The Place of the Solitaires
The Place of the Solitaires - context Summary
Published in 1923
Published in Wallace Stevens's 1923 collection Harmonium, "The Place of the Solitaires" frames solitude as a condition of continuous motion and thought. The poem situates solitary figures amid ceaseless physical and mental undulation, aligning with Stevens's early modernist concern with imagination, perception, and the self. Its repetition and insistence on renewal reflect a wider Harmonium interest in how consciousness generates and sustains experience.
Read Complete AnalysesLet the place of the solitaires Be a place of perpetual undulation. Whether it be in mid-sea On the dark, green water-wheel, Or on the beaches, There must be no cessation Of motion, or of the noise of motion, The renewal of noise And manifold continuation; And, most, of the motion of thought And its restless iteration, In the place of the solitaires, Which is to be a place of perpetual undulation.
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