Wallace Stevens:
The Poem that Took the Place of a Mountain
- reading this poem in Christian sense
- reference to the Bible
- Bible – still exist but it is not used
- domain where the wholeness, transcendental
- 4th stanza – creation
- mountain – Holy place – get closer to the divine, transcendental, contact with God
- carry the divine, the transcendental – art poetry
- title – poem about a poem – metatextual interpretation
- climbing a mountain requires effort, becomes a symbolic representation of composing,
creating the poem, the process of creating the poem
- first stanza – indicator, you have to pay attention to every single word in the poem
- second stanza – oxygen (indispensable element) -> poetry becomes an element without
which we cannot exist, living, vital; distance created bw the persona of the poem and
the speaker -> becomes more universal
- oxygen – conceit as a sign of their wittiness and their intellect
- the poem is not a metaphorically connected to the mountain
- third stanza – poetry can provide that place for you or you can create it on your own;
you have to find your own direction;
- the poem can be read as a quest narrative
- fourth stanza – it has to be based on some very concrete natural given, rock functions
as an image of this concrete natural reality from which we construct our own universe;
in order to make it your own you have to recompose that into your own world; cloud –
close to the divine, walking in fog, refers to the confusion/ambiguity/ lack of clear vision
of the world, you have to go through it in order to find your position; picking his steps
and way very carefully -> on the top everything becomes clear
- fifth stanza – his own personal vision of the world, finding your own perspective, your
own outlook -> the place where you feel whole/complete again; completeness/
wholeness becomes a personal matter whether or not you feel complete
(Enlightenment – Bildungsroman)
- sixth stanza – concrete, exact element of our world, feeling complete – being anchored
- seventh stanza – there are “unique and solitary homes”, I am not isolating myself from
this ivory tower; it is always the same but at the same time it is never the same, even if
you can find that spot there is still continuous change and this is what you have to accept
as your home
Allen Ginsberg
- 1926 – 1997
- considered one of the most provocative poets of the 20th century
- one of the leading figure of the Beats
- experimenting with forms of expression
- experimenting with altered states of consciousness/ mind
- incapable of fitting
- willingly leaves the society behind
- opts for this rebellious lifestyle
- in 1955 in San Francisco – public reading of Howl
- in 1956 published Howl and Other Poems
- he was charged with obsanity because of Howl
- iconic figures of anyone
- influences – Whitman, stream of consciousness
- one of the leading figure of Anti-Vietnam movement
- Carlo Marks – the alter ego of Allan Ginsberg (On the Road)
- San Francisco Renaissance – Beat Generation – following Ezra Pound, breaking with
the traditional forms, chaotic and unpoetic style
- use of metre/ poetic feet – follow the rhythm of natural speech
- parallelism – repeated structures
Howl
- lyrical
- free verse
- consumerism (“who were burned …”)
- metonymy, hyperbolic, synesthesia
- “eye-ball kick” – conceit – bringing together or juxtaposing dissimilar images ->
constantly shock the reader
H.w. To deal with the first 3 lines, the last part (explain moloch and the repetition I’m with
you).
Robert Lowell, Anne Sexton
