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On Extended Wings: Wallace Stevens’ Longer Poems
Though Wallace Stevens' shorter poems are perhaps his best known, his longer poems, Helen Hennessy Vendler suggests in this book, deserve equal fame and equal consideration. Stevens' central theme--the worth of the imagination--remained with him all his life, and Mrs. Vendler therefore proposes that his development as a poet can best be seen, not in description--which must be repetitive--of the abstract bases of his work, but rather in a view of his changing styles.
The author presents here a chronological account of fourteen longer poems that span a thirty-year period, showing, through Stevens' experiments in genre, diction, syntax, voice, imagery, and meter, the inventive variety of Stevens' work in long forms, and providing at the same time a coherent reading of these difficult poems. She concludes, "Stevens was engaged in constant experimentation all his life in an attempt to find the appropriate vehicle for his expansive consciousness; he found it in his later long poems, which surpass in value the rest of his work."
The author presents here a chronological account of fourteen longer poems that span a thirty-year period, showing, through Stevens' experiments in genre, diction, syntax, voice, imagery, and meter, the inventive variety of Stevens' work in long forms, and providing at the same time a coherent reading of these difficult poems. She concludes, "Stevens was engaged in constant experimentation all his life in an attempt to find the appropriate vehicle for his expansive consciousness; he found it in his later long poems, which surpass in value the rest of his work."
334 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1969
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About the author
Helen Vendler
71 books86 followersHelen Vendler is the A. Kingsley Porter University Professor at Harvard University, where she received her PhD in English and American Literature in 1960. Before joining the Harvard faculty, Vendler taught at Cornell, Swarthmore, Haverford, Smith, and Boston University.
Vendler has written books on Yeats, Herbert, Keats, Stevens, Shakespeare, Whitman, and Heaney, and, most recently, Our Secret Discipline: Yeats and Lyric Form (2007), Last Looks, Last Books: Stevens, Plath, Lowell, Bishop, Merrill (2010); Dickinson: Selected Poems and Commentaries’ (2010); and The Ocean, the Bird, and the Scholar: Essays on Poets and Poetry (2015). She also reviews contemporary poetry for the New Republic, London Review of Books, and other journals. She has held fellowships from, among others, the John S. Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, Woodrow Wilson Center, and National Endowment for the Humanities, and is a member of the American Philosophical Society, American Academy of Arts and Letters, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Swedish Academy of Arts and Sciences, and Modern Language Association, of which she was president in 1980.
Vendler has written books on Yeats, Herbert, Keats, Stevens, Shakespeare, Whitman, and Heaney, and, most recently, Our Secret Discipline: Yeats and Lyric Form (2007), Last Looks, Last Books: Stevens, Plath, Lowell, Bishop, Merrill (2010); Dickinson: Selected Poems and Commentaries’ (2010); and The Ocean, the Bird, and the Scholar: Essays on Poets and Poetry (2015). She also reviews contemporary poetry for the New Republic, London Review of Books, and other journals. She has held fellowships from, among others, the John S. Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, Woodrow Wilson Center, and National Endowment for the Humanities, and is a member of the American Philosophical Society, American Academy of Arts and Letters, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Swedish Academy of Arts and Sciences, and Modern Language Association, of which she was president in 1980.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 17, 2019
I rather enjoyed Vendler on Stevens in her book Words Chosen Out of Desire, in which her erudite ideas and insightful criticism persuaded me to give Stevens a second (third, fourth) reading and to enjoy his poems. But not so much this one. Part of the issue may be my own bias--I do not connect with Stevens' long poems. They irritate me. They are so much work to read!
I thought this book might assist me in reading these works, but it didn't. I felt rather as though I were reading Pale Fire, only this isn't a parody. It is very serious work, and if you already like Wallace Stevens' poems and want to read a brilliant critic, it may be for you.
I thought this book might assist me in reading these works, but it didn't. I felt rather as though I were reading Pale Fire, only this isn't a parody. It is very serious work, and if you already like Wallace Stevens' poems and want to read a brilliant critic, it may be for you.
December 25, 2012
Of the various poetic criticism I have read over the past few years, Vendler's "On Extended Wings" is by far my favorite. Some of what distinguished this work for me from others include the following
1) Vendler consistently works outward to her ultimate criticism and observations from the texts of the poems themselves; the order in which they were published; Stevens' own word choice, line structure, meter, etc., rather than starting with a critical theory and thereafter fitting or attempting to fit Stevens' poetry into that theory. For this reason and others, Vendler presents a compelling narration of Stevens' development as a poet and as a thinker.
2) It is, perhaps, in light of this narration, and also due in part to Vendler's own strengths as a writer and critic, that I found "The Amassing Harmony," Chapter VII of this book (concerning Stevens' Notes Toward a Supreme Fiction) one of the best chapters of any book I have ever read regarding any subject. I spent months reading and re-reading Vendler's well-documented observations regarding the resolutions which Stevens was approaching in his writing and which he captured in Notes. Vendler’s observations manage not only to document, but also to reflect and even to provide an "amassing harmony" all their own, i.e. the chapter is a rich and nourishing process and collection of thought regarding “resolutions” in general and all the various ways; false, weak, true, and lasting; an individual can seek growth, harmony, balance, or reconciliation within himself and/or with all aspects, positive and negative, of life and consciousness.
3) If poetic criticism is, as Harold Bloom says, "writing poetically about poetry," then Helen Vendler more than accomplishes poetic criticism throughout On Extended Wings. Throughout her work, Helen Vendler's observations are often as beautifully stated as they are deeply considered. In Wings, Vendler crafts rare and beautiful criticism even where, as is often the case, she does not spare Stevens's various experiments from negative assessments:
Another example (chosen at random) is where she notes, after an extended examination of one specific verse, that: "The final clause floats on its own equilibrium, knowing its inevitable direction, but not hastening the drift...." Such statements proliferate throughout On Extended Wings, matching many unique moments in Stevens' poetry with beautifully arresting and thought-provoking comments from Vendler.
4) The headings Vendler creates for each chapter, along with the corresponding Stevens' quotes she selects, well portray and almost fairly summarize her appreciative approach to Stevens' development as a poet. As such, in the book the reader is moved from a discussion of the "The Pensive Man: The Pensive Style" to "Fugal Requiems," through chapters including "A Duet with the Undertaker" and "The Abecedarium of Finesolder" up to "The Amasing Harmony," through "The Metaphysical Changes" to "The Total Leaflessness," arriving at last (and for me, with extreme regret) at "Naked Alpha: Epilogue."
Along the way, Vendler, with poetic language of her own, and with wise and convincing observations based on the texts themselves, outlines, through appreciation of Stevens' triumphs and unhesitant examinations of his failures, Stevens' struggles and resolutions, as a poet and, presumably, as a person. Vendler's unique approach to and appreciation of Stevens provides a rich map for a reader's own development as a thinker and, through the many possibilities truly beautiful writing always provides, as a person as well.
1) Vendler consistently works outward to her ultimate criticism and observations from the texts of the poems themselves; the order in which they were published; Stevens' own word choice, line structure, meter, etc., rather than starting with a critical theory and thereafter fitting or attempting to fit Stevens' poetry into that theory. For this reason and others, Vendler presents a compelling narration of Stevens' development as a poet and as a thinker.
2) It is, perhaps, in light of this narration, and also due in part to Vendler's own strengths as a writer and critic, that I found "The Amassing Harmony," Chapter VII of this book (concerning Stevens' Notes Toward a Supreme Fiction) one of the best chapters of any book I have ever read regarding any subject. I spent months reading and re-reading Vendler's well-documented observations regarding the resolutions which Stevens was approaching in his writing and which he captured in Notes. Vendler’s observations manage not only to document, but also to reflect and even to provide an "amassing harmony" all their own, i.e. the chapter is a rich and nourishing process and collection of thought regarding “resolutions” in general and all the various ways; false, weak, true, and lasting; an individual can seek growth, harmony, balance, or reconciliation within himself and/or with all aspects, positive and negative, of life and consciousness.
3) If poetic criticism is, as Harold Bloom says, "writing poetically about poetry," then Helen Vendler more than accomplishes poetic criticism throughout On Extended Wings. Throughout her work, Helen Vendler's observations are often as beautifully stated as they are deeply considered. In Wings, Vendler crafts rare and beautiful criticism even where, as is often the case, she does not spare Stevens's various experiments from negative assessments:
We learn to trust the Stevens of obliquities and appearances, the Stevens of "like," "as," and "seem," the Stevens of phenomena in all their shimmers of investiture and raggedness. But the Stevens of guzzling, rankness, and bluster disappoints and is false....
Another example (chosen at random) is where she notes, after an extended examination of one specific verse, that: "The final clause floats on its own equilibrium, knowing its inevitable direction, but not hastening the drift...." Such statements proliferate throughout On Extended Wings, matching many unique moments in Stevens' poetry with beautifully arresting and thought-provoking comments from Vendler.
4) The headings Vendler creates for each chapter, along with the corresponding Stevens' quotes she selects, well portray and almost fairly summarize her appreciative approach to Stevens' development as a poet. As such, in the book the reader is moved from a discussion of the "The Pensive Man: The Pensive Style" to "Fugal Requiems," through chapters including "A Duet with the Undertaker" and "The Abecedarium of Finesolder" up to "The Amasing Harmony," through "The Metaphysical Changes" to "The Total Leaflessness," arriving at last (and for me, with extreme regret) at "Naked Alpha: Epilogue."
Along the way, Vendler, with poetic language of her own, and with wise and convincing observations based on the texts themselves, outlines, through appreciation of Stevens' triumphs and unhesitant examinations of his failures, Stevens' struggles and resolutions, as a poet and, presumably, as a person. Vendler's unique approach to and appreciation of Stevens provides a rich map for a reader's own development as a thinker and, through the many possibilities truly beautiful writing always provides, as a person as well.
March 24, 2010
Elegant criticism on a necessary poet. Access to the longer poems which I'd found previously daunting.
November 18, 2015
Excellent, as always.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews