월러스 스티븐스의 시작(詩作): 왜 “필요한 천사”인가?

Wallace Stevens’ Poetry Writing: Why Should It Be “the Necessary Angel”?

There have been many critical considerations of the correlation between reality and imagination in Wallace Stevens’ poetics. This essay suggests that the important thing is not whether the poet has reached a reality through his poetic imagination but why the poet has to emphasize the necessity of poetic imagination through his poems and other writings, especially in his collection of essays titled The Necessary Angel. It examines why poetry writing and the use of analogies through imagination and abstraction were regarded as essential to Stevens by taking examples of his frequent paradoxical statements from his essays and poems. Stevens’ enjoyment of imagination and abstraction could replace his religion, and he felt more inclined to nature than to the religion he had been forced to learn by his mother. Poetry writing was just like his love of broad nature. Though cherishing the power of imagination or abstraction, Stevens warns against fancy which is not based on reality. He also underlines the private recognitions and perceptions that individuals get in specific situations rather than general historical facts. Stevens’ poetic experience becomes unique and imperative in overcoming harsh reality.