Wallace Stevens Biography - Essay Example

Wallace Stevens Biography Wallace Stevens was born in Reading, the of Pennsylvania in the year 1879.His father was a teacher and a prosperous lawyer who wrote poetry and other literature materials. This shaped the life of Stevens since he ended up following his fathers’ footsteps. There is no doubt that Stevens father contributed significantly to his son’s early education since he provided an extensive library at home and he also encouraged reading. At the age of twelve years, Stevens was admitted into a public school for boys, and this is where he began learning classics in Latin and Greek. When he joined high school, Stevens stood out as a prominent student. He always scored high marks and distinguished himself as a skillful and dedicated orator. He showed indications of being a writer by reporting for the newspaper of the school. After accomplishing his studies in Reading, Stevens joined Harvard University where he continued with his literary work. While pursuing his studies at Harvard, his father encouraged him to devote more time to the literary aspects of the institution. He frequently wrote for the Harvard Advocate and received all the school’s honors for being an exemplary writer (Grey 74). In the year 1899, he joined the Advocate’s rival publication editorial board, and within less than a year, he became the board’s president and an editor. By this time, he had published poems in both the Monthly and the Advocate, and as an editor he wrote stories and literary sketches. He gained recognition on campus as a multi-talented writer. His campus life at Harvard ended in 1900 when his parents lacked money to pay his university fees. Stevens was not discouraged when he left Harvard. He decided to work as a journalist and within a short while he started working for the New York Evening Post as a reporter. This job provided him with the chance to discover more concerning the New York City. He explored various areas on a daily basis and recorded his findings in a journal. He attended musical and theatrical productions in the evenings or sat in his room drafting plays or writing poems. Stevens got tired of this life and asked his father on the possibility of abandoning the position as a reporter to dedicate his time to literature. However, his father who was a lover of literature, asked his son to stop writing and begin his law studies. Stevens later joined New York Law School and graduated in the year 1903. On his trip back to Reading in the year 1904, Stevens met Elsie Viola Kachel, a young lady who had worked as a milliner, stenographer, and a saleswoman. In spite of his parents’ objections, Stevens married Elsie in the year 1909 after courting for about five years. Stevens’s parents considered Elsie as a lower class and did not want him to associate with people who were not of his class. Stevens was unhappy about the arguments of his parents, and after a wedding with Elsie which his parents did not attend, he never spoke or visited his parents when his father was still alive. Stevens practiced law in the New York City while writing poetry at the same time. In the year 1908, he was employed by the American Bonding Company as its lawyer. He became the vice president of the Equitable Surety Company in New York in 1914. When he lost this job in the year 1916 as a result of mergers, he joined Hartford Accident and Indemnity Company (Vendler 45). Stevens left New York City and moved to Hartford where he lived with his wife their entire life. Stevens’s literature work was evident in the year 1914 when his poetry was published by the Poetry magazine for the very first time. He became friends with other poets in New York such as William Carlos Williams and Marianne Moore. While in Hartford, Stevens worked hard to improve on his poetry work, he spent most of the nights, weekends and vacations writing. In 1923, his first book in poetry was published by Alfred A. Knopf firm. The book shaped his poetry career although less than one hundred copies were sold. The book contained poems that are still read today, including “The Emperor of Ice Cream” and “Sunday Morning.” This book shows the ample evidence of Stevens’s numerous talents. He portrays a talented sense of imagery, a flair for memorable phrasing, an extraordinary vocabulary, and the ability to philosophize. “Peter Quince at the Clavier,” which is among the earliest poems in his book, contains all aspects of these skills (Wallace 34). In this poem, a woman’s humiliating encounter with immoral elders becomes a reflection on the nature of beauty. Stevens brilliantly captures the plight of the woman by contrasting the interruption by various old folk with the tranquility of her bath. The woman’s plight is highlighted by the descriptions of sounds from musical instruments. The poem ends with a reflection on the performance of the physical beauty of the woman, which exists forever in people’s memory, and in the course of death in the union of nature and body. This indicates that the body dies while the beauty lives forever. “Peter Quince at the Clavier,” with its concept of morality, serves as an introduction to the “Sunday Morning.” In this poem, cyclical nature is projected as the main alternative to Christianity in the twentieth century. Here, Stevens writes that death is the only mother of beauty. This confirms that physical beauty is endless and the subsequent consummation with nature. After his book was produced in the year 1923, Stevens was discouraged and did not publish any other book for six years. However, he worked hard in the corporate field and in the year 1934 Stevens was appointed as the vice president for the insurance firm where he was working. He had one child, Holly Bight who was born in the year 1924. During his entire life, Stevens collected art materials from abroad which considerably contributed to his writings. Although he frequently travelled to Cuba and Florida, he never ventured abroad. He was always on the streets of New York every Saturday by 10 a.m. courtesy of the trains leaving Hartford on an hourly basis. This is where he used to get a lot of information to assist in his writings. When he started writing poems on a serious note in the year 1933, he made arrangements for them to be printed in partial editions at the same time. His poems, Owl’s Clover (1937) and Ideas of Order (1935) were partial editions by Alcestis Press; the Parts of a World (1942) and the Man with the Blue Guitar (1937) were printed by Knopf while the Notes toward a Supreme Fiction (1942) were printed by the Cummington Press (Wallace 19). Stevens showed his impression of creative thoughts in “The Idea of Order in Key West.” In this poem, he wrote about discovering a young girl singing along the ocean when they were strolling with his friend. He asserts that the girl had formed order out of chaos by creating a song from her interpretations of the swirling sea. Before gaining national recognition as a poet, Stevens enjoyed respect among his colleagues and friends. His life as a lawyer in a Company did not obstruct his creativity as a poet. He worked hard and remained relevant in the field of poetry despite his job being so demanding. In the year 1946, he was selected to join the National Institute of Arts and Letters. When he produced the Ideas of Order, Stevens started receiving an overwhelming recognition as a significant and unique poet in the United States. Despite this acknowledgement, there are some people who criticized him for being ineffective and inappropriate at a time of international challenges such as widespread economic depression. When he heard of this criticism, Stevens responded by pointing out that the world was improving in so many parameters. However, he held himself detached from the world affairs and politics. He argued that, the poet’s role was to interpret the people’s thoughts and feelings through imagination. He defended the responsibility of the poet as defining and shaping perceived realities. Stevens’s poem, “Notes toward a Supreme Fiction” is generally considered as his best poem in the nature of poetry. It elucidates Steven’s concept of poet and poetry. He considers this poem as a collection of numerous ideas about the idea of the Supreme fiction. The poem was dedicated to Henry Church and warned the people that it was not a philosophy, but simple notes that required their interpretation. He pointed out that poetry was the only supreme fiction; this is because the real meaning of poetry is to bring change and the real meaning of change is that it brings pleasure. By the year 1950 Stevens was considered as one of the America’s modern poets and an artist who had a great influence on other writers (Grey 55). In spite of this recognition, he maintained his position at the Hartford Company. He received many awards and honorary doctorates for being the best writer. His greatest award came in the year 1955 following the publication of The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens. This earned him the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. In this volume, he gathered most of his poems and added more poems titled “The Rock.” Stevens succumbed to cancer in the year 1955 and was repeatedly hospitalized. He was treated in various hospitals although he continued to suffer more, and in August 1955 he died at the age of 76 years. Stevens’s reputation in America and the entire world has remained formidable since his death. Works Cited: Grey, Thomas. The Wallace Stevens Case: Law and the Practice of Poetry. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1986.Print. Vendler, Helen. Wallace Stevens: Words Chosen out of Desire. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1986.Print. Wallace, Stevens. Notes Toward a Supreme Fiction. New York: Cummington, 1942.Print. Read More