A Probe Into The Formation Of Wallace Stevens' Poetics

Wallace Stevens, as an American modern poet, is fairly active and prominent in the first half of the 20th century. Living in an era of chaos, disbelief and demoralization, Stevens undertakes the historical and ethical mission of a poet, searching for a new order in the wasteland of modern world. With his incessant quest for the dualism of imagination and reality, Stevens earns the fame as"the poet of poets"or"the philosophical poet". However, even though most critics place him among the greatest poets like T. S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, Robert Frost, and William Carlos Williams, Stevens doesn't receive as much recognition and compliment as he deserves during his life time. Actually, the studies of Stevens'poetry didn't prosper until he passed away.For a better understanding of Stevens'poetics, this thesis attempts to offer a panorama of Stevens'poetics at first, affirming that reality-imagination complex, ideas of order, and the grand style of his poetry construct the framework of Stevens'poetics. All his works are composed around an almost single theme—the relationship between reality and imagination. Stevens maintains that reality is the central reference of poetry and imagination which organizes chaotic reality in an orderly way. The unification of reality and imagination produces poetry as"supreme fiction". Besides, Stevens asserts that poetry and style are one. He develops a unique and meditative style with his refined rhetoric, luxurious color system, and obscure meanings.Despite his achievement as a modern poet, Stevens always declines any influence of any tradition and insists on the originality of his poetics. However, as what T. S. Eliot says in"Tradition and the Individual Talent,"tradition is an indispensable part of the modern literature, and"no poet, no artists of any art, has his complete meaning alone". There is no exception for Stevens. In addition, Stevens'obstinate denial of tradition is reminiscent of Harold Bloom's poetic theory: the anxiety of influence.Therefore, by resorting to the perspectives of influence study, this thesis intends to clarify the relationships between Stevens'poetics and various traditions.In this thesis, the influences on Stevens are classified into two sources. Firstly, the philosophical heritage will be studied because Stevens is widely viewed as a poet of philosophical thinking even though he never admitted it formally. The major philosophers directly associated with Stevens'poetic formation are George Santayana, Henri Bergson, and William James, let alone other minor ones. Secondly, known as a post-romanticist, Stevens inherits and benefits from both his British predecessors like Coleridge, Wordsworth, Keats and his local precursors like Emerson and Whitman. Beyond all these fundamental influences of the great traditions, Stevens also keeps in touch with the French Symbolists for poetic inspiration and skills.According to these justifications, the conclusion can be made that despite the denial of the influences on his poetics, Stevens is undeniably indebted to both poetic and philosophical traditions. Actually, it is his delicate and proficient confluence of the two sources that helps him consummate his poetic career. After the elucidation of the cornerstones of Stevens'poetics, it is likely for us to appreciate the poetry of this highly individualized and profound poet and to understand Harold Bloom's assertion that Stevens, as a poet, is"an astonishing blend of poetic strains, foreign and native".