I say / Humanity is the mould to break away from, the crust to / break through, the coal to break into fire, / The atom to be split." -- "Roan Stallion"
"When the ancient wisdom is / folded like a wine-stained cloth and laid up in dark- / ness. / And the old symbols forgotten, in the glory of that your / hawk's dream / Remember that the life of mankind is like the life of a / man, a flutter from darkness to darkness / Across the bright hair of a fire, so much of the ancient / Knowledge will not be annulled." -- "The Torch-Bearers' Race"
"What I see is / the enormous beauty of things, but what I attempt / Is nothing to that. I am helpless toward that." -- "An Artist"
"It is time for us to kiss the earth again, / It is time to let the leaves rain from the skies, / Let the rich life run to the roots again." -- "Return"
"It is easy to know the beauty of inhuman things, sea, / storm and mountain; it is their soul and their / meaning. / Humanity has its lesser beauty, impure and painful; we / have to harden our hearts to bear it." -- "The World's Wonders"
"If God has been good enough to give you a poet / Then listen to him." -- "Let Them Alone"
oliviasethney's review against another edition
4.0
I'm not a huge fan of poetry, but this was a wonderful book to read while on vacation. In fact, I was in the town that this author lived in and I was able to experience the scenery he described.
el_entrenador_loco's review against another edition
challenging
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.0
rjeffy's review against another edition
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.0
lucasmiller's review against another edition
5.0
I bought volume one of A History of Modern Poetry by David Perkins years ago. I have spent time with it at odd stretches. Underlining with a mechanical pencil. I've read the poetry of WWI chapter several times. I don't remember exactly how I came across Robinson Jeffers. I always mixed him up with Hart Crane. I've never made much headway reading Crane. Something sparked things early in 2016, I went back and reread the section on Jeffers, and bought this slim collection used online. I was surprised by how old it was when it arrived. The paper is yellowed around the edges, a hallow. There was a small blank piece of paper folded and slipped between the pages. It's brittle and on the verge of crumbling, but has held together as it's become a bookmark over the last month.
Jeffers hated people, loved nature, and was against the Second World War. He wrote poems in the formal style of Whitman, long lines of free verse, but was deeply doubtful of that mass of democratic humanity Whitman so championed. He's pessimistic, but believed that the world is beautiful, and perhaps it is better for mankind to humble themselves at not being able to see things as they are than to burn it down claiming we understand.
I love his poems from the 1920s. He saw the Republic in grave peril. Literally on the verge of collapsing underneath the weight of corruption, willful ignorance, and the senseless violence it all inspired. He took some solace, and asked his readers to do the same, in the fact that the waves and granite cliffs would stand longer then society or civilization. The end of the world would be a sigh of relief, elevating that which makes human life good to the very fore of existence. Poems that feel needed and shockingly timely in 2016. Recommended.
Jeffers hated people, loved nature, and was against the Second World War. He wrote poems in the formal style of Whitman, long lines of free verse, but was deeply doubtful of that mass of democratic humanity Whitman so championed. He's pessimistic, but believed that the world is beautiful, and perhaps it is better for mankind to humble themselves at not being able to see things as they are than to burn it down claiming we understand.
I love his poems from the 1920s. He saw the Republic in grave peril. Literally on the verge of collapsing underneath the weight of corruption, willful ignorance, and the senseless violence it all inspired. He took some solace, and asked his readers to do the same, in the fact that the waves and granite cliffs would stand longer then society or civilization. The end of the world would be a sigh of relief, elevating that which makes human life good to the very fore of existence. Poems that feel needed and shockingly timely in 2016. Recommended.
jeffhall's review against another edition
4.0
Robinson Jeffers was an unconventional poet, more of a philosopher than a master of poetic meter and technique. And yet his reflections on the primacy of the natural world (what today might be termed "ecocentrism") are truly powerful, and his notion of inhumansim has much wisdom about it, as expressed in one of his most famous poems, "Carmel Point":
...As for us:
We must uncenter our minds from ourselves;
We must unhumanize our views a little, and become confident
As the rock and ocean that we were made from.
At times, Jeffers' determination to view the human social sphere from a distance approaches the cold and the cynical, but it's hard to disagree with his disdain for the Second World War (which he lived through) and the massive destruction left in its wake. More importantly, it's hard not to hear his voice imploring a greater reverence for the beauty of the natural world. As a reader, I completely agree with his proposition that wild nature should be valued for itself, rather than for the economic benefits that mankind can wrest from it. Jeffers' articulate voicing of that viewpoint is worth its weight in gold.
...As for us:
We must uncenter our minds from ourselves;
We must unhumanize our views a little, and become confident
As the rock and ocean that we were made from.
At times, Jeffers' determination to view the human social sphere from a distance approaches the cold and the cynical, but it's hard to disagree with his disdain for the Second World War (which he lived through) and the massive destruction left in its wake. More importantly, it's hard not to hear his voice imploring a greater reverence for the beauty of the natural world. As a reader, I completely agree with his proposition that wild nature should be valued for itself, rather than for the economic benefits that mankind can wrest from it. Jeffers' articulate voicing of that viewpoint is worth its weight in gold.
audreyapproved's review
5.0
My favorite poet! This beat up copy of mine is well-loved and well-marked. There's nothing like Jeffers to remind you that you're small in the scheme of nature, and time.
iceangel9's review
4.0
A small booklet of some of Jeffers' most famous and moving poetry. A controversial poet, but nevertheless a national treasure. Tor House, Roan Stallion, Carmel Point, and Una are particularly moving.
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