Durham E-Theses Inescapable choice: Wallace Stevens's new Romanticism and English romantic poetry Tomioka, Noriko How to cite: Tomioka, Noriko (2006) Inescapable choice: Wallace Stevens's new Romanticism and English romantic poetry, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/2607/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 Inescapable Choice: Wallace Stevens's New Romanticism and English Romantic Poetry The copyright of this thesis rests with the author or the university to which It was submitted. No quotation from It, or lnfonnatlon derived from It may be published without the prior written consent of the author or university, and any lnfonnatlon derived from It should be acknowledged. Noriko Tomioka A thesis submitted to the University of Durham in accordance with the regulations for admittance to the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of English Studies University of Durham September 2006 1 7 APR 2007 To my mother Out of this same light, out of the central mind, We make a dwelling in the evening air, In which being there together is enough. -Wallace Stevens, Final Soliloquy ofthe Inten"or Paramour Abstract The aim of this thesis is to investigate how Stevens creates a new Romanticism. It argues that Stevens demonstrates a double view of Romanticism as having positive and negative aspects and it relates discussion of this double view to the development of his poetry and theories of poetry. Stevens shares with the Romantics the belief that through the power of imagination the problem of dualism - especially the split between art and existential reality - can be solved. From Stevens's perspective, thinking about what should be respected and what should be corrected in Romanticism provides grounds for the creation of his own new Romanticism. In chapters one and two, by examining the conflict between imagination and reality in the works of Coleridge, Wordsworth, Shelley and Keats, I explore the intertextual relations between Stevens and the Romantics from a perspective informed by the implications of Stevens's work and thought. In chapters three and four, focusing on Stevens's treatment of the relation between imagination and reality, I examine the nuanced differences between his work and that of the Romantics. Chapter five provides a prologue to 'Notes toward a Supreme Fiction', the culmination of Stevens's concern with imagination and reality. In the final chapter I examine how Stevens's new Romanticism, especially its emphasis on the imagination's activity, is concretised in 'Notes toward a Supreme Fiction'. I also explore how the later development of his sense of reality affects his poetic creativity. By examining the influence of the Romantics on Stevens and his response to them, the nature of his poetry can be more accurately understood. Throughout the thesis, I engage, as appropriate, with the work of many critics who have written on Stevens. It is my hope that my own approach gives a fully considered and detailed account of a topic often addressed more briefly by other commentators. The research presented in this thesis is the original work of the author, unless stated otherwise. None of this work has been submitted for a degree in this or any other university. The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without their proper written consent and information derived from it should be acknowledged. 1 Contents Contents 1 Acknowledgements n Introduction m Chapter 1 1 Stevens's Response to Romanticism: Coleridge and Wordsworth Chapter 2 47 Stevens's Response to Romanticism: Shelley and Keats Chapter 3 89 Reality-Imagination Complex Chapter 4 133 Stevens's Development towards New Romanticism Chapter 5 176 Towards a Supreme Fiction Chapter 6 225 The Never· Ending Creativity of Fiction Conclusion 270 Bibliography 273 11 Acknowledgements 1b my supervisor, Professor Michael O'Neill, I offer my deepest thanks for his continuous support, valuable and helpful suggestions, and warm encouragement. His feedback on my written work in many e-mail exchanges has shortened the distance between England and Japan. Eve:ry time I visit Durham, reading poetry with him has enriched my life. I am also grateful to him for encouraging me to give a paper at Wordsworth Summer Conference at Grasmere in England, 2002. 111 Introduction The purpose of this thesis is to investigate what Wallace Stevens desires for modern poetry. It does so by re·exploring his response to the work and ideas of the English Romantics. It argues that Stevens can be regarded as the most authentic successor of Romanticism. Romanticism is transformed in Stevens's poetry as he creates his own new Romanticism. We can find between Stevens and the Romantic poets a similarity in their view of the function of poetic imagination and the use of poetry. Stevens, like the Romantics, believes in the power of imagination to dissolve the boundary between what is imagined and reality. However, admitting the synthetic power of the imagination, Stevens takes a different stance from the Romantics since their use of imagination (from his perspective) tends to result in a divorce of imagination from reality. Since he values the Romantic imagination, Stevens tries to rescue it from the problem of solipsism. Th clarify what Stevens's new Romanticism is, it is helpful to find his response to his predecessors and trace the development of his imagination. Stevens's response to Romanticism has been explored by many critics in the course of discussing the Romantic influence on Stevens and Stevens as a successor of Romanticism. M. H. Abrams remarks: 'Among modern poets none stays so close to some of Wordsworth's formulations as Stevens does' in that Stevens as well as Wordsworth shows 'the Romantic endeavor to salvage traditional experience and values by accommodating them to premises tenable to a later age'. Abrams suggests that 'within the altered frame and tone of Stevens' meditations there remains a notable continuity with Wordsworth'. 1 Harold Bloom and Helen Vendler also observe a similarity in the function of poetic imagination and the use of poetry between Stevens and Wordsworth. 2 Stevens's response to other 1 M. H. Abrams, Natural Supernaturalism: 'fradition and Revolution in Romantic Literature (New York: Norton, 1971) 69. 2 Acoording to Bloom, the vision that Wordsworth describes in 'simple' and 'common' words, hallowing the common place, provides us with the perpetually renewed life. 'This vision is renewed for us in the poetry of Wallace Stevens, the most authentic and relevant I think of our time'. Harold Bloom, The VIsionary Company: A Reading of English Romantic Poetrv IV Romantic poets has also been examined. Vendler, focusing her discussion on Keats's "lb Autumn', explores Keats's influence on Stevens and asserts: 'Throughout his long life as a poet, Stevens returned again and again to Keats' ode "Th Autumn'". 3 Whereas the Romantic influence on Stevens is examined by many critics, the formation of his new Romanticism has not been subjected to such scrutiny, even though most critics give a brief acrount of his new Romanticism. The English Romantics explore the possibility of imaginative reconciliation between human beings and nature, and indeed, if one were to select a central characteristic of Romanticism, it would be the importance which they attached to the imagination, an importance evident in their practice and their theories. However, the Romantic search for reconciliation between man and nature tends to be unsuccessful. Acrording to Stevens, judging from his practice and his theoretical comments, the Romantics fail when the imagination is found wanting in the face of the ever-changing nature of reality. The problem is twofold. First, the defeat of the imagination by reality shows the problem of sustaining a visionary world. What emerges from reflection on the defeat of the imagination is awareness of the need to sustain the vitality of the imagination in relation to reality. Again, when the imagination becomes overpowering, losing its balance with reality, the problem of the imagination's usurpation of reality arises. Then the poetic achievement ends with a solipsistic immersion in the imagination. In both cases- the imagination's defeat by reality or the imagination's usurpation of reality - what is missing is any contact of the imagination with reality. Secondly, Romantic poetry faces an artistic problem when such a loss of contact occurs. Then, so Stevens argues, nothing can be produced but stale modes of perception and thought. For the Romantic poets, there is often a problem occurring in the mismatch between what they perceive through the imagination and the (1961; rev. and enlarged edn. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 1971) xxiv-xxv. Vendler mentions that Stevens's 'articulation of thought is not (though it may at first look as if it were) Wordsworthian-meditation. It is, in fact, utterly unlike Wordsworth'. Helen Vendler, The Music of What Happens (Cambridge, Mass.: London: Harvard UP, 1988) 90. 3 Helen Vendler, 'Stevens and Keats' '"'b Autumn'' in Wallace Stevens: A Celebration ed.