The Plot Against the Giant
Encyclopedia
"The Plot Against the Giant" is a poem from Wallace Stevens
's first book of poetry, Harmonium
. It was first published in 1917, so it is in the public domain.
Stevens was called "the Giant" in his Harvard days, and he confessed in an interview a year before his death that "[i]n my younger days I liked girls. But let's not stress that. I have a wife."http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/12/21/home/stevens-talk.html The mumbling giant, perhaps a lumberjack sharpening his axe, may be compared to the bucks whose course is changed by the firecat poet in "Earthy Anecdote
", here replaced by three girls. The poet challenges and changes the ordinary. The yokel may be checked, abashed, and undone. Maybe he is changed.
The poem's theme of beguiling female and bumbling male can be compared to "Last Looks at the Lilacs
" and "Two Figures in Dense Violet Night
"
Buttel detects a hint of the work of the Pointilists in the "cloths besprinkled with colors / As small as fish eggs."
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 1917, so it is in the public domain.
| The Plot Against the Giant
When this yokel comes maundering, Whetting his hacker, I shall run before him, Diffusing the civilest odors Out of geraniums and unsmelled flowers. It will check him. I shall run before him, Arching cloths besprinkled with colors As small as fish-eggs. The threads Will abash him. Oh, la...le pauvre! I shall run before him, With a curious puffing. He will bend his ear then. I shall whisper Heavenly labials in a world of gutturals. It will undo him. |
Stevens was called "the Giant" in his Harvard days, and he confessed in an interview a year before his death that "[i]n my younger days I liked girls. But let's not stress that. I have a wife."http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/12/21/home/stevens-talk.html The mumbling giant, perhaps a lumberjack sharpening his axe, may be compared to the bucks whose course is changed by the firecat poet in "Earthy Anecdote
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...
", here replaced by three girls. The poet challenges and changes the ordinary. The yokel may be checked, abashed, and undone. Maybe he is changed.
The poem's theme of beguiling female and bumbling male can be compared to "Last Looks at the Lilacs
Last Looks at the Lilacs
Last Looks at the Lilacs is a poem from Wallace Stevens's first book of poetry, Harmonium. It was first published in 1923 and is therefore still under copyright...
" and "Two Figures in Dense Violet Night
Two Figures In Dense Violet Night
Two Figures in Dense Violet Night is a poem from Wallace Stevens's first book of poetry, Harmonium. It was first published in 1923., so it is still under copyright. Only its first stanza is quoted here....
"
Buttel detects a hint of the work of the Pointilists in the "cloths besprinkled with colors / As small as fish eggs."