The feature piece of Solstice and Other Poems is the stage poem At the Birth of an Age (CP vol. 2), “derived,” in Jeffers’ words, “from the closing chapters of the Volsung Saga.” This saga is a 13^th Century Icelandic chronicle of older Germanic legends. Jeffers’ interest in the Norse sagas was not unique. Ever since Richard Wagner based his great Ring Cycle on a German epic based on the Sagas, these Germanic tales had become a major cultural phenomenon. J. R. R. Tolkien had obviously been influenced by the stories when he wrote his stories about dwarves and cursed rings. Hitler and the Nazis were, faithful to their nationalistic passions, enthralled by the Ring Cycle. The Sagas grew even more popular during the Great Depression. They seem to have given many people—particularly Germanic people—a sense of romance in a former glory at a time when the modern world seemed a profound disappointment. In 1934, Robinson Jeffers began to write At the Birth of an Age and thereby joined this social movement.

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Dear Judas was a controversial flop, but this was to be expected inasmuch as it depicted Jesus as an aspiring savior who ultimately succumbed to a megalomaniacal God complex, his love for mankind a sort of lust for possession beyond the reach of mere power mongering. Clearly, the subject of Jesus gave Jeffers a stage on which he could put love on trial. Meanwhile, the poem saw Judas as the most devout of Christians. This is hinted at by the title of the poem, for “Dear Judas” can be a description, such as with “a dear friend,” as much as it is an address to indicate the recipient of a statement. It should of course be born in mind that being endearing does not likely make one a hero in Jeffers’ world. Judas is seen by Jeffers, all in all, as a rather pathetic figure. Together, Jesus and Judas represent two aspects of the sickness of Christian love.

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This poem is a rewriting of The Trumpet (January 1928). Much of the first, second, and final sections of The Broken Balance were taken directly from The Trumpet, though some of those three sections feature significant changes. It may be an improvement on the previous poem, or it may not. In either case it is not the same poem.

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The Trumpet was published in Poetry in January 1928. It is a poem about power, as can be gleaned from each of its sections:

1. … the Romans / Rule, and Etruria is finished; … When life grows hateful, there’s power …
2. Power’s good; if is not always good but power’s good. … the power triumphs. … There is beauty in power also. / You children must widen your minds’ eyes to take mountains … and massed power …
3. … all these forms of power placed without preference / In the grave arrangement of the evening.
4. The continent’s a tamed ox, … Powerful and servile; … this helpless / Cataract for power … Therefore we happy masters … celebrate our power.
5. … your seed shall enjoy wonderful vengeances and suck / The arteries and walk in triumph on the faces.

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The stones of the wall will cry out, and the beams of the woodwork will echo it. (Habakkuk 2:11)

“I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.” (Luke 19:40)

Back in the 1980s, I spent a year working as a guard on Mount Carmel in Israel. I remember walking my nightshift rounds, absorbing mystical vibes from the dark trees I encountered. I remember that I shared my experience with another guard who happened to be a writer, and that we had a few pleasant and humorous conversations on the topic. I remember his witty farewell that still graces a page in my personal library:

… Why did you ever have to leave? The trees are swaying and the rocks are screaming and there is no one left to tell us what they portend! …

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… there may be in him also a secret admiration for indifference, for power without feeling as opposed to human feeling without power—for the transcendence of human imperfection by the perfection of absolute zero. There is perhaps a secret longing to be free of choice and concern, the unshakable aspects of human existence, and to ally himself with the workings of inhuman will.

Thus the Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry (First Edition, 1973) describes one particular inhumanist—not Robinson Jeffers, but a novelist and poet whom Jeffers greatly admired: Thomas Hardy.

Thomas Hardy was, though a Victorian, a realist and a leader in literary “naturalism.” He used more common language in his poems than was typical of Victorians. He avoided overly elegant speech. His verse was traditional yet metrically diverse. During his lifetime, Hardy’s poetry had not been regarded as highly as his novels, but he would gain posthumous recognition as one of the great poets of the 20^th Century.

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To be carved on a Stone at Thoor Ballylee

I, the poet William Yeats,
With old mill boards and sea-green slates,
And smithy work from the Gort forge,
Restored this tower for my wife George;
And may these characters remain
When all is ruin once again.

Yeats restored an old Irish tower for his wife, and then
Jeffers built a stone tower for his.

One excellent example of how Una Jeffers influenced the work of her husband Robinson Jeffers is the trail that led from Una’s pride in her Irish heritage through the Irish poet W. B. Yeats to the construction of Hawk Tower and the creative explosion that stonework catalyzed.

Una may not have greatly influenced her husband’s craft as a poet, but we can see how she may have guided Jeffers’ mind in less explicitly literal ways.

At the eleventh hour, Carolyn and I decided to drive down to Carmel on Saturday evening to catch “Coast to Coast: Two Poets from Ireland’s Glens of Antrim” in the parlor of the East Wing of Tor House. We were glad that we did. The evening featured the poets Anne-Marie Fyfe and Cahal Dallat. Mr. Dallat, also a musician and Jeffers scholar who attributes much influence to Robinson Jeffers on Irish poetry. My general opinion of Jeffers’ poems of Ireland is that they are not his best work. They don’t move me. That is of course a subjective assessment. Still, Mr. Dallat’s presentation made a good case for Jeffers as a significant force in Irish literature.

Hearing my grandma’s ancestral isle of Barra mentioned a couple times was a nice bonus.

Here are links to the official websites of our distinguished guests:

• Anne-Marie Fyfe
• Cahal Dallat

Perry Hill, United States forest ranger, who has returned from the section down the coast where the recent great fires have prevailed, has expressed the opinion that a portion of the Big Sur waterehed was so badly devastated in the country south of Carmel that that section will suffer considerably in the event of a severe winter. The fires in the Cone Peak and Carmel watershed sections south of here have been completely extinguished. In fact, the main efforts of the fire fighters were centered upon preventing the burning of the Carmel watershed, and this was accomplished.

Carmel Pine Cone, September 13, 1916