![]() ![]() One of the bestselling American poets ever, Jeffers (1887-1962) once ranked alongside T.S. Never heard of him? You’re not alone, and it’s rather a wonder. Pessimistically he believed that our civilization is doomed to decay.Robinson Jeffers. Jeffers does not believe that modern men will achieve freedom: neither his own poetry nor any other writing will accomplish much. ![]() Using life-cycle imagery and stressing the decaying phase of the cycle, the prophet foretells the end, counts indifference, and urges isolation to avoid corruption. But Jesus walked the earth for only 33 years before his fellow men "trapped him," and sent him to his death on the cross.įor Jeffers in 1925 America was dying, and its civilization was hastening its death. "There is the trap", "that catches the noblest spirits that caught "God (himself) when he walk the earth." God sent his son to a world afflicted with corruption and vulgarity. The final line widens the scope of targeting the very basis of Christianity. Wherever there is an empire, there is a severe imbalance of power. He continues his warning with an analogy, comparing this relationship to that of "clever servant" to "insufferable master". This is the basic tenet of the self-proclaimed philosophy of "in humanism", which asserts that the root of most evil can be found in mankind's relationship to itself. This is the philosophy of “inhumanity" of Robinson Jeffers: if men are overtly attached to the mundane pursuits of life and other human beings, they lose the essential values of meaningful life. In Lines 9, Jeffers, speaking directly to his grown up boys, advises them to be wary of becoming too attached to fellow man, or humankind. "Corruption has never been compulsory", or required. Like any protective parent, he does not want his children exposed to vulgarity and an empire of greed. He has a different attitude about how his children should live. In Lines 7 and 8, Jeffers expresses his worries about his own sons. The mountain is constant and permanent, whereas the meteor is swift and transient. The meteor and the mountain work against each other in order to create the circle of life. In line 6, Jeffers introduces two polar images the bright splendor of a meteor streaking across the sky versus the immovable and stoic mountain below. Whether it ends short and violently or it lasts like the rock, everything has life and life is good. In line 5, the speaker turns his voice to direct address, telling the reader, "you making haste, haste on decay: not blameworthy life is good". The 'you' of line 5 may be America again or alternatively the reader. By looking to nature to find the "larger scope for things", the speaker is hoping that out of America's "decadence", will come an era of rebirth. ![]() He remembers that perhaps in everything there is a cycle. After lamenting the speaker tries to find some consolation. Such dire images set the mood for the rest of the poem. Jeffers sees protest as "only a bubble in the molten mass. Social protest, which is a republic's most powerful tool, means little. Jeffers sees the United States "thickening to empire". The America of the period after the First World War was becoming more powerful and was also heading into what Jeffers calls here a vulgarity, of culture. The poem begins with a striking note, “While this America Settles in the mold of its vulgarity, heavily thickening into empire" The poet speaks of Republic America as if there were, will be or can be other Americas. Jeffers sees the core of American culture and politics hardening into the mold of its vulgarity, corrupt and self-centered. Jeffers uses the poem to express a philosophy he would continue to explore throughout his career: inhumanism. Written in a prosperous American period, typically remembered as the Roaring Twenties, Shine Perishing Republic reveals an extreme distaste for the underlying national trend toward corruption and dictatorship. Besides this issue, there is also the personal concern of his sons, about whom Jeffers is afraid that they will also be influenced by the valueless culture of the society. ![]()
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