With Wallace Stevens emerging as a father figure for American poetry of
the late twentieth century, Mark Halliday argues that it is time for
this "poet of ideas" to undergo an ethical critique. In this bold,
accessible reconsideration of Stevens' work, he insists on the
importance of interpersonal relations in any account of human life in
the modern world. Although Stevens outwardly denies aspects of life that
center on such relations as those between friends, lovers, family
members, and political constituents, Halliday uncovers in his poetry an
anxious awareness of the importance of these relations. Here we see the
difficulties Stevens made for himself in wanting to offer a thoroughly
satisfying version of secular spiritual health in the modern world
without facing up to the moral and psychological implications of his own
interpersonal needs, problems, and responsibilities. The final chapter
reveals, however, an unusually encouraging "avuncular" attitude toward
the reader of the poetry, which may be felt to redeem Stevens from the
alienation observed earlier. Halliday develops his views by way of
comparisons between Stevens and other poets, especially Thomas Hardy,
Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, and John Ashbery.
Originally published in 1991.
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