Four Poems for Robin

The four individual sections of “Four Poems for Robin” are interdependent. While they can be read and enjoyed individually, they gain meaning by Snyder’s linking of them as they recall similar locations and emotions that build on the overall themes of loss, love, and growth.

Part One—Siwashing it out once in Siuslaw Forest—describes a camping trip the speaker took alone to a recreational area near the Oregon coast. To “siwash” is a term borrowed from Native Americans in the Pacific Northwest and means to camp without a tent. The speaker “[sleeps] under” (Line 1) the blooming “rhododendron” (Line 1) trees that drop their “blossoms” (Line 2) throughout the “night” (Line 2). This clarifies the time as April to May because that is when the Pacific Northwest version of the flower blooms. The poem describes the cold night and the speaker’s discomfort, which is contrasted by the remembrance of Robin and the “big warm bed” (Line 8) they used to share when they were “the youngest lovers” (9) and “still nineteen” (Line 10). The couple parted ways a long time ago. Now, the speaker hikes alone while Robin is a teacher “back east” (12) and their “friends are married” (11). The speaker doesn’t “mind living this way” (Line 13) because the landscape is a beautiful one full of “green hills” (Line 14) and a “blue beach” (Line 14). The speaker values solitude, yet “sleeping in the open” (Line 15) makes him think of “when I had [Robin]” (Line 16); the speaker misses that sense of connection. Despite the speaker’s protestations that his solitary life is fulfilling, the memories of the “warm bed” (Line 8) and life with Robin seem to drop like the “blossoms” (Line 2) continuously upon him. This is a reminder of the love that once used to exist for the speaker. It is hinted here that its loss is not something he can forget and perhaps cannot help regret.

The setting shifts in Part Two to Japan, A spring night in Shokoku-ji, the famous temple where many go to study Zen Buddhism. While this part of the poem takes place in Japan, “in a garden of the old capital” (Line 23) in the shadow of the temple, the speaker’s mind is not on the practice of meditation. Instead, he remembers how “eight years ago” (Line 17) he and Robin “walked under the cherry blossoms / At night” (Lines 18-19). The blooms in the garden remind the speaker of cherry blossoms, which connect to the rhododendron blossoms that populate the Siuslaw Forest. Everything the speaker “wanted” (Line 20) has been “forgotten” (Line 21), except for Robin. She appears to the speaker as the “trembling ghost of Yugao” (Line 24), a dead girl in The Tale of Genji, a Japanese myth. In the tale, Yugao is killed by the spirit of Genji’s former lover, and he is haunted by her memory. Like Genji, the speaker cannot forget the former lover’s “cool body / Naked under a summer cotton dress” (Lines 25-26). As before, while the speaker might not “mind living this way” (Line 13), isolated, his subconscious is haunted by the possible mistake of giving up Robin.

This is confirmed when the speaker describes his thoughts during An autumn morning in Shokoku-ji. This time, the reminiscence of the night before is described as a “bitter memory like vomit” (Line 29), so violent it “choked [the speaker’s] throat” (Line 30). The speaker tries to shake this off by going to bed, “unroll[ing] a sleeping bag / On mats on the porch” (Lines 31-32), an action that echoes his outdoor camping in Part One. However, he is confronted by Robin in a dream where she appears “wild, cold, and accusing” (Line 36). The speaker feels “shamed and angry” (Line 37) upon waking and calls the “wars of the heart” (Line 38) useless. At dawn, he sees “Venus and Jupiter. / The first time I have / Ever seen them close” (Lines 39-41). It is possible the speaker is witnessing the planets appearing in conjunction. This astronomical phenomenon creates an optical allusion that makes “Venus and Jupiter” (Line 39) seem to almost touch. Many astronomers have likened their appearance to star-crossed lovers. This echoes the earlier mythic reference to Yugao and Genji. Both references highlight the speaker’s missed chance with Robin. The connection between lovers seems doomed in the suggested imagery here with the speaker processing anger and grief.

As winter approaches, the setting shifts to December at Yase. Yase is also in Kyoto, a natural area similar to Siuslaw Forest. Here, the speaker once more recalls his breakup with Robin “in the tall dry grass by the orchard” (Line 43), presumably the same “orchard in Oregon” (Line 19) mentioned in Part Two. Here, the speaker suggests that Robin “chose to be free” (Line 44) and gives a reason for his recurrent memories. Before she left, Robin said, “Again someday, maybe ten years” (Line 45). However, “ten years and more have / Gone by” (Lines 49-50). When seen last, Robin was “strange” (Line 47) and the speaker was “obsessed with a plan” (Line 48), perhaps to travel and see Japan. This notation of what really occurred goes a long way in exorcising Robin’s ghost. It shows that the speaker has begun to accept that he had the opportunity to reconnect with Robin but chose not to: “I’ve always known / where you were— / I might have gone to you” (Lines 50-52). The speaker then notes, “I didn’t” (Line 55). As much as Robin might have chosen to leave, the speaker realizes he has chosen to “make it alone” (Line 56).

While the acceptance of the breakup is there, the speaker also shows reverence to his former emotional vulnerability; this is a loss of something special and sacred. “Only in dream” (Line 58) does the speaker remember the “grave, awed intensity / Of our young love” (Lines 59-60). Yet, its trueness is something the speaker does not entirely dismiss: “We had what the others / All crave and seek for” (Lines 62-63). Robin and the speaker were as star-crossed as Genji and Yugao, as distanced as Jupiter and Venus. They, too, loved and lost, and cannot return to each other because they “left it behind at nineteen” (Line 64). Whether “ten years” (Line 49) or 50, there is no going backwards to recapture that point in time. There is no opportunity, the speaker suggests, to take a different path; what is done is done. No wonder the speaker suddenly feels “ancient” (Line 65), having “lived many lives” (Lines 66). The speaker can “never now know / If I am a fool” (Lines 67-68) or have acted as his “karma demands” (Line 70). Did the speaker give up the love of his life out of stupidity or because it was necessary for personal growth that he cannot yet imagine? There is no answer at this point—if ever there will be—and this honest depiction of the complexity of loss is poignant and crushing.