While this America settles in the mould of its vulgarity, heavily thickening
to empire
And protest, only a bubble in the molten mass, pops and sighs out, and the
mass hardens,
I sadly smiling remember that the flower fades to make fruit, the fruit rots
to make earth.
Out of the mother; and through the spring exultances, ripeness and decadence;
and home to the mother.
You making haste haste on decay: not blameworthy; life is good, be it stubbornly
long or suddenly
A mortal splendor: meteors are not needed less than mountains:
shine, perishing republic.
But for my children, I would have them keep their distance from the thickening
center; corruption
Never has been compulsory, when the cities lie at the monster's feet there
are left the mountains.
And boys, be in nothing so moderate as in love of man, a clever servant,
insufferable master.
There is the trap that catches noblest spirits, that caught – they say –
God, when he walked on earth.
Robinson Jeffers, 1925
Tor House
"Of course, Jeffers does not believe that modern man will achieve freedom: neither his own poetry nor any other writing will accomplish much. Pessimistically, he believes that our civilization is doomed to decay. The most famous and characteristic of his poems is, perhaps, "Shine, Perishing Republic." "America," he says, is "thickening to empire; and protest, like a bubble in the molten mass, pops and sighs out, and the mass hardens." But the significant thing about this poem is that this ultimate "perishing" of the republic does not deny the sense of the social values--rather it emphasizes them. A "republic" is good; an "empire," bad. "Protest" is good; acquiescence, bad. His pessimism as to the future of these goods merely enhances the sense of their importance."
ReplyDeleteFrederic I. Carpenter, from "The Values of Robinson Jeffers" American Literature (1940)
Good find.
ReplyDeleteyeah, i think you know i'm a big jeffers fan. i'll post his follow up to 'shine' in a bit.
ReplyDelete