Disillusionment of Ten O’Clock by Wallace Stevens : The Poetry Foundation [poem] : Find Poems and Poets. Discover Poetry.
Here is Wallace Stevens again, this time with a view of the imagination that might be a little rosier, or downright red, compared to yesterday's "The Snow Man." On the other hand, how many of us would claim to be (or want to be) the old sailor in the poem? If we're honest, aren't we tamer than he is? But if there's no middle, if we must choose between him and the white night gowns with
their boring dreams . . . .
Disillusionment of Ten O’Clock by Wallace Stevens : The Poetry Foundation [poem] : Find Poems and Poets. Discover Poetry.
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Almost seems like something Philip Larkin would have written--uncharacteristically bitter, dismissive, casual for Stevens.
ReplyDeleteSome sleep because they have nothing better to do. Others sleep in order to dream.
ReplyDeleteHow many times have you been the sailor? I don't mean the drunk part, I mean the outcast? No middle ground? I'm the sailor....
ReplyDeleteBarbaro, AH, Brenda, once again I got long-winded in responding to you, so I'm converting that into today's post, since I wanted to write about bass players in bands anyway. Many thanks for these heady responses.
ReplyDeleteI hope others will pitch in, too. Did you see GPU's comment on "Snow Man" about Stevens as camp? That's pretty damned heady too. I wish there were a way for all of us to read Sontag's essay on "Camp," which is more largely about sensibility and artificiality in general.