From epigrams (“Fire and Ice”) to long dramatic poems (“Death of a Hired Man”) with naturalist themes Poetry as momentary stay against confusion” “a by the Woods on a Snowy Evening” “Stopping Pairs with Road Not Taken” “The Rhyme and meter: like a children’s/holiday poem—why? Symbols: woods, snow, horse, buggy and rider, season (irony of tradition) Frost’s suicidal tendencies—poem as psychotherapy? Apple Picking” “After Symbols: various apple(s) Winter season activity Ladder (axis mundi motif) Final as or as man? What’s the difference? “sleep” “woodchuck” MODERNISM AND ITS RHIZOMES High (European) vs Low Modernism -Imagism (Ezra Pound, HD, Amy Lowell), Vorticism, Dada WALLACE STEVENS (1879-1955) -Insurance company lawyer in Hartford, Connecticut -Late call to vocation but lasting fame--> Pulitzer prize -Fought with Frost and Hemingway -Poetry an often playful oscillation between the mundane and the imaginative (in a secular way)
From epigrams (“Fire and Ice”) to long dramatic poems (“Death of a Hired Man”) with naturalist themes Poetry as “a momentary stay against confusion” “Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening” Pairs with “The Road Not Taken” Rhyme and meter: like a children’s/holiday poem—why? Symbols: woods, snow, horse, buggy and rider, season (irony of tradition) Frost’s suicidal tendencies—poem as psychotherapy? “After Apple Picking” Symbols: various apple(s) Winter season activity Ladder (axis mundi motif) Final “sleep” as “woodchuck” or as man? What’s the difference? MODERNISM AND ITS RHIZOMES High (European) vs Low Modernism -Imagism (Ezra Pound, HD, Amy Lowell), Vorticism, Dada WALLACE STEVENS (1879-1955) -Insurance company lawyer in Hartford, Connecticut -Late call to vocation but lasting fame--> Pulitzer prize -Fought with Frost and Hemingway -Poetry an often playful oscillation between the mundane and the imaginative (in a secular way)
USPoetryNotes.docx