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        Wallace Stevens

        nationality

        American

        gender

        Male

        standing

        Major

        forms

        Poet

        date of birth

        October 02, 1979

        place of birth

        Reading, Pennsylvania

        date of death

        August 02, 1955

        place of death

        Hartford, Connecticut

        place of burial

        Cedar Hill Cemetery, Hartford, Connecticut

        Rip's Impressions

        The most esoteric American poet since Emily Dickinson, Stevens infuses his work with symbolism of eastern religion, nature, and the mind. An insurance executive in Hartford his whole life, he carefully chose every word to create just the right emotional response he was looking for in his readers. Though not easily understood, he has proven a favorite of every generation of poets which have followed him.

        literary tidbits

        Of Mere Being

        The palm at the end of the mind,
        Beyond the last thought, rises
        In the Bronze Decor,

        A gold-feathered bird
        Sings in the palm, without human meaning,
        Without human feeling, a foreign song.

        You know then that it is not the reason
        That makes us happy or unhappy.
        The bird sings. Its feathers shine.

        The palm stands on the edge of space.
        The wind moves slowly in the branches.
        The bird's fire-fangled feathers dangle down.

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