Friday, November 03, 2017
More Meaning Than the Whole Human Race
Robinson Jeffers (1887-1962), "Their Beauty Has More Meaning," The Collected Poetry, Vol. 3: 1938-1962 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1991), p. 119:
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Yesterday morning enormous the moon hung low on the ocean,
Round and yellow-rose in the glow of dawn;
The night herons flapping home wore dawn on their wings. To-day
Black is the ocean, black and sulphur the sky,
And white seas leap. I honestly do not know which day is more beautiful.
I know that to-morrow or next year or in twenty years
I shall not see these things: — and it does not matter, it does not hurt;
They will be here. And when the whole human race
Has been like me rubbed out, they will still be here: storms, moon and ocean,
Dawn and the birds. And I say this: their beauty has more meaning
Than the whole human race and the race of birds.
