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A review by jeffhall
Selected Poems by Robinson Jeffers
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.