Both Stevens and Stein seem to be focused on much of one idea throughout their writing- they don't deal with a multitude of problems or aspects of humanity. They both seem to be obsessed with writing about the structures that humans put on the world around them, and about how fallible humans are. With Stevens I see his focus mostly on the religious or idealogical restrictions humans put around themselves. In his poetry he tends to try and abolish this aspect of human nature. One example of this- for me- is the poem, "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird." http://writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88/stevens-13ways.html My interpretation of this poem is influenced by other times he has come out and openly expressed the faultiness of religious beliefs. I think Stevens is having the Blackbird stand for the religious projections humans put on the world:
A man and a woman
Are one.A man and a woman and a blackbird
Are one.
This reminds me of Ephesians 5:31- For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.
There are other moments in the poem that Stevens seems to be alluding to the projected boundaries and meanings we put on events and life in general and how ridiculous they are, in his eyes. For this reason, his poetry is written "clearer" than Stein's. Sometimes it's difficult- but the difficulty is enjoyable, and the experience of finding meaning in his poems is kind of a self-fulfilling example.
When compared to Stein I see hers as more of an attack on words and meanings. Seeing how our ways of communication fall short, she decides to play around with words in her poetry, more specifically nouns. Many of her poems almost seem like she's poking and prodding the noun until we see it in every light and view point. There are so many of this example that I have a hard time picking one- but if I quote the most quoted Gertrude stein line "a rose is a rose is a rose" each time rose is written, it changes to a new meaning- over time, through the sentence, are we talking about the letters, a real rose, all roses, a symbolic meaning- what are we talking about when we say rose?
(Julie ^ That is how I read Stein)
They both deal with the erring nature of man and man's habit of creating structure on a world that is messy and about how those structures fall short of the meanings every time. The reason for their own individual "project" shapes their styles to be extremely different- I don't think Stein's "project" could be covered in Stevens' style and vice-versa.
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