Stevens' Modernism Assignment (to be done in class)
- Due No Due Date
- Points 15
- Submitting a file upload
Answer the questions for each of the Wallace Stevens poems indicated below.
N.B. DO NOT include the text of the questions in your responses.
"Anecdote of the Jar"
- How is the wilderness described in the first stanza?
- Using your own words only, describe the effect the placement of the jar has on the natural scene around it.
- Using your own words only, explain how the jar is “Like nothing else in Tennessee” (12).
- According to the poem, which is preeminent, nature or the jar?
- What is the jar a symbol of?
"The Idea of Order at Key West"
1. In general, what is the difference between the “singer” and the “sea”
2. What is the difference between the sounds of nature and the song of the singer? Which is the greater, in the speaker’s opinion? Explain.
3. What effect does the singer’s song have on nature (5th stanza)?
4. As he looks out at the sea at night, what can the speaker see? What effect do these things have on the darkness?
"The Man with the Blue Guitar"
- Who are the “characters” in the poem? Who is the primary speaker in each of the sections?
- What seems to be the paradox about the music the guitarist plays?
- What is it, according to the second section, that art can’t do (in this case, music)?
- For how long, according to the third section, does music change its audience?
- IN YOUR OWN WORDS ONLY, what is the question the guitarist asks himself in the final section?
"The Disillusionment of Ten O'Clock"
1. What is suggested about the people living in the houses?
2. What will their dreams be like, according to the poem (use your own words – don’t quote from the poem)?
3. Why does the sailor still have vivid dreams?
4. List the two major juxtapositions in the poem.
5. What comment does Stevens seem to be making in this poem about the “modern condition” of life?
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