“Axe Handles,” indicates that all new things are sculpted by the old. Basically, their idea of the poem is man takes time to mature. At first, man starts as an insignificant being, but over time there is a building of character that is sculpted by mentors and idols.Snyder, refers to his son wanting to imitate him. Kai, the poets son, is just a hatchet head lying dormant in the shop. Kai, longs to be a hatchet but Snyder explains that it will take time to build and the carpenter will have to have some kind of model to refer to. The implication being that a boy learns to be a man from his father (Murphy p.15). Snyder is confident that Kai will become an axe as well.Gary Snyder recognizes his influence on how the axe handle will be shaped, and the molding of his son into a man. Snyder recalls his youth, himself a hatchet head in need of a handle and finds the handle pattern in the poet Ezra Pound, the essayist Lu Ji, and the college professor Shish-hsiang Chen (Murphy p.15). Snyder does not refer to his mentors as a hatchet but rather an axe. In his fifties, Snyder also becomes an “axe,” complete in both functions as a “model” and as an instrument in the service of the “craft of culture” (Murphy p.15).The first section of Axe Handles is Loops, and “Axe Handles” is the first poem to appear in the book.. Loops is an interesting name for the section of the book because the idea of a son being shaped by his father and later in life when he becomes a man and has a child of his own, where he in turn becomes a carpenter of character. Not only does Loops refer to the circle of life , but there is a loop in the book. “Axe Handles,” is also found on the back cover of the book, thereby functioning as the beginning and the end of his collection (Dean p.253). Snyder’s poem, represents how life is a ride that loops back on itself.Snyder shows his sensitive side in “...
