Robinson Jeffers (1887–1962)

Robinson Jeffers died over sixty years ago, but his poems speak to our time. In one poem, “Prescription of Painful Ends,” he evokes the image of an exhausted horse that stumbles but manages to right itself (for him, the two world wars in his lifetime). The horse continues, but it is only a matter of time before it falls.
And from Jeffers’s perspective, it’s not such a bad thing for human civilization to end. When he writes in another poem, “Carmel Point,” “we must uncenter our show more minds from ourselves,” it is not in the hope that we can avert the doom of mankind by recognizing that we are part of nature and not its master, but simply to reconcile ourselves with our transience.
Does this sound bitter? Oddly enough, to me, it didn’t. Throughout this collection, Jeffers conveys the peace he finds at Big Sur, contemplating the (relative) permanence of granite cliff and ocean tide. show less

Robinson Jeffers was born on January 10, 1887. In this, the definitive selection of Jeffers poetry, there is a broad selection that includes his best efforts. Ranging from Roan Stallion and Cawdor from the twenties to his last poems in the late fifties, the collection demonstrates that he belongs in the pantheon with the best poets of the ages. "Rock and Hawk" is both one of his greatest poems and one of my favorites; but I also relish the great thoughts found in some of the smallest poems: show more
"I am neither mountain nor bird
Nor star: and I seek joy."
Jeffers, who lived on and often wrote about the California coast, is regarded by many as “the father of environmental poetry.” He attracted controversy for his pacifism and his philosophy of “Inhumanism,” which advocated "a shifting of emphasis and significance from man to notman; the rejection of human solipsism and recognition of the trans-human magnificence." But I like to focus on the beauty of his words; for example "Tor House" which is today a popular stop for both literary travelers and environmentalists.
If you should look for this place after a handful of lifetimes:
Perhaps of my planted forest a few
May stand yet, dark-leaved Australians or the coast cypress, haggard
With storm-drift; but fire and the axe are devils.
Look for foundations of sea-worn granite, my fingers had the art
To make stone love stone, you will find some remnant…. show less

Robinson Jeffers was born on January 10, 1887. One of his most famous poems and one of my favorites is "Rock and Hawk" and it was used as the title for a selection of his shorter poems edited by the poet Robert Haas in 1987. The collection spans Jeffers' output of poems from the twenties through the sixties. The themes that spurred his seeking mind include nature as in these lines from "Natural Music":
"The old voice of the ocean, the bird-chatter of little rivers,
(Winter has given them gold show more for silver
To stain their water and bladed green for brown to line their
banks)
But he also was influenced by his reading of Nietzsche as evidenced by these thoughts in "Roan Stallion":
"Humanity is the start of
the race: I say
Humanity is the mold to break away from, the crust to break
through, the coal to break into fire,
The atom to be split."
The Jeffers that I like the most has a transcendental quality that reminds one of Thoreau or Emerson, but imbues nature with a modern patina that make its spiritual quality seem new. Many of the poems also suggest the beauty, the solitude, and the grandeur of the home Jeffers made in Carmel. While his musings can sometimes be dark and brooding they also reflect the mind of a truly great American poet. show less

Poems by one of the few twentieth-century poets to celebrate the entire biotic community - yet, unlike the romantic poets, for Jeffers, Nature is the center of value, not merely an illustrious backdrop for sentimental Man. His earlier philosophy of "Inhumanism" later evolved into a scientific pantheism.