Monday, August 07, 2006

Wallace Stevens "Sunday Morning"

I was reading "Sunday Morning" last night and beyond the difficulty of just trying to figure it out, I asked myself whether or not I liked the sweeping, majestic tone. I'm not likely to make the same kind of pronouncements about Jove, paradise, earth, etc. that he does. Is it a lack of ambition? Is it a distrust of general, universal statements? I don't know. "Death is the mother of beauty; hence from her, / Alone, shall come fulfillment to our dreams / And our desires." Death makes everything impermanent, and if everything was permanent, could we see beauty or have desire? What an amazing idea and language from Stevens, but could I say something so bold and direct about death in my work? I work around the edges, try to imply or point to things, but I usually don't go out and just say it. Is that what postmodern poetry about? Here's a link to Stevens' "Sunday Morning": http://www.web-books.com/Classics/Poetry/Anthology/Stevens_W/Sunday.htm

1 Comments:

Blogger Don said...

That's a great assigment. Thank you, Jack. It could change my work, but I'm a little afraid of going out on this limb. Well, it's not the first time I've done that.

9:26 AM  

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