I used “The Snow Man” by Wallace Stevens for my imitation poem. I wanted to capture the physical imagery that is present in his poems. I was curious to see if the winter imagery and its sense of isolation would parallel to a different season. Using Stevens’ original stylistic format I chose to emphasis summer and the beach to try and recreate his understanding of imagination and place.
The Surfer
You must have a mind of summer
To look on the shells and the sand
Or the ocean’s waves capped with foam,
And have been warm a while
To regard the crabs pinching with claws,
The pier weathered in the salty air
Of the summer day; and not to muse
On the misery of the wave of heat,
In the touch of grains of sand
Which is the touch of the land
full of the same heat
That is stifling in the same arid place.
The first stanza of this imitation is fantastic and emulates the poetics of Stevens well. The imagery of the poem is nice and of a much different season than Stevens; however, I feel that the blogger grasped the feeling of summer very well. There may just be one missing stanza in which ‘the surfer’ enters the poem. I believe that summer is a much less isolating and a much more ‘together’ season. That being said, a final stanza with the introduction of a character and the revelation of some deep feeling of summer connection would complete the imitative reversal of Wallace Steven’s “The Snowman.” To me, a revision of this poem would be an interesting endeavor to pursue.
I really like your imitation of this poem. Maybe because it’s so cold outside, but I get a sense of comfort more so than isolation from The Surfer. Those first two stanzas are welcoming and inspire summer vacation nostalgia in me. I also like that you stuck with some of Wallace Stevens’ vocabulary. In that way, there is a parallel between these poems because that first line, “You must have a mind of ____…” automatically makes me snap into the mindset of the next line. In your poem the next line is “To look on the shells and sand.” The s sound is pleasing and gives auditorial imagery of crashing waves, which is furthered by your mentioning of the white caps in the fourth line. Steven’s poem is different in that way because his word choices and harder sounds, like “frost” in the second line. Overall, I think you did very well recreating a sense of imagination and place similar to Stevens. Great job!