Wallace stevens

t h e c a m b ri d ge co m p a n i o n t o w al l ac e s t ev e ns
Wallace Stevens is a major American poet and a central figure in modernist studies and twentieth-century poetry. This Companion introduces students to his work. An international team of distinguished contributors presents a unified picture of Stevens’ poetic achievement. The Introduction explains why Stevens is among the world’sgreat poets and offers specific guidance on how to read and appreciate his poetry. A brief biographical sketch anchors Stevens in the real world and illuminates important personal and intellectual influences. The essays following chart Stevens’ poetic career and his affinities with both earlier and contemporary writers, artists, and philosophers. Other essays introduce students to the peculiarity anddistinctiveness of Stevens’ voice and style. They explain prominent themes in his work and explore the nuances of his aesthetic theory. With a detailed chronology and a guide to further reading, this Companion provides all the information a student or scholar of Stevens will need. j o h n n . s e r i o is Professor of Humanities at Clarkson University, New York, and editor of the Wallace StevensJournal.

THE CAMBRIDGE COMPANION TO

WALLACE STEVENS
EDITED BY

JOHN N. SERIO

cambridge university press Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, Sao Paulo ˜ Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge cb2 2ru, UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www.cambridge.org Information on this title:www.cambridge.org/9780521614825

© Cambridge University Press 2007
This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2007 Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge A cataloguerecord for this publication is available from the British Library isbn-13 978-0-521-84956-2 hardback isbn-10 0-521-84956-x hardback isbn-13 978-0-521-61482-5 paperback isbn-10 0-521-61482-1 paperback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that anycontent on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

CONTENTS

List of contributors Chronology List of abbreviations Introduction
JOHN N. SERIO

page vii x xvi 1

1 Wallace Stevens: a likeness
JOAN RICHARDSON

8

2 Stevens and Harmonium
ROBERT REHDER

23

3 Stevens in the 1930s
ALAN FILREIS

37

4 Stevens and the supreme fiction
M I LT O N J . B AT E S

485 Stevens’ late poetry
B. J. LEGGETT

62

6 Stevens and his contemporaries
JAMES LONGENBACH

76

7 Stevens and romanticism
JOSEPH CARROLL

87

v

CONTENTS

8 Stevens and philosophy
BART EECKHOUT

103

9 Stevens’ seasonal cycles
GEORGE S. LENSING

118

10 Stevens and the lyric speaker
HELEN VENDLER

133

11 Stevens and linguistic structure
B E V E R LY M A ED E R

149

12 Stevens and painting
BONNIE COSTELLO

164

13 Stevens and the feminine
J A C Q U E L I N E VA U G H T B R O G A N

180

14 Stevens and belief
D AV I D R . J A R R AWAY

193

Guide to further reading Index

207 214

vi

CONTRIBUTORS

MILT ON J . BATES

is the author of Wallace Stevens: A Mythology of Self (1985) and The Wars We Took to Vietnam: CulturalConflict and Storytelling (1996). He has edited the revised edition of Stevens’ Opus Posthumous (1989) and Sur Plusieurs Beaux Sujects: Wallace Stevens’ Commonplace Book (1989). He teaches at Marquette University.

JACQUELI NE VAUGHT BROGAN

has published several books on twentieth-century poetry, including Stevens and Simile: A Theory of Language (1986), Part of the Climate: American Cubist...