18 pages • 36 minutes read
Gary SnyderFour Poems for Robin
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1968A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Literary Context
Snyder is generally classified as a member of the Beat poetry movement that began in the mid-1950s in the United States. This is due to his involvement with the Gallery Six reading on October 7, 1955. During that event, Snyder was one of the six younger poets who read their work, introduced by Kenneth Rexroth who served as the bridge to a previous generation of Modernist poets. Snyder read “The Berry Feast” while Allen Ginsberg shared the beginnings of “Howl,” the poem that became a definitive anthem of the movement. Beat writers like Snyder and Ginsberg attempted to break down the staid and academic. Many borrowed their mannerisms, clothing style, and vocabulary from jazz artists. They advocated moving away from what they considered the conventional toward experiences that were exploratory, sensual, and spiritual to authenticate the self. Their work was punctuated with frank languages and references to drugs and sex. Ginsberg introduced Snyder to the writer Jack Kerouac, and the two became friends. Kerouac used Snyder as his model for Japhy Ryder, the leader of The Dharma Bums (1958). Most of the Beats were from urban environments like New York and San Francisco and were attracted to Snyder’s knowledge of Eastern cultures and languages as well as his experience with the wilderness, attributes they did not possess. Rexroth later said Snyder was “the best informed, most thoughtful, and most articulate of his colleagues. He has a perfectly clear, carefully thought-out life philosophy in which the ecological concept of all life as community” existed (Rexroth, Kenneth. American Poetry in the Twentieth Century. Seabury Press, 1971). Ecological activism would shape Snyder’s poetry throughout his career. His popularity grew to extend well beyond the Beat movement from which he began.
Spiritual Context
Much of “Four Poems for Robin” is set at Shokoku-ji, a Buddhist temple in Kyoto, Japan. Because of Snyder’s interest and study of Buddhism, the poem demonstrates many of its philosophies. Buddhism originated in India thousands of years ago (563-483 BCE) and is practiced throughout the world. Buddhists believe that human life, which is one of suffering, can be eased by meditation, physical and spiritual work, as well as generous behavior to others and the environment. Through careful practice, it is believed that one can achieve a state of nirvana, or enlightenment. Buddhism incorporates the Four Noble Truths: dukkha, samudāya, nirodha, and magga. Dukkha, or suffering, says that everyone in life is suffering in some way. In a spiritual and physical way, the speaker suffers during his camping trip in the Siuslaw Forest. Samudāya, the second truth, expresses the origin of suffering, or the root of desire. The speaker desires Robin in the past but also desires to be rid of her ghost to the point he becomes “shamed and angry” (Line 37). The next truth, nirodha, is the cessation of suffering when one realizes that suffering can stop and the road to enlightenment can open. The December at Yase section demonstrates this, as the speaker fights toward magga, the fourth truth in which “the middle way” becomes obvious. In this stage, the Buddhist must help avoid extremes of either self-gratification (the self-serving belief perhaps that Robin deserted the speaker and is horrible) or self-mortification (the speaker believes it is only his fault). The speaker wonders if “karma demands” (Line 70) this journey because Buddhists believe in a cycle of rebirth, in which they relearn lessons from previous lives. Knowledge of the speaker’s Buddhist perspective adds richness to the cyclical nature of the poem.
