Allen, that is a very perceptive review with which I largely agree. I particularly like the invocation of the Dionysian; it’s straight out of Nietzsche, and very much Stevens, IMO. The review makes me want to spend more time with the late Stevens, if it is indeed true that he finally knew to eschew “his philosopher’s bow-tie”. I shall have to get on that... I enjoyed that, thank you.
Andrew, another lovely poem of images. It reminds me of the blackbird poem, of course, but it also makes me think of this by Dickinson:
THE SKY is low, the clouds are mean,
A travelling flake of snow
Across a barn or through a rut
Debates if it will go.
A narrow wind complains all day
How some one treated him;
Nature, like us, is sometimes caught
Without her diadem.
Being Wallace Stevens, it seems he can’t help but relate the scene back to poetry and writing, and he seems to see it as an aesthete’s mystical “dark night”. Remarkable. Thank you for posting it.
Last edited by Michael F; 02-06-2017 at 09:38 AM.
Reason: clean up
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