Wallace Stevens Essays - Wallace Stevens, Harmonium, Sunday Morning

Wallace Stevens Essays - Wallace Stevens, Harmonium, Sunday Morning Wallace Stevens Samantha Erck Research Paper Wallace Stevens: Inside the Gray Flannel Suit Rationalists, wearing square hets, Think, in square rooms, Looking at the floor, Looking at the ceiling, They confine themselves To right-angled triangles. If they tried rhomboids, Cones, waving lines, ellipses- As for example, the ellipse of the half moon- Rationalists would wear sombreros. Six Significant Landscapes (Collected Poems p.73-75) Wallace Stevens is considerd one of the most important poets of this century. His style was unique and diffrent. The way he used words to optain the reality of something that can't be touched, is an amazing and brilant talent. Stevens was a very successful lawer and business man as well as a great peot. We usually think of peots and artists as starving artists. Stevens was a very accommplished lawer and was still able to write beautifull peotry. His peoms useually contadicted his lifestile, but that might be were he got his insperation. He had a wife, family, and career, he had a very queit lifestyle. But, his peotry is very loud and abstract. Wallace Stevens was born in 1879, in Reading, Pennsylvania. As a child, he started out at parochial schools, and later enrolled in public schools. Wallace's parents encourage him to read, which helped him become a better writter. In school, Wallace was an excellent student. After high school, he continued his education at Harvard University, where he became involved with two Harvard newspapers, first the Advocate and then the Harvard Monthly. After leaving college, he moved to New York City. He worked as a journalist, and considered a literary career. But, his father encouraged Stevens to become a more practical career in the law business. He worked as a lawyer for a few years in New York. He worked at different firms and then at the Fidelity and Deposit Company. He finally settled at the Hartford Accident and Indemnity Company, where he became the vice president for the rest of his life. It was like Stevens led two separate lives, one of a business man and one as a poet. Stevens himself once said in a New York Times interview, I prefer to think I'm just a man, not a poet part time, business man the rest. This is a fortunate thing, considering how inconsiderate the ravens are. I don't divide my life, just go on living. Many of Stevens' fans are often surprised when they learn of Stevens' life as a business man. As mentioned earlier, Wallace Stevens' work reflected his life in many ways. His daughter, Holly, and his wife, Elsie were both inspirations for his poems. The people, places, and things in Stevens' private life all influenced his poetry. He wrote about Florida, the Orient, his family, life, death, religion, nature, and many other subjects. His poetry had many unique themes as well. He wrote about paganism, metaphysics, imagination, dreams, God, and reality. In his lifetime, Stevens published many of his poems, his most well-known are Harmonium, The Man With the Blue Guitar, Transport to Summer, and The Auroras of Autumn. He also wrote prose, essays, and plays. Stevens peoms are complex. In order to read most of his poetry, it's nessassary to have a dictionary in hand. Stevens has a huge vocabulary and he puts it to good use in his poetry. Many have called his work deep becauses of the philosophical aspects of his poems. One poem that I like, Contrary Thesis (II) was difficult for me to read at first. An excerpt from it is a good example of Stevens' diffrent use of language: ...He walked with his year-old boy on his shoulder. The sun shone and the dog barked and the baby slept. The leaves, even the locust, the green locust. He wanted and looked for a final refuge, From the bombastic intimations of winter And the martyrs la mode. He walked toward An abstract, of which the sun, the dog, the boy Were contours. Cold was chilling the wide-moving swans. The leaves were falling like notes from a piano... - Contrary Thesis (II)(Collected Poems p.207) This peom is talking about a man looking for a refuge before winter comes. It seems to be talking about getting old, the way the seasons change from autumn to winter. The man who is looking for refuge seems to be trying to find out where his life is taking him.