Interlacing of Imagination and Reality
Wallace Stevens was a poet who kept to himself and did not start writing until he was much older in college and published his first book Harmonium in 1923 when he was forty-four. In this collection not only do we hear Stevens’ own words on paper but also the writers that influenced him as well. In his article Solving for X: The Poetry and Prose of Wallace Stevens, Mark Jarman connects Stevens’ collection to “the gnomic fables of Stephen Crane’s poetry,” and also “Edgar Allan Poe, whose sound effects and tintinnabulation appear in poems throughout Stevens’ career” (251).
Mr. Buttel is another critique who analysis the transformation of Wallace Stevens who “managed the transition from the imitative, effete. . .poetry and prose he wrote while a Special Student at Harvard to the sensuous, ironic, if dandyesque, mature verse of Harmonium” (Riddel, 103). Stevens was influenced by “English poetics, French Symbolism, Orientalism, the Pre-Raphaelites, the American avant-garde, and modern painting” (Riddel, 104). This may account for the heavy use of symbolism in his poetry. In his poem “Domination of Black” Stevens also uses the power of rhetoric by repeating certain phrases so it can draw your attention more and more to what he is saying, but this repetition is the very thing that confuses the reader if they have are not paying attention.
When you first read Wallace Stevens work you are not able to quickly grasp what his poetry is saying, and figuring out if there is an underlying message throughout the poem is part of deciphering it. George McFadden states in his article Poet, Nature, and Society in Wallace Stevens, “One does not suddenly grasp his ideas, but rather comes to feel comfortable with a poem which had at first teased and annoyed while it charmed, and whose meaning is the last of its pleasures”(263). In order to comprehend Stevens in his poem “Domination of Black” the reader must read it repeatedly in order to understand what is happening in the poem on a literal level, and then they can go on to look past the ambiguity that is being presented and uncover what leaves, fire, twilight, and the cry of the peacocks is trying to convey. Stevens was very fond of combining imagination and reality. He believed that a poet must help his reader’s live their lives. He would do this by manipulating reality and imagination in a way that elevated the reader’s understanding of the world around him. However, Stevens was not fond of pushing political or social morale on the reader with his poetry. He believed that poets had no right to influence the public’s morality. And so with this belief he stayed away from such topics and focused more on the humanity of his readers. As a modern poet Stevens focused more on the inner turmoil that human beings face as they grow old.
Mr. Buttel is another critique who analysis the transformation of Wallace Stevens who “managed the transition from the imitative, effete. . .poetry and prose he wrote while a Special Student at Harvard to the sensuous, ironic, if dandyesque, mature verse of Harmonium” (Riddel, 103). Stevens was influenced by “English poetics, French Symbolism, Orientalism, the Pre-Raphaelites, the American avant-garde, and modern painting” (Riddel, 104). This may account for the heavy use of symbolism in his poetry. In his poem “Domination of Black” Stevens also uses the power of rhetoric by repeating certain phrases so it can draw your attention more and more to what he is saying, but this repetition is the very thing that confuses the reader if they have are not paying attention.
When you first read Wallace Stevens work you are not able to quickly grasp what his poetry is saying, and figuring out if there is an underlying message throughout the poem is part of deciphering it. George McFadden states in his article Poet, Nature, and Society in Wallace Stevens, “One does not suddenly grasp his ideas, but rather comes to feel comfortable with a poem which had at first teased and annoyed while it charmed, and whose meaning is the last of its pleasures”(263). In order to comprehend Stevens in his poem “Domination of Black” the reader must read it repeatedly in order to understand what is happening in the poem on a literal level, and then they can go on to look past the ambiguity that is being presented and uncover what leaves, fire, twilight, and the cry of the peacocks is trying to convey. Stevens was very fond of combining imagination and reality. He believed that a poet must help his reader’s live their lives. He would do this by manipulating reality and imagination in a way that elevated the reader’s understanding of the world around him. However, Stevens was not fond of pushing political or social morale on the reader with his poetry. He believed that poets had no right to influence the public’s morality. And so with this belief he stayed away from such topics and focused more on the humanity of his readers. As a modern poet Stevens focused more on the inner turmoil that human beings face as they grow old.