For a Stone Girl at Sanchi Analysis

Background Information on Gary Snyder:
- poor by the great depression 

- moved twice before age 7

- was bed-ridden for four months, learned to read and read more books than anyone his age.

- became interested in Native Americans

- only lived with his mother from 1942 (12)

- published first poems in a student journal.

- studied and has a degree in anthropology 

- involvement in environmental issues

- worked as a naturalist

- work reflects Buddhist spirituality 

- Sanchi is a location with Buddhist monuments.

For a Stone Girl at Sanchi. In Sanchi, there are figures of women carved from stone. These figures (Yakshi) represent fertility and the Indian image of feminine beauty. He could be writing this poem about finding his perfect woman. He could be interested in finding a perfect woman because his parents divorced when he was younger. If he had decided to have children he doesn't want them to go through that. He had a wife, but then had a divorce, and his second wife passed away from cancer. Gary and his first wife had two children. His second wife had 3 children from her past marriage. It's unknown if he fathered them, but given his circumstances, I think he would have taken on the role of being a father figure to them. He doesn't want them to go through his pain of not having a "full family" or of feelings of nonacceptance or non-approval.

He's sleeping on the grass outside in Sanchi, he can hear the rain falling on the trees around him. He's out in the night sky, on the spinning world. Comparing the world to the universe or space, it's tiny. Going by at the speed of light, the world isn't seen. To us, the world is huge, but if you look at the bigger picture, it's smaller than half a grain of sand.

"An old rock weathered funny" could represent the passing of time. The monuments in Sanchi are old and have damage done to the stone from rain and wind. "Old tree trunks turned stone", the tree trunks have been there for so long that it's almost as if they're stone and could pose difficult to remove or change.

"loving; two flesh persons changing, clung to, doorframes notions, spear-hafts in a rubble of years. touching,"
This is the love that he was dreaming for, that changes but lasts throughout the years. It is all about him being with his love forever. How it seems impossible to find someone to love if you look at the big picture, like with the Earth. If you look at the bigger picture of how many people are on Earth, it seems impossible to find that
one person you want to spend you life with. If you look by at the speed of light, the person will be a speck, like the Earth is to space. If you come a little closer, you can see that it's easier to find someone to be with, that it's not as challenging to be seen. Space is a big open place, and Earth is mostly invisible to stars and other objects around it. If you look closer though, Earth is a large thing to us.

In the end, he realizes that he already has this girl that he is imagining. He believes that the relationship they have will last forever. This poem was written around 1968, which means that he was married to his first wife, Masa Uehara. This first love he most likely thought would last forever(his dream "popping"). He could imagine Masa as the yakshi, as his perfect image of a woman and how his wife should be.