Harmonium
by Stevens, Wallace
- Used
- Condition
- Tan cloth, paper spine label (The fourth binding). Very good, spine somewhat faded, label faded, some minor wear at head and tal
- Seller
-
New York, New York, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Reviews
Review of Harmonium by Wallace Stevens
5 Stars
Reviewed by Sean Stuart
Date: 12/10/15
I recently purchased “Harmonium”, a collection of poetry by the poet Wallace Stevens. It was his first book and was published in 1923, with 81 poems in the original version all varying in length. I really enjoyed reading it and found a lot of the poems to be about nature. I thought the incorporation of great imagery in the peaces of poetry to be quite enjoyable. I believe Stevens did a great job of letting some of these poems almost come to life in my head filled with images of nature and thoughts of mystery all this while still making a poem that some people could find accessible. If you can’t understand it, or you feel that its inaccessible then at least it sounds like he’s saying it well.
An example of the great imagination and imagery in “Harmonium” is in the poem “Banal Soljourn”. To me this poem creates the scene of the sun rising over a house in the woods and the trees casting a shadow on the ground as it rises, “The sky is a blue gum streaked with rose. The trees are black.” (line 2) and as the sun rises it evaporates the moister off the plants so they can open up to the sky, “Moisture and heat have swollen the garden into a slum of bloom.” (line 4). Another poem that continues with his beautiful them of nature is “Fabliau of Florida”. This poem painted a scene in my mind of a moon lit beach on a cloudy night. It has a feeling of serenity to the poem that might calm who ever is reading it. As I said before Stevens goes into detail with his imagery, in stanza 3 of “Fabliau of Florida” he writes about the top of the ocean and waves “Foam” and the horizon of the night sky meeting together to form one dark canvas.
Foam and cloud are one.
Sultry moon-monsters
Are dissolving
Part of the mystery sense can be found in the poem “Disillusionment of Ten O’Clock”. The poem leaves the mind to wonder what is happening and for some may let the imagination take over and come to a conclusion on its own. In stanzas 1-6 of “Disillusionment of Ten” he writes:
The houses are haunted
By white night-gowns.
None are green,
Or purple with green rings,
Or green with yellow rings,
Or yellow with blue rings.
After a second read I found the mystery in it. I think he’s referencing a plane house with plane boring lives “white night-gowns” and because of these plane boring lives they won’t “dream of baboons and periwinkles”. I think Stevens wrote all this with the idea that people who lead boring lives and sleep in plane pajamas will not have exciting dreams, all that being said and the poem still does a great job of filling your mind with imagery.
Stevens does a wonderful job of keeping a reader’s mind on it’s toes. The book “Harmonium” bringing mystery and imagination to life in the reader’s head with many writings of nature. I would say it’s a great buy for any one who enjoys poetry.
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Details
- Bookseller
- James Cummins Bookseller (US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 262121
- Title
- Harmonium
- Author
- Stevens, Wallace
- Format/Binding
- 151 pp. 1 vols. 8vo
- Book Condition
- Used - Tan cloth, paper spine label (The fourth binding). Very good, spine somewhat faded, label faded, some minor wear at head and tal
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Edition
- Second edition, with 14 new poems; fourth state of binding
- Publisher
- Alfred A.Knopf
- Place of Publication
- New York
- Date Published
- 1931
- Keywords
- American | Poetry | Wallace Stevens
- Bookseller catalogs
- Literature;
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James Cummins Bookseller
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About the Seller
James Cummins Bookseller
About James Cummins Bookseller
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Spine Label
- The paper or leather descriptive tag attached to the spine of the book, most commonly providing the title and author of the...
- Cloth
- "Cloth-bound" generally refers to a hardcover book with cloth covering the outside of the book covers. The cloth is stretched...