Poetry for Students, Volume 35

relationship between thepoem and its reader. Clip-
pinger, for example, finds the poem to be ‘‘the
poeticpinnacleofParts of a World.’’

CRITICISM

Wendy Perkins
PerkinsisaprofessorofEnglishatPrinceGeorge’s
Community College in Maryland and has published
several articles on American and British literature.
In the following essay, she examines the relationship
between poet, poem, and reader in Stevens’s poem
and his views on the power of the imagination.

In his ‘‘Adagia,’’ a set of musings on poetry
and the imagination collected inOpus Posthu-
mous(1957), Stevens wrote about the importance
of the relation of art to life, since with the modern
disillusionment with conventional beliefs and
institutions, ‘‘the mind turns to its own creations
and examines them,...for what they reveal, for
what they validate and invalidate, for the support
they give.’’ The search for an imaginative connec-
tion to the real world can be aided by the poet,
who can provide a sense of order and peace, even
if that peace is only temporary. This power of the
poetic imagination is a dominant theme in ‘‘Of
Modern Poetry.’’ Here Stevens reveals how the
artistic expression of poetry, especially that which
he considers ‘‘modern,’’ can facilitate a deeper
experience for readers as they connect with and
thus more fully comprehend their world.

In the opening lines of the poem, the speaker
notes the need the human mind has to make
meaningful connections with the world, especially
those that provide some type of satisfaction. This
need is central to ‘‘Of Modern Poetry,’’ in its focus
on the modern age, a period of uncertainty and
confusion. Since the opening statement is not a
complete sentence and it is placed at the beginning
of the poem, it can be viewed as the poem’s con-
trolling idea in conjunction with the title. The first
statement and the title together announce the
poem’s intention to reveal significant connections
through modern poetry, which, the speaker later
points out, involves the interaction between the
creation, expression, and response to that poetry.

The second line establishes the difference
between traditional poetry and what the speaker
calls ‘‘modern.’’ The idea of ‘‘modern poetry’’
implies a break from the past in an effort to find
fresh ways to explore the connections between the
poet, the reader, and their world.

WHAT

DO I READ

NEXT?

T. S. Eliot’sThe Waste Land(1925), considered

to be one of the finest examples of modernism,

experiments with similar poetic techniques to

those used by Stevens.

Stevens’sThe Necessary Angel: Essays on

Reality and the Imagination(1951) focuses

on the interplay between the poet and the

poem.

Stevens’s ‘‘The Idea of Order at Key West,’’

contained in his bookIdeas of Order(1936),

presents a different view of the interplay

of imagination and reality through the

consciousness of a woman who represents

the poet in the poem.

Twenty-seven of Stevens’s poems that may

appeal to children and young adults have

been collected inPoetry for Young People: Wal-

lace Stevens(2004), edited by John N. Serio and

illustrated by Robert Gantt Steele. Among

these poems are ‘‘From a Junk,’’ which focuses

on a boat on a moonlit sea and ‘‘Ploughing

on Sunday,’’ a poem that celebrates rural

landscapes.

Australian poet John Allison wroteAWayof

Seeing: Perception, Imagination, and Poetry

(2003), which explains how readers can

use their imagination to engage with their

world in ways that scientific observation can-

not match. To illustrate his thesis, Allison

includes passages by William Shakespeare,

William Blake, John Keats, Rainer Maria

Rilke, and Octavio Paz.

Countee Cullen, a popular poet of the Har-

lem Renaissance, often focuses on poetic

expression, as in his poem ‘‘Yet Do I Mar-

vel’’ (1925), which explores the complex

relationship between a black poet and his

world.

C. M. Bowra’sThe Romantic Imagination

(1969) discusses how the English romantic

poets viewed the power of the imagination.

Of Modern Poetry