Tea at the Palaz of Hoon
Encyclopedia
"Tea at the Palaz of Hoon" is a poem from Wallace Stevens
's first book of poetry, Harmonium
. It was first published in 1921, so it is in the public domain.
This poem is central to Harold Bloom's reading of Stevens's Harmonium, as marking the poet's progress over the perspectivism of "The Snow Man
" and the pessimism of "The man whose pharynx was bad
". The reader who masters these poems and their interrelationships has, according to Bloom, “reached the center of Stevens’s poetic and human anxieties and of his resources for meeting those anxieties”. "Hoon" points the way towards Stevens's future development as a poet, in his view.
"Hoon" is easily understood as a philosophical poem, lending itself to interpretation as an exercise in the philosophy of solipsism
or subjective idealism
such as Fichte's. It can also be read as a statement of a psychological theory like Freud's that hypothesizes an unconscious mental domain that influences conscious mental life. Bordering on such interpretations but neutral among them is the idea that the poem is about the poet's experience of self-discovery through imaginative construction of himself. The poet's creativity in this regard is perhaps extreme, but it makes his self more his self, hence he finds himself "more truly and more strange".
Milton J. Bates remarks that the regal figure of Hoon is the figure least qualified by irony among the early protagonists of Harmonium.
He adds that the pure poet "bathes his nominal subject in the imaginative effulgence [that] Stevens called the 'poetry of the subject'". The pure poet is distinguished from the local poet who defines himself as the intelligence of his soil, in that the former applies himself to what Stevens called "the idea of pure poetry: imagination, extended beyond local consciousness,...an idea to be held in common by South, West, North and East." (See "The Comedian as the Letter C" regarding the topic of local poetry. See also the main Harmonium
essay, especially the section "Locality".)
Although this poem was written before "Comedian", Bates is proposing that Stevens "found Hoon's course more congenial than Crispin's" as his poetic project matured in the thirties. It was not until he took up his genealogical study in the early forties that, according to Bates, Stevens resumed the connection with his native region that had been severed by his move to New York. (See the main Wallace Stevens
essay for biographical details.)
Wallace Stevens
Wallace Stevens was an American Modernist poet. He was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, educated at Harvard and then New York Law School, and spent most of his life working as a lawyer for the Hartford insurance company in Connecticut.His best-known poems include "Anecdote of the Jar",...
's first book of poetry, Harmonium
Harmonium (poetry collection)
Harmonium is a book of poetry by U.S. poet Wallace Stevens. His first book, it was published in 1923 by Knopf in an edition of 1500 copies. He was in middle age at that time, forty-four years old. The collection comprises 85 poems, ranging in length from just a few lines to several hundred...
. It was first published in 1921, so it is in the public domain.
| Tea at the Palaz of Hoon
|
This poem is central to Harold Bloom's reading of Stevens's Harmonium, as marking the poet's progress over the perspectivism of "The Snow Man
The Snow Man
"The Snow Man" is a poem from Wallace Stevens's first book of poetry, Harmonium. "The Snow Man" was first published in 1921 in the journal Poetry, volume 19, October 1921 and is in the public domain.-Overview:...
" and the pessimism of "The man whose pharynx was bad
The Man whose Pharynx was bad
"The Man whose Pharynx was bad" is a poem from Wallace Stevens's first book of poetry, Harmonium. It was first published in 1921, so it is in the public domain.One point of entry into this poem is Stevens's attitude towards the weather...
". The reader who masters these poems and their interrelationships has, according to Bloom, “reached the center of Stevens’s poetic and human anxieties and of his resources for meeting those anxieties”. "Hoon" points the way towards Stevens's future development as a poet, in his view.
"Hoon" is easily understood as a philosophical poem, lending itself to interpretation as an exercise in the philosophy of solipsism
Solipsism
Solipsism is the philosophical idea that only one's own mind is sure to exist. The term comes from Latin solus and ipse . Solipsism as an epistemological position holds that knowledge of anything outside one's own mind is unsure. The external world and other minds cannot be known, and might not...
or subjective idealism
Idealism
In philosophy, idealism is the family of views which assert that reality, or reality as we can know it, is fundamentally mental, mentally constructed, or otherwise immaterial. Epistemologically, idealism manifests as a skepticism about the possibility of knowing any mind-independent thing...
such as Fichte's. It can also be read as a statement of a psychological theory like Freud's that hypothesizes an unconscious mental domain that influences conscious mental life. Bordering on such interpretations but neutral among them is the idea that the poem is about the poet's experience of self-discovery through imaginative construction of himself. The poet's creativity in this regard is perhaps extreme, but it makes his self more his self, hence he finds himself "more truly and more strange".
Milton J. Bates remarks that the regal figure of Hoon is the figure least qualified by irony among the early protagonists of Harmonium.
Without a visit to Hoon in his palaz, one will not appreciate how Stevens's poems of the thirties, though they are not intimately autobiographical, might nevertheless be said to contain and discourse of himself alone.
He adds that the pure poet "bathes his nominal subject in the imaginative effulgence [that] Stevens called the 'poetry of the subject'". The pure poet is distinguished from the local poet who defines himself as the intelligence of his soil, in that the former applies himself to what Stevens called "the idea of pure poetry: imagination, extended beyond local consciousness,...an idea to be held in common by South, West, North and East." (See "The Comedian as the Letter C" regarding the topic of local poetry. See also the main Harmonium
Harmonium (poetry collection)
Harmonium is a book of poetry by U.S. poet Wallace Stevens. His first book, it was published in 1923 by Knopf in an edition of 1500 copies. He was in middle age at that time, forty-four years old. The collection comprises 85 poems, ranging in length from just a few lines to several hundred...
essay, especially the section "Locality".)
Although this poem was written before "Comedian", Bates is proposing that Stevens "found Hoon's course more congenial than Crispin's" as his poetic project matured in the thirties. It was not until he took up his genealogical study in the early forties that, according to Bates, Stevens resumed the connection with his native region that had been severed by his move to New York. (See the main Wallace Stevens
Wallace Stevens
Wallace Stevens was an American Modernist poet. He was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, educated at Harvard and then New York Law School, and spent most of his life working as a lawyer for the Hartford insurance company in Connecticut.His best-known poems include "Anecdote of the Jar",...
essay for biographical details.)