David Letzler

Stevens’ Projection of Nonsense

Critics have long noted that both the French symbolists and the Anglo-American modernists were deeply influenced by “Nonsense” poetry, particularly that of Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear. However, in invoking “nonsense”-already an imprecise word-to describe these more consciously “high” literary figures, many have struggled over exactly what they mean by that term and how to interpret others’ use of it (cf. Hugh Kenner, James Rother, Alison Reike). To what extent is “nonsense” in modernist poetry merely an adoption of certain formal elements (nursery rhyme and rhythm, irony, etc.), and to what extent is it a projection of an existence without rational sense?

This paper will look at elements of Wallace Stevens’ poetry that have been described (by both admirers and detractors alike) as “nonsense.” It will divide them into three categories. The first will include ambiguities, in which two or more possible dictionary or syntactic meanings are apparent and may conflict, causing difficulty in reaching the intended sense. The second will involve ostentatious and obscure word combinations, in which the interest in sound seems to overtake the interest in denotative sense. The third will deal with plain words that still seem not to make sense in their context. Having done so, I will argue that Stevens’ poetry is “nonsense” only in its borrowing of the secondary prosodic elements; the poems’ inventiveness and elaboration do not merely project a world of self-absorbed linguistic pleasure, as some have claimed, but enhance a referential and rational sensibility.

David Letzler is in his first year at the English Dept. of the Graduate Center at CUNY, having completed his Master’s in English with an Emphasis in Creative Writing at Temple University in 2008.  In addition to Wallace Stevens, his research interests include formalist critical theory, John Ashbery, James Joyce, and the postmodern novel.

He currently teaches composition at York College.