Gary Snyder

"Milton by Firelight"

The theme taken on by Snyder in this poem is that proverbial notion of paradise lost.  Snyder alludes  to Milton's "Paradise Lost" multiple times (lines 10, 29) but the scene painted by Snyder is distinctly American.  He speaks of Indians and squalls, a pastoral scene of the American wilderness. Snyder contemplates the temporal nature of nature itself and declares that
"In ten thousand years the Sierras
Will be dry and dead, home of the scorpions."
(22-23)
Snyder brings the European interpretation of the biblical Garden of Eden into the America of his day and lifestyle.  The opening stanza gives a lovely description of the miner's art which he beholds with grief (line 2).  He ends the stanza curiously with "What use, Milton, a silly story / Of our lost general parents, / eaters of fruit?" (Lines 10-13).  The reader soon understands that this poem is written in the form of an internal monologue.  While reading Milton and surveying the scene before him, Snyder connects the world of Milton with his own.  Although not explicit, one can easily sense a feeling of discontent in the poem.