Contrary Theses II - Analysis

Introduction and Tone

The poem presents a quiet, observational scene that shifts between the concrete and the abstract. Its tone moves from serene and domestic—sun, dog, baby—to a searching, slightly uneasy mood as the speaker looks for a "final refuge." Moments of wonder alternate with hints of coldness and mortality, creating a subtle tension between comfort and apprehension.

Historical and Biographical Context

Wallace Stevens, writing in early 20th-century America, often explored imagination versus reality and the mind's role in shaping experience. The poem's mingling of ordinary urban detail and philosophical abstraction reflects Stevens's modernist interest in how consciousness frames the world; social details such as "negroes playing football" also mark the poem's specific time and place.

Main Themes: Perception, Transience, and the Search for Meaning

Perception versus abstraction. The speaker experiences immediate sensory details—the sun, barking dog, sleeping baby—yet repeatedly encounters an "abstract" that reduces these particulars to "contours." This theme shows how the mind both enriches and flattens lived experience.

Transience and mortality. Autumnal imagery—yellow locust leaves, "cold was chilling the wide-moving swans," leaves falling "like notes from a piano"—conveys decay and the passage of time. The search for a "final refuge" signals awareness of impermanence.

Search for aesthetic or philosophical order. Phrases like "The premiss from which all things were conclusions" and "The noble, Alexandrine verve" suggest a craving for an organizing principle or poetic consolation that can make sense of changing particulars.

Symbols and Vivid Images

Locust leaves. The repeated mention of locust leaves—first "yellow" then "the green locust"—creates a doubled or contradictory image that mirrors the poem's title, suggesting unstable perception or the coexistence of opposite states.

The abstract. Presented as both comforting structure and elusive apparition, the abstract functions as a symbol of theory or aesthetic order that appears to explain sensory life but then "was suddenly there and gone again," implying its provisional nature.

Leaves falling like notes from a piano. This synesthetic image links decay to music and art, allowing the poem to suggest that beauty and meaning can arise from transience even as they underscore loss.

Ambiguity and Open Question

The poem leaves unresolved whether the abstract is liberating or reductive. Does the "premiss" bring solace by interpreting experience, or does it turn the sun, dog, and boy into mere contours? This ambiguity invites readers to weigh the costs and benefits of seeking final explanations.

Conclusion

Contrary Theses II balances detailed, domestic observation with philosophical longing. Through autumnal imagery, recurring symbols, and a shifting tone, the poem examines how the mind constructs meaning amid change, ultimately suggesting that any organizing idea is both necessary and fleeting.