He believed meter was imposed on poetry by man, not a fundamental part of its nature. Jeffers did not accept the idea that meter is a fundamental part of poetry, and, like Marianne Moore, claimed his verse was not composed in meter, but "rolling stresses". His intense relationship with the physical world is described in often brutal and apocalyptic verse, and demonstrates a preference for the natural world over what he sees as the negative influence of civilization. Jeffers' short verse includes "Hurt Hawks", "The Purse-Seine", and "Shine, Perishing Republic".
Robinson jeffers tor house and hawk tower full#
These poems were full of controversial subject matter like incest, murder and parricide. These poems, including Tamar and Roan Stallion, introduced Jeffers as a master of the epic form, reminiscent of ancient Greek poets. The tower also included a secret interior staircase – a source of great fun for his young sons.ĭuring this time, Jeffers published volumes of long narrative blank verse that shook up the national literary scene. In Una's special room at the top were kept many of her favorite items, photographs of Jeffers taken by the artist Weston, plants and dried flowers from Shelley's grave, and a rosewood melodeon which she loved to play. The tower was a gift for his wife Una, who had a fascination for Irish literature and stone towers. The romantic Gothic tower was named after a hawk that appeared while Jeffers was working on the structure, and which disappeared the day it was completed. The completed residence was used as a family home until his descendants decided to turn it over to the Tor House Foundation, formed by Ansel Adams, for historic preservation. Construction on Tor House continued into the late 1950s and early 1960s, and was completed by his eldest son. He later built a large four-story stone tower on the site called Hawk Tower, based on similar structures he had seen while traveling through Ireland. Many of his poems reflect the influence of stone and building on his life. He continued adding on to Tor House throughout his life, writing in the mornings and working on the house in the afternoon. He worked with the builder,and in this short, informal apprenticeship, he learned the art of stonemasonry. To build the first part of Tor House, a small, two story cottage, Jeffers hired a local builder. Before Jeffers and Una purchased the land where Tor House would be built, they rented a small cottage in Carmel, and enjoyed many afternoon walks and picnics at the "tors" near the site that would become Tor House. Tor is a Celtic term describing a large outcropping of rock. He spent most of his life in Carmel, California, in a granite house that he had built himself called "Tor House and Hawk Tower". In the 1920s and 1930s, at the height of his popularity, Jeffers was famous for being a tough outdoorsman, living in relative solitude and writing of the difficulty and beauty of the wild. Jeffers died in 1962 an obituary can be found in the New York Times, January 22, 1962. The couple had a daughter who died a day after birth in 1914, and then twin sons in 1916. After Una spent some time in Europe to quiet things down, the two were married in 1913, and moved to Carmel, California, where Jeffers constructed Tor House and Hawk Tower. Sometime before this, he and Una had begun an affair that became a scandal, reaching the front page of the Los Angeles Times in 1912. In 1910 he enrolled as a forestry student at the University of Washington in Seattle, a course of study that he abandoned after less than one year, at which time he returned to Los Angeles. He met Una Call Kuster in 1906 she was three years older than he was, a graduate student, and the wife of a Los Angeles attorney. At school, he was an avid outdoorsman, and active in the school's literary society.Īfter he graduated from Occidental Jeffers went to the University of Southern California to study medicine. At sixteen he entered Occidental College. He was a child prodigy, interested in classics and Greek and Latin language and literature. He traveled through Europe during his youth and attended school in Switzerland. His family was supportive of his interest in poetry. His brother was Hamilton Jeffers, who became a well-known astronomer, working at Lick Observatory.
William Hamilton Jeffers, and Annie Robinson Tuttle. Jeffers was born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania (now part of Pittsburgh), the son of a Presbyterian minister and biblical scholar, Reverend Dr. Most of Jeffers' poetry was written in classic narrative and epic form, but today he is also known for his short verse, and considered an icon of the environmental movement.
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John Robinson Jeffers was an American poet, known for his work about the central California coast.
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