The Poetry of Wallace Stevens

Wallace James Stevens was born on October 2nd, 1879 in Reading, Pennsylvania.His father, a lawyer, sent Wallace to Harvard as a non-degree special student, after which he movedto New York City and worked briefly as a journalist.From there he attended New York Law School and graduated in 1903. On a trip home to Reading in1904 Stevens met Elsie Viola Kachel, a saleswoman, milliner, and stenographer.After working for several New York law firms he was hired in January 1908, as a lawyer for the American Bonding Company.After a 6 year courtship Wallace and Elsie married in 1909 over the objections of his parents. For Wallace it was a seismic event; he never spoke to his father again. By 1914 Wallace had become the vice-president of the New York office of the Equitable SuretyCompany of St. Louis, Missouri. In 1916, he joined Hartford Accident and Indemnity Company and they moved to Hartford. His work was full-time and time for his poetry writing was in short supply.From January 1922 made several business several visits to Key West, Florida. "The place is a paradise," he wrote to Elsie, "midsummer weather, the sky brilliantly clear and intensely blue, the sea blue and green beyond what you have ever seen."In 1923 'Harmonium' was published. At last, at age 38, he was an overnight success. His career wasnot prodigious in quantity but its quality was exceptional.In March 1955 Wallace underwent various medical tests and an operation which resulted in a diagnosis of stomach cancer.He travelled in early June to receive honorary Doctorates at Hartford and Yale.Wallace was readmitted on July 21st to St. Francis Hospital where his condition deteriorated. Wallace Stevens died on the 2nd August 1955 at the age of 75. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his Collected Poems in 1955. - 1 - The Poetry of Wallace Stevens - An Introduction2 - Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird by Wallace Stevens3 - Six Significant Landscapes by Wallace Stevens4 - Disillusionment of Ten O'Clock by Wallace Stevens5 - Two Figures in Dense Violet Light by Wallace Stevens6 - In The Carolinas by Wallace Stevens7 - Last Looks at the Lilacs by Wallace Stevens8 - Gray Room by Wallace Stevens9 - Tea At the Palaz of Hoon by Wallace Stevens10 - Hymn From A Watermelon Pavilion by Wallace Stevens11 - Domination of Black by Wallace Stevens12 - Anecdote of the Prince of Peacocks by Wallace Stevens13 - Anecdote of the Jar by Wallace Stevens14 - Sunday Morning by Wallace Stevens15 - Phases by Wallace Stevens16 - Metaphors of a Magnifico by Wallace Stevens17 - Frogs Eat Butterflies, snakes Eat Frogs, Hogs Eat Snakes, Men Eat Hogs by Wallace Stevens18 - The Worm's At Heaven's Gate by Wallace Stevens19 - Tattoo by Wallace Stevens20 - Another Weeping Woman by Wallace Stevens21 - The High-toned Old Christian Woman by Wallace Stevens22 - To the One of Fictive Music by Wallace Stevens23 - Peter Quince at the Clavier by Wallace Stevens24 - The Emperor of Ice Cream by Wallace Stevens25 - The Wind Shifts by Wallace Stevens26 - The Snow Man by Wallace Stevens27 - Nomad Exquisite by Wallace Stevens28 - The Comedian as the Letter C by Wallace Stevens