Stevens: Poems (Everyman's Library Pocket Poets) (Hardcover)

~ Wallace Stevens (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

Academic Discourse At Havana
The American Sublime
Anecdote Of The Jar
Anecdote Of The Prince Of Peacocks
Anglais Mort A Florence
Arrival At The Waldorf
Asides On The Oboe
The Auroras Of Autumn
Bantams In Pine-woods
Blanche Mccarthy
Burghers Of Petty Death
The Comedian As The Letter C: 4. The Idea Of A Colony
Connoisseur Of Chaos
The Course Of A Particular
Credences Of Summer
A Discovery Of Thought
Disillusionment Of Ten O'clock
Domination Of Black
The Emperor Of Ice-cream
Esthetique Du Mal
Farewell To Florida
Farewell Without A Guitar
Final Soliloquy Of The Interior Paramour
A High-toned Old Christian Woman
The House Was Quiet And The World Was Calm
The Idea Of Order At Key West
July Mountain
Le Monocle De Mon Oncle
Less And Less Human, O Savage Spirit
Man And Bottle
The Man On The Dump
The Man Whose Pharynx Was Bad
The Man With The Blue Guitar
Men Made Out Of Words
The Motive For Metaphor
Mozart, 1935
Mrs. Alfred Uruguay
No Possum, No Sop, No Taters
Not Ideas About The Thing But The Thing Itself
Notes Toward A Supreme Fiction: It Must Be Abstract
Notes Toward A Supreme Fiction: It Must Change
Notes Toward A Supreme Fiction: It Must Give Pleasure
Of Heaven Considered As A Tomb
Of Mere Being
Of Modern Poetry
An Ordinary Evening In New Haven
Peter Quince At The Clavier
The Pleasures Of Merely Circulating
The Poems Of Our Climate
Poetry Is A Destructive Force
A Postcard From The Volcano
A Primitive Like And Orb
Prologues To What Is Possible
A Rabbit As King Of The Ghosts
The River Of Rivers In Connecticut
The Rock
Sailing After Lunch
The Sense Of The Sleight-of-hand Man
The Snow Man
Study Of Two Pears
Sunday Morning
Tea At The Palaz Of Hoon
To An Old Philosopher In Rome
To The One Of Fictive Music
The Ultimate Poem Is Abstract
Waving Adieu, Adieu, Adieu
The Well Dressed Man With A Beard
The World As Meditation
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®

Product Description

These Everyman's Library Pocket Poets hardcover editions are popular for their compact size and reasonable price which do not compromise content. Poems: Stevens contains a selection, chosen by Helen Vendler, of over sixty of Stevens's poems, revealing with renewed force his status as our supreme acrobat of the imagination.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Everyman's Library (November 2, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679429115
• ISBN-13: 978-0679429111
• Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 4.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #121,595 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great choice of Stevens poems!, November 12, 2002

By A Customer

Helen Vendler is the author of one terrific and one very good book on Stevens (the terrific one is _Words Chosen Out of Desire_, which ought to be the first piece of criticism any new reader of Stevens looks into--along with Milton Bate's _Wallace Stevens: the Mythology of the Self_, I think it's called). She's also one of the best critics of twentieth-century and current poetry....she's done an amazing job here. I love this edition--so compact, the typeface is beautiful, and most of my favorite Stevens is here. Vendler makes odd and fascinating choices of some neglected shorter lyrics and many of these have quickly become my favorites ("Mozart, 1935," and "Burghers of Petty Death," for example). You get all of the _Auroras of Autumn_ and the _Notes Toward a Supreme Fiction_, and substantial parts of _The Man with the Blue Guitar_ and _An Ordinary Evening in new Haven_. Of course I have a minor complaint or two--(where's The Owl in the Sarcophagus?) But they're quite minor. I'm assigning this to a class in the spring--it's a lot less intimidating than the Collected Poems. Buy this one first! And even if you own the collected, as I do, it's worth getting this one too...it makes the reading of these amazing poems quite irresistible!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Everyman's Stevens, July 2, 2005

By	E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" (MD USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

One of the best poets of the twentieth century was Wallace Stevens, with his richly atmospheric writing and deep themes about religion, nature and the imagination. The "Everyman's Library" brings together many of his best poems,

Several of the poems included are well known ones that Stevens wrote, such as the atmospheric "Sunday Morning," the vivid "Thirteen Ways of Looking At a Blackbird," the whimsical and colorful "Emperor of Ice Cream" and a stretch of the epic "Man With the Blue Guitar."

However, lesser-known works by Stevens are also included, such as "Le Monacle De Mon Oncle" (""Mother of heaven, regina of the clouds,/O sceptre of the sun, crown of the moon"), "Asides on the Oboe" and "Postcard From the Volcano." These tend to be as good, if not even better, than Stevens' better-known works.

The Everyman's Collection doesn't have everything Stevens did, but it does include bits here and there, from this book and that book, including posthumous publications. As a result, it's a good way to introduce oneself to Stevens' brand of lush, verbose poetry.

This book also does a good job of showing the various kinds of poetry that Stevens wrote -- most are infused with color, sounds and smells, some with darkness, some with a rich overtone, some very brief like the bare "Anecdote of the Jar." One thing that Stevens' writing always has is beauty -- even in the weird ones. With only a few words he can evoke images that are exquisite, soothing, even eerie ("My candle burned alone in an immense valley"). He also infuses his poetry with intense colors and plenty of nature references, birds and trees, snow and rain and wind.

Wallace Stevens' exquisite writing is some of the best the twentieth century had to offer, and the Everyman's Library collection is an excellent way to get into his work.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beauty is momentary in the mind, July 10, 2006

By	Shalom Freedman "Shalom Freedman" (Jerusalem,Israel) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

The most well- known of Stevens' literary- critics Helen Vendler put this selection of his poetry together. It is outstanding. Stevens is the poet of musical questioning, of a great and vibrant sensuality , of a deep searching for and making of beauty in words. His aesthetic reflective mind plays over and over again with sounds he makes us hear in new ways.. And he leads us see things in different ways , seeing them and hearing them and feeling them in some mysterious blend his magical language reorders.
The most famous of the poems from 'Sunday Morning' to ' Thirteen ways of looking at a Blackbird' are included in this highly recommended collection.