tea
when the elephant's-ear in the park
shrivelled in frost,
and the leaves on the paths
ran like rats,
your lamp-light fell
on shining pillows,
of sea-shades and sky-shades,
like umbrellas in Java.
* * * * *
Who is Stevens visiting here for 'tea?' Escaping the ominous portents of the onset of winter, he finds a safe haven of penultimate intimacy where the charm and comfort of 'lamp-light' effortlessly falls on 'shining pillows' whose very shining promises - what? dreams, sexual pleasures or simply the colors and terrain of the imagination - 'sea-shades and sky-shades,/like umbrellas in Java.' The fact that we are interested in 'pillows' implies that this haven is for the head, so the imagination is favored as a referent, and the others are simply associate experiences that may enrich or even merely echo the pre-eminent Imagination for Stevens.
The word-music is present here too. 'Umbrellas' has a wonderfully feminine sound to it, recollective of floral forms, such an 'umbels,' as well as being resonant with 'umbra' (shade, that poetically important phenomenon for stevens), both joined together here with the ever-feminine 'ella.' The word 'Java' too, exotic in its connotations, is, simply as a sound, both beautiful and satisfying for English-speakers. We wish we had something more proprietary for this sound to mean, and so we've appropriated it for our 'java script,' and we use it to refer to our pedestrian and daily coffee, which also promises us oh-so-much more. 'Java' sounds like 'Jazz,' another intriguing word full of the promise of secrets and revelations, but the final syllable, 'va' carries us away to new horizons.
i've indulged a life-long amateur interest in sounds - obviously or at least not surprisingly i write poetry too - and I hypothesize that the sound 'ja' or anything with the 'j' sound relates to the jaw and to eating. 'Va' as a sanskrit syllable is always related to movement, travelling, and is the root of our english words 'vehicle, vacate, vacation, vacant, etc.' 'Umbrellas in Java' is so soft as a sound-phrase, so full of movement, with its connotations of soft yet powerful southerly trade-winds, yet it's all about an inner movement, a movement towards the Imagination and an intimacy to be found within ourselves.
Remarkable things here. I am very glad to see your post. Thanks so much and I'm taking a look ahead to contact you. Will you kindly drop me a mail?
Posted by: Free Microsoft Points Generator | November 13, 2013 at 11:16 PM
We stumbled over here different website and thought I may as well check things out. I like what I see so now i am following you. Look forward to going over your web page yet again.
Posted by: www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgpaZtGENaA | November 14, 2013 at 12:24 AM
I love your blog.. very nice colors & theme. Did you make this website yourself or did you hire someone to do it for you? Plz reply as I'm looking to create my own blog and would like to find out where u got this from. appreciate it
Posted by: www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgpaZtGENaA | November 14, 2013 at 11:30 PM
Hello! I simply want to give you a big thumbs up for the excellent information you have got here on this post. I will be coming back to your web site for more soon.
Posted by: www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgpaZtGENaA | November 16, 2013 at 12:52 PM
I visited many web sites but the audio quality for audio songs existing at this web page is in fact wonderful.
Posted by: refrigerator repair tampa fl | November 18, 2013 at 02:37 AM
Wow, this post is fastidious, my sister is analyzing such things, thus I am going to convey her.
Posted by: liposcution Eugene | November 20, 2013 at 12:30 PM
I'm very happy to uncover this web site. I wanted to thank you for your time for this fantastic read!! I definitely appreciated every little bit of it and I have you saved as a favorite to check out new information in your blog.
Posted by: Ricardo | November 22, 2013 at 07:34 AM
Ridiculous quest there. What happened after? Take care!
Posted by: Eugene Micordermabrasion | November 22, 2013 at 09:21 PM
Simply wish to say your article is as astonishing. The clearness in your post is just great and i can assume you are an expert on this subject. Fine with your permission let me to grab your RSS feed to keep updated with forthcoming post. Thanks a million and please keep up the enjoyable work.
Posted by: Appliance repair Tampa websites | November 23, 2013 at 10:13 PM
Hello everyone, it's my first go to see at this website, and post is really fruitful for me, keep up posting these articles.
Posted by: Brad | November 24, 2013 at 01:27 AM
Howdy! Someone in my Facebook group shared this site with us so I came to take a look. I'm definitely loving the information. I'm bookmarking and will be tweeting this to my followers! Exceptional blog and wonderful design and style.
Posted by: Télécharger GTA 5 sur PC Gratuitement | November 24, 2013 at 06:36 AM
Greetings! I know this is kinda off topic but I was wondering which blog platform are you using for this site? I'm getting fed up of Wordpress because I've had problems with hackers and I'm looking at alternatives for another platform. I would be awesome if you could point me in the direction of a good platform.
Posted by: Taren | November 24, 2013 at 08:53 AM
I have been browsing online more than 3 hours today, yet I never found any interesting article like yours. It is pretty worth enough for me. Personally, if all webmasters and bloggers made good content as you did, the web will be much more useful than ever before.
Posted by: dryer repair tampa | November 24, 2013 at 11:21 AM
If some one wants to be updated with most up-to-date technologies then he must be pay a quick visit this website and be up to date all the time.
Posted by: WinRar Password Remover | November 24, 2013 at 12:07 PM
Excellent pieces. Keep posting such kind of information on your blog. Im really impressed by it. Hi there, You have performed a fantastic job. I'll definitely digg it and individually recommend to my friends. I'm confident they will be benefited from this website.
Posted by: freezer repair tampa | November 24, 2013 at 06:17 PM
Hey! This is my 1st comment here so I just wanted to give a quick shout out and tell you I genuinely enjoy reading through your posts. Can you recommend any other blogs/websites/forums that cover the same subjects? Thanks a lot!
Posted by: Candy Crush Saga Hack | November 26, 2013 at 10:38 AM