Gary Snyder by Bob Steuding (review)

342 Western American Literature Gary Snyder. By Bob Steuding. (Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1976. 189 pages, $7.95.) This is the first book published on the work of Gary Snyder, a popular and gifted poet whose work often deals with the American West. Steuding has chosen (or the Twayne format has chosen for him) a guidebook approach, a discussion of themes and sources, although his preface does refer to the book as criticism. Zen Buddhism and shamanism are described, Oriental words are defined, and many literary influences are noted. The treatment of influences is often marred by a patronizing tone: a long com­ parison of The Waste Land yields the conclusion that “in contrast, Eliot’s poem seems dated, exhibiting the cynicism of the decade after World War I.” Snyder’s poem, after all, might seem dated in fifty years, the product of whatever mood will seem in retrospect to characterize the decade after World War II. D. H. Lawrence, a more important influence, becomes merely a social thinker and sexual pioneer. Steuding smugly rates and shelves Lawrence: “If not a great poet and social thinker, Lawrence was an important liberator, pointing out the path for younger poets and writers to follow.” Steuding’s discussion surprisingly centers on the novels and misses completely the great influence of Birds, Beasts and Flowers on Snyder. Lawrence’s poems indicated that nature poetry need not be anthropocentric or genteel. Tone is also a problem when Steuding discusses Snyder’s own work. He is an encomiast, not a critic. Praise is bestowed very freely, but Snyder is remarkably good and remarkably uneven. Like a Zen adept, Steuding accepts everything, with little discrimination. This acceptance of all experi­ ence is part of Snyder’s own esthetic, but it is an element that needs scrutiny rather than emulation. Tone gets out of control when Steuding deals with “Praise for Sick Women.” He tells us that “Snyder’s attraction to and adoration of woman is evident in this poem in which he marvels over the beauty of her body and movements, her resourcefulness, and he displays her courage and ability to endure. The reader learns that Snyder’s love and respect are boundless.” Actually, Snyder’s reverence repels some contemporary women, who are not interested in his revival of the Earth Goddess idea. Near the conclusion of the book, some critical assessments are made, but they are not earned by evidence: certain works have “incredible power and beauty,” Myths & Texts coheres “perfectly,” two poems show “incredibly adept technique,” and one of them, “The Blue Sky,” is “truly astonishing writing in which Snyder’s poetry nearly transcends art.” We are told that “Song of the Taste” is “possibly Snyder’s most perfect poem,” but the critic fails to explain what the criterion of perfection (and its degrees) might be. He also likes to call poems “lusty.” There is a chapter on the development of Snyder’s style, but it is ruined by a failure to keep the dates of poems, as opposed to volumes, clear. Steuding presents “A Stone Garden” (dated 1957 at the end of the poem) Reviews 343 as an early poem showing signs of the free verse directions Snyder would take in Myths & Texts, a work whose colophon reads, “Crater Mt. L.O. 1952-Marin-an 1956.” While Steuding does define Snyder’s concrete and elliptical style very accurately, he fails to consider its limitations as well as its possibilities. A more understandable problem is the misattribution of a major essayon Snyder. In 1962, Robert Bly’s magazine, The Sixties, published an article on “The Work of Gary Snyder” under the pseudonym “Crunk.” Steuding takes it for granted that Bly wrote this seminal essay on Snyder (it defines his “Western imagination,” an influential concept), although the issue made it clear that “Crunk” was a “guest Crunk,” rather than the editor. The error has been made by other critics and now it has been perpetuated in Steuding’s text, notes and bibliography. Bly has confirmed in a letter to me that “Crunk” on this occasion was James Wright. Unfortunately, the correct attribution has never been made in print. I have dwelt on the shortcomings of this book. It does...