Poetry For Fridays
For all your artistic needs (or at least photography and poetry), see Steve McCoy, Joe Thorn and Timmy for great photographs every Friday and see me for poetry.
Since last Friday featured a poem inspired by Wallace Stevens, it only seems appropriate to feature Stevens himself today. Stevens (1879-1955) worked as a journalist and lawyer for many years. Much of his poetry did not appear until he was well over fifty years old. His first book of poetry, Harmonium, appeared in 1923 and he received the National Book Award in both 1950 and 1954.
Stevens was often compared to William Carlos Williams for his sparse approach. In Stevens’ poetry, three main themes run throughout, the real world, imagination and poetry. Imagination conducts our experience of reality, however, poetry becomes the record of experience. Therefore, for Stevens, there is an intricate relationship between poetry and life, and the two cannot be separated. Following are two poems, The Emperor of Ice-Cream and Disillusionment of Ten O’Clock.
The Emperor of Ice-Cream
Call the roller of big cigars,
The muscular one, and bid him whip
In kitchen cups concupiscent curds.
Let the wenches dawdle in such dress
As they are used to wear, and let the boys
Bring flowers in last month’s newspapers.
Let be be finale of seem.
The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream.
Take from the dresser of deal,
Lacking the three glass knobs that sheet
On which she embroidered fantails once
And spread it so as to cover her face.
If her horny feet portrude, they come
To show how cold she is, and dumb.
Let the lamp affix its beam.
The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream.
Disillusionment of Ten O’Clock
The houses are haunted
By white night-gowns.
None are green,
Or purple with green rings,
Or green with yellow rings,
Or yellow with blue rings.
None of them are strange,
With socks of lace
And beaded ceintures.
People are not going
To dream of baboons and periwinkles.
Only, here and there, an old sailor,
Drunk and asleep in his boots,
Catches tigers
In red weather.
- Read Wikipedia’s entry on Wallace Stevens.
Very interesting, cool stuff. I will begin linking to your Friday poetry with the photos. Like a little art connection for the weekend.
A Thousand for the Weekend…
I took this at Midway International Airport while picking up a friend. Click the pic for a larger version, and check out all my pictures at Flickr. For more art conections check out Steve’s Phriday Photo, Timmy’s pic of the week and Brent T…