“Bantam in Pine-Woods”的意思、由来-开放百科全书

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Bantam in Pine-Woods

释义

Interpretation
Notes
References

"Bantams in Pine-Woods" is a poem from Wallace Stevens's first book of poetry, Harmonium. It was first published in 1922 in the poetry journal Dial, along with five other poems, all under the title "Revue".^[1] It is in the public domain.^[2]

{{quote box|bgcolor=lightyellow
|title = Bantams in Pine-Woods
|quote =

 Chieftain Iffucan of Azcan in caftan Of tan with henna hackles, halt!

 Damned universal cock, as if the sun Was blackamoor to bear your blazing tail.

 Fat! Fat! Fat! Fat! I am the personal. Your world is you. I am my world.

 You ten-foot poet among inchlings. Fat! Begone! An inchling bristles in these pines,

 Bristles, and points their Appalachian tangs, And fears not portly Azcan nor his hoos.

}}

Interpretation

This poem can be read as a declaration of independence for American poetry. The new world's "inchling" poets^[3] are defiant towards the traditional literary canon, and particularly defiant against the unnamed, arrogant, self-appointed gatekeeper of literary tradition; they are confident instead in their own free powers of innovation in the New World.

The poem can be compared to "The Paltry Nude Starts on a Spring Voyage" on Helen Vendler's interpretation of it as an expression of confidence in new American art. On this reading Chieftain Iffucan represents the canon, making a claim to universality and a privileged access to inspiration that is challenged by the Appalachian inchlings. The richness of tradition is conceded ("Fat!...."), but it is relativized ("Your world is you").

Notes

1. ^Cook, p. 36
2. ^Buttel, p. 194. See also Librivox and the Poetry web site.{{cite web|url=http://www.poetrymagazine.org/search_author.html?query=6576 |title=Archived copy |accessdate=2007-02-23 |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080203064553/http://www.poetrymagazine.org/search_author.html?query=6576 |archivedate=2008-02-03 }}
3. ^The word "inchling" is, in fact, a neologism coined by Wallace Stevens for this poem; the poet James Merrill made use of the word in his celebrated 1974 poem "Lost in Translation", in which themes from "Bantams in Pine-Woods" play an important subtext.

References

Buttel, Robert. Wallace Stevens: The Making of Harmonium. 1967: Princeton University Press.
Vendler, Helen. On Extended Wings. 1969: Harvard University Press.
Cook, Eleanor. A Reader's Guide to Wallace Stevens. 2007: Princeton University Press.

1 : Poetry by Wallace Stevens

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