The Palm at the End of the Mind : Selected Poems and a Play (Vintage)

Media:	Paperback
Author:	Wallace Stevens, Holly Stevens
Publisher:	Vintage
Release date:	19 February, 1990
List price:	~~$14.00~~
Our price:	$11.20 that is 20% off!

The Palm at the End of the Mind : Selected Poems and a Play (Vintage)

Average rating: Stars

At the end of the mind

Wallace Stevens is one of those rare writers who had a golden touch with words -- musical words, spellbinding imagery, and no boundaries to keep anyone from enjoying it. "The Palm at the End of the Mind : Selected Poems and a Play" brings together many of his best works, starting early in his writing career and stretching through the years.

Over his lifetime, Stevens wrote several books of poetry, but his exquisite poems are best taken by themselves: the languid splendour of "Sunday Morning," the spare eloquence of "Man With A Blue Guitar," and the hymnlike grandeur of "Le Monocle De Mon Oncle." ("I know no magic trees, no balmy boughs,/No silver-ruddy, gold-vermilion fruits./But, after all, I know a tree that bears/A semblance to the thing I have in mind.")

This volume also contains his little-known one-act play, "Bowl, Cat and Broomstick." Like many of his non-poetic works, this play deals with the nature of poetry, and is in the form of a dialogue between three seventeenth-century characters. It's part parody, part analysis. And while it's a bit weird, it's certainly worth reading.

Wallace Stevens began publishing poetry at an importance time in writing history, when the older styles were falling away. But instead of ignoring one type of poetry in favor of another, he took the best of all kinds -- his verse combines Victorian opulance with the more modern free-form verse.

Though he isn't as well known as Yeats or Williams, Stevens' poetry is one of the few kinds that is both technically good and emotionally rich. His poetry can be whimsical ("Every time the bucks went clattering/Over Oklahoma/A firecat bristled in the way"), but it is also meditative and philosophical, even tackling the nature of reality.

If nothing else, Stevens' writing can be read just because it is exquisitely beautiful. He lavished details all over almost every poem he wrote; his style tends to be a bit on the ornate side -- Stevens freely uses the more exotic terms -- such as "opalescence," "pendentives" and "muleteers" -- wrapped up in complex verse, sometimes with a rhyme scheme and sometimes free-form.

"The Palm at the End of the Mind" is a wonderful collection of Wallace Stevens' most significant long poems, his underrated play, and his equally important smaller ones. A must-have.

The Palm at the End of the Mind : Selected Poems and a Play (Vintage) - Wallace Stevens, Holly Stevens

Ah, the joys of Wallace Stevens...

I have had a love affair with Wallace Stevens' work and "The Palm at the End of the Mind" for almost three decades. My favorite Wallace Stevens' poem is "The Man With the Blue Guitar." This poem is fabulous spoken aloud - I loved it so much that I memorized it! "The Men That Are Falling" is rather like the hour between 3AM-4AM, very contemplative - when it seems like you can feel eternity. I hope that you enjoy this book as much as I have.

Wallace Stevens, Holly Stevens - The Palm at the End of the Mind : Selected Poems and a Play (Vintage)

Poetry for everyone

"The Palm at the End of the Mind" is indeed High Art but I'd like to suggest this book as a must for the casual reader of poetry. This is not a book you need to be afraid of -- you will enjoy it. Others will enjoy it. Next time you're thinking of buying Cousin Minnie "Chicken Soup for the Soul" buy her this book instead.

Bookstore Stores