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Article: Robinson Jeffers: the man from whom God hid everything.(Critical Essay)
- Article from:
- Chicago Review
- Article date:
- June 22, 2004
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 University of Chicago. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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What a strange poet Robinson Jeffers was. Lyrically striking if frequently obtuse, he's probably the most prolific modern poet still in print--his five-volume Complete Poetry contains over 2,500 pages. Popular early in his career, he died largely loathed. A glamorous loner, he lived like a reclusive movie-star/wizard in a stone tower by the sea. A wife-stealing adulterer, he was a devoted husband, father, family man. He was a Protestant pagan, an Abrahamic soothsayer, a human-loathing God-disdainer, as theologically reckless and incisive as he was humble in the face of the natural world. Jeffers seems better than a good poet to me, if not altogether great. But ...