Wallace Stevens
So I first want to point out that I know I post really early in the week, but its so much easier for me because otherwise I would forget and not blog! And anyways, all the ideas are in my head!!
Anyways, this week we looked at Wallace Stevens and the Idea of Order in Key West. Stevens was perhaps a contemporary of Eliot, although he is very different as well as more difficult than Eliot(some may argue for and against this, its just an opinion!). Stevens was a mode however he doesnt really sound like a traditional modernist, who looks at reality in a dark and shadowy way. Yet Stevens approaches his poetry with romanticism as well as modernist thoughts, a sort of mix between the both. The Idea of Order in Key West deals with this "marriage" between the two key terms, as its "task" so to speak is to express something that is almost beyond efficacy. Key West, the most southern point of the United States, is a place where some people would say you can see the end of the earth. In a way, when the sun sets, its brings with it some solitude, lonliness and a sense of vanishing. When one feels solitude, you perhaps feel like you are trapped in your own skin, and do not fit, which is just one part of the poem. Another are the words Idea and order: what do they really mean? Order can mean to arragne, organize, or harmonize, yet most importantly create. An idea is not a thought, yet it is the inspiration or the spark for the thought that eventually brings us to master the "idea". Hence, we have the title of the poem : the idea of order in key west. This poem deals with the spark or promise of having order, or creation within key west, which is a place filled with loniless and solitude. In this way, it sounds sort of dark and gloomy. In a way, it is just that, as it deals with the ideas of not knowing what it feels like to fit in the world, as it says in stanza 3:
Then we,
As we beheld her striding there alone,
Knew that there never was a world for her
Except the one she sang and, singing, made.
However, it can also be a romantic sort of poem that has the images and ideas seem perhaps intimate and loving. No matter what way you see it, this poem is really not just about stevens and his friend Ramon walking along a beach and stopping to listen to the lady singing her beautiful song. It is poem about the poet and his poem, as the poet's creation (the poem) orders the world. It is here that the imagination and reality come together. The poem looks at imagination, and how it looks beyond reality, creating new ideas and meanings as they go. Hence, the poet is the one who gives order to the world. Without their ideas, thoughts and words, reality has no meaning! Also, Stevens makes us look and think about words and meanings: what is the sea? Do we really know what a sea is, or do we just use it as a vague description of the large body of water that sometimes is seen on a beach. Perhaps the important thing to remember her is that humanity has words because of their ideas and order. Without the ideas, there can't be any words. And without words, where would the poet be?
In a way, this poem is a metaphor to what a poet really feels like and how a poet writes and reacts. It is FILLED with ideas and concepts and philosphies which I am not going to go into. Yet, what I think is amazing about Stevens is how he puts both imagination and reality together into the same poem or even the same lines. I actually had never read any of his work. Honestly, I don't think he is more complicated than Eliot, yet his poems are filled with ideas and philosophies. Maybe after reading more of his work he will become more difficult than Eliot, but right now I'm just going to say that he is interesting, and a breath of fresh air.
Anyways, this week we looked at Wallace Stevens and the Idea of Order in Key West. Stevens was perhaps a contemporary of Eliot, although he is very different as well as more difficult than Eliot(some may argue for and against this, its just an opinion!). Stevens was a mode however he doesnt really sound like a traditional modernist, who looks at reality in a dark and shadowy way. Yet Stevens approaches his poetry with romanticism as well as modernist thoughts, a sort of mix between the both. The Idea of Order in Key West deals with this "marriage" between the two key terms, as its "task" so to speak is to express something that is almost beyond efficacy. Key West, the most southern point of the United States, is a place where some people would say you can see the end of the earth. In a way, when the sun sets, its brings with it some solitude, lonliness and a sense of vanishing. When one feels solitude, you perhaps feel like you are trapped in your own skin, and do not fit, which is just one part of the poem. Another are the words Idea and order: what do they really mean? Order can mean to arragne, organize, or harmonize, yet most importantly create. An idea is not a thought, yet it is the inspiration or the spark for the thought that eventually brings us to master the "idea". Hence, we have the title of the poem : the idea of order in key west. This poem deals with the spark or promise of having order, or creation within key west, which is a place filled with loniless and solitude. In this way, it sounds sort of dark and gloomy. In a way, it is just that, as it deals with the ideas of not knowing what it feels like to fit in the world, as it says in stanza 3:
Then we,
As we beheld her striding there alone,
Knew that there never was a world for her
Except the one she sang and, singing, made.
However, it can also be a romantic sort of poem that has the images and ideas seem perhaps intimate and loving. No matter what way you see it, this poem is really not just about stevens and his friend Ramon walking along a beach and stopping to listen to the lady singing her beautiful song. It is poem about the poet and his poem, as the poet's creation (the poem) orders the world. It is here that the imagination and reality come together. The poem looks at imagination, and how it looks beyond reality, creating new ideas and meanings as they go. Hence, the poet is the one who gives order to the world. Without their ideas, thoughts and words, reality has no meaning! Also, Stevens makes us look and think about words and meanings: what is the sea? Do we really know what a sea is, or do we just use it as a vague description of the large body of water that sometimes is seen on a beach. Perhaps the important thing to remember her is that humanity has words because of their ideas and order. Without the ideas, there can't be any words. And without words, where would the poet be?
In a way, this poem is a metaphor to what a poet really feels like and how a poet writes and reacts. It is FILLED with ideas and concepts and philosphies which I am not going to go into. Yet, what I think is amazing about Stevens is how he puts both imagination and reality together into the same poem or even the same lines. I actually had never read any of his work. Honestly, I don't think he is more complicated than Eliot, yet his poems are filled with ideas and philosophies. Maybe after reading more of his work he will become more difficult than Eliot, but right now I'm just going to say that he is interesting, and a breath of fresh air.