Letters on the Centenary of ‘Harmonium’

With thanks to Hilary Menos at The Friday Poem for featuring my exchange of letters with Lisa Kelly on Wallace Stevens

24 August 2023

Dear Lisa,
I was sitting in my usual red armchair and perusing the photos and books on my shelf. Or should I say one book in particular – Harmonium by Wallace Stevens. It sits there like a decorative object with its custard yellow Faber cover. I pick it up sometimes and flick the pages, land on a poem, often feel perplexed, intrigued, a little helpless. Only when I picked it up this morning I read the contents and opening pages and noticed the book was first published in 1923. Which means this year is Harmonium’s centenary. I thought about writing something on it but don’t know where to start. I thought it might be better to reach out and have a conversation. Do you know the book or Stevens’ other work? Do you ‘get’ the poems? Any thoughts and opinions?
Paul

25 August 2023

Dear Paul,
How lovely to think of Wallace Stevens and Harmonium’s centenary. Timeliness is a wonderful thing and an excuse to go back to what we take for granted. I haven’t got Harmonium on my shelf, but I do have Wallace Stevens’ Selected Poems, which I read was compiled by the poet at the request of Faber and Faber in 1953. The cover is a rust red with his name in cobalt, not quite Yves Klein blue, and a jaded primrose for the title. I wonder if he chose the colours? It would also be interesting to see which poems out of Harmonium have made his Selected. One thing I acknowledge, and I wonder if this is true for you, is that he’s a poet whose poetry I have gone to for inspiration. In particular, ‘Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird’. Has every poet got a ‘Thirteen Ways’ poem lurking in their folder? Forgive any facetiousness, but when a poem becomes a prompt and generates other work, what does this mean? I think it’s an indication of a new way of looking at the world that is exciting. I can’t say I get this poem in its entirety, but it does something special for me that makes the hairs on the back of my neck rise. I find it strangely moving, magical and philosophical. What are your experiences with this poem?
Lisa

Read the rest of the exchange here