This reading of Gary Snyder's book-length poem from its evolution in the mid 1950s to its publication 40 years later traces the work's origins, as well as its themes and structure. It includes references to No drama; East Asian landscape painting; the rhythms of storytelling; chant and song; Jungian archetypal psychology; world mythology; Buddhist philosophy and ritual; Native American traditions; planetary geology; hydrology and ecology. The author examines such personal and cultural influences on Snyder's work as his travels in Asia and his association with the beat movement of the 50s.