William Stafford on Wallace Stevens:
If I Could Be Like Wallace Stevens
| The octopus would be my model— | |
| it wants to understand; it prowls | |
| the rocks a hundred ways and holds | |
| its head aloof but not ignoring. | |
| All its fingers value what | |
| they find. “I’d rather know,” they say, | |
| “I’d rather slime along than be heroic.” |
| My pride would be to find out; I’d | |
| bow to see, play the fool, | |
| ask, beg, retreat like a wave— | |
| but somewhere deep I’d hold the pearl, | |
| never tell. “Mr. Charley,” | |
| I’d say, “talk some more. Boast again.” | |
| And I’d play the banjo and sing. |
I like the many Stevensian elements Stafford has included, although the Octopus seems to point much more to Marianne Moore than to Stevens. “I’d rather slime along than be herioc” is a good motto for the true artist, who is caught up in his work and not looking for accolades. Stafford humbly chooses the banjo as his instrument; ceding the guitar, I think, to Stevens.
“…slime in the heroic..” Now, that is an image I won’t be forgetting soon!
Rarely do I see blog posts referring to W. Stevens. The man had many issues I as a mere mortal have trouble understanding. But during my readings I found a great quote to emphasize how ‘this poem’ well stay with me….
“Shakespeare and Dickinson compared a poem to perfume: “you cannot see the petals, the meadow, the flower….yet the scent is redolent of the vanished reality.” Thanks for his poem and Happy Birthday, Wallace!
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Thank you so much for your comment, N@ncy. I like Stevens a lot, and I was not even aware that he had “issues”. I don’t tend to get much into the biographies of great artists because the reality is generally on a lower plateau than the art—think of Mozart and his juvenile behaviour (which lasted long beyond his juvenile years, I think) compared with the celestial brilliance of his music.
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