Ten Three Observation Stevens - Read The Image Solution Wallace Stevens Poetry And Zen

Wallace Stevens is one of the most important American modernpoets. The use of images is one outstanding feature of his poems.Some of the major images occur and recombine constantly, forminginto a relatively steady symbolic system . They not only constructthe main body of his poems but also enhance the almost unique subjectof his poems膖he relationship between nature and imagination.These major dichotomies include north and south, the sun and themoon, the sea and the music, the stature and the wilderness, thecolors and the dominion of the black. They represent the essentialduality of man. The south, sun, sea, wilderness and the color ofgreen suggest nature and sensuousness, passion and physical life,while north, moon ,music ,stature and darkness suggestimagination , the creative activities and reason. These imagesconflict with each other yet still remain in harmony, contradictedand interdependent. They are the two indispensable elements ofwhich the world is made. The thought of evanescence of the universeand the human heart being the origin of the world revealed in hispoems happens to be in conformity with the Chinese Zen. Stevens'spoetry seem to share the similar ideas and images with some Chinesepoets such as Wangwei and Changjian .