In "By Frazier Creek Falls," Snyder focuses on the endless supply of wonder the earth has for us. He starts out with strong imagery, placing the reader standing on a rock looking out. He then appeals to the sense of sight with descriptions of forests, appeals to hearing with the description of limbs and twigs rustling. All of these descriptions combined create and overwhelming feel of how small man is in comparison to nature. Nature moves all around us, and even through us. Snyder ends with saying mankind could live off nature alone, no manmade items such as clothes and tools are even needed. But what lies hidden between the lines, is that mankind does not appreciate the wonders of the earth, instead humans abuse them. This limits what the earth can do, and jeopardizes it's survival.
"Front Lines" has a harsh and bitter tone, which contributes to the theme of how mankind is destroying Earth. Snyder starts in line one with the use of the word "cancer" as a word to describe what the humans in this poem are inflicting upon nature. He discusses how a chainsaw, logging trucks, realty companies, and bulldozers all combine to make a destructive group against the territory they are destroying. Snyder states that the line must be drawn, because this isn't just land being destroyed, it is a specific forest that leads to the Arctic and a desert that belongs to the Piute. No land is "just land," it is all unique and worthy of preservation.
Snyder has a aura of hope at the end of "For The Children" that he does not possess in many of his other pieces. He does not start with this hope, instead he starts with a contrast of the natural inclines of the earth and man's decline. But he then speaks of the next century, and how mankind can work to come to a peace with nature. Not only does he mean that is mankind's treatment of nature changes- the hills have a higher chance of still being in existence, but also that mankind can finally be in a peaceful covenant with nature and climb the slopes with ease rather than tension.
It was really interesting to read Sydney's description of "By Frazier Creek Falls" because I also read and wrote about this poem. We discussed a lot of the same aspects of the poem and wrote about a common theme. The second poem portray a very common theme of the destruction of the world. Synder, as well as Sydney, write about a very blunt and drastic realization of the earth we all live on. Lastly, the poem "For The Children" is very different from the previous one. It was interesting to see the change and to read about the different, yet similar themes. Great post!
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