The Collected Poetry of Robinson Jeffers, vol. 1: 1920-1928 ed. by Tim Hunt, and: The Excesses of God: Robinson Jeffers as a Religious Figure by William Everson (review)

82 Western American Literature The Coyote: Defiant Songdog of the West. Revised and updated. By Francois Leydet. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1988. 221 pages, $19.95.) The acrid debate over the coyote’s ecological role and apocryphal threat to western ranchers has not been reconciled in the eleven years since publica­ tion of Leydet’s original book. Only more sophisticated methods of poisoning, trapping and deterring the opportunistic predator distinguish the decades. Handy scapegoat of a distressed sheep industry, the tenacious hunter still defies man’smanipulation of a region once as wild and unresponsive to his will as the weather. Hoping “we can indeed manage ourselves to minimize conflict with wildlife—to assure our sanity,” Leydet offers an excellent portrayal of the mythical trickster, demon, and affectionate parent that just may outlive us all. MARGARET PETTIS Hyrum, Utah The Collected Poetry of Robinson Jeffers, vol. 1: 1920-1928. Edited by Tim Hunt. (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1988. 540 pages, $60.00.) The Excesses of God: Robinson Jeffers as a Religious Figure. By William Everson. (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1988. 197 pages, $29.50.) Through his scrupulous editing, Tim Hunt has finally initiated the project of bringing all of Robinson Jeffers’s poetry before the public in a comprehen­ sive four-volume collection. Volume One, covering 1920-1928, which excludes earlier “apprentice work,” contains four sections that chronologically unite major long narratives with the shorter poems: “Tamar,” “Roan Stallion,” “The Women at Point Sur,” and “Cawdor.” Volumes Two and Three will contain the poetry from 1929 through 1962, while volume Four will present apprentice and unfinished work, prose pieces, and the editorial apparatus. This is a deluxe edition with a price to match, beautifully bound and printed on over-sized pages. This format, while a tribute to Jeffers, virtually precludes getting his poems into the personal libraries of all but the well-heeled. Once the complete edition has been printed, I hope Stanford will produce a more practical paperback edition of The Collected Poetry. Jeffers deserves it and the public needs it. In the meantime, readers should ensure that their college and public libraries purchase the complete set. Its own excess can contribute to introducing new readers to the towering accomplishments for which William Everson justly hails Jeffers. Those who knowrthe poetry understand. Those who do not must encounter its raw power and terrible beauty for themselves, which are nowhere better represented than in the verse narratives contained in this volume. Reviews 83 Hunt has provided an excellent biographical introduction, correcting the erroneous impression that Albert Gelpi’s foreword to Everson’s book perpetu­ ates: the notion that Jeffers was not only isolated from, but also ignorant of, the modernism he rejected. Hunt demonstrates that Jeffers’s rejection was thoughtful and informed. He also sketches the development in the late teens and early twenties of Jeffers’s poetics and then briefly limns the rest of his life. William Everson’s The Excesses of God treats the topic of Robinson Jeffers, but its real subject is the definition of the contemporary religious poet. This extended meditation works much like one of Jeffers’s narratives, drawing the reader in and making one believe the vision, even as one might resist the argument. And resist this argument one must, as it contains numerous contra­ dictions. Part One has the greatest strength, as Everson lays his foundation, building on the work of Rudolph Otto and Mircea Eliade to define and apply Otto’sconcept of the numinous to Jeffers’spoetry. This section helps the reader to understand better much of Jeffers’s work but also reveals the limitations of trying to find a unifying architectonics. Part Two contextualizes Jeffers’s “excess” in the social excesses of his times, and depicts the power that arises from his abiding seriousness: “One is left with the disturbing impression that this man means it.”But here Everson also begins to falter as he engages in a dionysian worship of “divine wrath,” and employs tautologies to demonstrate the superiority of the religious “man” over the skeptical and nonreligious one. But the real failing of this book lies in the male chauvinism of Part Three. There Everson posits that the mantles...