The Palm at the End of the Mind: Selected Poems and a Play

This collection, while not as definitive as The Collected Poetry, includes all the major longer poems and many important shorter poems of critical value. Arranged in chronological order by probable date of composition this text provides the reader the possiblility of considering the overall arc of Stevens' career. I find myself dipping into the poems included here time and again and it is difficult to pull myself away. THe thoughtful consideration of art and meaning in life is seldom conveyed any better than in the poetry of Wallace Stevens.

Wallace Stevens has some brilliant poems, so I snatched this up when I saw it for fifty cents. Stevens has a tendency to break poems down into pieces making mini poems and big poems that play off each other brilliantly. Stevens' best poem- "13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird."

Wallace Stevens has been an important part of my life since I first read my dad's copy of his Collected Poems when I was sixteen... Twenty years later and I always have The Palm at the End of the Mind on my Reading Shelf and read a poem or two at least once every few months... Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird is one of my favorite pieces of writing.Definitely in my Top Ten Poets: Wallace Stevens, Leonard Cohen, ee cummings, Dylan Thomas, Ginsberg, TS Elliot, Rilke, Robert Browning, Joan Keats, Tennyson

Stevens is one of the most important poets of the 20th century. This is a wonderful collection. It deserves to be read.

What to say.

Wallace Stevens ignorou em grande parte o mundo literário e não recebeu amplo reconhecimento até a publicação de seus Collected Poems (1954). Ele explorou, dentro de um quadro filosófico profundo, o dualismo entre a realidade concreta e a imaginação humana. Influenciado por Ezra Pound, escreveu "Sunday Morning", seu mais famoso trabalho inovador, que começa com "café e laranja em uma cadeira ensolarada", mas termina com imagens de outra realidade, a morte e o caos universal. Stevens é um dos maiores poetas de qualquer século. Suas palavras belas e neologistas desafiam as limitações do mundo concreto e exploram as profundezas da imaginação. E o fato de que levou uma vida muito tranquila e sem pressa e, Connecticut, show more enquanto criava sua linda poesia, o torna ainda mais fascinante. Sua vida reclusa fortaleceu o trabalho, intensificando-o. Se não o maior dos poetas, ele foi certamente um dos mais puros. Sua influência será sentida para sempre . show less