Robinson Jeffers

The Beauty of Things

By Robinson Jeffers


To feel and speak the astonishing beauty of things-earth, stone and water,
Beast, man and woman, sun and moon and stars-
The blood-shot beauty of human nature, its thoughts, frenzies and passions,
And unhuman nature its towering reality-
For man's half dream; man, you might say, is nature dreaming, but rock
And water and sky are content-to feel
Greatly, and understand greatly, and express greatly, the natural
Beauty, is the sole business of poetry.
The rest's diversion: those holy or noble sentiments, the intricate ideas,
The love, lust, longing: reasons, but not the reason.




I am not going to replay the life of this remarkable man and poet who lived from 1887 to 1962 although if the reader is not acquainted with this man's work and life he or she should visit some of the web sites that contain his life story and of course read his other poems as I did. I chose the above poem only because I love it and it speaks of my own love of nature.

I have been to Carmel, California where the author spent his last years. I envied his time there for when I was there it was very commercial and full of tourists. Still, any area along the Big Sur is still very lovely. As a child I used to travel up and down the spine of California from San Diego to Oregon to visit an aunt. I like that part of California too although many people do not. I also like taking the train which travels along the coast more which is also stunning.

Korea is pleasing to the eye too. Much of the countryside is empty of people for the most part although the trees are young as I have mentioned. Korea has been ravaged through the centuries by war both from without and within. The mountains are sharp and angular but no ice caps as there are in California at least none that I have seen. I think I miss Mt. Shasta as far as nature is concerned.

I like Daejeon for its closeness to the mountains and for me mountains mean nature although I have loved the deserts of California and the Southwestern United States for that very reason. The mountains, rocks, streams will all be here long after I am gone. Korea is an example of the fragileness of nature in that the trees had to be planted again by humans after humans burned them all down in a war against each other. Yet, it is the remarkableness of human beings that people from all walks of life went out during their spare time to do it and it was hard work.

"Beauty, is the sole business of poetry."

It is poets like Robinson Jeffers and Walt Whitman that can see the beauty in everything around them and then translate it all into words so we as readers and listeners can understand what we have and appreciate it. Yesterday, my purse got stolen from and it was really nothing very valuable but it was ugly in that the thief called me back and wanted a reward. It all worked out in the end. It was only a small tragedy and greater ones no doubt happened yesterday. I looked for a poem to remind me of the beauty of this world that is really here and found it in Robinson Jeffers' poem. It is very good we have poets in this world. We really need them.