Four Poems for Robin

“Robin” by Gary Snyder (1968)

This is a poem that also appears in The Back Country (1968). The poem includes similar images, such as the rhododendron, and themes like nature, travel, dreams, wistfulness, and lost connections.

“For A Stone Girl At Sanchi” by Gary Snyder (1968)

Another poem in The Back Country (1968) that deals with a dream of two lovers connecting. Sanchi is a Buddhist complex, one of the oldest stone structures in India, featuring carvings of the life of the Buddha. Snyder visited this famous site with his wife Joanne Kyger. This poem is elliptical, like “Four Poems for Robin,” giving the sensation of fragmentation of the mind. The speaker imagines “all that time / loving; / two flesh persons changing” (Lines 15-17). They cling to each other through “a rubble of years” (Line 20). While “this dream pops” (Line 22) when examined, the speaker believes its content “was real: / and it lasted forever” (Lines 22-23). The two poems explore the theme of the transitory nature of love and life.

“Finding the Space in the Heart” by Gary Snyder (1996)

This is the final section of Mountains and Rivers Without End and is a summation of decades travelling in and out of the Pacific Northwest, with great care and attention paid to the details of the natural landscape.