An Analysis Of Wallace Stevens: The Escape

Wallace Stevens: The Escape Wallace Stevens is considered one of America’s most respected poets, taking fame in the early 20th century by his unique use of romantic ideals, incredible vocabulary, and pondering human imagination in the world’s desolate reality. He once stated “One writes poetry because one must” (Encyclopedia of World Biography). Born and educated professionally, Stevens’ poetry frequently discusses how perspectives deal with reality while also an escape from his conventional life. Stevens benefited from an affluent and educated upbringing. Born in Reading, Pennsylvania, 1879 to an upper- class family, Stevens’ father was a prominent lawyer and his mother was a school teacher. His mother introduced him to literature

Originally published in November 1915 and then included in Harmonium, 1923. The poem is separated into seven parts. The narrator tells a dynamic story of a woman casually having a late breakfast on her porch one Sunday morning, with a surprising absence of guilt for not going to church because of her admiration for the beautiful wildlife around her. The woman then daydreams a visit to Christ’s tomb and compares the value of Christian faith to nature’s ability to give one paradise. The narrator furthers the story by discussing how the causes life and death change, the purpose of life, and nature’s endurance. As a whole, the work is very dynamic and complex; however it is centered around justifying nature’s ability to fulfil one’s need for

In the first stanza, the word choice associated with Christianity is dark and desolate, but the diction associated with nature is rife and bright. As the woman contemplates her absence from church, the responsibility of attending church every sunday is depicted as a “dark / Encroachment” and Christ’s death -- the centerpiece of Christian faith -- as an “old catastrophe” (Stevens 5-6). The darkness is then relieved quickly by the “pungent oranges,” and “bright green wings” (Stevens 8) which describes the natural beauties of the oranges on her plate and her pet cockatoo. When contrasted from the negative connotations of “dark, / Encroachments” and “catastrophe,” The lustrous vocabulary “pungent” and “bright” emphasizes the alluring natural objects to affect the audience in a way that nature’s beauty is a rightful place to find paradise and happiness in the world. Similarly, Freelance writer and English Literature teacher Laura Kryhoski analyzes Stevens’ work as an “interesting dichotomy” between the Christian faith and Nature’s ability to create religious fulfilment. Kryhoski states that choice of words used to depict Christianity invoke non-tangible concepts and connote to being “rather dreamy, haunting visions.” However, the speaker justifies paradise in nature as “more practical” and “[a source] of spiritual comfort.” While Christianity is depicted as dark, unrealistic, and