These are the last three verses of:
Real and Half Real
by Robinson Jeffers[ ... ]
But now consider
Something not human: — here the coast hills at Soberanes Creek sea-mouth, steep wedges and cones of granite
Thin-skinned with grass; their feet are deep in the flood-tide ocean, dark, heavy and still, calm in this trough
Between two storms; their heads are against the dark heavy sky. No life is visible but the bright grass,
And a gang of wild pigs, huddled and flank-to-flank, flowing up a swale
On the far slope; and that one eagle, wheeling and rocking, high and alone
Against the cloud-lid.Here are no trivial artist-signatures, no puppet-play, no pretence of free will;
This is first-class reality. The human affair is half real, part myth, part art-work: this is in earnest.I conclude
That men should play the parts assigned them and do it bravely, emulating
The nobility of nature, but well in mind
That their play is a play; it is serious but not important; what’s done in earnest is done outside it.
Previous poems by Jeffers are here.
-Julie
