SOURCE: "The Pattern Which Connects: Metaphor in Gary Snyder's Later Poetry," in Western American Literature: Quarterly Journal of the Western Literature Association, Vol. XXII, No. 2, Summer, 1987, pp. 99-123.

In the following excerpt, Martin uses feminist theory to analyze Snyder's complex metaphors.

With one or two exceptions, critical readings of Gary Snyder's poetry have argued that he makes little use of metaphor. On this point critics have taken their lead from Thomas Parkinson, whose comments in 1968 seem to have set the trend for many later readers ["The Poetry of Gary Snyder," Southern Review, Vol. 4]. Following Parkinson's emphasis there have been several very useful commentaries which I do not wish to question here. The problem with this kind of analysis is, however, that it tends to overlook the appearance in the poetry of structures which I can only term metaphoric. This is particularly clear in the later poetry, which has...