Earth House Hold by Gary Snyder
"Earth House Hold" is a collection of prose by poet Gary Snyder, showcasing his writings from 1952 to 1969. The title plays on the Greek root of "ecology," suggesting a vision of the Earth as a shared "house" that requires care and stewardship. The book comprises personal journals, essays, and translations that reflect significant transitions in Snyder's life and philosophy. It traces his evolution from a solitary, questing individual to someone who embraces commitments to family, community, and a collaborative approach to poetry. Key writings document his experiences as a ranger and merchant seaman, revealing a progression in his understanding of relationships and community life. Snyder's later works advocate for a communal orientation in poetry and religion, arguing for a collective purpose that transcends individual liberation. The concluding essay articulates how poetry can serve as a unifying force within communities, blending personal expression with communal rituals. Overall, "Earth House Hold" serves as a profound exploration of interconnectedness with nature, community, and the shared human experience.
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Earth House Hold by Gary Snyder
Excerpted from an article in Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition
First published: 1969
Type of work: Journals, essays, and translations
The Work
Snyder derived the title for his first book of collected prose from wordplay on the root of the word “ecology.” As he points out in the key essay in the book, “Poetry and the Primitive,” “eco” comes from the Greek work oikos, meaning “house.” Thus Snyder playfully renders “ecology” as “earth house hold”—as a perspective that compels humans to consider the entire “earth” as a “house” that they must “hold” with more tenderness and reverence.
The book gathers journals, essays, and translations from 1952 to 1969, a period of many changes in Snyder’s life. Some of these pieces, such as reviews of two books of Native American folktales and a translation of the biography of a Buddhist master, are of interest mainly to serious Snyder scholars. For the general student and reader, however, the main interest of the book lies in the personal journals and the later essays, which show important transitions in Snyder’s life, philosophy, and conception of poetry. In the course of Earth House Hold, Snyder evolves from a wandering, questing individualist to a man firmly rooted in specific commitments to wife, community, and a communal notion of poetry.
Three chapters drawn from Snyder’s journals show his developing sense of commitment to family and community. In “Lookout’s Journal” (1952), notes from his two summers as a ranger and forest lookout in the Washington Cascades, Snyder writes an entry that is surprisingly prophetic of his later marriage to Masa and their life at the Banyan Ashram. On the other hand, his prevailing attitude is expressed in a quotation from a friend: “’Should I marry? It would mean a house; and the next thirty years teaching school.’ LOOKOUT!” Similarly, in “Tanker Notes” (1957), journals from his period as a merchant seaman, Snyder’s references to women express the exploitative attitude of sailors. By contrast, in the final chapter of the book, “Suwa-no-se Island and the Banyan Ashram,” Snyder treats his relationship with Masa, and his marriage to her, as part of a communal life in close connection with nature. Snyder includes no description of Masa, or of their meeting and courtship, but describes in considerable detail the setting and rituals of their marriage ceremony and the ensuing community celebration.
Snyder’s journals and essays in Earth House Hold show his conceptions of religion and poetry also developing more of a community orientation. Snyder’s 1951 undergraduate dissertation shows that he had long understood, on an intellectual level, the role that he believed a poet should ideally play in the aesthetic and religious life of a community. The writings in Earth House Hold show that before Snyder was able to enact such a role, he needed to work through other conceptions involving self, poetry, religion, and nature.
A 1952 entry from “Lookout’s Journal” considers poetry as a solitary activity, with primary emphasis on the poet’s attempt to express a mystical relationship with nature that is, in Asian religions, considered essentially inexpressible: “If one wished to write poetry of nature, where an audience? Must come from the very conflict of an attempt to articulate the vision.” On the other hand, in the early 1960’s essay “Buddhism and the Coming Revolution,” Snyder argues that Buddhism must move beyond its traditional focus on “liberating a few dedicated individuals” through its schools of meditation. In Snyder’s view, persons who hold Buddhist values should move through meditation and personal liberation to a larger purpose of liberating all societies and “moving toward the true community (sangha) of ’all beings.’”
In the culminating essay of Earth House Hold, “Poetry and the Primitive: Notes on Poetry as an Ecological Survival Technique,” Snyder presents a highly sophisticated analysis of how poetry should become part of oral community ritual. Through “the skilled and inspired use of the voice and language,” the poet sings of “rare and powerful states of mind” that are “common to all who listen” and that unify individuals on a deep level with their inner selves, with other people, and with “all beings” with whom they share the planet. In a section called“The Voice as a Girl,” Snyder explores concepts—crucial to an understanding of his later poetry—of how his poet’s relation to this deeper voice, called “the Muse” in Western culture and “Vak” in Hinduism, was analogous to his relationship with his wife Masa.
Bibliography
Almon, Bert. Gary Snyder. Boise, Idaho: Boise State University Press, 1979.
Altieri, Charles. Enlarging the Temple: New Directions in American Poetry During the 1960’s. Lewisburg, Pa.: Bucknell University Press, 1979.
Dean, Tim. Gary Snyder and the American Unconscious. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1991.
Halper, Jon. Gary Snyder: Dimensions of a Life. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1991.
Molesworth, Charles. Gary Snyder’s Vision: Poetry and the Real Work. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1983.
Steubing, Bob. Gary Snyder. Boston: Twayne, 1976.
Suiter, John. Poets on the Peaks. New York: Counterpoint, 2002.