Gary Snider The American Poet Essay Research

Gary Snider The American Poet Essay, Research Paper

Gary Snider the American Poet

A spiritual man, conscious of nature and his surroundings. He recognizes good and evil, and struggles to find his own special place in the realm of all other men. He searches far and wide for places of interest , upon arrival, he hopes to find a solemn sanctuary for man and nature.

Gary Sherman Snyder, the son of Harold and Lois Snyder, was born in San Francisco, California, on May 8, 1930. The Family moved quite a few times before they settled down in Portland, Oregon, in 1942. Snyder was granted a lot of freedom at a young age, he was allowed to hike and camp on his own. At thirteen, he was allowed to explore the high country of the Cascade Mountains alone (Magill, Frank p.2668). The solitary experience turned into a fascinating relationship with nature.

Snyder began his education in Portland at Reed College where he received his B.A. in Anthropology in 1951. Later that year, he began to study linguistics and anthropology at Indiana University. Not wanting to write a dissertation to earn a Ph.D. Snyder left the University in 1952, and went to San Francisco to do odd jobs. While in San Francisco he decided he wanted to study Buddhism (Magill, Frank p.2668).

He began to prepare himself for a trip abroad by studying Oriental Culture and Languages from 1953, through 1956, at the University of California Berkeley. Snyder used his summers to work in Baker National Forest and Yosemite National Park (www.english.uiuc.edu). While working in the forests he wrote some of his most famous poetry.

In 1956, Snyder, goes to Japan on scholarship from the Firs Zen Institute of America. In Japan, he lived in the Zen Temple. A year later he began work on a tanker, as a wiper in the engine room. While on the ship Snyder continued to comprise poetry. After his service on the ship he studies Zen under Zen master Oda Sesso Reshi from 1959-65 (www.english.uiuc.edu).

Snyder is very conscious of the environment and has traveled to many Universities to lecture about wilderness issues. Snyder, is well known for his conversation lectures but he has received more credit for his poetry.

Gary Snyder has sixteen publications of which he has been a finalist for the National Book award, and he has won the following: American Book Award for Axe Handles (1983); the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for Turtle Island (1974); the American Academy of Arts and Letters award, the Bollingen Prize, a Guggenhiem Foundation fellowship, the Bess Hokin Prize, Levinson Prize from Poetry, the Robert Kirch Lifetime Achievement Award from the Los Angeles Times, and the Shelly Memorial Award. Since 1990, he has been a professor of English at the University of California, Davis (www.poets.org).

Gary Snyder has spent most of his life as a transient, traveling to the dismal edges of the earth. Snyder, did so for his personal serenity. His inner peace with himself and nature is obvious in all of his poetry. Gary Snyder’s poetry will take any reader to the exact scene and state of mind the poet was in when he compiled the poem. Gary Snyder’s language, images, and emotions make his book Riprap, a outward bound vacation in the Rocky Mountains.

Snyder, wrote Riprap, while he was backpacking in the Rocky Mountains. Snyder chose this simple, primitive lifestyle as a personal protest against the modern advancements man makes that devistate the environment. By retreating to the woods Snyder, created his own utopia. “His utopia remains a place of social bonds and values that work in an immanent way, unsanctioned in an immanent way, unsanctioned by any larger theological order (Molesworth p. 34).” The title poem, and the last to appear in his compilation is “Riprap.” The poem sums up his trip into nature. The poem explores his spirituality, emotions, and wise worldly beliefs.

The poem “Riprap,” has a special structure that plays a major role in how the poem is read and understood. The poems structure has been keyed a “textual riprap.” The reader, will observe the text construct a path of imagery that allows the reader to go on a visual journey with Snyder.

His spirituality is expressed in the poem when Snyder notices the placement of his surroundings. The stones each, “placed solid, by hand,:” The hand of something much greater than a mortal being. Gary Snyder’s spirituality is unique and he expressed his beliefs by going to nature where he does not feel superior over any of nature’s creations.

The emotions of Snyder is interpreted by the lines “These poems, people, lost ponies with dragging saddles and rocky sure-foot trails.” He describes how he has been lost, wandering in the woods, and even though he is tired and “ dragging saddles,” he will continue to take on the trail. Snyder’s mention of fatigue must be the reason he saved the title poem for the last in his book.

Snyder’s broad ecological understanding has in turn given Snyder a great personal perception of how the world is evolving. This can be highlighted on the final few lines. He knows that all of nature has a background whether “torment of fire and weight,” or “Crystal and sediment linked hot.” Snyder, means all things grow and mature, bond with something attractive, become solid, then will die or be broken down to become a part of something new all together.

Gary Snyder’s ima