Complacencies of the peignoir, and late
Coffee and oranges in a sunny chair,
And the green freedom of a cockatoo
Upon a rug mingle to dissipate
The holy hush of ancient sacrifice.
And later in the second part:
Shall she not find in comforts of the sun,
In pungent fruit and bright, green wings, or else
In any balm or beauty of the earth,
Things to be cherished like the thought of heaven?
These passages create images for the reader. Stevens makes us feel the sun and the warm coffee in our hands on a lazy Sunday morning. This lures us into wanting us to know what he is trying to convey. But Stevens cannot just create these images, pull them out of thin air, they rely on the readers past experiences, and that these experiences of “pungent fruit” and “coffee” have been good ones. Our reminiscing of our past experiences lures us into reading more, into thinking on what the author has to say. It makes a connection with us. The whole of what Stevens is trying to portray is not a beautiful Sunday morning, but that imagery is what keeps us reading.
There is also the kind of trite notion that reading takes us to places that we otherwise couldn’t go to. In a very simple way beginning of this poem does this for me. I have never seen a cockatoo but Stevens takes me to a Sunday morning in a “sunny chair” and explores the “beauty of the earth.”
The process of writing generates experience even more so. When writing something happens between trying to communicate and the actual words produced. The cognitive processes of thinking about writing creates pulls the author into creating new thought processes, makes them think about their readers perspectives, about past events, about what will happen after that writing is complete.
I really like what you said about writing generating experience. The author forms the ideas, writes them, publishes them, and after that has no control over who reads their ideas. The author has, however already generated an experience for all her potential readers, as she has used imagery, words, and ideas that will create an experience for all her readers. This experience is subjective to the reader, but everyone will have one, and the quality of said experience depends on the author’s skill at generating one.
ReplyDeletePlato did not believe that the highest things could be stated, and therefore cannot be written. He did however write a lot of dialogues, this seems to suggest that even though higher thought cannot be stated, it can be achieved or even grasped through experience. In Plato’s writings an experience is generated, in Lysis you are a spectator to Socrates speaking of seduction, and though nothing is concluded in the text, the experience brings you a thought process that would not otherwise be there. This is the beauty of writing, and especially poetry, authors are able to create experience through words.
Don't forget the seductive aspect of the peignoir, this is a night gown for women. It is often the simple pleasures of life that are most seductive, a Sunday morning with some coffee and the reference to heaven reminds me of how Arabians believe the angel Gabriel brought coffee to Muhammad. There is definitely something seductive about a relaxing Sunday before a hard week of labor.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if I have any good ideas for a response to anyone, so I'm responding to you because I know you won't mind me prattling on. And also I like what you're saying here, the way we pull out the things of the past and twine them together. And the way all interpretation is just narcissistic, beautiful kibbitzing. If I haven't already tried to shove it down your throat, I'll say it again, because I'm a bit of a hipster and you're a bit of a hipster: read Pale Fire if you haven't already, it's a brilliant, beautiful, and incredibly fun exploration of these ideas.
ReplyDeleteThis idea of synthetic beauty obsesses me, though I'm not sure what I want from it. It tastes like a promise of the upper air, like a grand aperitif, and so I want to find its source. But I'm so used to acclimatizing myself, to habitualising beauty, that I wonder if I could not get used to the ether after the first gasping inspirations. But then I return to John Shade, to how, if I were to have tried to imagine this world before I entered it, I would not have had enough chaos in me to make even the smallest particle.
There, I'm finished now. Sorry.
I also like your post, Leah, it is clear to understand and I think that the seduction effect plays an important role in attracting the readers' attention.
ReplyDeleteIf the readers are seduced by what they are reading, they will read until the end of the end, having some images in their heads and thinking about it. And by thinking about it, unconsciously they connect it to their own experience.
I do like when a poem reminds me of my experience, of what I know,of what I can easily imagine and picture it in my mind...I feel emotions and if there is a message in the poem, it is even better because I can learn something and I have also something to think about so that I feel clever.
Dear Ian,
ReplyDeleteStop Apologizing.
Sincerely,
Your Thoughts Are Valued