Three Pacific Northwest Poets: William Stafford, Richard Hugo, and David Wagoner by Sanford Pinsker (review)

148 Western American Literature Revolutionary Rexroth: Poet of East-West Wisdom. By Morgan Gibson. (Hamden, Connecticut: Archon Books, printed byThe Shoe String Press, 1986. 153 pages, $22.50.) Even the bare bones of Kenneth Rexroth’s life are a fascinating enigma. Born in the Midwest, he lived a migratory life, both physically and intellectu­ ally. Largely self-taught, he traveled through the United States, Europe, and Asia, continually absorbing influences all along the way. However, it is not Rexroth’s erudition that sets his work apart, but his ability to fuse disparate elements into a unified whole. Perhaps no writer, Pound included, has been able to combine East and West and make them stick together as Rexroth has. In Revolutionary Rexroth, Morgan Gibson, an associate of Rexroth’s in the poet’s later years, has written a small volume that sniffs out the influences and attempts to detail the evolution of Rexroth’s aesthetics. He attempts to summarize Rexroth as an “erotically mystical revolutionary” in the mold of Blake and Whitman. This gives some idea of where to position him on the literary chessboard, but de-emphasizes the important Eastern and modern revolutionary influences. Like Blake, Rexroth is a radical Christian; like Whitman, he is a people’s poet and organic songwriter. But he also is a Zen disciple and follower of the Tao, and, for three-quarters of a century, an unmuffled voice against the dehumanizing institutions that were sown like dragon’s teeth across the globe during his lifetime. Gibson gives a framework to this eclectic background, high­ lighting Rexroth’s literary styles (symbolism, cubism, objectivism) against a background of biography and philosophic evolution. Projecting Rexroth as an avatar of East-West symbiosis, he emphasizes the possibility of rapprochement between two traditions, when, in Rexroth’s words, “these dark ages are over.” Revolutionary Rexroth is part biography, part philosophical treatise, and part critical interpretation, but most of all it is a jumping off point, a group of documented essays intended to begin rather than end discussion of Rexroth. STEVEN PUGMIRE Seattle, Washington Three Pacific Northwest Poets: William Stafford, Richard Hugo, and David Wagoner. By Sanford Pinsker. (Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1987. 139 pages, $19.95.) What has happened to the venerable Twayne United States Authors Series? Once it was so reliable: a huge number of uniformly bound volumes, each with basically the same format. Nowadays the reliable old series is changing. Sanford Pinsker’s recent addition, for example, breaks away from the traditional Twayne structures by treating three writers, and instead of surveying everything each poet his written, concentrating only on the poetry. Reviews 149 Moreover, he ties his whole book together with a thesis—that these poets write a similar kind of poetry typical of the Pacific Northwest. Certainly the book provides some exceptionally valuable close readings of individual poems. Pinsker begins by devoting a chapter to the influence of Theodore Roethke on Stafford, Hugo, and Wagoner. Then he gives each poet a chapter, reviewing the poets’ productions volume by volume. The conclu­ sion discusses the nature of Pacific Northwest poetry itself. The study of each poet’s development gives strength to this study. Bio­ graphical details, when not relevant, at least do not distract the reader from the poems themselves. Constantly Pinsker emphasizes the two things Stafford, Hugo, and Wagoner have in common: their relationship to Roethke and their relationship to the Pacific Northwest. If the volume has flaws, it might be that Pinsker does not treat the poets equally. Stafford receives forty-five pages while Wagoner receives only twentyfive . Moreover, one sometimes senses that Pinsker eulogizes the poets instead of studying them objectively. Seldom does he say anything negative about them. Also, Pinsker’s chapter on Wagoner is almost a reprint of an earlier article published in Salmagundi. He adds very little in the Twayne volume to what he said earlier. But perhaps the most interesting idea of Pinsker’s is the concept of a distinct Pacific Northwest poetry. He seems genuinely to believe that “such an animal” exists in the same sense of the Southern poetry of Tate and others. For those interested in the concept, this volume provides much to think about. PAUL VARNER...