The Excesses of God: Robinson Jeffers as a Religious FigureStanford University Press, 1988 - 190 pages An event of rare literary distinction, this book records the conjunction between two distinguished American poets, illuminating not only their work and their connection but also the deep strain of pantheistic mysticism in the American tradition. In 1934, William Everson came across a volume of Jeffers's poetry. In Everson's word, the power of Jeffers 'broke my own acquired agnosticism and compelled me to think of myself as a manifestly religious man. It is a power I still attest to in writing this study, a power which I continue to think of as an undiluted religious force'. It was after reading Jeffers that Everson's vocation as a poet emerged, and though they never met or corresponded, Everson has remained loyal and dedicated to Jeffers throughout his life. Everson, who published extensively under his religious name Brother Antoninus during his nearly twenty years as a Dominican lay brother, has become one of the most knowledgeable scholars and critics of Jeffers, as well as his one avowed poetic disciple. This book is written as a series of over-lapping and ever-widening meditations on Jeffers's sense of God, nature, the self, and language. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
ONE All Flesh Is Grass | 9 |
Two The Wine Cup of This Fury | 47 |
THREE And After the Fire a Still Small Voice | 93 |
FOUR The Horseleech Hath Two Daughters | 127 |
Conclusion | 167 |
Common terms and phrases
absolute aesthetic agnosticism archetype attribution Barclay beauty becomes blood body Catholic Encyclopedia Christ cloud concept consciousness cosmos D. H. Lawrence dark death dimension divine dream earth element Eliade erotic essence Everson existence eyes fascinans feeling fire flesh force freedom hawks heart hierophany hills holy human Hungerfield Ibid Idea images instance intensity Jeffers's Kenneth Rexroth light living Lommel Lord man's manifestation Medea mind Mircea Eliade mountain mysterium tremendum mysticism narrative nature never night numen numinous obsession ocean Onorio Otto pantheism passion peace philosophical Poems New York poetry Point Sur profane prophet R. S. Thomas reality religion religious poet ritual Roan Stallion Robinson Jeffers rock Rudolf Otto sacred sexual shaman shining soul spirit stars stone symbols Tamar things thought tion transcendence Uzza verse violence vision voice Void whole William Everson wind woman womb Women at Point words wrath