Wallace Stevens: Idea of Order at Key West

This is a new departure for me. I have created this video without any additional music or effects since Stevens's poetry is sufficient unto itself, the sound of the verse is all we need. I should be interested to know what people think of this rather stark rendition!

The Idea of Order at Key West...... She sang beyond the genius of the sea.
The water never formed to mind or voice,
Like a body wholly body, fluttering
Its empty sleeves; and yet its mimic motion
Made constant cry, caused constantly a cry,
That was not ours although we understood,
Inhuman, of the veritable ocean.

The sea was not a mask. No more was she.
The song and water were not medleyed sound
Even if what she sang was what she heard,
Since what she sang was uttered word by word.
It may be that in all her phrases stirred
The grinding water and the gasping wind;
But it was she and not the sea we heard.

For she was the maker of the song she sang.
The ever-hooded, tragic-gestured sea
Was merely a place by which she walked to sing.
Whose spirit is this? we said, because we knew
It was the spirit that we sought and knew
That we should ask this often as she sang.

If it was only the dark voice of the sea
That rose, or even colored by many waves;
If it was only the outer voice of sky
And cloud, of the sunken coral water-walled,
However clear, it would have been deep air,
The heaving speech of air, a summer sound
Repeated in a summer without end
And sound alone. But it was more than that,
More even than her voice, and ours, among
The meaningless plungings of water and the wind,
Theatrical distances, bronze shadows heaped
On high horizons, mountainous atmospheres
Of sky and sea.
It was her voice that made
The sky acutest at its vanishing.
She measured to the hour its solitude.
She was the single artificer of the world
In which she sang. And when she sang, the sea,
Whatever self it had, became the self
That was her song, for she was the maker. Then we,
As we beheld her striding there alone,
Knew that there was never a world for her
Except the one she sang and, singing, made.

Ramon Fernandez, tell me, if you know,
Why, when the singing ended and we turned
Toward the town, tell why the glassy lights,
The lights in the fishing boats at anchor there,
As the night descended, tilting in the air,
Mastered the night and portioned out the sea,
Fixing emblazoned zones and fiery poles,
Arranging, deepening, enchanting night.

Oh! Blessed rage for order, pale Ramon,
The maker's rage to order words of the sea
Words of the fragrant portals, dimly-starred,
And of ourselves and of our origins,
In ghostlier demarcations, keener sounds.

Category:

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Tags:

• wallace
• stevens
• idea
• of
• order
• at
• key
• west
• american
• poetry
• charles
• bryant
• spoken
• word

[miklosselkirk]

Very nicely read, sir. I must memorize this poem for my course on literary criticism and was searching for audio aids and happened upon your reading. Again, well done.

[brychar66]

Thank you Mikloss and glad to be of assistance.

[ginamari]

very nice Charles, I love the last paragraph,

how do you interpret it? :)

[brychar66]

Sorry to be so late in replying! I think he is referring to the ordering which comes about thru art, just as the woman singing becomes the sea, or rather, as he says, the sea becomes her. 'The maker's rage to order words' - of course the noun 'maker' makes us think of the hypothetical original maker of all creation, but he really means the poet basically I think.

[cronogeo]

beautiful

[brychar66]

Thanks. My world is full of Wallace Stevens at the moment. The more I read, the more I wonder!

[frineeale]

This is one of my favorites poems, thanks for sharing!

[biopter]

This is a beautiful reading of a beautiful poem.

Thank you!

[eviality]

Wallace Stevens is my introduction to poetry. This poem is wonderful.

"Except the one she sang and, singing, made."

Thank you for recording this video.

[cavafyinenglish]

Thank you too :) He's a great poet.

[MShafferRSM]

I have just come upon Wallace Stevens and enjoyed your reading very much. Thank you. I think the reading fits the poem very well.

[FamFnL]

I love the way you read the poem. But I just don't understand the meaning of it. Could anybody help me out please? I would really like to know what it is about. Thanks!