earthy anecdote, by wallace stevens

Earthy Anecdote

Every time the bucks went clattering
Over Oklahoma
A firecat bristled in the way.

Wherever they went,
They went clattering,
Until they swerved
In a swift, circular line
To the right,
because of the firecat.

Or until they swerved
in a swift, circular line
To the left,
Because of the firecat.

The bucks clattered.
The firecat went leaping,
to the right, to the left,
And
Bristled in the way.

Later, the firecat closed his bright eyes
And slept.

(from, Stevens, Collected Poetry & Prose, p.3)

****

In Earthy Anecdotes, written in 1918, WS seems to be entertaining himself with a little taste of post-modern experimentation. The poem manages to appear simple while at the same time giving us drama, action, closure, humor, a sense of rhythm, form and order, elegance, minimalism, and also conjures the mood of swiftness, suddenness and finality of death, a death undescribed, that leaves in its wake, a sense of ease.

Ronald Sukenick writes of it, "The 'clattering' of the animals ordered by confrontation with the 'firecat,' representing a given principle of order." (pp. 215-216, WSMTO) Ecologists tell us that the wolf culling the caribou is the instrument of nature’s order. Stevens recognized this in the mountain-lion (implied in 'the fire-cat') that fells the deer. There is an order within the poem; there are orderly repetitions of phrases: ‘the bucks went clattering’ occurs three times, once as ‘they went clattering;’ the ‘firecat’ and/or some form of ‘bristle’ occurs six times. ‘Swerved,’ ‘circular line,’ ‘right’ and ‘left’ all occur variably twice or thrice. The entire poem is built up of these repetitions, with only two extraneous images: ‘Oklahoma,’ at the beginning, and the image of ‘closing eyes’ and ‘sleep’ at the end. There is some inferred resonance between these two 'states,' perhaps.

It really is an incredible poem with its simplicity and elegance of line, its rhythm, humor, drama, action and closure; it imagery of the bucks - large, relatively clumsy animals with very loud hoofs - compared to the cat who bristles with the fire of its incredible bursts of energy, and its bright, predatory sight. The closure of the poem is total.

Stevens' sense of humor is subtle in this poem, and often appears like this, quite apart from his more obvious incongruities and other humorous devices, as a gentle good-natured benison, extended even towards nature's more rough play, elsewhere celebrated as 'nature, red in tooth and claw.' Stevens is not at war with nature, and his feeling towards nature will recur repeatedly throughout his poetry.

Addendum, October 26, 2004: This poem is prefigured in a letter to his mother from a vacation resort in Ephrata, Pa, dated August 4, 1895. The pertinent lines are from some sort of old drinking song that has no doubt become part of the play of teenagers. It's meant as a joke to make fun of drinking, even though they may be experimenting with it themselves: "Oh! hic - keep to the middle of the road/Oh! hic - keep to the middle of the road/Don't look to the right/Don't look to the left/But keep to the middle of the road." It's part of Stevens' genius that he is able to incorporate these kinds of archaic jingles/ limericks in the rhythms of his poetry.

Addendum, December 6, 2009: Stevens' daughter, Holly Stevens, writes about 'Earthy Anecdote' in her retrospective book on her father "Souvenirs and Prophecies": "(quoting his letter home): 'Thence I went through Nebraska and Iowa (which is a superb state) and on to Niagara Falls and to New York and home. The best thing I saw was a lightning storm on the prairie. I leaned out of the smoking-room window and watched the incessant forks darting down to the horizon. Now and then great clouds would flare and the ground would flash with yellow shadows.' The geography he traversed put him near, if not in, Oklahoma and, in his reference to 'a lightning storm,' perhaps the background for 'Earthy Anecdote' where 'Everytime the bucks went clattering/over Oklahoma/a firecat bristled in the way.' The next entry begins within a sentence, preceded by an excised page, and we cannot be sure whether it was written in Reading or after Stevens returned to New York. Certainly the territory described is Berks County, Pennsylvania, or nearby. '...the hotel there. We drove right and left and got to Strausstown at four o'clock.'" (p.148)

Yet another plausible interpretation for stevens' verse.

Comments

[kyakuchuu]

The rudeness of Tasha's remark reflects far more upon her then upon the correct or incorrect assignment of source for the song quoted above. Tasha, it might amaze you to know that not everyone is acquainted with culture of the people who were enslaved in the South before the civil war. My own ancestors, who occupied the island of England, were enslaved to the Romans for centuries; and even more recently, the Irish, to whom I am also related by family, were enslaved to English planters n America. I do not require that you, or anyone else, have a specialized knowledge of those two slaveries, nor would I take offense if you mis-cited a source regarding their songs, their culture, or the institution of their slavery.

[kyakuchuu]

Oh, and Tasha: I think the appellation of asshole reflects far more upon you than upon the person against whom you were ranting.

[gurlina]

Tasha...Stevens is a titan, and you are an asshat.

[Hartford]

"may you be blessed with the ability to ask questions where there are assumptions."

Wow, that must be the most blatant example of hypocricy since Al Sharpton and Twana Brawley...

Only a person with no character would need to use an expletive to sneer at someone.

[Harry B. Williams]

WOW!!!
There's hungry firecat on the loose in this series of comments.
Anonymity makes the firecat far more vicious than seems appropriate. The "bucks" better haul their assholes out of range of the claws and teeth.

[Roger]

Stevens would be so impressed by this level of discourse. Congratulations!

[Kasturi]

one of the really amazing things about stevens is that one can read many different books of literary criticism and commentary on his work, and find every sort of interpretation, potential relationship or inferred connection. his work is so very rich in that way. Perhaps these song lyrics were indeed sung by fleeing slaves, but I haven't come across that connection to stevens' work in my research so far - but that doesn't mean I won't find it someday. he does seem to include black african-american figures in some of his poetry, but i haven't yet made any study of that.

I made the assumption that these verses were from a drinking song because in Stevens' letter to his mother, dated August 4, 1895, from Ephrata (a vacation spot for the Stevens' family) wallace stevens writes: 'The evenings (and early mornings) are brilliantly illuminated partially by my own brilliancy and that of the mooon which is at present full - (so is every one else.) -
oh! hic - keep to the middle of the road
Oh! " " " " " " " " "
Don't look to the right
Don't look to the left
But keep to the middle of the road.
Preposterous - impossible - unimaginable. I am not one of [the] Bacchanalians however - but with love to yourself - yourself's partner and you and your partner's remaining assets I myself am as ever, yours truly, Wallace Stevens"

His mention of Bacchanalians made me think he referred to drinking. But there is more that might be said on this subject: after all, the poet, in general, draws on the rhythms and melodies of childhood songs, that are perhaps echoed in other rhymes, jingles and music that he encounters later in life and it all reinforces certain patterns and becomes a part of that inward stream of music that informs his or her poetry. So, if this is just a simple drinking song for stevens, it doesn't mean it can't have informed his poetry. his poetry, in fact, seems very much rooted in his early life in pennsylvania - childhood and youth - which is, I think, largely why I resonate with him so much, since I come from the same territory and feel the resonances with place echoing down the generations of my own people who lived in the region. also, if the words of a drinking song were used in a song by fleeing slaves, that would make sense too, since people often made their escapes by pretending to be engaged in the most ordinary of activities, and singing a common drinking song might make a good cover.

at any rate, one of the really great things about stevens is the difficulty in pinning down his work to only one meaning, only one intent, only one interpretation. if someone has succeeded in discovering what stevens was up to, i would love to read their book. so far, i've read several that claim to understand his work, and they each have their merits, without a doubt, but no one seems to be definitive.

my understanding, from my own reading, is that his work was extremely influential in terms of the innovations of twentieth century poetry. Perhaps only further down the line will we really see him clearly. In the meantime, I particularly like a book called Wallace Stevens and the Pennsylvania Keystone, which relates his work to his intense love of southeastern Pennsylvania, and makes connections to very real places and occurences in stevens' early life. to me, while there is something undeniably intellectual in stevens' poetry, there is also a very great deal that is intensely personal. perhaps this is why we will never understand his work fully and exhaustively.

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I love the poems because the authors paint with his words, as if it were a painting, a message.

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you really don't know what the poem's about, do you?

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I like the poetry, in fact I write some poems, but for disgrace all the times that I write something, have been under the liquor effect jajaja, maybe someday I become a alcoholic poet.

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[Phil Ince]

I've only just discovered Wallace Stevens (from England) and took the 'bucks', first of all to be young men in an automobile and then, simply, carts.

The reading here believes the bucks are deer?

What about 'firecat'? The only definition I could find for this was the red panda. Is firecat unquestionably the mountain lion. My instinctive reading was that it was a firehouse cat, settled in the street, which was disturbed by the clattering of carts.

These poems are fascinating for the latitude they allow for interpretation.

[kasturi]

Hi Phil,

Thanks for writing - yes, that is something I find really fascinating about stevens' work - the latitude of coherent interpretation it allows - i think the man was a genius in a way that most people - even very talented people - just aren't! It's also great fun reading all the many scholarly interpretations of his work. I haven't put up any new poems for quite a while now. Would like to get back to him soon. K

[4rx]

interesting anecdote, here is another one, I wrote this in a poem form "sometimes when I hear the wind, I can feel the call of the night, a call to turn into the being that everybody fear, a being made with darkness and the cold of the winter, the being inside me...now is free to make anything...just watch me." I hope you enjoy this.

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I admire wallace stevens so much! he is my favorite poet since I was young.

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Stevens would be so impressed by this level of discourse.
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