Genesis, structure, and meaning in Gary Snyder's Mountains and rivers without end / Anthony Hunt.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hunt, Anthony, 1938-

Series:

Western literature series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Snyder, Gary. Mountains and rivers without end.

Snyder, Gary.

Physical Description:

viii, 316 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Reno : University of Nevada Press, [2004]

Summary:

When Gary Snyder's long poem Mountains and Rivers Without End was published in 1996, it was hailed as a masterpiece of American poetry, yet it has not hitherto been the subject of a book-length critical study. Now, Anthony Hunt offers a detailed historical and explicative analysis of this complex work using, among his many sources, Snyder's personal papers, letters, and interviews. Hunt traces the work's origins and genesis, as well as some of the myriad sources of its themes and structure, including No drama; East Asian landscape painting; the rhythms of storytelling, chant, and song; Jungian archetypal psychology; world mythology; Buddhist philosophy and ritual; Native American traditions; planetary geology, hydrology, and ecology. His analysis addresses the poem not merely by its content but through the structure of individual lines and the arrangement of the parts, examining such personal and cultural influences on Snyder's work as his extensive travels in Asia, his association with the Beat movement of the 1950s, and his observations of the natural world, as well as the role of various mythological, religious, ecological, and political concepts and images.

Hunt's benchmark study of Mountains and Rivers Without End, which he considers a "fundamental wisdom text for the modern ecological movement," is a richly perceptive work of analysis, written in a clear and straight-forward style but completely sensitive to the subtleties, nuances, and intricacies of the poem. It will be rewarding reading for anyone who enjoys the contemplation of Snyder's artistry and ideas and, more generally, for those who are intrigued by the workings of artistic composition, as well as those readers of poetry -- whether ecologists, Buddhists, philosophers, or backpackers -- who are interested in cultural and intellectual affairs.

Contents:

1 Finding the Paths 1

Bearings 1

Opening the Poem 5

2 Composing the Space 8

Genesis and Development of the Poem 8

The Landscape Scroll 27

The No Play 38

The Goddess and Her Companion(s) 49

3 Inhabiting the Landscape 57

Milarepa 57

Dogen 58

Endless Streams and Mountains 60

Old Bones 69

Night Highway 99 71

Three Worlds, Three Realms, Six Roads 76

Jackrabbit 82

The Elwha River 84

Bubbs Creek Haircut 90

Boat of a Million Years 99

The Blue Sky 103

The Market 113

Journeys 119

Ma 124

Instructions 127

Night Song of the Los Angeles Basin 129

Covers the Ground 133

The Flowing 137

The Black-tailed Hare 144

With This Flesh 147

The Hump-backed Flute Player 155

The Circumambulation of Mt. Tamalpais 162

The Canyon Wren 168

Arctic Midnight Twilight 172

Under the Hills Near the Morava River 178

Walking the New York Bedrock 182

Haida Gwai North Coast, Naikoon Beach 189

New Moon Tongue 193

An Offering for Tara 195

The Bear Mother 211

Macaques in the Sky 216

Old Woodrat's Stinky House 218

Raven's Beak River 221

Earrings Dangling and Miles of Desert 225

Cross-Legg'd 229

Afloat 233

The Dance 237

We Wash Our Bowls in This Water 243

The Mountain Spirit 246

Earth Verse 259

Finding the Space in the Heart 262

4 Traveling On ... 268.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [291]-300) and index.

ISBN:

0874175453

OCLC:

54951824