For this third assignment, I read "Night Herons" (pg 59 in my pocket edition), Affluence (87), and Two Fawns That Didn't See the Light This Spring (102). All three poems had a strong sense of bioregionalism tied in and also called for action from the humans responsible for destruction of the natural order that the bioregion used to posses.
In "Night Herons", San Francisco Bay is described as noisy and rampant with air pollution, sewers, and water treatment plants. The speaker states how while walking through the city at night, he longs for the night herons to return, but the noise and pollution drove them away. This shows how the humans presence has caused the removal of key species to the natural food web that the bioregion possessed, and without that string in the web, the whole natural order of life might be thrown off. At the conclusion of the poem, the speaker describes the sunrise, leaving the audience with a sense of hope and a new beginning; that the natural order might soon be restored.
Snyder's "Affluence" describes a forested area rather than a city, but it still focuses on how humans have destroyed the natural world. The forested area has been harvested for logging by a slash and burn method, which leaves only the tree stump behind. This removes shelter and food for the natural life and animals residing in that forest, causing them to have to leave. The final line in the final stanza says the forest is "paying the price someone didn't pay", meaning that because humans have evolved so they cannot survive without the uses of logging and destroying trees and natural areas, it is nature that must pay.
Lastly, in "Two Fawns ... Spring", Snyder tells two stories: one of a hunter, the other of a driver. The first story about the hunter describes how he shot what he thought was a buck to harvest, but it turned out to be a doe - and not just a doe, but a pregnant doe. In the story with the driver, a deer slowly walked out in front of the car, which effortlessly ran the deer over, instantly murdering both her and the fawn she was carrying. The deaths of both unborn fawns are the two fawns that the title refers to.
All three poems weave together to form a story about how humans are destroying the natural bioregion. First, we slash and burn all natural areas to construct our own polluted society, and this causes all animals to have to flee. Once the animals leave the area, they have no home to go to since they are surrounded by urban civilization, so when they go to seek food or shelter, they encounter either a misinformed hunter, or a car speeding around a curvy road. Either way, humans are responsible for the destruction of both the land and species: the bioregion. All humans can wait for now is the "dawn" referred to in "Night Herons" that will bring a new beginning of environmental sustainability.
Katie,
ReplyDeleteThis is a great post. I love how you discussed a lot of details and fully analyzed Snyder's purposes and the messages he is trying to send us through the poems. I also like how you gave a little description of the poem before you started analyzing and putting your opinions into it. All three poems you picked are related to each other because like you said, they all talk about how humans have destroyed the natural bioregion and the impacts of it.