Description
Book SynopsisOriginally published in 1968. In The Dome and the Rock: Structure in the Poetry of Wallace Stevens, James Baird traces the process of Wallace Steven's Grand Poem and the total structure that it accomplished in language. In the words of Professor Baird, The full art of Stevens is organized with architectural precision. The shape of the mind becomes a building, the framework of which is founded in a willed symmetry of design. In The Dome and the Rock, James Baird exposes the capacity of Wallace Stevens to design his poetry in a manner similar to an architect, and he reveals the craftsmanship of [Wallace's] acts as builder.
Table of ContentsIntroduction: The Grand Poem
Part I. The Shaper
Chapter 1. Architecture
Chapter 2. Adjacent Structures: English and French Antecedents
Chapter 3. Stevens in the American Grain
Chapter 4. The Passion for Design
Chapter 5. Poetic Geometry: The Arc
Part II. The Elements of Sight
Chapter 6. The Sun
Chapter 7. Light
Chapter 8. The Eye
Part III. The Crafting of the Dome
Chapter 9. The Setting
Chapter 10. Wing and Claw: Symbols of the Imagination
Chapter 11. The Painter: Encounters of the Eye
Chapter 12. The Comedian: Masques and Festivals
Chapter 13. The Mythological Canon: Ritual Presences
Chapter 14. American Place: Of Land-Made Men
Chapter 15. Society: Transitions in the American Community
Chapter 16. Existence: The Difficulty of Being
Chapter 17. The Hero: Aspects of the Supreme Fiction
Chapter 18. In the Northern Quarter: The Descent to the Rock
Chapter 19. The Chapel of Wind and Weather: The Poet as Priest
Part IV. Afterword
Chapter 20. The Poet in His Time
Title Index
Subject Index
