For my money, "A High-Toned Old Christian Woman" is one of his best; it's not just speculation, it's rhetoric--language shaped into effective argument. It's also a very funny poem if you get the joke. Too many of Stevens's poems seem to be private jokes, to be "got" by the poet alone; this one isn't.
ITA on "A High-Toned...".
Also, re: the private jokes: IMHO -- just my opinion, offered as such -- too many of WS's poems are about poetry. That's a temptation for us all, but most poets I consider superior to WS, e.g., Dickinson, Whitman, Frost, Szymborska, Auden... resisted it. That's my personal aesthetic!
[edited in: To Aaron, below: so we need threads on Whitman and Auden! Something to look forward to...?]
Last edited by Michael F; 02-20-2017 at 11:59 AM.
Reason: a few adds
|