AbstractsLanguage, Literature & Linguistics

Fluent crystals : a study of two central poems.

by James Rother




Institution: McGill University
Department: Department of English.
Degree: MA.
Year: 1965
Keywords: English.; Stevens, Wallace, 1879-1955. Like decorations in a nigger cementary.
Record ID: 1500245
Full text PDF: http://digitool.library.mcgill.ca/thesisfile118142.pdf


Abstract

Wallace Stevens (1879-1955) is probably the greatest and most prolific exponent of purist estheticism in all of American letters. Born in Reading, Pennsylvania, his first book of poetry, Harmonium (1923) won him the respect and admiration of his fellow writers, but brought him little popular acclaim and less remuneration. His career as a poet spanned four decades, the 1923 volume being followed by Ideas 2( Order (1935); The Man with the Blue Guitar (1937); Parts of â World (1942); Transport to Symmer (1947); The Auroras gt Autumn (1950); The Necessary Angel (a collection of essa7s, 1951); The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens (1954); and Opus Posthumous (a miscellany of poems, plays, and prose works, edited by Samuel French Morse, 1957). Unlike most of his contemporaries, Stevens chose to divide his time between the world of poetry and that of business, keeping in the process very much to himself, and refusing to mix with literary or academie society. From 1916 to his death in 1955, he was associated with the Hartford Accident and Indemnity Company, of which he became vice-president in 1934. [...]