For Plants (Masterplots II: Poetry, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Gary Snyder
- First Published: 1967
- Type of Work: Meditation
- Genres: Poetry, Meditation
- Subjects: Nature, Substance abuse, Gods or goddesses, Drug addiction or addicts, Drugs, Backpacking or backpackers, Plants, Hallucinogens, Marijuana
The Poem
“For Plants” is a meditation on the mythical and magical properties of certain psychoactive plants. The poem is written in free verse consisting of forty-two lines in roughly seven sections. Poets sometimes make lists of persons or places or things in poems. Gary Snyder uses this catalog form in “For Plants” to present several plants known since ancient times to possess medicinal or hallucinogenic properties. The effect of the rhythmic repetition of strange or exotic plant names in Snyder’s catalog is often like an incantation.
The poem begins with a...
[The entire page is 1389 words long]
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