HXE 110 MODERN ENGLISH AND

AMERICAN LITERATURE

Analysis of the poem

Song of the Taste by Gary Snyder
Song of the Taste
by Gary Snyder

Eating the living germs of grasses Drawing on life of living

Eating the ova of large birds clustered points of light spun
out of space
hidden in the grape.
the fleshy sweetness packed
around the sperm of swaying trees
Eating each other’s seed
eating
The muscles of the flanks and thighs of ah, each other.
soft-voiced cows
the bounce in the lamb’s leap
the swish in the ox’s tail Kissing the lover in the mouth of bread:
lip to lip.
Eating roots grown swoll
inside the soil
• The poem simply conveys the narrator’s
sensuous use of language.
• Here is the singing in a poem about the world
that deliciously presents all that is to be eaten in
a lover fashion –if you so wish.
• Here is language at its most edible.
• The poet speaks of delight and his description of
the food in this poem.
 Eating the living germs of grasses
Eating the ova of large birds
• Here is the succulence of “the ova of large
birds”---that he then extends to cover the
spermatozoa of trees---in some sort of
fertilization event of two different species:
the fleshy sweetness packed
around the sperm of swaying trees
• The imagery of sexual organs and sensual body
parts are used. Strong association and imagery.
 The muscles of the flanks and thighs of
soft-voiced cows
the bounce in the lamb’s leap
the swish in the ox’s tail
• In this stanza the movement of the flesh is described —in “the
flanks and thighs of/ soft-voiced cows” and their assorted friends—
“in lamb’s leap/ the swish in the ox’s tail.”
• The flesh is made to appear in physiology of “flanks and thighs” and
then turned into movement—with “the bounce” and “the swish” of
their parts.
• The description becomes audible and perceptible.
• And it gets better. The poet goes from
physiology and shapes and motion into the raw
sexuality of nature and us.
• The poet speaks of the grape –and how it
collects life---and light---and hides in its flesh---
“light spun/ out of space/ hidden in the grape.”
• From the grape we go to the eating of seed---
and the each other---“Eating each other’s seed/
eating/ ah, each other.”
• The last stanza reveals the last connotation of
the sensuality in the eating of all flesh---and
each other---“Kissing the lover in the mouth of
bread: / lip to lip.”
• There is such extreme pleasure in the bounty of
the world and nature and in each other.
• Gary Synder has put this out in an imagery of a
feast that we are to enjoy ---in his poem—that
tells of the flesh to be enjoyed--- in the world
around us—and in each other.
Song of Taste

• Gary Snyder promotes the concept of “cause no

unnecessary harm” which discusses the rules of
respect to all the animal got killed for
consumptions.
• Human in hunters-gatherer culture are practical-
ecologist because they have figured out how
they relate to the land of which they are a part of
and had come to understand the ecological
interrelation between human, animals, spirits,
and the land and how to live successfully within
that that ecological web.
• The rules of respect for animals killed also
include the idea that no unnecessary slaughter
should be carried out while hunting
• In China and Japan, there is a Buddhist ritual
called fang (release) –sheng (living being) which
means releasing captured animals, birds or
fishes into the wild to show Buddhist
compassion for all living creatures.
Animal and Plants

• Live mutually on each other, and throughout

nature there is a constant exchange of energy—
a cycle of life and death affairs.
• In this realm of karma, living depends on each
other for it is a “constant exchange of energy”.
• In this poem Snyder eulogies the sacramental of
inter-eating including “each other’s seed”
• Eating each other is an act of loving, thus the
poet encourages human to join the web of
interrelation and interpenetration.
• This perception of a sacramentalized ecosystem
lies behind the ceremonies of compassion or
gratitude in foraging cultures, where a special
respect is paid to the spirit of the game.
• In this poem, Snyder indicates that eating is truly
a sacrament.
 Eating is a sacrament (Ceremony)

• We start by saying grace

• Grace is the first and the last poem, the few
words we say to clear our hearts and teach the
children and welcome the guest all at the same
time.
• To say a good grace you must be conscious of
what you are doing, not guilt-ridden and evasive.
• So we look at the nature of eggs, apples, and
ox-tail ragout. What we see is plentitude, even
excess, a great sexual exuberance.
• Millions of grains of grass-seed to become flour.
Million of codfish fry that will never-must never-
grow to maturity: sacrifices to the food chain.
• And if we eat meet it is the life, the bounce, the
swish, that we eat. Human should know that
cows stand up to their hocks in feed-lot manure
waiting to be transported to the dining room
table.
• The virgin forest in the Amazon are clearcut to
make pasture to raise beef for human
consumptions.
• Even a root in the ground is a marvel of living
chemistry, making sugars and flavors from earth,
air, water.
• Looking closer at this world of one-ness, we see
all these being as of our own flesh, as our
children, our lovers.
• We see ourselves too as an offering to the
continuation of life.
• In Christian the concept of Christ’s blood and
body become clearer as the bread blesses you
as you bless it.
• Anyone can use a grace from their tradition, if
they have one and infuse it with deeper feeling
and understanding.
• But saying grace is not fashionable and it is staid
to be mechanical and flat with no sense of the
deep chasm that lies under the dining table.
• Snyder’s poem “Song of taste is a grace for
graces, a model for anyone’s thought; song on
the meal; that the fortunate ones on earth
partake of three times a day,