Eastern thoughts have been a matter of interest to the greatest writers of America and England since the nineteenth century. They renew their appeal to the modern artist who wishes to do more than recultivate old western ground. James Dickey seeks beyond the usual boundaries of that tradition in order to bring to it fresh materials with which the artist may reshape and recharge the familiar, thereby investing it with new life. Dickey ranges far and wide, seeking other cultures and myths useful to his artistic ends, to borrow, to adapt, and to recombine in order to suit his purposes. The first source of Dickey`s interest in the orient comes from his experience during World War Ⅱ and the Korean conflict. It is significant that he developed his literary interest during his stay in the Far East. Later, Dickey majored in English and minored in philosophy at Vanderbilt. Dickey may have also turned to eastern thought to assuage his guilty feelings toward his dead brother and war victims. He kept on experimenting with new techniques to transcend those bonds and limitations. Dickey finds the means to liberate himself from those limitations, not in Christian religion, but in oriental philosophy which considers death as a means of transforming into another life. The third source of Dickey`s orientalism is his short but close acquaintance with Ezra Pound. Dickey acknowledged that he was greatly influenced by Pound. Pound`s Cathay poems sparked Dickey`s interest in the translation of oriental texts. Finally, Dickey is aware of the possibility that a great poem may fuse western technique with oriental feelings and sensibilities. Dickey`s work is enriched by and owes much of its complexity to oriental thoughts.