128:'s sense of the opposition between the corruptibility of the flesh and the perfection of an ideal world. The "few things for themselves" that Stevens lists in the first stanza are not philosophical generics like Aristotle's conception of what's worth doing for its own sake (philosophy) or Hobbes's list of appetitive desires that motivate all human beings. Stevens's list rather is highly specific and opaque to the reader whose imagination may not be piqued by buzzards, etc. One has to look beyond this opacity to whatever piques one's imagination, however quirky that may be to others. The same holds true for the "dreadful sundry of this world" listed in the second stanza. The poem is about Stevens's subjective response to
148:
However much the poet may be distracted by lascivious particulars, he does indeed want particulars: A hand that bears a thick-leaved fruit, A pungent bloom against donna's shade. This insistence on particularity is a familiar theme in
Stevens. (See his treatment of beauty in
164:, displaying "an extravagance of conception and an energy of language and tone that approach the violences of imagination that Stevens sought but had not found in the earlier poems." He credits these later poems with establishing "an over-all development" in the book.
673:
407:
153:", for example.) Bates reads the poem as Stevens's wish that Florida "were less the harlot and more the sequestered inamorata". (His donna may be compared to the princess of the sea in "
680:
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132:, and he doesn't do any generalizing so as to share an abstract content with the reader.
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229:", "Frogs Eat Butterflies. Snakes Eat Frogs. Hogs Eat Snakes. Men Eat Hogs", and "
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Frogs Eat
Butterflies. Snakes Eat Frogs. Hogs Eat Snakes. Men Eat Hogs
145:, 533). She sometimes carries symbolically fertile fruit in her hand.
135:
The word "venereal" refers to Venus, not to the sexual disease, as in
408:
Cy Est
Pourtraicte, Madame Ste Ursule, et Les Unze Mille Vierges
271:
37:, volume 73, July 1922, and is therefore in the public domain.
225:
Buttel, p. 246. The other poems he singles out are "
681:Jasmine's Beautiful Thoughts Underneath The Willow
160:Buttel classifies it as one of the later poems in
43:
569:The Curtains in the House of the Metaphysician
124:Buttel interprets the poem as continuous with
283:
8:
290:
276:
268:
331:The Paltry Nude Starts on a Spring Voyage
248:Wallace Stevens: The Making of Harmonium
33:. It was first published in the journal
772:Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird
257:. University of California Press, 1985.
173:
116:A hand that bears a thick-leaved fruit,
821:The Revolutionists Stop for Orangeade
702:The Bird with the Coppery, Keen Claws
7:
255:Wallace Stevens: A Mythology of Self
118:A pungent bloom against your shade.
264:. Princeton University Press, 2007.
262:A Reader's Guide to Wallace Stevens
250:. Princeton University Press, 1968.
541:Anecdote of the Prince of Peacocks
520:On the Manner of Addressing Clouds
61:The dreadful sundry of this world,
14:
737:Two Figures in Dense Violet Night
548:A High-Toned Old Christian Woman
69:Killing the time between corpses
807:The Surprises of the Superhuman
758:Hymn from a Watermelon Pavilion
527:Of Heaven Considered as a Tomb
492:Anecdote of Men by the Thousand
415:Hibiscus on the Sleeping Shores
611:Disillusionment of Ten O'Clock
506:Floral Decorations for Bananas
387:Nuances of a Theme by Williams
139:'s "venereal trains" (Milton,
114:Fewest things to the lover ---
1:
786:The Man Whose Pharynx Was Bad
625:The Virgin Carrying a Lantern
436:Homunculus et la Belle Etoile
499:The Apostrophe to Vincentine
450:From the Misery of Don Joost
443:The Comedian as the Letter C
112:Conceal yourself or disclose
54:A few things for themselves,
46:A few things for themselves,
765:Peter Quince at the Clavier
751:To the One of Fictive Music
723:Colloquy with a Polish Aunt
555:The Place of the Solitaires
151:Peter Quince at the Clavier
101:Sparkling, solitary, still,
82:After the guitar is asleep,
78:In the porches of Key West,
904:
814:Sea Surface Full of Clouds
646:Six Significant Landscapes
471:The Worms at Heaven's Gate
338:The Plot Against the Giant
110:And cloudy constellations,
80:Behind the bougainvilleas,
888:Poetry by Wallace Stevens
311:
95:Sequestered over the sea,
84:Lasciviously as the wind,
73:Virgin of boorish births,
27:'s first book of poetry,
604:Tea at the Palaz of Hoon
590:The Emperor of Ice-Cream
583:Depression Before Spring
534:Of the Surface of Things
464:Last Looks at the Lilacs
457:O Florida, Venereal Soil
394:Metaphors of a Magnifico
231:The Emperor of Ice Cream
99:Of red and blue and red,
41:O Florida, Venereal Soil
21:O Florida, Venereal Soil
380:Le Monocle de Mon Oncle
324:Invective Against Swans
108:Stooping in indigo gown
103:In the high sea-shadow.
71:Fishing for crayfish...
56:Florida, venereal soil,
50:Buzzards and live-moss,
16:Poem by Wallace Stevens
793:The Death of a Soldier
688:Cortège for Rosenbloom
373:The Load Of Sugar-Cane
121:
93:A scholar of darkness,
76:Swiftly in the nights,
63:The Cuban, Polodowsky,
58:Disclose to the lover.
52:Tiestas from the keys,
48:Convolvulus and coral,
97:Wearing a clear tiara
667:Palace of the Babies
653:Bantam in Pine-Woods
86:You come tormenting,
67:The negro undertaker
835:Anatomy of Monotony
660:Anecdote of the Jar
632:Stars at Tallapoosa
562:The Weeping Burgher
401:Ploughing on Sunday
352:Domination of Black
106:Donna, donna, dark,
91:When you might sit,
422:Fabliau of Florida
366:The Ordinary Women
227:The Ordinary Women
65:The Mexican women,
865:
864:
842:The Public Square
513:Anecdote of Canna
23:" is a poem from
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828:Lunar Paraphrase
597:The Cuban Doctor
429:Doctor of Geneva
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142:Samson Agonistes
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779:Nomad Exquisite
716:The Wind Shifts
478:The Jack-Rabbit
317:Earthy Anecdote
307:
305:Wallace Stevens
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260:Cook, Eleanor.
253:Bates, Milton.
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155:Infanta Marina
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576:Banal Sojourn
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849:Indian River
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359:The Snow Man
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198:Cook, p. 52.
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180:Cook, p. 52.
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639:Explanation
246:Buttel, R.
88:Insatiable,
878:1922 poems
872:Categories
241:References
126:Baudelaire
300:Harmonium
162:Harmonium
30:Harmonium
800:Negation
730:Gubbinal
130:Florida
744:Theory
695:Tattoo
137:Milton
168:Notes
157:".)
35:Dial
856:Tea
303:by
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233:".
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291:e
284:t
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