NP Wallace Stevens

[Michael F]

Stevens is the most difficult of all of our 20th Century poets.  You can
read some fancy theorists or use biography as a starting point(I tried
both), but the best way to go about knowing and seeing his poetry as it is
is by reading a few of his letters and prose.  Specifically, I'd read
everything in *The Necessary Angel*.  Wallace Stevens is not easy.  His
readers need to have a solid grasp on  "the tradition" in order to
understand his "playing" with symbols and language.  Unlike many solipsistic
and emotional post WW2 poets, Stevens, like Hart Crane, works within in the
tradition, and  then works outward from there.

Mike

On Sun, Jan 31, 2010 at 9:51 AM, Toby Levy <tobyglevy at gmail.com> wrote:

> I am attempting to read Wallace Stevens, which I have not done since
> college some 40 years ago.  Does anyone have a good web site or reference
> work that explains the foreign terms, obscure words and historical
> references in Wallace's work.
>
> Some people think that Pynchon is difficult. But I find Stevens almost
> impenetrable.
>
> Toby
>
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