WALLACE STEVENS AS THE CREATOR OF THE ANTI-ROMANTICS

          Wallace Stevens is perhaps best known for the complexity and intricate symbolism within his poetry. Stevens lived well in his Modernist world—a suburban life surrounding his stable job at an insurance company and crafted his poetry after office hours. To critics, these suburban influences play a great importance in Stevens' many works, and helped him create his own stamp on poetry. Wallace Stevens reworks the Romantic experience by depicting suburban life in a naturist manner while he remains powerfully Modernist in the fact that he depicts his time clearly and attempts to connect the imagination to reality throughout all his works. Stevens is not afraid to turn Romantic poetry to his own benefit, and created an interesting take on the idea of the human imagination and its own power within poetry.

            In order to truthfully understand Stevens' take on the anti-Romantic experience, one must comprehend his interesting take on the imagination and its connection to reality.  In his essay "Imagination as Value" Stevens does not hesitate to rework what imagination should be seen as, explaining that "…the imagination is one of the great human powers. The Romantic belittles it" (Stevens 138), which points to his penchant for taking the Romantic and turning it on its own head. Stevens reconstructs the imagination, as "it has universal metaphysical value" (136) and should graduate from its meaning within Romantic poetry.

            By understanding Stevens' belief that the idea of the imagination should change, it is easy for critics to understand the complex nature of his poetry as well as his own take on Modernism and Romanticism. As "imagination is no longer [the] special human activity which builds up the human world of art" (Stevens 136) it should hold a stronger tie to reality, where Stevens remains strictly modern. It is noted that Stevens "is a critic of reality because it has neither meaning or content" (Sahan 28) when it is based off of an imagination that is Romantic in art. Imagination should hold a metaphysical and true tie to reality when it is depicted in art, and here is where Stevens sets himself apart from other Modernists and a true pioneer in the use of creating a reversed Romantic experience.

            The notion of viewing imagination as a greater tie to reality as well has having a deeper meaning than a frivolous Romantic influence could give it, readers can further understand Stevens' other great Modernist ideas as well has his new take on the Romantics. To be able to fully see Stevens' great distinction in imagination—an important foundation for all poetry—is to see the greater meaning behind all of his works, as well as understand his abstract images and symbolism, as they also represent his ideas on what imagination should be. His acknowledgment of the power of imagination is perhaps what gives him the opportunity to rework it to his own benefit, and "to regard the imagination as metaphysics is to think of it as part of life, and to think of it as part of life is to realize the extent of artifice" (Stevens 140). In doing so, Stevens has allowed himself to rework the Romantics for his own Modernist works.

            As a true mark of a Modernist, Stevens writes greatly of his own time. A commonly seen backdrop for many of his works is the suburbs—a reflection of Stevens' own reality. In his piece "Disillusionment of Ten O'Clock" Stevens cleverly creates a great contrast to show the dull atmosphere of his own neighborhood. Moving from "houses haunted / by white night-gowns" to images of "purple with green rings, / or green with yellow rings" Stevens creates a vacuum of comparison where "none of them are strange" and no one seems to dream in any color. Stevens' narrator laments the boring suburban life, an artist clearly stuck in an suburban atmosphere where little excitement happens within his neighbor's lives. This contrasting poem is a great representation of an important facet of Stevens' poetics—the idea of a mundane suburban life.

            In this piece, Stevens sees everyone in the same colorless existence save his narrator and a drunk. The speaker is an outsider—literally in the fact that he is on the dark street looking on at his neighbors getting ready for bed, but also symbolically in the sorrowful tone as he is alone in a colorful suburban world. It is noted by critics that Stevens seems to "meditate on the spread of the suburban grid" (Monacell) and delves into the intricacies of living as an artist in a suburban atmosphere.

            Stevens also touches on suburban life in "The Man with the Blue Guitar", a long piece that plays with ideas of reality and control. If a reader was to analyze Stevens' couplets at the end of each section, they can easily see that the main subject, the man with the guitar, is struggling to play "of things exactly as they are". Stevens uses a variation of this line throughout his couplets, furthering his ideas on reality and its connection to imagination. Also, the strings of this guitar are given a personality of sorts—this can lead readers to see these strings as extremely powerful. They are called to by the people to play "A tune upon a blue guitar / Of things exactly as they are".  Reading critically, one can view this man playing the guitar as a Godly figure—and the people who know of him demand the truth. Stevens is reflecting his own strides for the truth in reality through the voices in this poem. A demand for a proper representation from the man with the guitar is a demand for a proper representation within art and poetry.

            This is a truthfully Modernist ideal. The Modernists strove to represent the times as they were—a true difference from the Romantics who dressed their poetry with lovely language and green scenery. But, Stevens is set apart in his representation of his Modernist ideals by connecting them with his own definition of imagination. In a concise genre, Stevens does not shy away from imagination, previously used for extremely Romantic purposes. Instead, he recreates the imagination for himself and ties it to reality in a truthfully Modernist way—imagination is abstract, and should stay that way, but it should also tie itself back to reality in some way.    

            This anti-Romantic line of thinking is perhaps best represented in his short piece "Anecdote of the Jar". Here, Stevens places an ordinary object within nature, and in doing so, he has taken control of nature—altering it in many ways. He uses precise, gruff detail, perhaps the only elements holding any semblance to the Romantics, but this only poses as Stevens' contrasting Modernist placement of the jar in the wilderness. Stevens takes hold of what is Romantic and takes control by reversing it. The jar within the wild nature is a direct representation of flipping the Romantic experience. Stevens is taking what is Romantic and controlling it for his own uses. In a way, Stevens is reclaiming all aspects of poetry for his own Modernism.

            By definition, Modernists do not write excessively or without purpose and write of their own time. Stevens does this in all of his pieces and in "Anecdote of the Jar" he is reclaiming nature, a previously Romantic theme and using it for his Modernist purposes. In this piece, Stevens expresses the idea "that suburban America can furnish the inspiration made available by more poetic landscapes" (Monacell), similar to "The Man with the Blue Guitar" and "Disillusionment of Ten O'Clock". "Anecdote of the Jar" is a great connector between nature and the non-organic suburban life. And, in "The Man with the Blue Guitar" and especially "Disillusionment of Ten O'Clock", Stevens proves that he can create a beautiful, Modernist poem within his own guidelines.

            Stevens conjures sharp images within all of his poetry that are embedded within his abstract ideas and complex symbols. "Anecdote of the Jar" sees the subject of the poem placed in the "slovenly wilderness" and how "It took domination everywhere. / The jar was gray and bare" providing extreme images for the reader that are in nature, but staying true to Modernist ideals and Stevens own on imagination's ties to reality. "Disillusionment of Ten O'Clock" has extreme, colorful detail. This clever play on words can be seen as Romantic, but once again, Stevens spins this Romantic ideal and overhauls it with a Modernist purpose. The contrast of white night gowns and the colorful comparison that follows is close to Romantic until it is clear the narrator is mourning the loss of interest or "strangeness" within his own suburban neighborhood.

             This idea of suburbia follows in "The Man with the Blue Guitar" which also drives home Stevens' ideals of matching imagination and reality in a creative way. The speakers within the poem seem to expect greatness from this man holding the guitar, and want nothing less than the blue guitar to play "of things exactly as they are". This is a mirror image of Stevens' many ideals on imagination and reality as well as Modernist theories of the time. Also, the image of strings and a great population that reoccur throughout the lengthy piece can give the reader the sense of control over the masses.

            Wallace Stevens has crafted his poetics carefully and full of intent. He reverses the Romantic experience in the wake of his craftsmanship of the imagination. By reworking these factors Stevens has created a unique voice and abstract symbols throughout all his works. With the themes of mundane suburbia coupled with the rework of the Romantics and an individual take on the imagination and the poet's connection of it to reality, Stevens is able to make is individual and important mark on poetry. The Modern influence on the Romantic is what has allowed Stevens to speak freely of his own suburban reality while challenging the times and crafting beautifully descriptive images of real life and courageously refusing to let his art fall short of his own Modernist standards.

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Stevens, Wallace. Imagination as Value. N.p.: Albert A. Knopf, 1951. Print.

Sahn, Haider Sadam. "The Creation of Reality through Imagination in Wallace Stevens' Poetry."

     Magazine of Yarmouk University (2013) Google Scholar. Web. 24 Nov. 2015.

Monacell, Pater. "In the American grid: modern poetry and the suburbs." Journal of Modern Literature 35.1 (2011):122+. Literature Resource Center. Web. 24 Nov. 2015.