Four Poems for Robin

Snyder is generally classified as a member of the Beat poetry movement that began in the mid-1950s in the United States. This is due to his involvement with the Gallery Six reading on October 7, 1955. During that event, Snyder was one of the six younger poets who read their work, introduced by Kenneth Rexroth who served as the bridge to a previous generation of Modernist poets. Snyder read “The Berry Feast” while Allen Ginsberg shared the beginnings of “Howl,” the poem that became a definitive anthem of the movement. Beat writers like Snyder and Ginsberg attempted to break down the staid and academic. Many borrowed their mannerisms, clothing style, and vocabulary from jazz artists. They advocated moving away from what they considered the conventional toward experiences that were exploratory, sensual, and spiritual to authenticate the self. Their work was punctuated with frank languages and references to drugs and sex. Ginsberg introduced Snyder to the writer Jack Kerouac, and the two became friends. Kerouac used Snyder as his model for Japhy Ryder, the leader of The Dharma Bums (1958). Most of the Beats were from urban environments like New York and San Francisco and were attracted to Snyder’s knowledge of Eastern cultures and languages as well as his experience with the wilderness, attributes they did not possess.