Throughout the 20th century, Robert Bly has provided a wealth of poetry on a wide variety of topics. Alongside his themes, Robert Bly has also developed different stylistic methods to convey those thoughts. Such themes vary to this day, dealing with issues that have personally affected him, and also those of society in general. His poetry is a time-line pondering solitude, the Vietnam War, nature, frustration and relationships among all sorts, conveyed not only in conventional stanzas, but in a form called "prose" poetry as well. Contributing and inspiring to many, the work of Robert Bly provides an interesting take on American poetry.
             Robert Blys' first collection of poems were released in 1962, titled, Silence in the Snowy Fields. Divided into three sections: "Eleven Poems of Solitude," "Awakening," and "Silence on the Roads," all combine along with the title to explore as Richard P. Sugg states: "human nature as twofold, consisting of both the conscious and the unconscious. . ." A poem "Return to Solitude" explores the conscious and unconscious aspects of human nature, relating a desire to exist in the purest, solitary state; one of inside the womb.
             "Return to solitude" seemingly jumps between the conscious and unconscious state, all the while conveying a yearning for a more solitary existence. The first stanza, portrays solitude via the imagery. "It is a moonlit, windy night. The moon has pushed out the Milky Way." Envisioning these two lines invokes a sense of remoteness, a picture of a single, bright moon in the night sky without any stars. "Clouds are hardly alive, and the grass leaping. It is the hour of return." With the clouds hardly alive, or non-existent, the moon is now explicitly alone in the sky; an obvious image of solitude. "It is the hour of return" in effect, makes the first stanza a conscious thought, since it is a statement, a bold declaration that is consciously put forth.
             The unconsciou...