[From the Afterword:] If you would like to misunderstand the poems in this volume as quickly as possible, then think of them as "nature poems," for indeed the basic texture of image and symbol is directly derived from the flora and fauna and even the terrain of the wild and beautiful world of the California lakes, mountains, and ocean coast. I have drawn heavily, as well, upon the men and women I have known, both in life and in literature--and upon the perpetual hummings of their voices. Into the weave of life as I have known it, I have attempted to blend such diversities as the ancient Greek lyricists, the Chinese masters of the Tang Dynasty, the anonymous writers of the Anglo-Saxon period, and the tremendous vitality of the American and English romanticists.