I understand more than not granting wishes, Julie. My own view, which I know is not widely shared and which I don't even know if Stevens agrees with, is that God is of no use at all distinct from the uses of literature and poetry and myth, i.e., stories we tell each other that give us insight, comfort or understanding. And what I'm hearing in this Stevens poem is the idea that too much focus on the idea of God can disturb a more direct relationship we have with the observable and actual universe we find ourselves in, that the metaphor can impinge on the reality, and that there's something about the direct and observable reality, unadorned by theological invention, that is worth experiencing and appreciating without having to pin everything on some sort of divine entity that gives it meaning. I relate it to the portion of Esthetique du Mal that I posted above, that the worst tragedy is not to be physical in the physical world, etc.
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