Group+B+Paper

Group B, I wrote this again

Group B  Professor Bishop American Literature 2132 November 14, 2010 Wallace Stevens  Wallace Stevens was a bright man. His writing is fantastic and may sometimes even blow you out of the water. This group was to discover the unconventional themes and forms Wallace Stevens used during his creations. Depression, sadness, and nature are the themes he mainly used to express his emotions. Wallace Stevens Biography  Stevens was considered one of the most significant American poets of the 20th century. Wallace Stevens was born on October 2, 1879 and dies at the age of seventy two on August 2, 1955. He was born in Reading, Pennsylvania and died in Harford, Connecticut. Stevens attended Harvard for three years, and worked briefly for the New York Herald Tribune. He then went on to get a degree in 1904 from the New York Law School. He then practiced law in New York City. In 1904 Stevens met Elsie Kachel, whom he married in 1909. They had one daughter names Holly Bight who was born in 1924. (Poemhunter.com) Stevens became interested in writing while he attended Harvard. His first book of poetry was published in 1923 called // Harmonium. //He felt that his reviews of his book were less than they should have been which began to discourage him and he wrote nothing else through the 1920s (English.edu). While he was not writing he was advancing more in business of being a lawyer. Stevens regularly traveled south mostly to the Florida Keys and Cuba. He began writing again in the 1930s, and he arranged for his newest poems to be printed in only limed editions (Poemhunter.com). Unlike most writers in 1930, when Stevens was sixty he still had some of his best writings ahead of him. He began to turn away from the playful use of language to a more reflective abstract style. Some of his later and best works were “Notes toward a Supreme Fiction”, “The Auroras of Autumn,” and “An ordinary Evening in New Haven.” Stevens wrote up until his death at age seventy two in 1955 (English.edu).  Oscar Meza ENGL 2132 Prof. Bishop November 14, 2010 “Anecdote of the Jar” <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> Stevens uses the jar and wilderness to portray a war between industries and people during that time. “The wilderness rose up to it, / And sprawled around, no longer wild.” (5-6). The jar is a representation of industries because it’s a manmade item, and the wilderness is a representation of society. After the jar was placed on the hill the wilderness rose up. What this means is that people began to fight back against the industries. They began to go on strikes by surrounding the facilities and eventually taken control of it, just like the wilderness sprawled around the jar. In this poem Stevens is describing a war between people and industries. During this time industries were rising. But, job conditions were not very good and unions began to form, strikes were very common. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Stevens uses the dominion of the jar to challenge the traditional Romanticism. Stevens writes, “It took dominion everywhere.” (9). Stevens is talking about the jar taking control of everything. He is suggesting that big industrial companies which are represented by the jar took control of everything; people’s life, the government, and the economy of the country. But, by making this suggestion Stevens is challenging Romanticism tradition. Romanticism writers talk about nature just like Stevens does in this poem, but Romanticism writers also tell us that everyone is able to make his own decision, his own way of life. However, here Stevens is telling us that industries have become so powerful and strong that they’re the ones making the decisions for everyone. People have lost their ability to choose their own way of life. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Bryn Yarbrough <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Professor Bishop <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">American Literature 2132 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">November 14, 2010 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">“The Snow Man” <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> Wallace Stevens wrote many wonderful poems, but in particular “The Snow Man.” This is a modernism poem, which challenges form and tradition. The biggest way that this poem challenges tradition is because it is a sad and depressing poem. In the time of 1931, when this poem was written and the same as now, it is not always the best thing to talk about being sad. In general most people only want to hear and write about happiness, and how wonderful their lives are, but this poem is the complete opposite. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> The poem begins off with the lines, “One must have a mind of winter / To regard the frost and the boughs / Of the pine-trees crusted with snow;” (NAAL: D, Stevens, 1441). By saying this Stevens really means that in order for someone to understand the feeling of being sad and depressed that they must have been themselves, depressed or sad at some time. Snow crusted pine-trees is showing that snow is a sad and cold thing and that being crusted with snow is like a person being sad and all crusted and embedded with sadness. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> Next, “And have been cold a long time / To behold the junipers shagged with ice, / the spruces rough in the distant glitter” (NAAL: D, Stevens, 1441), these lines are saying that to understand depression you have had to been cold meaning depressed and sad for a long time. Holding junipers of shagged with ice, is meaning that even if something in your life is supposed to be happy that is still shagged with ice. This is saying that even though it is supposed to be happy, there are still so many bad things about it that make your life sad. The writer knows that there are good things in life, but that they are just very far off for him, when Stevens is talking about the spruces rough in the distant glitter is a great example of this. He see that there are great things that glitter in life, they are just out of reach from him and his depressing life. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> When Stevens talks about “Of the January sun; and not to think / Of any misery in the sound of the wind, / In the sound of a few leaves,” (NAAL: D, Stevens, 1441) he is talking about how cold and sad it still is even with the January sun, shining. The sun is considered to be a happy and bright thing, but in the writers eyes it is not enough to make happiness. The sound of the wind and the sound of very few leaves is a miserable and dark sound for him. With the wind whistling around, it makes you cold and sad. The sound of few leaves falling is showing that it is so cold and depressing that there are hardly any leaves left, which means there is hardly any happiness left. No leaves is meaning the absence of life, all the leaves are dead. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> The writer also talks about how he feels that in all of the area around him people are depressed and sad as well. All the land around him is cold, dreary and sad. This is from the lines, “Which is the sound of the land / Full of the same wind / That is blowing in the same bare place” (NAAL: D, Stevens, 1441). This is showing how he feels that he cannot get away from the depression, wherever he turns, looks, or goes. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> The poem ends in the same way it started by simply talking about more depression and sadness. “For the listener, who listens in the snow, / And, nothing himself, beholds / Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.” (NAAL: D, Stevens, 1441) Stevens is saying that for whoever is listening or reading this poem that is also depressed that there is nothing that is not there and nothing that is. This means that for a person that has no happiness in their life that is it not there at all. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Overall this is a very depressing, dark, sad, and very dreary poem by Stevens. This poem challenges form and tradition of modernism because, is does not talk about what people believe should be written about. People believed and still believe that people should only write about happy times, and wonderful memories and exciting things that happen in their life. Not something that is depressing, dark, and sad. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Tucker griffin <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Professor Bishop <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">English2132 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">November 14, 2010 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">“Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> In Stevens’ “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” his use of blackbirds as a theme for each aspect of the poem is remarkable. He uses blackbirds as a visual aid to describe his thoughts and state of mind. Also, Stevens uses blackbirds to convey to others that people should cherish what they have instead of always wishing for more. Most impressive is that Stevens is able to link thirteen different ideas together with nothing but the image of a blackbird. The main idea that Stevens seemed to project in “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” was the mind. Stevens used blackbirds to visualize how he felt as though he had three different states of mind. He also focused on human emotion and psyche using analogies to describe fear, greed, loneliness, and other common emotions felt by people. Part of what makes this poem so different is because it was written with these feelings in mind. Although “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” is one of Stevens’ most notable works, the style of writing appears to be largely unconventional. The way some of the lines are put together it almost seems as though they were placed with each other by mistake. This gives the poem an almost hazy aspect that makes it seem like the whole thing is a dream. Stevens also hides the true meanings of each stanza in illusions that can be difficult to interpret. Because of this, there are many different ways of interpreting the poem which can make it fairly difficult to discover its true meaning. Stevens knew this when he wrote the poem and most likely intended it to remain that way. The mystery behind the meaning of “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” is part of what makes it so fascinating, and is also why it remains one of Wallace Stevens’ most important literary works. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Ashley Smith <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Professor Bishop <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">American Literature 2132 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">November 14, 2010 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">“The Idea of Order at Key West” <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> “The Idea of Order at Key West” illustrates the unconventional theme of Nature and Depression. Wallace Stevens makes the picture of what maybe the sea and/or a person bonding by using the musical quality of singing. Singing and the ocean are the main elements theoretically through-out this whole art form of poetry. The ocean and human bonding maybe what some see, but I see a fierce storm on its playground, the open sea. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> In the first stanza, Stevens states, “The water never formed to mind or voice, like a body wholly body, fluttering its empty sleeves.”(Stevens, 1451). Water is never in one specific shape, form, state, or even color. This is suggesting that the storm, or the she who sings in the poem, is making the ocean act carelessly. It is flowing freely as it pleases and as the storm wants it to, almost like the sea are the actors and the storm is the director of a play. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> “The meaningless plungings of water and the wind,” (Stevens, 1451). This can be interpreted that the ocean is a storms play ground. The body of water just moves vigorously along with the wind making a musical production of continual singing and dancing of motions; a world of creativity and originality that with each verse, note, and tone, differs from moment to moment. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> Along with nature this poem also covers depression and sadness. “A summer sound repeated in a summer without end and sound alone.”(Stevens, 1451). The storm is maybe the only sound that is ever made during the summers, no birds singing or children laughing, just the thunder booms and the ocean clashing. It is depressing that the children cannot go outside and see all the beautiful organisms and their color that summer brings out. It is a shame that people have to stay inside from the lightening and rain. The dark clouds may make for a wet, sad, and gloomy day. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Jacob Ghee <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Professor Bishop <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">American Literature 2132 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">November 14, 2010 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">“The Emperor of Ice-Cream” By Wallace Stevens <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Wallace Stevens’ poem The Emperor of Ice-Cream is an actual dark depressing poem that is covered by a title that seems to be of happiness. The actual poem is about a girl who attempts to fill the void in her life with material things, love, and family but in her attempts to pursue these things she is only beaten down in life and taken to a level of depression that eventually kills her. Stevens writes in his poem “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”(Norton 1442). The underlining meaning is that this sheet or blanket that she covers her face with is her attempts to obscure or reject the world around her by covering herself with happiness and material things but when she does this her feet protrudes which literally means she still falls to depression with her life forever empty. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> Stevens seems to be telling us that if we attempt to fill our lives with only the pursuit of happiness without work and without living nobly than we will meet our demise by our own hands, forever depressed in a state of emptiness. Stevens at the end of the poem states “To showhow cold she is, and dumb. Let the lamp affix its beam. The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream.” (Norton 1442). This means that the girl dies from her depression followed by saying the only Emperor of happiness is one that we can never achieve and one that those who strive for it eventually fail. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> To conclude, the poem although seeming to be about happiness because the item in the title ice-cream brings about happiness is actually a cover for what the poem actually means, it is a demented and dark poem about how although humans as their nature pursue happiness, in wealth, materials, and friends; the only happiness is that in death because the only thing in life is depression and disappointment because the only Emperor of happiness is the Emperor if ice-cream which does not exist. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">After reading some of Wallace Stevens’ writings anyone can say that Stevens writes mostly about depression, sadness, and nature. During the understanding of these five poems, this group has discovered that Stevens use these unconventional themes and forms, depression, sadness, and nature, to express what he was feeling and maybe what he was going through. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Works cited <span style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: center; text-indent: -0.25in;"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">• <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Loeffelholz, Mary. //The Norton Anthology of American Literature//. 7th ed. Vol. D. New York: WW Norton & Company, 2007. 1442. Print. <span style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">• <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Baym, Nina. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Volume D. New York. W.W.   <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> Norton & Company, Inc. 2007. <span style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">• <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“Biography of Wallace Stevens.” __PoemHunter.com.__ October 26, 2010. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">[|www.poemhumter.com/wallace-stevens/biography/] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> <span style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">• <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“Wallace Stevens: Biography and Recollections by acquaintances. __Modern American Poetry.__ <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> October 26, 2010. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">[|www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/s_z/stevens/bio.htm] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">. <span style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">• <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Stevens, Wallace. “Anecdote of the Jar.” 1923. // The Norton Anthology American Literature Seventh Edition Vol. D. //Eds. Reesman, Jeanne C., and Arnold Krupat. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2007. 1442. Print. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">