Essay on An Annotation of Wallace Stevens Of Modern Poetry

An Annotation of Wallace Stevens Of Modern Poetry In Of Modern Poetry, Stevens describes the purpose of modern poetry given what the audience knows and values. Modern poetry must be different from traditional poetry, because people of his time perceive themselves and their world differently than the people of earlier times. Stevens suggests that war, like other changes, have affected what people believe. Poetry must reflect to its audience what they want to hear. It must show them that the order, meaning and value they need is real, in so much as their minds both need it and can create it. OF MODERN POETRY The poem of the mind in the act of finding What will suffice. It has not always had To find: the scene was set; it†¦show more content†¦Stevens first points out how modern poetry differs from traditional poetry. The implication is that people are now questioning some fundamental aspects of intellectual constructs that used to be considered necessary and true. In particular Stevens questions tradition of reading the book of nature, of starting with religious presumptions and assuming nature communicates these ideas to humans. Other traditions had changed as well -- thoughts about the social roles of men and women and social propriety; thoughts about religious values and scientific discovery; nature and purpose of communication resulting from new inventions. These changes sometimes reflected, sometimes caused the development of new values. The rest of the poem records the change that occurs after traditional assumptions are uprooted. The past was a souvenir because once people realized that certain traditions could be changed, they had no reason to believe those traditions had to be the standard. Like a souvenir, the scene and the script became only a reminder of where people had been, it has no practical use for the present. Once people conceived of a new stage, a new script, a new way of thinking, it had to be experimented with. They valued experimentation, because they did not have a required standard. They valued findingShow MoreRelatedLiterary Analysis Of Wallace Stevens : The Emperor Of Ice Cream1463 Words   |  6 Pagesâ€Å"The Emperor of Ice-Cream†: Works Cited Allen, Austin. â€Å"Wallace Stevens: ‘The Emperor of Ice-Cream’.† Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation, www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/70138/wallace-stevens-the-emperor-of-ice-cream The article was written by Austin Allen. His biography on the site reads that he has won a poetry award and that he frequently writes poems and essays that are known world-wide. This means his article is at least somewhat reliable. This site analyzes the poem thoroughly, digging