The New Urban Atlantic Edited by Elizabeth A. Fay The New Urban Atlantic is a new series of monographs, texts, and essay collections focusing on urban, Atlantic, and hemispheric studies. Distinct from the nation state mentality, the Atlantic world has been from colonial times a fluid international entity, including multiple Atlantic systems such as the triangle trade and cacao trade that extended globally. The series is distinct in three prime ways: First, it offers a multi-disciplinary, multi-cultural, broadly historical and urban focus. Second, it extends the geographical boundaries from an Old World/New World binary to the entire Atlantic rim, the arctics, and to exchanges between continents other than Europe and North America. Third, it emphasizes the Atlantic World as distinct from the nation-states that participate in it. Ultimately, The New Urban Atlantic series challenges the conventional boundaries of the field by presenting the Atlantic World as an evolving reality. Creole Testimonies: Slave Narratives from the British West Indies, 1709 1838 Nicole N. Aljoe Stumbling Towards the Constitution: The Economic Consequences of Freedom in the Atlantic World Jonathan M. Chu Urban Identity and the Atlantic World Edited by Elizabeth A. Fay and Leonard von Morz é The Transatlantic Eco- Romanticism of Gary Snyder Paige Tovey
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The Transatlantic E c o - R o m a n t i c i s m o f G a r y S n y d e r Paige Tovey
THE TRANSATLANTIC ECO-ROMANTICISM OF GARY SNYDER Copyright Paige Tovey, 2013. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2013 978-1-137-34014-6 All rights reserved. First published in 2013 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN in the United States a division of St. Martin s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave and Macmillan are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-46474-6 ISBN 978-1-137-34015-3 (ebook) DOI 10.1057/9781137340153 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Tovey, Paige, 1978 The transatlantic eco-romanticism of Gary Snyder / by Paige Tovey. pages cm. (The new urban Atlantic) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Snyder, Gary, 1930 Criticism and interpretation. 2. Ecology in literature. 3. Romanticism. I. Title. PS3569.N88Z93 2013 811.54 dc23 2013025078 A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library. Design by Newgen Knowledge Works (P) Ltd., Chennai, India. First edition: December 2013 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For Michael O Neill... I raise The song of thanks and praise
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C o n t e n t s Acknowledgments A Note on Texts List of Abbreviations ix xi xiii Introduction 1 1 The Romantic Pastoral: Snyder s Ecological Literary Inheritance 27 2 Snyder s Twentieth-Century Eco-Romanticism 49 3 Romantic Aspiration, Romantic Doubt 69 4 Snyder s Post-Romantic Ecological Vision: The Shaman as Poet/Prophet 89 5 The Measured Chaos of Snyder s Ecopoetic Form 111 6 Snyder s Experimentations with Post-Romantic Ecological Form 133 7 Mountains as Romantic Emblems of Revelation 155 8 Rivers as Romantic Emblems of Creation 183 Notes 209 Bibliography 229 Index 239
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A c k n o w l e d g m e n t s In quoting copyrighted material, the author has tried to observe the conventions of fair use. Previous incarnations and excerpts of chapters have appeared in the following publications, and I am indebted to their editors as well as to the Charles Lamb Society: Chapter 5 in Romantic Presences in the Twentieth Century, ed. Mark Sandy (Farnham: Ashgate, 2012); Chapters 7 and 8 (in brief excerpts) in The Charles Lamb Bulletin, ed. Stephen Burley, New Series no. 157 (Spring 2013). Thanks to New Directions Publishing Corp. and Carcanet Press for permission to reproduce passages from the poetry of Gary Snyder and William Carlos Williams. In particular, I wish to thank Kelsey Ford at New Directions and Michelle Healey at Carcanet, for help and patience in securing copyright permissions. I must also thank Gary Snyder for help in locating copyright holders and for providing permission to quote his work. I am also grateful to Palgrave Macmillan, particularly Brigitte Shull and Elizabeth Fay. Thanks, also, to Marilyn Gaull for her encouragement and help. Additionally, gratitude must be expressed to Seamus Perry and Tony Sharpe for their advice and support as examiners of my thesis, the first variant of this book. I would also like to thank my parents, David and Madge Tovey, my siblings, and David Jones, who have been constant sources of support and encouragement. This book is dedicated to Michael O Neill, a remarkable poet, scholar, and critic whose guidance, advice, and friendship I value beyond measure.
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A N o t e o n T e x t s The following texts have been used for major Romantic poets. Unless indicated otherwise, quotations from these authors are taken from the following texts. Line numbers are given for poetry, page numbers are given for prose. The Complete Poetry and Prose of William Blake, Rev. ed., ed. David V. Erdman. (Garden City, NY: Anchor/Doubleday, 1982). Lord Byron: The Major Works, ed. Jerome McGann (1986; Oxford: OUP, 2000). Oxford World s Classics. The Collected Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 16 vols. (London: Routledge & Keegan Paul, 1972 2001). Bollingen Series 75. John Keats: The Major Works, ed. Elizabeth Cook. (1990; Oxford: OUP, 2001). Oxford World s Classics. Percy Bysshe Shelley: The Major Works, ed. Zachary Leader and Michael O Neill (Oxford: OUP, 2003). Oxford World s Classics. The Cornell Wordsworth, 19 vols., ed. Stephen Parrish et al. (Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 1975 2007). References to Shakespeare are to The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works, Compact ed., ed. Stanley Wells and Gary Taylor (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994). The Bible is cited from the King James (Authorized) version. Parenthetical references to Gary Snyder s works are by abbreviated titles as outlined in the List of Abbreviations that follows. Because Snyder s poetry is not published in editions, which provide line numbers, and because it does not follow traditional conventions and forms, I have given line numbers when referring to shorter poems (or no numbers when in my view they are not needed), and page numbers when referring to longer poems. Occasionally I refer to a stanza number in an effort to clarify to which section I allude; however, such references are given with the understanding that these are also estimations intended to assist the reader in locating the passages in question. I have also used the same approach when quoting from William Carlos Williams s Paterson.
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A b b r e v i a t i o n s S n y d e r s P o e t r y RR Riprap and Cold Mountain Poems (1959; Washington, DC: Shoemaker & Hoard, 2004). BC The Back Country (1968; New York: New Directions, 1971), reset edition. RW Regarding Wave (New York: New Directions, 1970). TI Turtle Island (New York: New Directions, 1974). AH Axe Handles (San Francisco, CA: North Point Press, 1983). NN No Nature: New and Selected Poems (New York: Pantheon Books, 1992). MRWE Mountains and Rivers without End (1996; New York: Counterpoint, 1997). DOP Danger on Peaks (2004; Washington, DC: Shoemaker & Hoard, 2005). EHH TRW POW S n y d e r s P r o s e Earth House Hold: Technical Notes and Queries for Fellow Dharma Revolutionaries (New York: New Directions, 1969). The Real Work: Interviews & Talks 1964 1979, ed. Wm. Scott McLean. (New York: New Directions, 1980). The Practice of the Wild (1990; Washington, DC: S hoemaker & Hoard, 2003). PIS A Place in Space: Ethics, Aesthetics and Watersheds (1995; Berkeley: Counterpoint, 2008). BOF Back on the Fire (Berkeley, CA: Counterpoint, 2007). GSR S n y d e r s P o e t r y a n d P r o s e S e l e c t i o n s The Gary Snyder Reader: Prose, Poetry, and Translations (1999; New York: Counterpoint, 2000).