(1887- 1962, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)
The son of the Reverend Dr. William Hamilton Jeffers, a professor of Old Testament literature and exegesis at the Western Theological Seminary, and Annie Robinson Tuttle, a church organist. His father quickly immersed Jeffers in a rigorous classical education of Greek, Latin, and Presbyterian doctrine. Jeffers spent much of his childhood in Europe with his family, where he attended boarding schools in Geneva, Lausanne, Zurich, Leipzig, and Vevey.
At the age of fifteen he was already fluent in Greek, Latin, French, Italian, and German. Graduating from Occidental College (Los Angeles) in 1905, he soon began graduate studies in literature at the University of Souther California. He also studied medicine at the medical school at USC and later he studied forestry at the University of Washington for one year. In 1912 he published his first volume of poetry, Flagons and Apples. The next year he married Una Kuster, a married lady with whom he had a love affair in 1906. They married on August, 1913.
At the age of fifteen he was already fluent in Greek, Latin, French, Italian, and German. Graduating from Occidental College (Los Angeles) in 1905, he soon began graduate studies in literature at the University of Souther California. He also studied medicine at the medical school at USC and later he studied forestry at the University of Washington for one year. In 1912 he published his first volume of poetry, Flagons and Apples. The next year he married Una Kuster, a married lady with whom he had a love affair in 1906. They married on August, 1913.  |
| Jeffers, Una and their Bulldog (1916) |
Californians. Jeffers began construction on Tor House, a stone cottage for his family, and in 1919, built the forty-foot Hawk Tower with his own hands. Tamar and Other Poems, released in 1924, was a breakthrough for Jeffers. A wide number of critics compared Jeffers's Tamar to the great Greek tragedians. This led to an expanded reissue called Roan Stallion, Tamar, and Other Poems, which was a critical and popular success. It was in these poems that Jeffers first began to express the ideas that he would later call "Inhumanism" -the assertion that mankind was too egocentric, too unmoved by the "astonishing beauty of things".
Jeffers had finally found his muse, an emotional and intellectually compatible partner. In 1914, Jeffers published his second volume of poetry, In 1948, Jeffers published his mot controversial collection of poetry, The Double Axe, in which he formally defined Inhumanism but also criticized the Allies' role in World War II, putting Roosevelt and Churchill on the same moral level as Hitler and Mussolini (prompting his publisher, Random House, to include a disclaimer). Shortly thereafter, Jeffers's dearest Una fell ill with cancer and died in 1950. Hungerfield and Other Poems (1954), Jeffers's last volume of poetry, contains a moving eulogy to Una. Jeffers died in 1962 at Tor House.
THE DAY IS A POEM
(September 19, 1939)
This morning Hitler spoke in Danzig, we hear his voice.
A man of genius: that is, of amazing
Ability, courage, devotion, cored on a sick child's soul,
Heard clearly through the dog wrath, a sick child
Wailing in Danzig; invoking destruction and wailing at it.
Here, the day was extremely hot; about noon
A south wind like a blast from hell's mouth spilled a slight rain
On the parched land, and at five a light earthquake
Danced the house, no harm done. Tonight I have been amusing myself
Watching the blood-red moon droop slowly
Into black sea through bursts of dry lightning and distant thunder.
Well: the day is a poem: but too much
Like one of Jeffers's, crusted with blood and barbaric omens,
Painful to excess, inhuman as a hawk's cry.
CARMEL POINT
The extraordinary patience of things!
This beautiful place defaced with a crop of suburban
houses�
How beautiful when we first beheld it,
Unbroken field of poppy and lupin walled with clean
cliffs;
No intrusion but two or three horses pasturing,
Or a few milch cows rubbing their flanks on the
outcrop rock-heads�
Now the spoiler has come: does it care?
Not faintly. It has all time. It knows the people are a
tide
That swells and in time will ebb, and all
Their works dissolve. Meanwhile the image of the
pristine beauty
Lives in the very grain of the granite,
Safe as the endless ocean that climbs our cliff.
�As for us:
We must uncenter our minds from ourselves;
We must unhumanize our views a little, and become
confident
As the rock and ocean that we were made from.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Hart, George (2013): Inventing the Language to Tell it: Robinson Jeffers and the Biology of Consciousness. New York: Fordham University Press.
Hunt, Tim (Ed.), 2002: The Selected Poetry of Robinson Jeffers. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press.
Phillips, J. R. (2013): Robison Jeffers: Resurrecting God from the Grave. Los Angeles: CreateSpace.
