Four Poems for Robin

Gary Snyder’s “Four Poems for Robin” was written in 1967 and was first published in Snyder’s collection of poems, The Back Country (1968). It appears in the second section, “Far East,” which includes poems written or set in Kyoto, Japan. It is written in free verse and does not rhyme or have a set syllable count. The poem is an elegiac meditation on the haunting presence of Robin, a girl whom the speaker had a relationship with when living in Oregon at the age of 19. The poem’s action moves throughout time, commenting on the past and the present, where the speaker is 10 years older and in Japan, spending time at the Buddhist temple, Shokoku-ji. As the speaker meditates on various encounters with Robin, some real and some fictious, he moves to a greater understanding of their true selves and the nature of love. Snyder is noted for being one of the six poets, along with Allen Ginsberg, who read at the first Beat reading at Gallery Six in San Francisco in 1955. Snyder, a scholar of Asian languages and culture, is also a practicing Buddhist, a study he began in earnest when he went to Japan in 1956. This poem is typical of Snyder’s focus on the natural world as well as its engagement with Buddhist philosophies.

Poet Biography

Gary Sherman Snyder was born in San Francisco, California on May 8, 1930, to Harold and Lois Hennessy Snyder. Due to the Great Depression, the family moved to Washington State, where they ran a dairy farm and orchard. In 1937, Snyder was bedridden due to an accident, which encouraged his love of books. When his parents divorced in 1942, Snyder, his mother, and younger sister moved to Portland, Oregon where he grew passionate about the outdoors, the threat of environmental damage, as well as the history of Native American peoples. All these interests would later be the subject matter of his poetry and environmental essays.

After high school, Snyder attended Reed College, where he would meet Robin Collins to whom “Four Poems for Robin” is dedicated, as well as his first wife Alison Gass, whom he married at age 20. He also became friends with poets Lew Welch and Philip Whalen. While his marriage lasted seven months before separation, Welch and Whalen became lifelong friends. At Reed, Snyder double-majored in literature and anthropology and completed folklore research on a nearby reservation. Snyder then enrolled for graduate study in anthropology at Indiana University. There, he began to explore Zen Buddhist philosophy and the study of meditation. After just one semester, he returned to California and worked as a fire lookout and logger, while writing poetry.

In 1953, living with Whalen in San Francisco, Snyder enrolled at University of California at Berkeley to study Asian language and culture. He was introduced to Kenneth Rexroth, Allen Ginsberg, and Jack Kerouac. In October, 1955, Snyder—along with Ginsberg and Whalen—was part of a historic reading in San Francisco at Six Gallery, hosted by Rexroth. This was considered the first event of the “Beat” movement. Snyder, while part of this poetic movement in San Francisco, still desired to become a serious scholar of Zen practice. In 1956, he went to study in Kyoto, Japan. There, he went through the rituals to become a formal Buddhist, only returning to California in 1958. Snyder met fellow poet Joanne Kyger, whom he married in 1960. Snyder's first book, Riprap and Cold Mountain Poems, which included poems based on his own experiences in the Pacific Northwest, as well as his translations of Chinese poet Hanshan, was published in 1965.

From 1960 to 1969, Snyder alternated living in California and Japan, studying Zen and working on poems, including Myths & Texts (1960) and Six Sections from Mountains and Rivers without End (1965). He and Kyger traveled to India, Indonesia, and Istanbul, but their union did not last and the couple divorced in 1965. In 1967, Snyder married Masa Uehara, whom he had met the year before in Japan. They moved to California and began a family. In 1968, his book The Back Country, which includes “Four Poems for Robin” was published. In 1971, Snyder built and settled in a house in the Sierra Nevada foothills, which has since remained his home in the United States.

Regarding Wave was published in 1970 and was followed by Turtle Island in 1974, which won the Pulitzer Prize. Axe Handles, another collection of poems, received the American Book Award (1983), but Snyder’s writing life became increasingly focused on essays about culture, natural history, religion, and the environment. In 1986, Snyder became a professor in the nature writing program at The University of California-Davis. In 1989, Snyder and Uehara divorced after 22 years of marriage. In 1991, Snyder married Carole Lynn Koda, a naturalist who shared his many interests, including a focus on ecology. Throughout the 1990s, Snyder concentrated mostly on prose, publishing The Practice of the Wild (1990) and A Place in Space (1995). In 1996, his epic poem, Mountains and Rivers Without End, written over a 40-year period, was completed. It is considered by many to be Snyder’s masterwork. His first collection of new poems, Danger on Peaks, came out in 2004. Back on Fire (2007) includes essays on California’s ecological concerns as well as elegies for Koda, who died of cancer in 2006, as well as for Ginsberg and Whalen.

Snyder’s awards are plentiful including a Guggenheim Foundation award (1968), the Levinson Prize (1968), the American Academy of Arts and Letters award (1987), the Bollingen Prize (1997), the John Hay Award for Nature Writing (1997), and the Ruth Lilly Award (2008). John J. Healy's 2010 documentary The Practice of the Wild celebrated his life and work. The Library of Congress has published his Collected Poems (2022).

Poem Text

Snyder, Gary. “Four Poems for Robin.” 1968. Poetry Foundation.

Summary

“Four Poems for Robin” is a long poem divided into four parts. The first part, titled Siwashing it out once in Siuslaw Forest details the speaker’s camping trip—without a tent—in a forest in Oregon, located near the Pacific Ocean. The speaker notes the cold and the difficulties of sleeping without a tent. He tosses and turns and thinks of his former girlfriend, Robin. They broke up at age 19 and have gone in different directions. The speaker enjoys solitary life but occasionally reflects on this young love.

The second part, A spring night in Shokoku-ji, is set in a Buddhist temple in Japan. The speaker reflects on another spring evening “eight years ago” (Line 17) and a stroll with Robin. While the past is mostly “forgotten” (Line 21), Robin is in focus. The speaker compares her to “Yugao” (Line 24), a ghostly maiden from Japanese myth, and remembers her physical beauty.

The third part takes place during An autumn morning in Shokoku-ji, as the speaker harkens back to the night before. Both the temperatures and the memories of Robin are “cold” (Line 36). The speaker dreams of a Robin who is “accusing” (Line 36). The speaker wakes chagrined and comments on the futility of love, comparing it to planets who seem to join in conjunction but are actually miles apart.

In the concluding section, winter has come. It is December at Yase, a natural wilderness area near the temple in Kyoto. The speaker recalls the fall when the relationship with Robin ended, making it clear she was the one who said goodbye. While the speaker saw Robin once “after college” (Line 46) and knows where she lives and that she’s still “single” (Line 54), the speaker will never pursue her again; she remains merely “in dream” (Line 58). While the speaker believes the two were truly in love, the speaker “left it behind” (Line 64) forever. An unknown question remains at the end of the poem whether this departure was a mistake or necessary for personal growth.