(no subject)
The main Harmonium poems are always going to be his most popular, aren't they? I think it's because they're so assimilable to other tacks than his own. In his later volumes he's so deep in his thing that if you aren't also you won't enjoy the poetry. But the early verse, while still giving his view of the world, gives it so ambiguously and atomistically that you can borrow it and make it your own. Reminds me of Stephen Crane's verse a bit. Or early Blake, the Songs and Heaven and Hell.
I wonder if this is a value in itself, in poetry? Cutting the head off to make it live, so to speak. Personally I'm most moved by the late lyrics, so maybe it's more a matter of how much time and intellectual energy you have to invest in a long-term project like 1940-55 Stevens'. And yet there's definitely something special about the Harmonium pieces, so full of sounds, shapes, movements, colors, all stirred up at once.
I wonder if this is a value in itself, in poetry? Cutting the head off to make it live, so to speak. Personally I'm most moved by the late lyrics, so maybe it's more a matter of how much time and intellectual energy you have to invest in a long-term project like 1940-55 Stevens'. And yet there's definitely something special about the Harmonium pieces, so full of sounds, shapes, movements, colors, all stirred up at once.