Wallace Stevens: An Introduction to the Poetry

by Susan B. Weston

Examines Stevens's recurring themes and diverse techniques, the origins and significance of his symbolic figures, and specific, representative poems

Genres: Poetry

151 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 1977

Reviews

[Joan · Rating 3 out of 5]

My rating is a bit random. I don't know enough to be able to rate it, so I'm giving it 3 stars, but may come back at another time when I've read more books like this. I had never read any of Wallace Stevens' poems, but was intrigued by the book which was being 'cast off' by the library. Stevens lived between 1879 and 1955 and spent his professional life as an attorney and executive of an insurance company. Poetry was his 'other job'. While his poetry evolved over his lifetime, much of it examined the 'dual nature' of language - both symbol/imagined and reality. As the author of this book concludes 'when Stevens is at his best and we are at ours' he gives us a new knowledge of reality through his poetry.

I'm guessing that most people reading this book would be familiar with his poetry. If not, it would be very helpful to have access to the poems while reading this book, so that particular passages of the poems could be re-read while thinking about the commentary.

Snippets of the poems seemed wonderfully energetic. One describes two little girls dancing and singing 'celebrating the marriage of flesh and air'. Another examines the fleeting nature of dreams.
'...thought that wakes
In sleep may never meet another thought
Or thing...Now day-break comes...'

Old age is described 'Distorted by hale fatness, turned grotesque
We hang like warty squashes, streaked and rayed.'

If I understand the book, Stevens' poetry is the moral equivalent of cubist painting. One poem 'Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird' apparently presents many different ideas of a blackbird. (clearly, one needs to access the poems while reading this book, I'll have to read it again!)

[Sur Cur Lengel · Rating 5 out of 5]

THE MAMMOTH APPROACHES (4-2000)

Mettle abrades the fret
Of reluctance;
It buffs the layered gall and
it gets you through.
Mettle permits the rub
To occur again and again
Calloused,
Bold, glib,
Chronic.
Mettle assures
The invulnerable--
The cold, tedious
Invulnerable.