Thurso's Landing

[scotsboy]

Anyone ever heard of, or read this poem? By an American called Robinson Jeffers seemingly - just wondering what was the inspiration behind the title? Anyone know?

[Drutt]

I'd never heard of the poem, but I went googling out of sheer curiosity. According to answers.com (http://www.answers.com/topic/1932), "The narrative title poem dramatizes a destructive triangle as a California farmer vies with a rival for his wife's love. This domestic tragedy explores the dangers of passion when individuals lack a moral center".

There are Thursos in Canada and Australia, I believe, but not in the US, so I don't know the reasoning for the poem's title.

Not of any relevence to the poem but to Thurso... I did manage to find a reference to Arthur St Clair (http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/people/A0843003.html), an American general who was born in Thurso... anyone heard of him?

[RobRoy]

Yes he was an American General, but first he was an Ensign in the British Navy. He was assigned in Canada I think and then he resigned his commission and settled in Pennsylvania and later joined the revolutionary war against the British and later fought some Indian Wars but got thoroughly trounced by Little Trurtle or some similiar named Indian Chief and resigned his commission again.

[hereboy]

The name rang a bell - I thought he was one of the founders of the St Andrews Society in New York but the dates don't match.

The New York Caledonian Society was however co founded by another Thurso man in 1830 - a William Manson...

Quite a coinkydink don't you think?

[Margaret M.]

Arthur St. Clair was the ninth President of the United States. Pretty impressive for a loon fae Thurso.

ST. CLAIR, Arthur, soldier, born in Thurso, Caithness, Scotland, March 23, 1734; died in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, 31 August 1818. There is much debate over President St. Clair's Lineage. Laurel Fechner, Historian Clan Sinclair USA, for instance maintains that St. Clair's actual name in Scotland was Sinclair (clarified by clicking here).

Arthur St. Clair's story is one of unusual contrasts, enjoying a great family inheritance and then ending his life in desolate poverty; crossing the Delaware with Washington to capture Trenton while loosing Fort Ticonderoga under his own command in 1777; presiding as President of the United States in the Congress Assembled that produced the US Constitution and Northwest Ordinance only to be removed by Thomas Jefferson as Northwest Governor for opposing Ohio Statehood.

[DrSzin]

To get back to the original question...

I think you'll find what you want here (http://www.dancingbadger.com/contagionf.htm):

As for the poem itself, I have searched high and low in Google-land, but the best I can manage is the following excerpt from Thurso's Landing (http://www.jeffers.org/archive/pastissues/v5n1.html):

. . . and under the thick brown hair and under the cunning sutures of the hollow bone the nerve-cells
With locking fibrils made their own world and light, the multitude of small rayed animals of one descent
That make one mind, imagined .

In the same source, we are told he knew quite a lot of contermporary science. But he claimed that we cannot get to the world through rationality or science, but we can through poetry. Yeah, right! :lol: [lol] :lol:

Indeed, his thoughts would sit happily with many present-day sociologists of science (from the same source):

Research into what the poet knew of the scientific discovery and theories of his day points to the conclusion that Jeffers intentionally created his own mythic scenario, one that was clearly an impossibility. . . . Jeffers tells us outright that he is a mythmaker, and so is science. Neither the poet nor the scientist possesses the “truth”; the best both can hope for is some illumination through myths and hypotheses.

It appears that he was an early post-modernist. Like many poetic types, he had learned a lot about science, but had never "done it", so it wasn't "in his blood" and he had absolutely no "feel" for it. IMHO he was "not even wrong": his view of nature is too anthropomorphic, perhaps even pre-Darwinian, but it appears he didn't realise this. Yet another example of CP Snow's Two Cultures...

It is claimed that Bixby Landing was the setting for Robinson Jeffers poem Thurso's Landing (http://www.caviews.com/bixbyph.htm)

Search the Jefferson Studies website (http://www.jeffers.org/) if you want more info.

Finally, Thurso's Landing is mentioned on the Beach Boys' album Holland. The track is called The Beaks of Eagles (http://www.lyriczz.com/lyriczz.php?songid=4018). It consists of a reading of the original poem interspersed with four-line "commentaries" sung by the Beach Boys. I can't believe I didn't notice it!

It seems that Robinson Jeffers was quite a chappie...

[George Brims]

Arthur St. Clair was the ninth President of the United States. Pretty impressive for a loon fae Thurso.

Not strictly accurate Margaret. He was 9th president of the Continental Congress, which was convened to negotiate the Constitution, which set up the present system of President, Vice-president, Senate, House of Representatives etc The 9th president under that system was William Henry Harrison. He's the one who got a bad chill at his inauguration and died of pneumonia a month later! By some counts St Clair could be counted as the 16th President as there were 7 other people who held the title of President before the set under which he was number 9. Actually only 6 people, but John Hancock held two different versions of the title!

That's confusing isn't it? Some clarification is available here:
http://www.virtualology.com/uspresidents/

[fred]

Not of any relevence to the poem but to Thurso... I did manage to find a reference to Arthur St Clair (http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/people/A0843003.html), an American general who was born in Thurso... anyone heard of him?

This is what a Caithness writer, John Henderson, had to say about him in his book published in 1884.

http://www.fredc.me.uk/temp/hen0331.jpg
http://www.fredc.me.uk/temp/hen0332.jpg
http://www.fredc.me.uk/temp/hen0333.jpg
http://www.fredc.me.uk/temp/hen0334.jpg
http://www.fredc.me.uk/temp/hen0335.jpg

[The Pepsi Challenge]

Finally, Thurso's Landing is mentioned on the Beach Boys' album Holland. The track is called The Beaks of Eagles (http://www.lyriczz.com/lyriczz.php?songid=4018). It consists of a reading of the original poem interspersed with four-line "commentaries" sung by the Beach Boys. I can't believe I didn't notice it!

Didn't I already point this out? ;)

And by the way, New York's grid plan is actually based on the one Sir John Sinclair produced for Thurso's. I'm darn sure it's true, though I'm trying to find official proof.

Before photography came to Caithness, someone managed to sketch a drawing of Thurso's Town Clock... half-built. I seen it in a Norwegian book in Edinburgh's Central Library years ago. I was drunk and passing the time until my bus came, so the name of the book escapes me.

[hereboy]

Anyone ever heard of, or read this poem? By an American called Robinson Jeffers seemingly - just wondering what was the inspiration behind the title? Anyone know?

Thurso is the family name of the people in the poem. It is set in the Big Sur area of California. The title is quite likely a play on words based on Bixbys Landing in the same area which is another poem of his and features a lime pit as does Thurso's Landing.

I guess he liked certain Scottish placenames - he wrote another poem called "Cawdor".

[Margaret M.]

Not strictly accurate Margaret. He was 9th president of the Continental Congress,

I stand corrected, George, you are absolutely right. Still not bad for a Thurso loon though.