★★★★★ 5
A lot of these poems leave me feeling like an idiot
Format: Paperback
This is the type of book I read at 3 am when I can't sleep. Stevens' poetry just makes me feel so calm, even though the content in his poetry is not in fact anywhere near the realms of calm. Overall, I would say, the content is hard-hitting. I'm not going to pretend I understand all of his ideas and everything he says- I definitely don't. A lot of these poems leave me feeling like an idiot. But when I am able to figure something out, it all starts to click and I am left with a lump in my throat. Although I don't necessarily understand everything when it comes to this collection, I think that it is a good thing. It just shows the high level of his talent manages to knock me off my feet.
Well, anyway, I got my first peak of this collection at uni. I was so intrigued by it that I bought it during winter break. While reading it I found out one of my professors is an editor of the edition that I bought. Rad. But also, the thing is, (and I have thought this many times before,) uni can only teach you so many things. I learned much more about Stevens' poetry by reading it myself than what I learned from uni. Like, without reading basically this whole collection, I would have never learned that Stevens is, for the most part, a Romantic. He's a lot like Wordsworth, I think. He inherits so many of the Romantic feelings, ideas and philosophies but he still manages to stay modern at the same time. I am obsessed with the Romantic poets so in my mind, that's what makes him stand out. I love the fact that he manages to tie modernism and Romanticism together, it is a real treat for me to read. Even though it's not really talked about, I would say my favorite poem of his is "Another Weeping Woman". It is so quick and beautiful and earnest and a good poem to read when you lose one of your loved ones.
Over the past couple of years I have really warmed up to poetry. I'm not a huge American lit person in general but I always tell people that Stevens is one of my favorites, if not my favorite American poet. Everything about his work seems so personal, like when you're reading it, it feels like he is speaking directly to you. It feels so natural but honestly nothing about reading his poetry is easy. It is tough to figure out. But I enjoyed taking the time to sit down and try to hypothesize all that is going on in his works. He is dark, so dark and yet manages to feel so light, so beautiful. He delivers the best of both worlds in my eyes and that's why I will revisit this collection again and again and again. It never stops being so hideous and so beautiful at the same time.
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Reviewed in the United States on January 11, 2017
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