Gary Snyder: Riprap and other poems (1959)

 

Agenda for analysis:

 

Lyric personae:            “I” “You”, and 3^rd person entities

                                    Omniscient/uiversalist point of view vs. local insights

                                    3rd person lyric personae - individuals and groups

                                    American drivers

                                    (Sick) Women

 

Stylistics/Diction:        Very little use of metaphor

                                    Almost no direct address/apostrophe

                                    Little use of repetition structures

                                    Historical references

                                    Intertexts

 

Thematics:                  Work

                                    Place: forests, mountains, countryside, occasionally a city

                                    Poetry

                                    Roads

                                    Animals and plants

 

Themes:                      Belief in the simplicity of things

                                    Questing/finding

                                    Identity/community

                                    Holiness

 

Genre:                         Short vignettes, haiku-like poems

                                    Occasional travelogue

                                    Unrhymed poetry

                                    Incantation (to/of nature)

                                    Nature writing

                                    Manifesto

 

Contexts:                     Belief

                                    Autobiography

                                    Oriental influences

                                    Rallying point for identification, culture hero

 

Ideas for essays:

 

Gary Snyder: Riprap and other poems (1959)

 

Describe the speaker of the poems. How is the speaker's position in relation to the places, states of mind and people he speaks about? In relation to the reader?

 

What is the effect of Snyder’s lyric style?

[Words to characterize it: simple, commonplace, natural, Eco-conscious, animalistic, Shamanic, celebratory, Zen Buddhist, Satori-driven, haiku-like, etc.]

Find and analyze more examples of Snyder’s characteristic micro-level stylistics.

 

Consider Snyder’s sense of flow.

 

Consider the poems’ use of location (esp. the Sourdough Mountain poems) and techniques of depicting motion (esp. “Night Highway Ninety-Nine”).

 

Consider the religious themes in the poems, and their linkages with everyday (American) life.