Dear Judas, and other poems

by Robinson Jeffers

light brown boards, black spie

Genres: Poetry

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1929

About the author

Collections of American poet John Robinson Jeffers, who sets many of his works in California, include Tamar and Other Poems (1924).

He knew the central coast and wrote mostly in classic narrative and epic form. Nevertheless, people today know also his short verse and consider him an symbol of the environmental movement.

The Harry Ransom humanities research center at the University of Texas at Austin and the libraries at Occidental College, the University of California, and Yale University collect many manuscripts and materials of Jeffers. Survivors published a collection of his letters posthumously as The Selected Letters of Robinson Jeffers, 1887–1962 (1968). Jeffers wrote other books or criticism and poetry: are: Poetry, Gongorism, and a Thousand Years (1949), Themes in My Poems (1956), Robinson Jeffers: Selected Poems (1965), The Alpine Christ and Other Poems (1974), What Odd Expedients" and Other Poems (1981), and Rock and Hawk: A Selection of Shorter Poems by Robinson Jeffers (1987).

Stanford University Press recently released a five-volume collection of the complete works of Robinson Jeffers. In an article titled, "A Black Sheep Joins the Fold", written upon the release of the collection in 2001, Stanford Magazine ably remarked that due to a number of circumstances, "there was never an authoritative, scholarly edition of California’s premier bard" until Stanford published the complete works.

Biographical studies include George Sterling, Robinson Jeffers: The Man and the Artist (1926); Louis Adamic, Robinson Jeffers (1929); Melba Bennett, Robinson Jeffers and the Sea (1936) and The Stone Mason of Tor House (1966); Edith Greenan, Of Una Jeffers (1939); Mabel Dodge Luhan, Una and Robin (1976; written in 1933); Ward Ritchie, Jeffers: Some Recollections of Robinson Jeffers (1977); and James Karman, Robinson Jeffers: Poet of California (1987). Books about Jeffers's career include L. C. Powell, Robinson Jeffers: The Man and His Work (1940; repr. 1973); William Everson, Robinson Jeffers: Fragments of an Older Fury (1968); Arthur B. Coffin, Robinson Jeffers: Poet of Inhumanism (1971); Bill Hotchkiss, Jeffers: The Sivaistic Vision (1975); James Karman, ed., Critical Essays on Robinson Jeffers (1990); Alex Vardamis The Critical Reputation of Robinson Jeffers (1972); and Robert Zaller, ed., Centennial Essays for Robinson Jeffers (1991). The Robinson Jeffers Newsletter, ed. Robert Brophy, is a valuable scholarly resource.

In a rare recording, Jeffers can be heard reading his "The Day Is A Poem" (September 19, 1939) on Poetry Speaks – Hear Great Poets Read Their Work from Tennyson to Plath, Narrated by Charles Osgood (Sourcebooks, Inc., c2001), Disc 1, #41; including text, with Robert Hass on Robinson Jeffers, pp. 88–95. Jeffers was also on the cover of Time – The Weekly Magazine, April 4, 1932 (pictured on p. 90. Poetry Speaks).

"Jeffers Studies", a journal of research on the poetry of Robinson Jeffers and related topics, is published semi-annually by the Robinson Jeffers Association.

Reviews

[J. Alfred · Rating 3 out of 5]

An early review of the long title poem says that it has no memorable lines. This is half true: the memorable lines are the ones that come straight out of the Bible and thus kind of shock you to find them in unfriendly surroundings.
CS Lewis famously said that Jesus is either a Liar, a Lunatic, or the Lord. This poem is a fascinating attempt at reading Jesus, as he is seen in the Gospels, as a Lunatic. Jeffers's Jesus, at least in this poem, is a psychologial genius with at least a little bit of a gift for miracle: he's also completely insane from the lying claims of his mother that he is God's son and not a bastard. (Lewis also argued that if any miracles are possible the divine birth is certainly possible, but a poet can pick and choose his materials, fine.) It's worth a read, at least for the theological shock value of seeing a very smart guy deal with the same stories everyone else has to work with and coming up with a wildly different answer.
The other poems aren't so great. "The Happy Shepherdess" is another look at Jesus as a Lunatic: this time it's a pregnant Californian woman who gets to play the Jesus-role, but she takes the wholly-benevolant side of his character. She dies unable to protect her sheep, pointlessly, without issue.
Well, we don't read Jeffers for his chirpy good humor.

[Descending Angel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a mostly re-read for me, everything apart from the title poem "Dear Judas" (about 50 pages long) and one other poem was included in the selected poetry of Jeffers. It is a flawless collection, full of power and beautiful turn of phrase.

[Baba Yaga · Rating 5 out of 5]

NOOO not nosie 😭

[Cooper Renner · Rating 4 out of 5]

2020 reaction: the title poem is somewhat marred by its philosophical and religious intent, but “The Loving Shepherdess” is a powerful and tragic narrative, strongly evocative of the California coast and the difficulties of rural life while seeming like a kind of precursor or progenitor of McCarthy. The short poems are better than Jeffers’s lyrics usually are, much more balanced between the poetic and philosophical weight they carry.

While Dear Judas is a quasi-philosophical meditation in dramatic form, The Living Shepherdess is almost a noir novel of a doomed young woman. Of the short poems, The Humanist’s Tragedy is a condensed narrative about the Bacchae.