veled to many Universities to lecture about wilderness issues. Snyder, is well known for his conversation lectures but he has received more credit for his poetry.Gary Snyder has sixteen publications of which he has been a finalist for the National Book award, and he has won the following: American Book Award for Axe Handles (1983); the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for Turtle Island (1974); the American Academy of Arts and Letters award, the Bollingen Prize, a Guggenhiem Foundation fellowship, the Bess Hokin Prize, Levinson Prize from Poetry, the Robert Kirch Lifetime Achievement Award from the Los Angeles Times, and the Shelly Memorial Award. Since 1990, he has been a professor of English at the University of California, Davis (www.poets.org).Gary Snyder has spent most of his life as a transient, traveling to the dismal edges of the earth. Snyder, did so for his personal serenity. His inner peace with himself and nature is obvious in all of his poetry. Gary Snyder’s poetry will take any reader to the exact scene and state of mind the poet was in when he compiled the poem. Gary Snyder’s language, images, and emotions make his book Riprap, a outward bound vacation in the Rocky Mountains.Snyder, wrote Riprap, while he was backpacking in the Rocky Mountains. Snyder chose this simple, primitive lifestyle as a personal protest against the modern advancements man makes that devistate the environment. By retreating to the woods Snyder, created his own utopia. “His utopia remains a place of social bonds and values that work in an immanent way, unsanctioned in an immanent way, unsanctioned by any larger theological order (Molesworth p. 34).” The title poem, and the last to appear in his compilation is “Riprap.” The poem sums up his trip into nature. The poem explores his spirituality, emotions, and wise worldly beliefs. The poem “Riprap,” has a special structure that plays a major role in how t...
