The purpose of the Beat Movement was to break away from conventional society and the Berry Feast does just that. Gary Snyder takes a conventional celebration and turns it into something. The traditional Berry Feast was transformed when Snyder used animals alongside people.Literary Coyotes and bears are anthropromorphized to fit right into society with humans. The animals make the tone of the poem more fun.
Literary Devices
Onomatopoeia - The author uses onomatopoeia to give the coyote a voice as well as sound. "K'ak, k'ak, k'ak!" was the sound the coyote made as he mated with humankind. This literary device gave the poem a bit of musicality. Giving the coyote a sound also made the poem more interesting
Anthropomorphism - Gary Snyder uses anthropomorphism in the poem by giving the animals human qualities. The poem speaks of a bear with a human wife and half human cubs. The coyote speaks and is just as involved in the berry feast as any person. The of anthropomorphism makes this poem totally unconventional and serves its purpose in the Beats movement.
Fur the color of mud, the smooth loper Crapulous old man, a drifter, Praises! Of Coyote the Nasty, the fat Puppy that abused himself, the ugly gambler, Bringer of goodies. In bearshit, find it in August Neat pile on the fra grant trail , in late August, perhap s by a larch tree, Bear has been eating the berrie s. high meadow, late summer, snow gone Blackbear eating berries, married To a woman whose breasts bleed From nursing the half human cubs. Somewhere of course there are people Collecting and junking, gibbering all day , "Where I shoot my arrows "There is the sunflower's shade song of the rattlesnake, coiled in the boulder's groin "K'ak, k'ak , k'ak! sang Coyote. Mating with humankind. The Chainsaw falls for boards of pine, Suburban bedrooms block on block Will waver with this grain and knot, The maddening shapes will start and fadeEach morning when Commuters wake. Joined boards hung on frames , a box to catch the biped in. and shadow swings around the tree Shifting on the berrybush from l e a f to leaf across each day The shadow swings around the tree. I I Three, down , through windows Dawn-leaping cats, all barred brown, gray Whiskers aflame bits of mouse on the tongue Washing the coffeepot in the river the baby yelling for breakfast Her breasts, black-nippled, blue-veined, heavy, Hung through the loose shirt squee zed, with the free hand white jet in three cups. Cats at dawn derry derry down. Creeks wash clean where trout hide We chew the black plug Sleep on needles thr ough long afternoons "You shall be owl "You shall be sparrow "You will grow thick and green, people "Will eat you, you berries! Coyote: shot from the car, two ears, A tail bring bounty.Clanks of tread oxen of Shang moving the measured road Bronze bells at the throat Bronze balls on the horns, the bright Oxen Chanting through sunlight and dust wheeling logs down hills into heaps, the yellow Fat-snout Caterpillar, tread-toppling forward Leaf on leaf, roots in gold volcanic dirt. When snow melts back from the trees bare branches knobbed pine twigs hot sun on wet flowers green shoots of huckleberry breaking through snow. I I I Belly stretched t aut in a bulge Breasts swelling as you guzzle beer, who wants Nirvana? Here is water, wine , beer Enough books for a week A mess of afterbirth A smell of hot earth, a warm mist Steams from the crotch "You can't be killers all your life "The people are coming- - and when Magpie Revived him, limp rag of fur in the river Drowned and drifting, fish-food in the shallows,
"Up yours!" sang Coyote and ran. Delicate blue-black, sweeter from meadows Small and tart in valleys, with light blue dust Huckleberries scatter through pine woods Crowd along gullies, climb dusty cliffs, Spread through the air by birds; Find them in droppings of bear. "Stopped in the night "Ate hot pancake s in a br ight room "Drank coffee, read the paper ''In a strange town , drove on, singing, as the drunkard swerved the car "Wake from your dreams, bright ladies! "Tighten your legs, squeeze demons from the queynt with rigid thighs "Young red-eyed men will come "With limp erections, snuffling cries "To dry your stiffening bodies in the sun! Woke at the beach. Gray dawn, Drenched with rain. One naked man Frying his horsemeat on a stone. IV Coyote yaps, a kni fe! Sunrise on yellow rocks. People gone, death no disaster, Clear sun in the scrubbed sky empty and bright Lizards scurry from darkness We lizards sun on yellow rocks.See, from the foothills Shred of river glinting, trailing To flatlands, the city: glare of haze in the valley horizon Sun caught on glass gleams and goes. From cool springs unde r cedar On his haunches, white grin, long tongue panting, he watches: Dead city in dry summe r, Where berries grow.