Abstract
This article explores the impact of Jeffers’ wife Una’s death on the work he completed between the date of her passing, 1 September 1950, and his own death in 1962. First, the history of Jeffers and Una’s relationship is recounted, including the important role Una played in shaping her husband’s public image. The article then turns to Jeffers’ late, post–1950 career, beginning with a prolonged period of grief-induced writer’s block. When Jeffers regained his ability to write verse, it was chiefly through the composition of “Hungerfield,” a distinctive mid-length narrative poem that bears the hallmarks of Jeffers’ earlier successful narratives but that also stands apart in its structure and concerns. Bounded by an elegiac frame (“both a dedicatory address and a lament”), the unfolding of the poem can be read as the poet’s way of ultimately coming to terms with the reality of Una’s death. Jeffers’ previous narratives often featured tragic heroines who likely reflected his wife’s influence as a muse. But in grappling with the significance of the loss of Una, Jeffers accepted that he could not transform her into such a figure. He needed to express what she meant to him in a more direct and personal manner, giving “Hungerfield” and some of Jeffers’ other late poetry a singular, affecting quality within his oeuvre.
Recommended Citation
Zaller, Robert
(2018)
"The Poet in Mourning: Jeffers After Una,"
Jeffers Studies: Vol. 20, Article 5.
Available at:
https://ir.library.illinoisstate.edu/js/vol20/iss1/5