SRP Poetry Analysis

Poet: Gary Snyder

Literary Thread:

Gary Snyder uses the Zen Buddhism and Native American cultures in his poetry to communicate

his negative views on the destructive factors that humans intentionally impose on nature.

Poems:

“The Call of the Wild” by Gary Snyder

“Front Lines” by Gary Snyder

Poem 1: “The Call of the Wild”

Snyder, Gary. "THE CALL OF THE WILD." No Nature - New and Selected Poems.

New York: Pantheon Books, 1992. 220-222. Print.

“The Call of the Wild”

By Gary Snyder

The heavy old man in his bed at night

Hears the Coyote singing

in the back meadow.

All the years he ranched and mined and logged.

A Catholic.

A native Californian.

and the coyotes howl in his

Eightieth year.

He will call the Government

Trapper

Who uses iron leg-traps on Coyotes,

Tomorrow.

My sons will lose this

Music they have just started

To love.

The ex acid-heads from the cities

Converted to Guru or Swami,

Do penance with shiny

Dopey eyes, and quit eating meat.

In the forests of North America,

The land of Coyote and Eagle,

They dream of India, of

forever blissful sexless highs.

And sleep in oil-heated

Geodesic domes, that

Were struck like warts

In the woods.

And the Coyote singing

is shut away

for they fear

the call

of the wild.

And they sold their virgin cedar trees,

the tallest trees in miles,

To a logger

Who told them,

“Trees are full of bugs.”

The government finally decided

To wage war all-out. Defeat

is Un-American.

And they took to the air,

Their women beside them

in bouffant hairdos

putting nail-polish on the

gunship cannon-buttons.

And they never came down,

for they found,

the ground

is pro-Communist. And dirty.

And the insects side with the Viet Cong.

So they bomb and they bomb

Day after day, across the planet

blinding sparrows

breaking the ear-drums of owls

splintering trunks of cherries

twinning and looping

deer intestines

in the shaken, dusty, rocks.

All these Americans up in special cities in the sky

Dumping poisons and explosives

Across Asia first,

And next North America,

A war against earth.

When it’s done there’ll be

no place

A Coyote could hide.

envoy

I would like to say

Coyote is forever

Inside you.

But it’s not true.

Analysis:

1. FORM

Number of lines and stanzas-

71 lines, 9 Stanzas

Poetic Form-

This is a free verse poem like most of Gary Snyder’s poetry because there is

no specific structure to this poem in how it is constructed.

Rhyme-

A majority of this poem is an off rhyme poem like seen in a majority of

Snyder’s work but at certain points you see some eye rhyme like when he

uses different words in consecutive lines ending in “ing”.

Meter-

Like lots of Snyder’s poetry that I read I found no apparent pattern in the

meter of this poem however he does use meter put stressing certain words to

putting stress on them. Ex. (iron leg-traps)

2. FUNCTION

MEANING-

The meaning of this poem is that human society fears the call of the wild.

Humanity fears nature or just does not care about nature and this leads to

bad things like the destruction of forest, the trapping of coyotes, and the

pollution that society puts off. Snyder is telling us that we destroy nature

because we are scared of it.

METHOD-

Like in most of his poetry Snyder’s uses many symbols in this poem to help

convey the message. He also uses pathetic fallacy in this poem because it is

concerning nature. He also uses personification to give the trees and animals

with is this poem human qualities to show how the destruction of these

things are just as bad.

He uses many poetic devices in his poems like diction to convey the

message of his poem and sentiment because many of the messages

contained within his poems are strongly opinionated. Throughout this poem

the symbol of the coyote is also an allusion to the native American stories of

the coyote.

THEME-

The theme of this poem is that the reason that nature is destroyed and

harmed by humanity is because we either are scared and fear the call of the

wild or nature of we just don’t care about it.

3. LITERARY THREAD-

This poem of all of my three is the most strongly related to my literary thread. This is because this

poem contains the same message as all of Snyder’s poetry which is his negative views on the

destruction of nature but it also contains the native American studding’s that he has done. In this

poem Snyder uses the native American symbol of the coyote to help him convey his message. That

is why this poem is the easiest to relate to my literary thread.

Poem 2: “Front Lines”

Snyder, Gary. "FRONT LINES." No Nature - New and Selected Poems.

New York: Pantheon Books, 1992. 218. Print.

“Front Lines”

By Gary Snyder

The edge of the cancer

Swells against the hill—we feel

a foul breeze—

And it sinks back down.

The deer winter here

A chainsaw growls in the gorge.

Ten wet days and the log trucks stop,

The trees breathe.

Sunday the 4-wheel jeep of the

Realty Company brings in

Landseekers, lookers, they say

To the land,

Spread your legs.

The jets crack sound overhead, it’s OK here;

Every pulse of the rot at the heart

In the sick fat veins of Amerika

Pushes the edge up closer—

A bulldozer grinding and slobbering

Sideslipping and belching on top of

The skinned-up bodies of still-live bushes

In the pay of a man

From town.

Behind is a forest that goes to the Artic

And a desert that still belongs to the Piute

And here we must draw

Our line.

Analysis:

1. FORM

Number of lines and stanzas-

26 lines, 5 Stanzas

Poetic Form-

This poem is a free verse poem like most of the poetry of Gary Snyder.

Rhyme-

This poem has off-rhyme because at no point in this poem do you see a very

clear rhyme but when you read the poem it seems as if the lines rhyme with

each other.

Meter-

This poem does not have a clear meter because instead of having a pattern

Gary Snyder uses his meter by stressing certain words to put emphasis on

these words. Ex. (Log trucks stop)

2. FUNCTION

MEANING-

This poem also falls into the category of Snyder’s epic category of poetry.

Most of his poems are usually lengthy poems concerning the same subject

which is nature and the destruction of nature this one is about the logging of

the northern pacific. He like in many of his poems is trying to stop the

destruction of a forest.

METHOD-

Most of the figurative language in this poem where symbols because Snyder

likes to use symbols to convey the message of his poems. There was also

pathetic fallacy because he talks a lot about nature. The only other piece of

figurative language that he uses a personification which we see when he

does things like compare nature to humanity.

For poetic devices Snyder uses a specific diction which helps his to convey

a message with in his poems and he also uses many understatements

because he likes to emphasis many different things.

THEME-

The theme of this poem is the destructive and overwhelming things the

humans do to nature like the example given in the poem which is the

logging of a forest in the Pacific Northwest.

3. LITERARY THREAD-

This poem adheres to my literary thread very well. Many thread talks about the destructive

factors that humans intiontially impose on nature and how Snyder uses poetry to express his

negative views on these. This poem is about humans destroying a forest in the Pacific Northwest

so they can build a new housing facility. Snyder pours his negative views into this poem using

intense imagery by saying things like society is kind of raping the land.