Here is a collection of all of the recordings I've made of the poetry of Robinson Jeffers from November of 2020 until this month. It's merely my list of favorite thirty seven of his poems, which was culled from a larger selection of more than a hundred poems I've loved over the years. 

His collected poetry spans three huge volumes, and nearly every individual collection included a narrative poem alongside the shorter lyrics. While Jeffers seemed to have believed that his reputation would rest on the longer poems, none of them (at least for me) come near matching the power that he is able to achieve in his shorter poems. At his best, I can't think of an American poet since Whitman to match his voice, and can think of no other American poet to write who has written so beautifully and so sadly about nature, and humanity's place in it.

Because Jeffers's "inhumanist" philosophy is so dour and cynical, it's easy to dismiss his poetry and relegate him to the status of a crank, or as merely a regional, "Californian," or "ecological" poet. But to pigeon-hole a poet like him does a disservice to us all.   

Buy The Selected Poetry of Robinson Jeffers.

The texts used in the readings, and the titles and dates gives for each collection, follow The Collected Poetry of Robinson Jeffers.

Tamar (1920-1923)

Roan Stallion (1924-1925)

The Women at Point Sur (1925-1926)

Cawdor (1926-1928)

Dear Judas (1928-1929)

Thurso's Landing (1930-1931)

Give Your Heart to the Hawks (1931-1933)

Such Counsels You Gave to Me (1935-1938)

The Double Axe (1942-1947)

Hungerfield (1948-1953)

Last Poems (1953-1962)

Any comments, or suggestions for readings I should make in later episodes, can be emailed to [email protected].

I assume that the small amount of work presented in each episode constitutes fair use. Publishers, authors, or other copyright holders who would prefer to not have their work presented here can also email me at [email protected], and I will remove the episode immediately.