Self-dependence in “Tea at the Palaz of Hoon”

In “Tea at the Palaz of Hoon,” Wallace Stevens uses the self and the mind as a point of stability in a world teeming with questions and uncertainty. The chaos of the post-war environment is left behind in favor of an exotic, Eastern setting, as is suggested in the title. As the poem begins, the speaker, clad in purple, descends through what is called “the loneliest air” and concludes that in spite of it all, “not less was I myself” (3). This theme of remaining intact and at peace as an individual despite a dark and cynical world spans throughout the poem. It is also notable that the “day” Stevens mentions in this stanza is characterized as a “western day,” referencing the ruin of Europe after the first World War.

The second and third stanzas present an interesting, internal structure of question and answer with the speaker. The speaker asks, “What was the ointment sprinkled on my beard?” in the second stanza and in the third answers, “Out of my mind the golden ointment rained.” This is seen again as he asks “What was the sea whose tide swept through me there?” and then answers himself, “I was myself the compass of that sea.” Here the speaker observes the state of the world and makes an effort to be master of it. Rather than feeling overcome by the tides sweeping himself out to sea, the speaker maintains he is himself the ruler of that sea.

This notion is expounded upon within the final stanza:

I was the world in which I walked, and what I saw
Or heard or felt came not but from myself;
And there I found myself more truly and more strange.

Again, the speaker is shown as feeling in power and control, rather than the sense of helplessness sometimes expressed in Modern poetry. Stevens is coming from a place of strength and inspiration, rather than a sense of defeat or detachment.

I think it is interesting that the world Stevens sees himself so in touch with isn’t the Western world. It is exotic and removed and almost mystical. So perhaps what’s being hinted at is that what can be felt at the “Palaz of Hoon” cannot be attained in the fallout of Western Europe at the time. Perhaps one is only really in control of the realm of one’s own mind. For Stevens, this power of imagination seems to be enough, and the vision of it he presents is certainly appealing.