Word: jeffersian
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...their arrival, Hawl finds his wife and son drowned, kills his brother for failing to save them, then burns the house down over them all. To his mother, who says, "Hawl . . . kill me before I burn," he replies: "Find a knife for yourself." With obvious Jeffersian irony, the poet allows her to escape and live. Hungerfield hardly proves a favorite Jeffers point-"There is no consolation in humanity"-but he avoids satisfactory motivations for his piled-up horrors by intoning: It is thus (and will be} that violence Turns on itself, and builds on the wreck of violence...
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