Wallace Stevens

Poetry for Young People

by Wallace Stevens, John N. Serio (Editor), Robert Gantt Steele (Illustrator)

Delightful harmony and boundless imagination: these characteristics make Wallace Stevens’ work very special, and perfect for children. Twenty-seven of his finest verses, evocatively illustrated, provide the perfect introduction to Stevens’ poetry. “From a Junk” reveals a boat at sea in the moonlight that “burns...and glistens, wide and wide, under the five-horned stars of night.” A little girl—“sweeter than the sound of the willow”—proudly dressed in her Sunday best accompanies the child-centered “Song.” From the farm landscape of “Ploughing on Sunday” to the three delicate dancing figures of “The Plot Against the Giant,” each picture and each poem will delight.

John N. Serio is Professor of Humanities at Clarkson University in Potsdam, New York. He has published essays and books on Wallace Stevens and has served as editor of The Wallace Stevens Journal for over twenty years.

Robert Gantt Steele has been an illustrator for 20 years. His commissions include several book covers, work for the Smithsonian magazine, and the poster image for the most recent Broadway revival of Showboat.

Genres: Poetry

48 pages, Hardcover

Published September 1, 2004

About the author

Wallace Stevens is a rare example of a poet whose main output came at a fairly advanced age. His first major publication (four poems from a sequence entitled "Phases" in the November 1914 edition of Poetry Magazine) was written at the age of thirty-five, although as an undergraduate at Harvard, Stevens had written poetry and exchanged sonnets with George Santayana, with whom he was close through much of his life. Many of his canonical works were written well after he turned fifty. According to the literary critic Harold Bloom, who called Stevens the "best and most representative" American poet of the time, no Western writer since Sophocles has had such a late flowering of artistic genius.

Stevens attended Harvard as a non-degree special student, after which he moved to New York City and briefly worked as a journalist. He then attended New York Law School, graduating in 1903. On a trip back to Reading in 1904 Stevens met Elsie Viola Kachel; after a long courtship, he married her in 1909. In 1913, the young couple rented a New York City apartment from sculptor Adolph A. Weinman, who made a bust of Elsie.
A daughter, Holly, was born in 1924. She later edited her father's letters and a collection of his poems.

After working for several New York law firms from 1904 to 1907, he was hired on January 13, 1908 as a lawyer for the American Bonding Company. By 1914 he had become the vice-president of the New York Office of the Equitable Surety Company of St. Louis, Missouri. When this job was abolished as a result of mergers in 1916, he joined the home office of Hartford Accident and Indemnity Company and left New York City to live in Hartford, where he would remain for the rest of his life.

Reviews

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing. I'm excited to find more of the series. The art is gorgeous, and usually very apt. I like the choice to include definitions on the same pages as the poems, in order to give the reader a chance to stay immersed instead of having him look for a glossary or a computer.

Especially, I love that I now have a clue about how to read Stevens' work. Not much of one, I admit; I still find him difficult. But at least I can now enjoy the particular poems chosen for this picture-book, because the introduction to each is graceful, concise, clear, and sincere.

I have enjoyed '13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird' before. Now I can say I also especially like 'Tea' and 'Disillusionment of Ten O'Clock.'

The short biography at the beginning is helpful, too. Stevens was an interesting person.

I'm not sure why I'm not giving it five stars, maybe just because I don't know to whom, specifically, I would recommend this. Only to ppl not afraid of poetry, I suppose.

[Tandava Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was in the library looking for something else by Wallace Stevens, when this came up in the computer search and intrigued me enough to check it out. I like the concept, and I'm curious to investigate some of the others in the "Poetry for Young People" series.

There's a short biographical introduction to the book, but more interestingly, there's a very brief introduction to each poem, giving hints to the "young people" about how to approach it. Also some footnoted definitions of words where helpful (though I noticed they took some real liberties with the definition of "bawd," seeing as how this is a kid's book). Each poem is also beautifully illustrated, and I really like Steele's watercolor style.

I enjoy Stevens' poetry, though I wouldn't ever really have pegged it as "for kids." In fact, I'm not actually sure what age range they're targeting, since it looks like just a picture book, but the poetry is much more subtle and/or obscure than you can really get at for young readers (or even not so young readers), even with the editorial hints. Not sure what actual kids would make of this.

It includes several poems that were already some of my favorites of Stevens', like Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, and Six Significant Landscapes. Of the ones that were new to me, I particularly liked Tattoo.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you need a book of poetry to introduce Wallace Stevens to young people, this will be one of them. Accompanied by Robert Gantt Steele's intriguing illustrations, John N. Serio offers twenty-seven of Steven's poems, including the well-known "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird", and "Snow Man", and "Ploughing on Sunday". Each one includes some word definitions if needed. Serio introduces the book with a brief biography of Stevens' life.

[Dayna Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful collection by this fine American poet. Another fabulous addition to this fine series.

[Theresa · Rating 5 out of 5]

A collection of the works of wallace stevens with explanations and pictures to help children connect to his work

[Shledon · Rating 1 out of 5]

its a book of poems