Wallace Stevens and His Poems

Wallace Stevens, judged one of our greatest American poets, believed it was the obligation of the poet to develop ways to appreciate and affirm the world rather than rejecting it.  Reviewing Harmonium, his first astounding book (1923) in Poetry Magazine, Harriet Monroe, its founding editor, wrote, "He is of the race of the great humorists, using the word in the most profound sense, the sense in which Cervantes, Shakespeare. ..  may be counted . . . . In such men, agony sinks into depths, dark hidden and unconfessed.  The hard black stone is there but the laughter washes over it, covers it up."  Stevens is above all the champion of imagination; playful, he stops at nothing - neologisms, occasional French or Latin phrases, "word wars" as one academic put it.  We will recite, discuss and enjoy these poems and, depending upon the willingness of the participants, contribute reports from some of the many books and articles about the poet and his work.

The required text is Wallace Stevens the Collected Poems available in paperback at $16.

Class is limited to 15 members.

SUSANNE DUBROFF's bilingual book of translations, This Smoke That Carried Us:  Selected Poems of René Cbar, was published in May of 2004.  Most recently her own poems have appeared in Poetry, International Poetry Review, The North American Review, and The Paris Review.  Two years ago Susanne led an ILEAD study group on "Poems of Emily Dickinson" and last winter on the reading aloud of three Shakespeare plays.  Having retired from a lengthy career as a professional social worker, she is able to indulge more fully her passion for literature and her interest in sharing  observations with others