Poetry, geology & stone masonry in the work of Robinson Jeffers

Robinson Jeffers (1887-1962) was an American poet who built a stone house and tower along the Pacific coast at Carmel Point during the first half of the 20th century. Between 1924 and 1963 he published 16 major books of poetry including Roan Stallion, Tamar, and other Poems, Cawdor and Other Poems, and Hungerfield and Other Poems. When Roan Stallion andTamar were first published in 1925, critics placed Jeffers verse not with the likes of his modernist contemporaries such as T.S. Eliot, but with Homer and Shakespeare. 

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Jeffers is well-known for his long near-free verse poetics that concerned nature and human’s place in the cosmos. He was also acutely aware of geology in terms of a natural process for change. Throughout his work he developed and reiterated his philosophy of inhumanism - the notion that humans have become detached from the natural cycles of nature through the urbanization and mechanization of western culture, that such detachment may be inherent in our species and naturally leads to cultural decay, and that the only way to seek redemption is to look beyond the violence and decay of human culture toward nature.

 

With support from the Robinson Jeffers Tor House Foundation, I have been evaluating archive manuscripts and photographs as well as 'mapping' the stone masonry & geology of Tor House, Hawk Tower, and the other structures on the ground. One of the goals of this research is to develop a chronology of design & construction as a context for Jeffers verse writing during the pivotal 1919-1925 period, when he discovered his authentic voice and designed and constructed Hawk Tower. During this interval Jeffers also wrote some of his most geologically inspired poetry.