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![[A RE-VIEW OF WALLACE STEVENS / OPUS POSTHUMOUS: POEMS, PLAYS, PROSE]
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I’ve loved Wallace Stevens for some years now. However, for some reason I’ve never bought one of his books. Dumb. I’ve only read his work in anthologies & on the internet. An intro to a French Poetry Anthology I read claimed that Stevens was “the most French” American poet (during Modernism). I love French poetry. And in some ways I see what that person meant suggesting Stevens’ french bent.
For the most part he’s usually spare & short-lined, exploring the relation between ‘imagination’ & ‘reality’ explicitly and/or implicitly. He’s not afraid to bring ‘philosophy’ into his work, which can be muddy & ‘inaccessible’ & frustrating sometimes (in my opinion)(in other poets - rarely in Stevens), but he executes this with clarity & surprise & hauntingness. Mark Strand & Charles Simic are contemporary writers who remind me of Stevens. Check them out if you haven’t.
*******************************************************
to be honest, I skipped over particular prose portions of this book
I accept my subjectivity, and accept that these ‘re-views’ are subjective
not to say I don’t like prose, but I am more interested in stevens’ poetry & his ‘aphorisms’ than his ‘prose’
I also (like usual) enjoy his poems more that have freed themselves from formal rhyme
wallace stevens makes giant claims about the powers of ‘poetry’ & ‘imagination’ & ‘reality’
he seems earnest
I like when he makes those claims in a surprising fashion that derails my expectations
wallace stevens & ernest hemingway got into a physical fight in key west (fyi)
& for a lot of his life wallace stevens was an insurance executive
this has always been a fascination for many people
the fact that he’s arguably a genius poet while simultaneously an insurance executive
this debunks the idea that a ‘poet’ or person who creates ‘poems’
cannot ‘exist’ in the ‘common world’
which I think is cool
regardless of wallace stevens’ vocation I like his brain & his language
a lot
MY FAVORITE 6 MOMENTS OF THIS BOOK:
“The maker of the alphabet had a headache”
“Her music should repeat itself in you”
“It could be that the sun shines / Because I desire it to shine or else / That I desire it to shine because it shines”
“What difference would it make, / So long as the mind, for once, fulfilled itself?”
“As if we were all seated together again / And one of us spoke and all of us believed / What we heard and the light, though little, was enough”
“Today the air is clear of everything. / It has no knowledge except of nothingness / And it flows over us without meanings, / As if none of us had ever been here before / And are not now: in this shallow spectacle, / This invisible activity, this sense”
* * * * * * *
altogether I am happy to have this book in my collection. it doesn’t contain his poems that usually appear in anthologies. I was excited & nervous about this, hoping this work would be as pleasing as his other work I’ve read. it has some gorgeous poems in it. in my opinion, he’s one of the best american poets of the first half of the 20th century.
check out some of his classics here: http://www.poemhunter.com/wallace-stevens/](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m97a1eXZwt1r1vr5po1_400.jpg)
[A RE-VIEW OF WALLACE STEVENS / OPUS POSTHUMOUS: POEMS, PLAYS, PROSE]
*******
I’ve loved Wallace Stevens for some years now. However, for some reason I’ve never bought one of his books. Dumb. I’ve only read his work in anthologies & on the internet. An intro to a French Poetry Anthology I read claimed that Stevens was “the most French” American poet (during Modernism). I love French poetry. And in some ways I see what that person meant suggesting Stevens’ french bent.
For the most part he’s usually spare & short-lined, exploring the relation between ‘imagination’ & ‘reality’ explicitly and/or implicitly. He’s not afraid to bring ‘philosophy’ into his work, which can be muddy & ‘inaccessible’ & frustrating sometimes (in my opinion)(in other poets - rarely in Stevens), but he executes this with clarity & surprise & hauntingness. Mark Strand & Charles Simic are contemporary writers who remind me of Stevens. Check them out if you haven’t.
*******************************************************
to be honest, I skipped over particular prose portions of this book
I accept my subjectivity, and accept that these ‘re-views’ are subjective
not to say I don’t like prose, but I am more interested in stevens’ poetry & his ‘aphorisms’ than his ‘prose’
I also (like usual) enjoy his poems more that have freed themselves from formal rhyme
wallace stevens makes giant claims about the powers of ‘poetry’ & ‘imagination’ & ‘reality’
he seems earnest
I like when he makes those claims in a surprising fashion that derails my expectations
wallace stevens & ernest hemingway got into a physical fight in key west (fyi)
& for a lot of his life wallace stevens was an insurance executive
this has always been a fascination for many people
the fact that he’s arguably a genius poet while simultaneously an insurance executive
this debunks the idea that a ‘poet’ or person who creates ‘poems’
cannot ‘exist’ in the ‘common world’
which I think is cool
regardless of wallace stevens’ vocation I like his brain & his language
a lot
MY FAVORITE 6 MOMENTS OF THIS BOOK:
“The maker of the alphabet had a headache”
“Her music should repeat itself in you”
“It could be that the sun shines / Because I desire it to shine or else / That I desire it to shine because it shines”
“What difference would it make, / So long as the mind, for once, fulfilled itself?”
“As if we were all seated together again / And one of us spoke and all of us believed / What we heard and the light, though little, was enough”
“Today the air is clear of everything. / It has no knowledge except of nothingness / And it flows over us without meanings, / As if none of us had ever been here before / And are not now: in this shallow spectacle, / This invisible activity, this sense”
* * * * * * *
altogether I am happy to have this book in my collection. it doesn’t contain his poems that usually appear in anthologies. I was excited & nervous about this, hoping this work would be as pleasing as his other work I’ve read. it has some gorgeous poems in it. in my opinion, he’s one of the best american poets of the first half of the 20th century.
check out some of his classics here: http://www.poemhunter.com/wallace-stevens/
