WALLACE STEVENS

He is a very weird poet. His poetry is based on a belief that no belief is possible. For
him life on Earth is not meaningful. What was most extraordinary is that they
(gods) left no mementos behind, no thorns, no mystic rings, no texts, either of the
soil or of the soul. It was as if they had never inhabited the earth. He was an
atheist. He worked in 1916 in Hartford Accident and Indemnity Company, he became
its vice-president, was very prominent figure and nobody knew that he is a poet. He
was a poet at home. He is intellectual, cerebral poet. Unlike Frost or Moore he is
difficult to grasp. He gave unusual titles to his poems. The central opposition in
Stevens is Imagination vs. reality or Mind vs. world. We expect that a poet is always
on a side of mind and imagination against the world but Stevens is not. He defines
poetry as a response to daily necessity of getting the world right. You, by your
personal contribution, have to make the world right. Stevens emphasized this
necessity, the idea of order in order to survive. When he published his first book of
poems Harmonium in 1923 he was 44. In his later poetry, which is even more
complicated, he created an alternative world.

THE EMPEROR OF ICE-CREAM

This poem is based on a painting Olympia by Eduard Manet in 1863. This was
ascandalous painting depicting a nude figure and a black boy bringing her flowers,
the flowers are wrapped in yesterdays newspapers as Stevens says:The lady is
part of demi-monde.

Call the roller of big cigars, Pozovi motaa velikih cigara The muscular one, and bid
him whip onog miiavog, i zamoli ga da umuti In kitchen cups concupiscent curds.
U kuhinjskim oljama pohotne ugruke. Let the wenches dawdle in such dress Neka
se cure etkaju u onakvim haljinama As they are used to wear, and let the boys koje
su navikle da nose, i neka djeaci Bring flowers in last month's newspapers. Donose
cvijece u novinama od proslog mjeseca Let be be finale of seem. Neka bude finale
privida The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream. Jedini car je car sladoleda.
**Comment** in this time 1923, the mechanical refrigerators did not yet exist. All
that existed were ice-boxes and ice-man would come every day to your house on a
huge carts drawn by horses brining you a huge ice box. You would buy a large lump
of ice, it melts in ice-box until next day and then you buy a new one. You needed
somebody masculine and strong for whipping. This was some festive occasion and
that is why they needed and ice cream. Wenches- are not very polite girls, this is
slightly derogatory term.
The finale of seem- seem lasts a long time, be- lasts a short time Seem- is the life of
appearance which has existential finale which is death, we live a life of appearance

and in the end we are faced with reality. Ice-cream is something that does not last,
when we taste it we feel fine, we feel some kind of relief it is a special kind of desert
it changes tastes- it is sweet, and cold, it makes us feel good and forget problems.
The only emperor is the emperor of ice cream- Pleasure governs our lives. We
avoid pain and try to feel as much pleasure as we can. We still have no idea of
occasion. Who is Olympia, who brings the flowers etc. The rollers of big cigars- they
are made in Cuba but still in Florida we have cigar rollers, it is a very well-paid and
sophisticated job.

Take from the dresser of deal, uzmi iz komode od jelovine Lacking the three glass
knobs, that sheet kojoj nedostaju 3 staklene drke, onu plahtu On which she
embroidered fantails once na kojoj je ona izvezla golubove paunae jednom And
spread it so as to cover her face. I rairi ju tako da prekrije njeno lice If her horny
feet protrude, they come ako njena uljevita stopala proviruju, ona pokazuju To show
how cold she is, and dumb. Koliko je ona hladna i nijema Let the lamp affix its beam.
Neka svijetiljka uvrsti svoj zrak The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream.
Jedini car je car sladoleda
**comment** the deal is the cheapest existing wood. So the dresser tells us about
socio-economic circumstances, these are poor people. Olympia is cold and dumb she
is dead, you have to cover her face. But the sheet is too short if you cover her face
her feet protrude and vice versa. Sheet also tells us that this woman had a hard life.
Stevens wants us to asks ourselves what kind of life she had. She embroidered on a
bed sheet for her dowry or some other occasion, in order to make the world right, it
is a kind of poetry. After you work hard in a tobacco factory you come home and do
some artistic work, like Stevens did himself. Stevens says that life of art is not
enough to fulfil the life, if you cover her head feet will protrude and show how empty
her life is.
Predominant tone- of a wake, decent silence, talking about the dead man, but soon
the drinking starts and stories that have nothing to do with the dead man and crying
turns into laughing and soon people start celebrating the emperor which made
them forget the cruel reality- that they will also die one day, they chase that thought
away, that is why ice-cream is good. What remains in the end, unlike all
transcendentalist portrayed, modernist showed on the fact that life can only end in
tragedy- death. If you try to do something different (to embroider fantails) how far
will it take? You indulge in pleasure principle in order to flee from the thought of
death but in the end it waits you there anyway. We pretend our whole life that we
are not going to die. We take ice-cream, whiskey or something else in order to
forget.

ANECDOTE OF A JAR
Anecdote should be a humorous, true story about prominent personality, here it is
not about personality it is about a jar. an ironic critique of the Romantic yearning
for the creative interfusion of consciousness and the nature on the basis of art

I placed a jar in Tennessee, Stavio sam up u Tennessee And round it was, upon a
hill. I bio je okrugao, na breuljku. It made the slovenly wilderness up je uinio da
neuredna/ prljava divljina Surround that hill. Okrui to brdo.
**Comment** jar contains either burbon or whiskey. Tennessee does not have
mountains but hills. A jar and the insistence upon its roundness- it is important that
it is round because it is the perfect shape and you have not such shape in nature.
the jar here represents the art- it is human-made. This is what happens when art
interacts with nature, Tennessee was considered a wild country back then. The
contrast between slovenly wilderness and round shape

The wilderness rose up to it, Diviljina se uzdizala prema njemu And sprawled
around, no longer wild. I nepravilno rasla oko njega i nije vie bila divlja The jar was
round upon the ground up bijee okrugao na tlu And tall and of a port in air. I visok i
imao je dostojanstveno dranje u zraku It took dominion every where. zavladao je
posvuda The jar was gray and bare. up je bio siv i neukraen It did not give of bird
or bush, nije mirisao ni na pticu ni na grm Like nothing else in Tennessee. Kao nista
drugo u Tennesseeju.
**Comment** jar is not part of nature while birds and bushes are. The jar seems
perfect with its perfect shape, but unlike bird or bush it is not alive so it does not
smell, it does not reproduce (while birds and bushes do). Gratuitous act (proizvoljan
in)- to put a jar in Tennessee is equal to human interference to nature in any shape
(like catching Moby Dick). In the end, jar proves to be inadequate, it might seem
perfect, but it is not as beautiful as nature is. Tennessee would be better off without
a jar but it is my fault that Ive put it there and failed in my intention. That is why
the poem is an anecdote. Male intervention into nature- putting a jar into nature. the
human product starts to rule all over, it takes dominion but it lacks natural
properties, it will stay bare and gray forever, that is why the nature is superior.

PETER QUINCE AT THE CLAVIER

Clavier is the word that is not used in English. He uses it to intensify the idea. Peter
Quince- is a comic character from one of the favourite Shakespeares Mid-Summer
Night Dream. He is a woodcutter, a great pretender, director, funny character which
keeps using words which he does not mean what he thinks they mean. All people
are Peter Quince because we all use words that we dont know what they mean,
especially when making a love to woman.
Four types of versification: -octosyllabic triplets Part I- irregular erotic wavering short
lines, Part II- tripping couplets (irregular falling over their own feet) Part IV- longer
lines, calmer effects Stevens tried to write poetry as music with these various
methods. This poem for him is a kind of symphony or at least sonata with 4 parts.

PART I
Peter Q. Sits at the piano playing, we have to know who P.Q is. UST as my fingers on
these keys Kao to moji prsti na ovim tipkama Make music, so the self-same sounds
stvaraju muziku, tako i ovi potpuno isti On my spirit make a music, too. Zvuci prave
muziku na mojoj dui takoe. Music is feeling, then, not sound; muzika je osjeaj
onda, a ne zvuk And thus it is that what I feel, i stoga je ono to ja osjeam Here in
this room, desiring you, ovdje u ovoj sobi, elei tebe.
P.Q. produces music and then the mind. music is important because of vibrations
and its influence on our mind. you can understand the music, without musical
education, everyone can do that. Music is a feeling.

Thinking of your blue-shadowed silk, misliti na tvoju svilu sa plavim sjenkama Is

music. It is like the strain je muzika. Ono je kao melodije koju je Waked in the elders
by Susanna: Suzana pobudila u starjeinama Of a green evening, clear and warm,
jedne zelene veeri, vedre i tople She bathed in her still garden, while kupala se u
svom mirnom vrtu, dok The red-eyed elders, watching, felt su crvenooke starjeine
posmatrajui je The basses of their beings throb osjeali kako basovi njihovih bia
podrhtavaju In witching chords, and their thin blood u vjetianskim akordima i
njihova rijetka krv Pulse pizzicati of Hosanna. Pulsira u picikatima u Hosani.
Comment: Stevens suddenly introduces apocritical story from the bible about
Susanna and the elders. Susanna was a virtuous young woman. Her husband was on
business trip and the elders approached her asking her to sleep with all of them.
When she refused they threatened that they will tell everyone that they saw a young
man coming out of her room and the she will be stoned. So they did. When she was
just about to be stoned, prophet Daniel appeared, questioned the elders and in the
end they were stoned. This actually did not interest Stevens, he was interested only
in music that Susanna is painting. The poem starts with P.Q. desiring Susanna

(parallel situation with Biblical story- the elders also wanted her) Lady in blue could
be named Susanna.

PART II

In the green water, clear and warm, U zelenoj vodi, bistroj i toploj Susanna lay.
Suzana je leala. She searched traila je The torch of Springs, buktinje proljea And
found i nasal Concealed imaginings. Skrivena zamiljanja She sighed, uzdahnula je
od For so much melody. Takve melodije Upon the bank, she stood na obali je stajala
In the cool u hladovii Of spent emotions. Iscrpljenih emocija. She felt, among the
leaves, osjeala je meu liem The dew rosu starih Of old devotions. Odanosti She
walked upon the grass, hodala je po travi Still quavering. Jo uvijek drhtei The
winds were like her maids, vjetrovi bijehu poput njenih slukinja On timid feet, na
uplaenim nogama Fetching her woven scarves, donnosei njene tkane alove Yet
wavering. A ipak oklijevajui. A breath upon her hand dah na njenoj ruci je Muted
the night. utomio/utiao no She turnedona se okrenula A cymbal crashed, inela
je udarila And roaring horns. i rogovi koji riu.
Comment: She cannot see the elders but feels them. Highly erotic scene, she walks
upon the grass. Elders are approaching her with their demands.

PART III

Soon, with a noise like tambourines, uskoro sa zvukom poput defova Came her
attendant Byzantines. dole su njene pratilje Bizantijke.They wondered why Susanna
cried pitale su se zato suzana place Against the elders by her side; a starjeine
stoje pored nje. And as they whispered, the refrain i dok su se saaptavale, refren
Was like a willow swept by rain. Je bio poput vrbe zasute kie Anon, their lamps'
uplifted flame odmah, podignuti plamen njihovih svjetiljki Revealed Susanna and her
shame. Otkrio je suzani i njenu sramotu. And then, the simpering Byzantines, a
potom, iscerene Bizantijke, Fled, with a noise like tambourines. Pobjegoe uz zvuk
poput defova.

Comment: Another type of music, completes the rhyme straight through simple
rhythm and melody. Byzantines are slaves sold in Palestine, they were bought by
Susannas husband. They are not sad for Susanna at all, they are slaves, they do
not sympathize with the wife of their owner. They think very bad about her.

PART IV

Beauty is momentary in the mind Ljepota je trenutano u mislima The fitful tracing
of a portal; hirovita skica kapije But in the flesh it is immortal. Ali kada je krv i meso
onda je besmrtna.
Hes turning it upside down. A clich, a standard statement is that the
beauty in the mind is eternal and the one in the body is temporary. But
here Stevens wants to shock us and he reversed it completely. Stevens
explains what he means. Explanation is cynical.

The body dies; the body's beauty lives, tijelo umire, ljepota tijela ivi So evenings
die, in their green going, tako i veeri umiru u njihovom zelenom odlasku A wave,
interminably flowing. Talas koji se neprestano valja So gardens die, their meek
breath scenting tako i vrtovi umiru, njihov krotki dah namirie The cowl of Winter,
done repenting. Plat zime, poto su se pokajali. So maidens die, to the auroral i
djeve umiru, uz jutarnjo slavljenje Celebration of a maiden's choral. Djevojakog
horskog pjevanja.
He thinks that body dies but that its beauty continues to live. All rivers run
to sea yet the sea is not full. Do evenings really die? No, because they will
come again next day. Beauty dies but there is a new generation coming.
Gardens die in the winter but in the spring there are new gardens. The
wave also- it comes and goes, comes and goes

Susanna's music touched the bawdy strings Suzanina muzika dotakla je bestidne
ice Of those white elders; but, escaping, starjeina, ali je pobjegavi Left only
Death's ironic scrapings. Ostavila samo ironine strugotine smrti. Now, in its
immortality, it plays sada u svojoj besmrtnosti ona svira On the clear viol of her
memory, na jasnoj volji njenog sjeanja And makes a constant sacrament of praise. i
pravi neprestani simbol pohvale.

P.Q. is awkward, clumsy male. He started the poem by saying that the
music is a feeling and not sound, beauty play on the spirits of perceiver.
Stevens tries to achieve something- poem is not about Susanna but about
beauty which has its incarnation in poetry as Stevens sees it. The poet
also ironically does his job. Beauty plays on its instrument trying to
preserve the beauty that has always been there, like in Pounds Envoi.
A poet looks at the world as a man look at a woman desiring her.

Susanna and her beauty will live forever, in the story of Daniel, in generations but
also in this poem. Stevens tells about his struggle against reality in the world. Old
man and the sea- if old man was an artist, writer and he fishes for an art work,
finally he catches it but now he has to bring it back on the land, to put it on the
paper for the readers. What is lost in that process is flesh and the skeleton is all that
is left, just a skeleton of idea, and some readers think that it is something
completely different, like people thought that the skeleton that the old man brought
is the skeleton of a shark.
In the end Stevens proves an optimist saying that Beauty is always there, and it
makes a constant sacrament of praise- praising nature, beauty as such etc.