Wallace Stevens: Spritualist Poetry

In his Adagia, Wallace Stevens talks so much about poetry that I'm starting to wonder if that is his religion. He does say that "Poetry is a means of redemption," but I suppose redemption doesn't necessarily have to be religious (903). Maybe? But since our module is Religion and the Secular, I'll assume for the time being that it isn't religious. I guess it is missing the community aspect at the very least. Anyway... Stevens gives a very interesting perspective on the relationship between the mind and reality.

As stated above, Stevens seems to view poetry in an almost religious manner. At one point, he says, "The poet is a god or The young poet is a god. The old poet is a tramp" (911). I'm not sure what he means about the old poet, but the young poet seems to be people's redemption from the mind, for Stevens states next that "The poet represents the mind in the act of defending us against itself" (911). What's so bad about the mind? Well, apparently life is (or should be) based on instinct rather than "thesis" or intelligent thought (902). However, "The mind is the most powerful thing in the world" and is the means by which things become real (902-903). Therefore, "The exquisite truth is to know that it is a fiction and that you believe in it willingly" (903). In other words, although the mind is what makes things real, one cannot truly understand this unless the emotions come into play as well. This view helps show Stevens' spiritualist tendencies, because reality is subjective--determined by the individual--and emotions are to be intimately connected to knowledge. The importance of emotion is evidenced by the following quote: "It is possible to establish aesthetics in the individual mind as immeasurably a greater thing than religion" (906). Stevens clearly prefers individual "aesthetics," or emotional judgments, to outright religion.