101 Wallace Stevens Research

Wallace Stevens’s poetic project is fundamentally concerned with the precarious balance between the mind’s imaginative capacity and the stubborn presence of objective reality. Across his oeuvre, Stevens grapples with the question of how we perceive and construct our world, often positing the imagination not merely as a passive reflector of external phenomena, but as an active force that shapes, transforms, and even creates the reality we experience. This essay argues that Stevens ultimately posits a complex, often ambivalent, relationship where the imagination, while powerful enough to provide solace and meaning, remains perpetually tethered to, and at times overwhelmed by, the unyielding facts of existence. Through close readings of "The Emperor of Ice-Cream," "The Snow Man," and "Anecdote of the Jar," this analysis will demonstrate how Stevens employs vivid imagery and philosophical inquiry to explore the human need for imaginative constructs and the inevitable confrontation with a world that resists complete mental dominion.

In "The Emperor of Ice-Cream," Stevens presents a stark, almost carnivalesque, assertion of sensory reality, juxtaposed with the ephemeral nature of human existence and the need for imaginative comfort. The poem opens with a direct, imperative command: "Call the roller of big cigars, / The muscular one, and bid him whip / In kitchen cups, concupiscent curds." This opening is grounded in the tangible, the physical, and the immediate. The "roller of big cigars" and the "muscular one" are figures of labor and robust physicality, embodying a direct engagement with the material world. The "concupiscent curds" and "screamers in kitchen cups" further emphasize a visceral, almost gluttonous, embrace of immediate sensation. Yet, this celebration of the physical is immediately shadowed by the "dead, / A ghastly, humid, phantasmal show." The presence of death introduces a profound counterpoint to the poem's initial sensory exuberance. The stark reality of mortality forces a confrontation with the limitations of physical experience. Stevens then introduces the ice-cream itself, "the only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream." This central metaphor is crucial. Ice-cream, a fleeting, sweet, and ultimately perishable commodity, becomes the symbol of the reigning power. It is a product of human ingenuity and desire, a temporary pleasure that stands in for a more profound, perhaps unattainable, order. The "witches" who "stir" and "scrape" suggest a kind of domestic magic, an imaginative act of creation that produces this transient emperor. The poem seems to suggest that in the face of death and the absence of any grand, divine order, the most potent reality we can assert is the one we create through our senses and our desires, however fleeting. The imagination, in this context, is the act of finding supreme value in the immediate, the sensual, and the man-made, even as the "ghastly, humid, phantasmal show" of death looms.

"The Snow Man" offers a profound meditation on the possibility of achieving a state of pure, unadorned perception, a state where the self dissolves into the objective landscape. The poem is structured as a series of negations, outlining what the observer must not be to truly see: "One must have a mind of winter / To regard the frost and the boughs / Of the pine-trees crusted with snow; / To behold that cry of the birds, / And not to think of any misery in the sound / That is of the voice of the survivor." The ideal observer, the "snow man," is one who has shed subjective feeling, personal history, and the tendency to impose human meaning onto natural phenomena. He must not project his own "misery" onto the sounds of nature, nor see himself as a "survivor" in relation to it. The poem continues this divestment: "He must, in winter, / Consider the pine-trees crusted with snow / And the bleak wind. He must be cold, / Himself, and in theзатор of the wind / He must think of the sound, / And not of whatever it is that his thoughts employ / In the life of his own apart from the frost." The observer must align himself with the cold, the bleakness, the very essence of winter. His thoughts must not stray into the realm of personal experience or abstract contemplation; they must be wholly occupied by the immediate, sensory input of the winter landscape. The culmination of this process is the realization that "For the listener, who listens in the snow, / Is annihilated by a wind that believes in itself / Alone." This annihilation is not necessarily destructive; rather, it signifies the dissolution of the individual ego into the impersonal forces of nature. The wind, acting with its own inherent logic and power, becomes the sole reality. The "snow man" becomes a pure receptacle for this objective force, his imagination quiescent, his being indistinguishable from the winter itself. This poem presents a radical vision of objectivity, where the self is erased in favor of an unmediated encounter with the world.

However, Stevens’s exploration of the imagination’s power is perhaps most vividly illustrated in "Anecdote of the Jar." Here, the imagination is presented as an active, shaping force that imposes order and meaning onto a chaotic, indifferent wilderness. The poem begins with the simple introduction of a "jar" placed in "Tennessee." This seemingly innocuous object, a product of human artifice, becomes the catalyst for a transformation of the natural landscape. The jar is described as "tall and of a port in air." Its presence is not merely physical; it possesses a certain dignity, a "port" or bearing that suggests its significance. The wilderness, initially "all wilderness," becomes "hazy" and "bare" in relation to the jar. The wilderness, which "sprawled" and was "shaggy," is now defined by its contrast to the jar's presence. The jar "made it round" and "surrounded it." This is a clear assertion of the imagination’s ability to impose form and structure. The wilderness, previously amorphous and untamed, is now contained and given shape by the artificial object. The poem states that the jar "was all that there was of it." This hyperbolic claim suggests that the jar has become the dominant reality, the organizing principle of the landscape. The wilderness, in its natural state, is rendered secondary, almost non-existent, in the face of this imposed order. The "bear" and the "bush" are subsumed by the jar's influence; they are no longer simply themselves but elements within the jar's created world. The poem concludes by reiterating the jar's dominance: "It did not go beyond its bound." The jar’s influence is contained, yet within its bounds, it has achieved a totalizing effect. This poem powerfully illustrates Stevens’s belief that human consciousness, through its capacity for imagination and creation, can impose a semblance of order and meaning onto the vast, indifferent expanse of existence. The jar, a simple artifact, becomes a symbol of the mind’s ability to shape perception and establish its own reality.

While "Anecdote of the Jar" celebrates the imaginative imposition of order, and "The Emperor of Ice-Cream" finds value in sensory experience, "The Snow Man" presents the ultimate dissolution of the self into objective reality. These poems, read together, reveal the spectrum of Stevens’s thought on the imagination. Stevens does not offer a simple dichotomy between imagination and reality, but rather a dynamic tension. The imagination is a vital human faculty, essential for creating meaning, beauty, and order in a world that might otherwise be perceived as chaotic or meaningless. It allows us to find solace, as in the fleeting pleasures of ice-cream, or to impose structure, as with the jar. Yet, this imaginative power is always confronted by the "unreal" – the stark fact of death, the indifferent forces of nature, the limits of human perception. The "snow man" represents an extreme, perhaps unattainable, ideal of pure perception, where the self is annihilated. More often, Stevens’s speakers inhabit a space of negotiation, where the mind attempts to reconcile its internal constructions with the external world. The "emperor of ice-cream" is a king of a perishable, sensual realm, a testament to human will but ultimately subject to decay. The jar imposes its order, but its influence is confined. Stevens’s poetry, therefore, does not resolve the tension between imagination and reality but rather explores its enduring, often paradoxical, significance. His work suggests that the human condition is defined by this ongoing struggle to find meaning and order within the vast, often indifferent, universe, a struggle waged primarily through the potent, yet ultimately constrained, force of the imagination.