In a Dark Time … The Eye Begins to See

The mind sometimes strays from its chosen path. The part of this entry in PASSIONATE PURPLE (my first choice of RED was simply unbearable to read) is a slightly irrelevant RANT that may even detract from the argument I’ve been trying to develop here. SKIP IT if you’e tired of rants. I include it merely [...]

Although Harmonium, Wallace Stevens’ first book of poetry contains the much more famous and enigmatic “Anecdote of the Jar,” my favorite poem in this section of Wallace Stevens: Collected Poetry and Prose is “The Paltry Nude Starts On A Spring Voyage,” an elegant poem which uses Botticelli’s Birth of Venus as a contrast to [...]

Although not necessarily typical or representative of the poems in “Ideas of Order,” “Meditation Celestial and Terrestrial” and “Re-statement of Romance” are my favorite poems in this section of Collected Poetry and Prose. They are both fine examples of Stevens “elegant style,” but unlike some of his poems they focus less on [...]

Although there were only a few lines and phrases that I liked in Stevens’ The Man with the Blue Guitar, there are so many poems that I liked in Parts of a World, that I’m not quite sure where to start. So, I’ll just start with: ON THE ROAD HOME It was when I [...]