Desert Solitaire

Desert Solitaire

The poet to whom Abbey refers in this chapter when he says, "It was all foreseen a half century ago," is Robinson Jeffers, and his poem is entitled "Broken Balance." Why does Abbey not provide the reader with that information, when he has so adamantly laid out his reasoning and feelings for us in the previous paragraphs?

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Abbey, most likely, hoped to raise the interest of his readers in this subject enough to make them want to track down the reference. Rather than hand it to us in this chapter, he only suggests its existence, thus assuming that his readers will figure out the answer to this subtle riddle.