As I continue my reading of Turtle
Island, it is almost getting easier to pick out themes based on our in-class
discussions and such. Again, I have picked out three of the poems in Turtle
Island and summarized what I think they mean.
The first poem I picked to read was
Manzanita. In this poem, Snyder is
describing the Manzanita clan and how they live. The main point Snyder wrote
this poem is to describe the way of life of the Manzanita people and to show
that it is beautiful and peaceful. This is shown when he talks about the
sunrise and the “gold-purple” pines and the echoing of the woodpecker’s sounds.
The second poem I read was Pine Tree Tops. In this poem, I believe
Snyder is trying to once again show us the beauty of nature. The poem is very short;
however it still contains many descriptive adjectives to really paint a picture
in the readers mind. The purpose of the poem is to make the reader reflect onto
their own experiences with nature and value them. This way, we will want to preserve
it.
The last poem I read was For the Children. This poem is sort of a
summary of the entire purpose for writing this book. In this poem, Snyder tells
us that all we have before us is a “rising slope of statistics” and “everything,
going up/up, as we all, go down.” But he does not leave us with only the bad
news. He says that if “we make it” we can live in peace. The main theme in this
poem is that we need to increase the bioregionalism in our culture so we do not
lose our planet.
All three of these poems should
shape the way that someone looks at our planet. Earth is a beautiful planet
that deserves to be valued and treasured so we can enjoy its entirety.
I think you picked three poems that tie well together. I agree with you when about the first two poems when they talk about the beauty of Earth. When I have been reading Turtle Island, I have noticed the recurring theme of Earth and it's beauty. Snyder loves to illustrate how beautiful Earth is and he really wants the reader to realize this. I think you did a good job tying in the concept of bioregionalism. Snyder really points out how we need to realize that we as a race might not be here much longer so we might want to start thinking of ways to increase our time capacity on Earth. And one way is bioregionalism. Overall, I think you did a good job connecting the three poems together with a common theme of how people view planet Earth and then tying in the concept of bioregionalism.
ReplyDelete