Stevens: A Mythological Modern Poet

When speaking in terms of "modernism" and the "modernist movement," it is important to recognize that these phrases are not synonymous with the English word "modern', which defines something contemporary in nature.  The modernist movement was not solely literary, for it embodied all aspects of creative art.  Its coming into existence was partially due to mass cultural uprising against Victorian rigidity, but was more profoundly fueled by Western society's extreme disillusionment resulting from the horrific experiences witnessed during the Great War.  Many modernist thinkers came to view the world as fragmented; there existed not just one, cohesive reality in which all of society was enveloped, but multiple realities all operating within their own dogmatic parameters.  This fragmentation was further compounded by the increasing feeling of isolation many people developed in response to the rapid technological advancements of their time.



Picasso's 1903 The Old Guitarist.  Many academics believe
this painting inspired Stevens to write "The Man
with the Blue Guitar."

 Perhaps these feeling of alienation and fragmentation are best represented by the visual arts, and among these representations the painter Pablo Picasso is probably the most recognizable.  Picasso once said:  "The world today doesn't make sense, so why should I paint pictures that do?"  Many modernist writers echoed this sentiment by experimenting with a variety of new writing techniques such as stream of consciousness, or by focusing on unconventional subject matter.  Others attempted to make sense of their chaotic world by incorporating the patterns of myth into their work to create new and unique literary styles.  These elements can be seen in the work of Modern American poet Wallace Stevens.  In his poem, "The Man with the Blue Guitar"(which many academics assert was inspired by Picasso's 1903 painting, The Old Guitarist), Stevens refers to the guitarist as "a shearsman of sorts."  According to my Oxford American Pocket Dictionary, shear can mean:  to distort or be distorted, or break, from a structural strain.    The man with the blue guitar "does not play things as they are," for "Things as they are/ Are changed upon the blue guitar."  But the people implore him to play "A tune beyond us, yet ourselves."  The amorphous term "they" characterized in the poem is a reference to society at large.  The poem's speaker and the man with the blue guitar may be consciously aware of the fragmented, alienated state of society, but the common masses are only subconsciously aware of it.  Thus they are unable to articulate that for which they yearn.  They are caught between cleaving to what  they had traditionally understood themselves to be, and striving to understand the state of their disillusionment. Later, in part XV of the poem, the speaker asks:  "Is this a picture of Picasso's, this 'hoard/ Of distractions,' a picture of ourselves,/ Now, an image of our society?"  In so doing, Stevens deftly depicts the complexities of human emotion by analogizing music and art. 


Picasso's 1937 Guernica.  Perhaps this is the "hoard of destructions" Stevens references in "The Man with the Blue Guitar."



Stevens further demonstrates his willingness to utilize mythology in "Peter Quince at the Clavier."  In this poem he again represents emotion through musical images.  Also present in the poem are alternate realities to what society has conventionally perceived.  Peter Quince, being an unsophisticated rube, would not normally be sitting at a clavier, plucking melodic chords and exploring the complicated emotions invoked by an unattainable mistress.  The poem is incredibly erotic.  In the Biblical story Susanna is renowned for her beauty and piety; in Stevens' poem, although demure, she is a sexually empowered woman.  In the privacy of her garden (a mythological symbol of eroticism), "She searched/ The torch of Springs,/ And found/ Concealed imaginings./ She sighed/ For so much melody./ / Upon the bank, she stood/ In the cool/ Of spent emotions./ She felt, among the leaves,/ the dew/ Of old devotions."  These lines are clearly depicting the act of masturbation.  "The torch of Springs" symbolizes her female genitalia, and concealed imaginings her sexual fantasies.  (It may be of interest to note here that modernist writers often attempted to break the societal barriers of prudery prevalent during the Victorian Era).  She stands on the bank "in the cool of spent emotions" and remembers "old devotions." Her sexual desires fulfilled, she pauses to remember her maidenhood; to remember the first stirrings of sexual awakening.  The elders have witnessed the entire event, and now their lust is kindled.  Susanna is ashamed of having been caught in such a private and vulnerable moment.  In the Biblical story the only explanation for her shame is having been seen naked by men to whom she is not married.  Stevens attempts to fill the lacunae of the Biblical version by presenting an alternate reality in which Susanna does more than just bathe in her garden, and in which the one imagining such a scene is a rough around the edges, blue collar guy fantasizing about catching a sophisticated, sexually unavailable woman in the act of pleasuring herself. 

But a fantasy is just that. It is "momentary in the mind."  The sexually charged fantasy of the virginal maiden dies when the maiden is deflowered.  She is replaced by a sexually aware, unattainable woman.  The latter fantasy being no less momentary than the first.  Peter Quince well remembers the lesson learned through the elders' mistake.  How could they have foreseen Daniel's meddling in the matter?  Peter Quince is also well aware of his shortcomings, and knows that he, too, will probably be foiled if he dares to act upon his fantasy.  So he sits, isolated, dejectedly plucking at his clavier, refusing to give his Susanna the satisfaction of gloating over herself for all of eternity.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w32XfBVWFqw   

http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88v/blueguitar.html