Mountains as Romantic Emblems of Revelation

Abstract

From his first publications of Riprap to the completion of Mountains and Rivers Without End and most recently in Danger on Peaks, Snyder has been interested in examining, through poetry, the relationship between humanity and its environment. As I have reiterated throughout my examination of Snyder, his poetry focuses on the interplay between humanity and the natural world and the ensuing ideas and meditations such an interchange inspires. Accordingly, a recurrent eco-Romantic and Buddhist theme in Snyder’s poetry and ideas is the interconnectedness of all things. However, whether this goal of universal interconnectedness as expressed through poetry is achievable in Snyder’s poetry and poetics is a question to be continually explored. I would assert that Snyder’s poetry is often most interesting and most successful when he does not achieve this interconnectedness. Rather, it is the striving for interpenetration and not necessarily the attainment of it that makes his poetry significant.