Wallace Stevens: An American Modernist Poet Essay (Biography)

Introduction

Wallace Stevens has his position as a notable poet in the 20^th century. The road wasn’t easy for Wallace Stevens. He is an author with many skills. His unique style grabbed the critics’ attention. Some of them liked his style and some others didn’t. Wallace Stevens nearly never changes the themes of his poems. He was a “philosopher of aesthetics” (Poetry Foundation). Throughout his life Wallace Stevens earned many awards for his works.

A Brief Biographical Sketch of Wallace Stevens

Wallace Stevens was born in “Reading, Pennsylvania on October 2, 1879”. He went to Harvard University in 1897 and studied for 3 years but didn’t finish studying. After that, he went to “New York school of law” and studied there until 1903. In 1904, he started to work in local law firms. He stayed working in law firms for three years after that (“Biography”).

Wallace’s beginnings in literature were in the 1910’s. Wallace Stevens needed to wait for eight years to see his first book published. His first book was called “Harmonium”, and it was published in 1923. This book didn’t receive positive reviews from the critiques back then. Stevens stopped writing for several years because of that. He returned to writing with “Ideas of Order” in 1935. His final work was called “The Necessary Angel” in 1951 (“Biography”).

Wallace Stevens died “in Hartford, Connecticut on August 2, 1955″ (Biography”).

Which Literature Genres is Wallace Stevens Famous for?

The main literature genre that Wallace Stevens is famous for is poetry. Nearly all of his works were in the genre of poetry except his last book under the title “The Necessary Angel” in 1951; it was in the genre of prose (Poetry Foundation).

His poems are divided into many subgenres; here are some examples:

1. Narrative Poetry: From his first book “Harmonium”, the poems “Peter Quince at the Clavier” and “Le Monocle de Mon Oncle” (Poetry Foundation).
2. Lyric Poetry: From “Harmonium”, the poems “Sunday Morning” and “The Emperor of Ice Cream” (Poetry Foundation).
3. Epic Poetry: From “Harmonium”, the poem “The Comedian as the Letter C” (Poetry Foundation).

Wallace Stevens’s Style in Writing

Many experts tried to describe Wallace Stevens’s style. Wallace Stevens’s style is a combination of unique elements.

Reuben says that Wallace Stevens’s style is considered “obscure”. The ideas in his poems are not clear. Understanding the poem is the reader’s job. His poems contain a lot of “contradictions”. His style is influenced by his own character which is “like his poetry, enigmatic”. Stevens used literature as a way to express his own thoughts about life. But he showed just a small part of them (Reuben).

Lee M. Jenkins says that Stevens’s “oeuvre is a quasi-spiritual quest for the supreme fiction, for a poetry that “must take the place / Of empty heaven and its hymns” and thus help modern man find meaning in a godless world”.

The Common Themes Often Presented by Wallace Stevens

In his first book, “Harmonium” (1932), Wallace Stevens expresses his atheistic ideas and prefers the ideas of “nature”. “Sunday Morning” is good example. And also he tends to talk about death and immortality. “Le Monocle de Mon Oncle” is an example of that (Poetry Foundation).

In his second book, “The Ideas of Order” (1935), Wallace Steven’s continued mentioning death and praising nature. “Like Decorations in a Nigger Cemetery” is an example. Also, one thing in common between “Harmonium” and “The Ideas of Order” is imagining the surrounding environments as vital elements in the stories (Poetry Foundation).

Wallace Stevens’s most common themes started to appear in his works with the book “Owl’s Clover” in 1936. The themes were: The poet and poetry, and “imagination”. He tried to explain (in his opinion) the role of the poet and in life and understand the reality through imaginations (Poetry Foundation).

In his third book, “The Man with the Blue Guitar” (1937), he continued presenting the themes about poetry and imagination. This book “constituted a breakthrough for Stevens by indicating a new direction: an inexhaustive articulation of the imagination as the supreme perception and of poetry as the supreme fiction” (Poetry Foundation).

In “Parts of a World” (1942), he continued explaining the meaning of poetry. And also he included his atheistic ideas again; he considered art the “new deity”. In “Notes Toward a Supreme Fiction” (1942), once again the main theme was poetry. And also he recalled the theme of supreme fiction. In “Esthetique du Mal”, Wallace Stevens talked about evil as the main theme. He says that it is “profitable to the imagination”. Finally, in “The Auroras of Autumn” (1950), the theme was poetry and imagination (Poetry Foundation).

A Brief Description of Some of Wallace Steven’s Works

Form his first book ‘Harmonium’ here are a group of poems

Peter Quince at the Clavier

Wallace Stevens talks about a woman who meets some “lustful” old men. Stevens says that the physical beauty of a woman is immortal (Poetry Foundation).

Sunday Morning

This poem is similar to “Peter Quince at the Clavier” in the idea of the immortality of the human body. In this poem, Wallace Stevens shows that he rejects the beliefs of Christianity especially the belief of “spiritual afterlife”. He instead adopts the belief that the human body becomes a part of the earth after death (Poetry Foundation). About that poem, Susan B. Weston says that this poem is a “revelation of a secular religion”. She says that the main theme of this poem is the concept of accepting non-religious beliefs and rejecting Christian beliefs (Poetry Foundation).

Le Monocle de Mon Oncle

A narrative poem. The poet talks about what he likes in a decorated style. The theme of this poem is very optimistic (Poetry Foundation).

Comedian as the Letter C

This poem tells the story of a man called “Crispin”. Crispin travels from place to another. After finishing his long trip he tries to figure out the reason why he was created. Crispin’s character changes throughout the poem. This poem suggests that no one can be a father and a poet at the same time. Crispin was indeed a father. He was confused and started “questioning the validity of creating anything that must, eventually, become separate from him” (Poetry Foundation).

In this poem, Wallace Stevens showed his skills. He used a variety of vocabulary. This poem contains many different feelings. It is a very “complex work” (Poetry Foundation).

Wallace Steven’s second book was called “The Ideas of Order” and it was published in 1935 (Poetry Foundation). Here are some works from that book:

Like Decorations in a Nigger Cemetery

In this poem, Wallace Stevens talks about many things including death. This poem also talks about “the litter that, in Stevens’s opinion, accumulated in blacks’ cemeteries” (Poetry Foundation).

The Idea of Order in Key West

In this poem, Stevens imagines himself walking with his friend on the beach. And suddenly they find a girl. The girl started singing. Her idea of the song came to her after watching the moving water of the sea (Poetry Foundation).

Critical Opinions of Others (Writers and/or Critics) about Wallace Stevens

Wallace Stevens was a hot target for the critics. Jenkins says that many critics were against his writing style in his early years. About that Jenkins says:

Stevens’s extended meditations on poetry and his insistence, in his “endlessly elaborating poem[s] ”, that “the theory / Of poetry is the theory of life”, has made him the critics’ poet. To some a belated Romantic, to others a modernist in the Symbolist tradition, Stevens has been the subject of major studies by the dominant critics of the day (Harold Bloom, Helen Vendler, J. Hillis Miller, Frank Kermode, and Marjorie Perloff have made particularly significant contributions to the extensive secondary literature on Stevens).

One of the negative reviews came from “Percy Hutchinson”. He says that Wallace Stevens’s style doesn’t touch mind or emotions. Hutchinson didn’t like the body of Stevens’s Poetry (Reuben).

After more than 2 decades of writing (although he stopped writing for several years after his first book), a new generation of critics came. This new generation welcomed Stevens’s writings. His works received positive reviews from “New Critics”, “phenomenologists”, “practitioners of hermeneutic criticism” and “New Historicists” (Jenkins).

Harriet Monroe reviewed Wallace Stevens’s “Harmonium”. She says that Stevens’s style is vivid, and he has a good sense of humor in his philosophical view of the facts of life (Poetry Foundation).

Awards Presented to Wallace Stevens

1945, elected to National Institute of Arts and Letters;
1949, awarded Bollingen Prize in Poetry from Yale University;
1951, awarded National Book Award for Poetry, Gold Medal from Poetry Society of America, and honorary degree from Harvard University;
1952, honorary degree from Columbia University;
1955, second National Book Award for Poetry, and Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. (Reuben)

Conclusion

Despite his unusual style, Wallace Stevens gained respect and recognition. The rejection of his style was very strong in his early days. But by time, people admire his style very much. The main themes in his works are:

1. Poetry and imagination.
2. Immortality and godlessness.

Works Cited

Jenkins, Lee M. “Wallace Stevens.” The Literary Dictionary. Web.

Reuben, Paul P. “Chapter 7: Wallace Stevens.” PAL: Perspectives in American Literature- A, Web.

“Wallace Stevens (1879 – 1955).” Poetry Foundation. Web.

“Wallace Stevens: Biography and Recollections by Acquaintances.” Modern American Poetry. Web.