Roan Stallion by Robinson Jeffers
"Roan Stallion" is a poem by Robinson Jeffers that explores themes of identity, desire, and the intersection of the human and natural worlds through the life of its protagonist, California. Set against the backdrop of early 20th-century California, California is portrayed as a woman of mixed heritage, grappling with the harsh realities of life on a farm and her tumultuous relationship with her husband, Johnny, who is often absent due to drinking and gambling. The narrative intensifies when Johnny brings home a magnificent roan stallion, which becomes a symbol of both beauty and longing for California.
As the poem unfolds, California embarks on a journey to purchase Christmas gifts for her daughter but faces peril during a storm while crossing a swollen stream. Her connection with the stallion deepens, leading her to a moment of transcendence where she contemplates the divine. However, the story takes a tragic turn when a confrontation with Johnny culminates in violence, resulting in Johnny's death and California's heart-wrenching decision to shoot the stallion, which she equates with the loss of a divine presence in her life. "Roan Stallion" invites readers to reflect on the complex dynamics of love, loss, and the primal forces that shape human experience, making it a significant work in Jeffers's exploration of inhumanism and nature's power.
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Roan Stallion by Robinson Jeffers
First published: 1925
Type of work: Poetry
Type of plot: Symbolism
Time of plot: 1920’s
Locale: Carmel coast, California
Principal characters
California , a farm wifeJohnny , her husbandChristine , their daughter
The Poem:
California is the daughter of a Scottish father and a Spanish and Indian mother. From her mother she has inherited a dark beauty and a passionate nature. When she is still very young, she marries a farmer named Johnny; by the time she is twenty-one, her features are already beginning to show the marks of hard work.
Johnny spends much of his time away from the farm, drinking and gambling. One evening, he brings home a splendid roan stallion he has won. It is shortly before Christmas, and California, pleased with his good fortune, decides to go in to town to buy some Christmas presents for their young daughter, Christine. Johnny delays her departure in the morning so that it is quite late before she can hitch their old mare to the buggy and set out for Monterey.
By nightfall, when she is ready to return home, a heavy rainstorm has started. The water is high when she reaches the ford, and before trying to cross in the darkness, she lashes the gifts she has bought around her body, hoping this will keep them dry. The mare refuses to cross the swollen stream and flounders back to shore. California soothes the mare and tries once more to guide her across the ford, but the animal is too frightened. Desperate, California prays for light. Suddenly, the heavens light up brilliantly and she sees in them the face of a child over whom angels are hovering. The mare, startled by the light, scrambles back to shore. Sobbing, California climbs out of the buggy, fastens the presents securely to her back, and mounts the horse. By the light of the heavens she is able to guide the mare across the stream and reach home safely.
California thinks that she hates the roan stallion, but she cannot stop thinking about the magnificent beast. When she tells young Christine of the miraculous light at the ford and describes the birth of Christ, she can hardly restrain herself from identifying the stallion with the deity. She knows that outside, Johnny is mating the stallion with a neighbor’s mare.
That evening, Johnny goes down the valley to the home of a neighbor. After Christine falls asleep, California steals out to the stable, where she leans against the fence, listening to the far-off cries of coyotes and watching the moon rise over the hill. Once before, she thinks, she has seen God. If she were to ride to the top of the hill, perhaps she might do so again. She hurries down to the corral where the stallion is kept, and the horse hears her as she approaches. She caresses his flanks, wishing that nature had not made it impossible for him to possess her. Then she springs up onto his back and revels in the feel of his muscles as he gallops up the hillside. At the top they halt, and she dismounts and tethers the stallion lightly to a tree. Overwhelmed by his majesty and her desire, she throws herself at his feet.
The following night, California cannot bear the thought of being with Johnny. He has brought home some wine and, half drunk, orders her to drink some. Revolted at the thought of the night ahead, California steals to the door, opens it, and flees. Excited by the prospect of a chase, Johnny calls to his dog to help him. When California hears them approaching, she crawls under the fence into the corral, the dog close behind her. The stallion is frightened by the snarling, snapping dog, and when Johnny climbs into the corral, the fierce stallion tramples him.
Christine is awakened by the noise, and, frightened to be alone in the house, she makes her way to the corral. When she sees her injured father, she runs back to the house for the rifle. California takes the gun from her and shoots the dog. While she watches, the stallion strikes again at Johnny, killing him. Then, prompted by a remnant of fidelity to the human race, she raises the rifle and shoots the stallion. She feels as if she has killed God.
Bibliography
Brophy, Robert J. Robinson Jeffers: Myth, Ritual, and Symbol in His Narrative Poems. Cleveland: Case Western Reserve University Press, 1973. Presents analysis of Roan Stallion that equates California with a marelike earth goddess, Johnny with a doomed year-spirit beast, Christine with a solstice-child, the stallion with a Poseidon-like steed of God, and California’s dream with a Christian-pagan conflation lighted by natural dynamism.
‗‗‗‗‗‗‗, ed. Robinson Jeffers: Dimensions of a Poet. New York: Fordham University Press, 1995. Collection of essays offers various interpretations of Jeffers’s poetry. Topics addressed include Jeffers’s uses of history, the female archetype in his work, and his relationship to Carmel and Big Sur, California. An essay devoted to the poem is titled “Roan Stallion and the Narrative of Nature.”
Coffin, Arthur B. Robinson Jeffers: Poet of Inhumanism. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1971. Traces Jeffers’s ideological advance toward inhumanism, noting Roan Stallion as a work of primary importance. Observes how the poem’s heroine temporarily frees herself from accustomed social behavior by shedding human attributes, seeing God’s eminence in a horse, and letting it kill her contemptible husband.
Everson, William. The Excesses of God: Robinson Jeffers as a Religious Figure. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1988. Contends that Jeffers, habitually combining paganism and mysticism, regards the religious aspect of sex as a primordial force, a supernatural wrath, and an analogy of divine life. Demonstrates how he dramatizes this belief in Roan Stallion.
McClintock, Scott. “The Poetics of Fission in Robinson Jeffers.” CLIO: A Journal of Literature, History, and the Philosophy of History 37, no. 2 (Spring, 2008): 171-191. Analyzes the transformation of Jeffers’s poetics from a metaphysical philosophy of inhumanism to his use of more violent imagery influenced by the development of nuclear weapons during the Cold War.
Nolte, William H. Rock and Hawk: Robinson Jeffers and the Romantic Agony. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1978. Interprets the figure of California in Roan Stallion as enacting an unwilled, unconscious, beautiful microcosmic recapitulation of one of the several dark, macrocosmic myths ruling humanity.
Squires, Radcliffe. The Loyalties of Robinson Jeffers. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1956. Divides Jeffers’s poetry into diffuse, sagalike works and classically unified shorter poems. In the first category, Jeffers explores the ramifications of sinning. In the second category, best exemplified by Roan Stallion, he espouses breaking free of life as the solution to problems occasioned by sin.
Zaller, Robert, ed. Centennial Essays for Robinson Jeffers. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1991. Collection of nine essays offers analyses of Jeffers’s work, including pieces by poets William Everson and Czesław Miłosz.