In "The Idea of Order at Key West," by Wallace Stevens, we see a clear relation to the myth of creation (Ho, ho! Who's the poet now, Stevens?). An unknown woman (of unknown origin) sings to the sea, her song warping into being a specific and unique world separate from the sea and subsequently transforming the way the people who watched her saw the world after her song was over.
This poem is dealing with the themes of manifestation, materialization and, of course, creation. In terms of the four principle elements of creation we discussed in class (Logos, Cosmogony, Mimesis, and Poesis), the poem appears to possess all four.
In terms of the power of voice, logos, we get the immediate understanding that the woman uses mere voice to create being, that is clear. It reminds me, conversely, of the story in the Bible of the army who through the sound of their marching and trumpets were able to destroy a great wall (or city or Tower of Babel or something—I'm terribly unfamiliar with the Bible). The power to heave (possibly upward) or incline material into or out of existence through the power of sound or voice is an obvious theme that Wallace intended to focus the poem around.
Secondly, we have good ol' cosmogony, or the birth of cosmos, the very something that these fads of science and religion seem to so harshly disagree on. One side sees a pancake floating in the sky and says "God made this pancake, it was here for three days, and it is blueberry." While another side sees it and claims that "It is no pancake, it is a waffle that has been here for nearly fifty decades and it is, in fact, boysenberry." Of course neither side can really go examine the pancake, or test its flavor. Besides, for all we know it's really just a crépe. But I digress.
The birth of being is an obvious side effect when dealing with a woman whose voice is moving enough to shape worlds within her audience's minds. She creates something greater than the sea, overcoming its "grinding water and gasping air", using it as "merely a place by which we walked to sing."
On mimesis, she does not mimic the sea, but it is the sea who mimics her. In its "mimic motion," Stephens personifies the ocean, having it attempt in vain to imitate her body and voice, "like a body wholly body, fluttering its empty sleeves." The aspect of mimicry is certainly contained withing the confining confines of the confident contents therein, concretely and collectivley, enduring the poem to show us that the sea is essentially futile in its attempts to be human, its "constant cry" "inhuman of the veritible ocean."
Finally, there is the concept of poesis, or creation itself. Poetry cannot be without having poesis. My favorite thing about this poem is that it is self-fulfilling in its scope; it's like watching a movie that has a movie take place within it. We are reading a poem about creation via a lyrical song, and while we read, we conjur images in our own mind, bringing this sea and the boats and the town and the woman and the audience into being within ourselves. We may even have picked out a song that she would be singing (hopefully not "Who Let the Dogs Out").
This poem is dealing with the themes of manifestation, materialization and, of course, creation. In terms of the four principle elements of creation we discussed in class (Logos, Cosmogony, Mimesis, and Poesis), the poem appears to possess all four.
In terms of the power of voice, logos, we get the immediate understanding that the woman uses mere voice to create being, that is clear. It reminds me, conversely, of the story in the Bible of the army who through the sound of their marching and trumpets were able to destroy a great wall (or city or Tower of Babel or something—I'm terribly unfamiliar with the Bible). The power to heave (possibly upward) or incline material into or out of existence through the power of sound or voice is an obvious theme that Wallace intended to focus the poem around.
Secondly, we have good ol' cosmogony, or the birth of cosmos, the very something that these fads of science and religion seem to so harshly disagree on. One side sees a pancake floating in the sky and says "God made this pancake, it was here for three days, and it is blueberry." While another side sees it and claims that "It is no pancake, it is a waffle that has been here for nearly fifty decades and it is, in fact, boysenberry." Of course neither side can really go examine the pancake, or test its flavor. Besides, for all we know it's really just a crépe. But I digress.
The birth of being is an obvious side effect when dealing with a woman whose voice is moving enough to shape worlds within her audience's minds. She creates something greater than the sea, overcoming its "grinding water and gasping air", using it as "merely a place by which we walked to sing."
On mimesis, she does not mimic the sea, but it is the sea who mimics her. In its "mimic motion," Stephens personifies the ocean, having it attempt in vain to imitate her body and voice, "like a body wholly body, fluttering its empty sleeves." The aspect of mimicry is certainly contained withing the confining confines of the confident contents therein, concretely and collectivley, enduring the poem to show us that the sea is essentially futile in its attempts to be human, its "constant cry" "inhuman of the veritible ocean."
Finally, there is the concept of poesis, or creation itself. Poetry cannot be without having poesis. My favorite thing about this poem is that it is self-fulfilling in its scope; it's like watching a movie that has a movie take place within it. We are reading a poem about creation via a lyrical song, and while we read, we conjur images in our own mind, bringing this sea and the boats and the town and the woman and the audience into being within ourselves. We may even have picked out a song that she would be singing (hopefully not "Who Let the Dogs Out").
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