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19th out of 976 books
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1,015 voters
The Collected Poems
This definitive poetry collection, originally published in 1954 to honor Stevens on his 75th birthday, contains:
- "Harmonium"
- "Ideas of Order"
- "The Man With the Blue Guitar"
- "Parts of the World"
- "Transport Summer"
- "The Auroras of Autumn"
- "The Rock"
- "Harmonium"
- "Ideas of Order"
- "The Man With the Blue Guitar"
- "Parts of the World"
- "Transport Summer"
- "The Auroras of Autumn"
- "The Rock"
Paperback, 560 pages
Published
February 19th 1990
by Vintage
(first published 1954)
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i fell in love with two men in my undergrad senior seminar. it was on wallace stevens and t.s. eliot.
the way i loved both of these writers hurt. (i'll set eliot aside for another time).
stevens kills me when he uses very innocent symbols - making ice cream, in "the emperor of ice cream", for instance - to offset the tragedy that's occurring. front-loaded with the promise of the sugar stuff, it seems like the poem will go somewhere happy, maybe to a coming of age resolultion.
but it's not that si...more
the way i loved both of these writers hurt. (i'll set eliot aside for another time).
stevens kills me when he uses very innocent symbols - making ice cream, in "the emperor of ice cream", for instance - to offset the tragedy that's occurring. front-loaded with the promise of the sugar stuff, it seems like the poem will go somewhere happy, maybe to a coming of age resolultion.
but it's not that si...more
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This book of poetry combines an earthy sensibility coupled with a philosophical speculation that appeals to me. My favorite book of poetry.
Jun 10, 2012
Abbi Dion
added it
all night. once. i stayed up and read this book cover to cover. looking for a poem i thought i remembered about dancing.
I'm marking this book as "read," although I'm not sure I've read every poem. This is certainly not a book which can be read cover-to-cover in a few sittings, at least not by someone of my intellect.
I fell in love with Stevens' famous "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird" during my freshman year in college. The images were striking and beautiful, even though I didn't understand what the poem was about. But the mystery was part of the appeal. I "understand" the poem more now, but there will a...more
I fell in love with Stevens' famous "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird" during my freshman year in college. The images were striking and beautiful, even though I didn't understand what the poem was about. But the mystery was part of the appeal. I "understand" the poem more now, but there will a...more
Wallace Steven is probably my favorite modern poet. His imagery, style, subject matter all catch me off guard, and that's something a good poet should do. One poem to share would be "The Snow Man".
One must have a mind of winter
To regard the frost and the boughs
Of the pine-trees crusted with snow,
And have been cold a long time
To behold the junipers shagged with ice,
The spruces rough in the distant glitter
Of the January sun; and not to think
Of any misery in the sound of the wind,
In the sound of a...more
One must have a mind of winter
To regard the frost and the boughs
Of the pine-trees crusted with snow,
And have been cold a long time
To behold the junipers shagged with ice,
The spruces rough in the distant glitter
Of the January sun; and not to think
Of any misery in the sound of the wind,
In the sound of a...more
Stevens wrote poetry like a jeweler cuts diamonds; his language is musical to the ear and prismatic in the mind's eye. He often writes about the power of art--specifically poetry--to transform Reality.
She sang beyond the genius of the sea . . .
It was her voice that made
The sky acutest at its vanishing.....
She was the single artificer of the world
In which she sang. And when she sang, the sea,
Whatever self it had, became the self
That was her song, for she was the maker. Then we,
As we beheld he...more
She sang beyond the genius of the sea . . .
It was her voice that made
The sky acutest at its vanishing.....
She was the single artificer of the world
In which she sang. And when she sang, the sea,
Whatever self it had, became the self
That was her song, for she was the maker. Then we,
As we beheld he...more
For Easter. A friend told me this is maybe the best poem in the English language, quoting bits of it as we were driving along. Had to look it up. Here it is.
Wallace Stevens (1879-1955)
Sunday Morning
1
Complacencies of the peignoir, and late
Coffee and oranges in a sunny chair,
And the green freedom of a cockatoo
Upon a rug mingle to dissipate
The holy hush of ancient sacrifice.
She dreams a little, and she feels the dark
Encroachment of that old catastrophe,
As a calm darkens among water-lights.
The pung...more
Wallace Stevens (1879-1955)
Sunday Morning
1
Complacencies of the peignoir, and late
Coffee and oranges in a sunny chair,
And the green freedom of a cockatoo
Upon a rug mingle to dissipate
The holy hush of ancient sacrifice.
She dreams a little, and she feels the dark
Encroachment of that old catastrophe,
As a calm darkens among water-lights.
The pung...more
3 likes · like · see review
Oct 17, 2009
Kelly
marked it as to-read
i have a couple of his poems on my wall in my art studio.
great poet
i mean to buy a good edition of his poetry and have not had a chance to investigate which anthology to get? any suggestions? which is the best to get?
here is a taste: my favorite Wallace poem:
The Idea of Order at Key West
Wallace Stevens
She sang beyond the genius of the sea.
The water never formed to mind or voice,
Like a body wholly body, fluttering
Its empty sleeves; and yet its mimic motion
Made constant cry, caused constantly a cr...more
great poet
i mean to buy a good edition of his poetry and have not had a chance to investigate which anthology to get? any suggestions? which is the best to get?
here is a taste: my favorite Wallace poem:
The Idea of Order at Key West
Wallace Stevens
She sang beyond the genius of the sea.
The water never formed to mind or voice,
Like a body wholly body, fluttering
Its empty sleeves; and yet its mimic motion
Made constant cry, caused constantly a cr...more
The Emperor of Ice Cream
Call the roller of big cigars,
The muscular one, and bid him whip
In kitchen cups concupiscent curds.
Let the wenches dawdle in such dress
As they are used to wear, and let the boys
Bring flowers in last month's newspapers.
Let be be finale of seem.
The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream.
Take from the dresser of deal,
Lacking the three glass knobs, that sheet
On which she embroidered fantails once
And spread it so as to cover her face.
If her horny feet protrude, they come
To s...more
Call the roller of big cigars,
The muscular one, and bid him whip
In kitchen cups concupiscent curds.
Let the wenches dawdle in such dress
As they are used to wear, and let the boys
Bring flowers in last month's newspapers.
Let be be finale of seem.
The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream.
Take from the dresser of deal,
Lacking the three glass knobs, that sheet
On which she embroidered fantails once
And spread it so as to cover her face.
If her horny feet protrude, they come
To s...more
i don't always understand him, but I don't feel a compelling need to. When he feels like it, he writes the most beautiful lines of poetry written in the twentieth century. I'm not sure there's a greater poem than "Sunday Morning," and I'm not sure there's a better poem to read aloud than "The Man on the Dump." He's marvelous. And to think he was an insurance salesman . . .
First, about the volume. at over 500 pages, this feels like it must be a fairly comprehensive overview of Stevens' work. All of the famous poems are here, and, for reasons I don't understand, some minor poems are omitted. So if you are new to Stevens or looking for an introduction to him, this is a good place to start.
That said, there are no notes whatsoever, not even an introduction to give Stevens' work some context. That seems a regrettable oversight.
Now to the poems. I love the language. I l...more
That said, there are no notes whatsoever, not even an introduction to give Stevens' work some context. That seems a regrettable oversight.
Now to the poems. I love the language. I l...more
I have been trying for years to get into Stevens. Finally did and he is well worth the effort. If you have tried and "put it back on the shelf" as I did, read his small book of essays "The Necessary Angel" and Helen Vendler's "Words Chosen Out of Desire". They helped me see what he was all about.
Wallace Stevens, "The Man with the Blue Guitar" (excerpts)
I
The man bent over his guitar,
A shearsman of sorts. The day was green.
They said, "You have a blue guitar,
You do not play things as they are....more
Wallace Stevens, "The Man with the Blue Guitar" (excerpts)
I
The man bent over his guitar,
A shearsman of sorts. The day was green.
They said, "You have a blue guitar,
You do not play things as they are....more
1 like · like · see review
I don't, in the whole, share his world-view, but I love the way he writes about it.
He had strong chops; his first collection "Harmonium" is packed with concentrated technical tours-de-force, many of which don't necessarily seem to be about anything except short exercises in poetics. Precise, funny, and strongly evocative, but of what? That and poems like "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird" and "The Emperor of Ice-Cream" got him a reputation as a kind of nonsense poet.
In part it was a fair...more
He had strong chops; his first collection "Harmonium" is packed with concentrated technical tours-de-force, many of which don't necessarily seem to be about anything except short exercises in poetics. Precise, funny, and strongly evocative, but of what? That and poems like "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird" and "The Emperor of Ice-Cream" got him a reputation as a kind of nonsense poet.
In part it was a fair...more
May 02, 2008
Brendan
is currently reading it
I don't know how to rate this, or how to review it. It's like TS Eliot. 8 poems out of 10 either make me feel stupid or make me hate poetry. The other 2 knock me flat on my back.
1 like · like · see review
One can read Steven's poems and simply enjoy the wordplay, vivid images and odd phrasings or one can look for the metaphors and meanings. The latter is harder and takes more work: Wallace is not an "easy" poet for the casual reader of poetry to "get," but he certainly has accessible poems. "The Emporer of Ice Cream," if you read carefully, for example, is clearly about death. Why would he use a man in an ice cream suit to tell us about death? The contrast of seeming opposites, like ice cream and...more
Superb poetry from an extremely unlikely source. I think I read this after it was mentioned in Ken Kesey's Sometimes a Great Notion.
This book deserves a finer commentary when I have time to consider at the moment, but I was astounded by the impression which he made on my first reading: it was simply like another world had opened up before me... and the one in which I had been living became a mere shell of reality. It was one of those fearful moments when you cannot be sure that your entire valu...more
This book deserves a finer commentary when I have time to consider at the moment, but I was astounded by the impression which he made on my first reading: it was simply like another world had opened up before me... and the one in which I had been living became a mere shell of reality. It was one of those fearful moments when you cannot be sure that your entire valu...more
Wallace Stevens. Read him. Now.
I was not familiar with Stevens work until reading Harold Bloom's discussion and presentation of some of his poems in Bloom's anthology of the best English language poems. I loved what I read there and quickly put Stevens on my list. Every time I was in a used bookstore, I looked for a collection of his works until I found one.
So, this has been my morning poetry reading for a year and a half as I worked my way through the thick volume of his collected works. And I didn't love them. Occasionally...more
So, this has been my morning poetry reading for a year and a half as I worked my way through the thick volume of his collected works. And I didn't love them. Occasionally...more
very fond of the harmonium and ideas of order collections.
some particular favorites:
"another weeping woman"
"from the misery of don joost"
"the worms at heaven's gate"
"anecdote of men by the thousand"
"of the surface of things"
"the place of the solitaires"
"the curtains in the house of the metaphysician"
"six significant landscapes"
"tattoo"
"the wind shifts"
"farewell to florida"
"the idea of order at key west"
"anglais mort à florence"
some particular favorites:
"another weeping woman"
"from the misery of don joost"
"the worms at heaven's gate"
"anecdote of men by the thousand"
"of the surface of things"
"the place of the solitaires"
"the curtains in the house of the metaphysician"
"six significant landscapes"
"tattoo"
"the wind shifts"
"farewell to florida"
"the idea of order at key west"
"anglais mort à florence"
1 like · like · see review
The palm at the end of the mind
Beyond the last thought, rises
In the bronze distance,
A god-fethered bird
Sings in the palm , without human meaning,
Without human feeling, a foreign song.
You know then that it is not the reason
That makes us happy or unhappy
The bird sings. Its feathers shine.
The palm stands on the edge of space
The wind moves slowly in the branches
The bird´s fire-fanlged feathers dangle down
Beyond the last thought, rises
In the bronze distance,
A god-fethered bird
Sings in the palm , without human meaning,
Without human feeling, a foreign song.
You know then that it is not the reason
That makes us happy or unhappy
The bird sings. Its feathers shine.
The palm stands on the edge of space
The wind moves slowly in the branches
The bird´s fire-fanlged feathers dangle down
I am re-reading this now. It's a bit wordy, but full of an elegant, Godly style.
In the reading, I am among Greeks -- gods and ephebes --, strange flowers, outdated seraphs, the vulgate, Ozymandias, and constantly, the Poet struggling between two states to find a "Supreme Fiction."
Maybe it should be four stars?? No. There's too much in here.
In the reading, I am among Greeks -- gods and ephebes --, strange flowers, outdated seraphs, the vulgate, Ozymandias, and constantly, the Poet struggling between two states to find a "Supreme Fiction."
Maybe it should be four stars?? No. There's too much in here.
Brilliant, perhaps my favorite modern poet. "The Latest Freed Man"
"It was how the sun came into his room,
To be without a description of to be"
The Woman In Sunshine
"It is empty. But a woman in threadless gold
Burns us with brushings of her dress
And a dissociated abundance of being,
More definite for what she is"
"It was how the sun came into his room,
To be without a description of to be"
The Woman In Sunshine
"It is empty. But a woman in threadless gold
Burns us with brushings of her dress
And a dissociated abundance of being,
More definite for what she is"
He sails over the line of sarcasm and into this crazy, sardonic, ridiculous vortex of wit and pseudo-realism. Very enjoyable read. Read Keats first, then read him. You will laugh your ass off. Then, you keep reading, and you'll find the answers to how the world should be perceived. The "apotheosis of evocative writing." That's mine - but you can borrow it.
Dense but somehow fresh and lacking pretention, the poems of Wallace Stevens somehow surprise me even after reading them so many times.
The Emperor of Ice-cream
Call the roller of big cigars,
The muscular one, and bid him whip
In kitchen cups concupiscent curds.
Let the wenches dawdle in such dress
As they are used to wear, and let the boys
Bring flowers in last month's newspapers.
Let be be finale of seem.
The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream.
Take from the dresser of deal,
Lacking the three glass...more
The Emperor of Ice-cream
Call the roller of big cigars,
The muscular one, and bid him whip
In kitchen cups concupiscent curds.
Let the wenches dawdle in such dress
As they are used to wear, and let the boys
Bring flowers in last month's newspapers.
Let be be finale of seem.
The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream.
Take from the dresser of deal,
Lacking the three glass...more
I love the early poems-- "The Load of Sugar Cane", "Domination of Black"-- for their very cool unity of content and form. There are other masterpieces-- "A Postcard from the Volcano", "The Solitude of Cataracts", etc. So much has been written about Stevens, I'm going to say just go read him.
This is the first book I remember ever buying for myself. My great aunt had read to me The Domination of Black and it opened for me a whole new way of understanding the world...poetry. Twenty years later the color and rhythm of the poems are still captivating.
I think poems should be images of ---nature--experiences--feelings---and fun to explore and to relate with. However---Wallace Stevens's poems are for the most part puzzles of his mind for us to untangle. For me---that is not a poem.
His verse seems to me to be like clear blue sky, like the freshest of fresh air, like a long cool drink of crystaline water on a warm afternoon. Thoughts like Bach's keyboard variations, feelings like a silver fountain.
"The Auroras of Autumn" blew me away and then there's "Re-statement of Romance" and then the best of all "The Planet on the Table": this latter, Steven at his older best.
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. If you needed any evidence that Wallace Stevens is a heavyweight in poetry, here it is. Sound, thought, perspective, structure, resonance-it is all here.
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Stevens is a rare example of a poet whose main output came at a fairly advanced age. His first major publication (four poems from a sequence entitled "Phases" in the November 1914 edition of Poetry Magazine) was written at the age of thirty-five, although as an undergraduate at Harvard, Stevens had written poetry and exchanged sonnets with George Santayana, with whom he was close through much of h...more
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“The only emperor is the emperor of ice cream.”
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“The river is moving. The blackbird must be flying.”
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