Wallace Stevens

There were times when I was not sure if I liked Wallace Stevens very much.  He certainly looks like someone who'd be best friends with Ward Cleaver:

I remember in high school we were cautioned that his work was difficult & that we wouldn't "get it."  That's because it's important for teachers to teach children that poems are puzzles to be solved instead of insights that can be gleaned from language & sound.  What does this poem mean?

Call the roller of big cigars,

The muscular one, and bid him whip

In kitchen cups concupiscent curds.

Let the wenches dawdle in such dress

As they are used to wear, and let the boys

Bring flowers in last month's newspapers.

Let be be finale of seem.

The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream.

Take from the dresser of deal.

Lacking the three glass knobs, that sheet

On which she embroidered fantails once

And spread it so as to cover her face.

If her horny feet protrude, they come

To show how cold she is, and dumb.

Let the lamp affix its beam.

The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream.

Just read it out loud.  It's so fun, & it's also somewhat wistful.  Puzzle schmuzzle.  Language is something we invented to communicate with one another, but since we can't do that very well, & often trying to be direct can be a disaster, we invented poetry as a different way to communicate.  It's just about as successful as prose.  Communication is hard.

I'm going to go now & listen to Wallace Stevens read his own poems aloud.