"Steak"
The poem "Steak" focuses on steak houses and the
people that eat there. Snyder points out the irony of the big steak houses with
signs of happy cartoon cows or hefty prime cows, standing over the pieces of
beef that are sliced, grilled and consumed. He puts emphasis on the word
"rare" as if to say that rare is simply a title given to meat to put
aside the fact that it is simply the raw muscle of another animal. He shows
that all kinds of people eat steak at the houses, even animal nutrition experts
with Buddhist beads. Then he shows what the true source of the steak is: the
hundreds of livestock standing in frozen mud, eating old grain. The
cattle seem to have no purpose in life other than becoming a meal. The entire
poem points out the vast differences between what we the consumers believe and
what really happens in the process.
“By Frazier Creek Falls”
“By Frazier Creek Falls” is about sensing nature and being a
part of it. Snyder puts the reader standing on a cliff, looking into a valley.
A waterfall falls nearby into the valley. He takes beauty even in the small
things, such as the breeze blowing through the pine needles. He writes as if
the land is alive. Snyder wants to remind the people that they are part of
nature and they must embrace and respect the rest of it. He claims that we
could live on earth without clothes or tools. Since we came from using nothing,
we can go back.
“Rain in Alleghany”
This poem represents Snyder’s passion for Alleghany
California. The area, seemingly mountainous, contains narrow, twisty roads
wrapping around rivers along the way. When he is weary from his travels, Snyder
enjoys sitting in Allegheny, drinking a beer and listening to the rain. He
shows how one of his favorite things is to embrace nature with company.
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