"Colloquy with a Polish Aunt" is a poem from Wallace Stevens's first book of poetry, Harmonium. It was first published in 1919.
| Colloquy with a Polish Aunt
Elle savait toutes les légendes du Paradis et tous les contes de la Pologne. Revue des Deux Mondes She How is it that my saints from Voragaine, He Old pantaloons, duenna of the spring! She Imagination is the will of things.... |
Revue des deux mondes (Journal of the Two Worlds) is a French language monthly literary and cultural affairs magazine that has been published in Paris since 1829. It was created in order to establish a cultural, economic and political bridge between France and the United States. The quotation says, "She knew all the legends of Paradise and all the stories about Poland." The phrase "from Voragine" seems to be a reference to Verazze.
Leading interpreters of Harmonium give Colloquy a wide berth. Buttel omits it from his index catalog of the collection's poems. Bates steers clear of it similarly. The poem is a contribution to one of Stevens's major themes, the relationship between imagination and reality. The poet's imaginative dream transforms the common drudge into women swathed in indigo, etc.
Famous quotes containing the words polish and/or aunt:
“You will have to polish up the stars
with Bab-o and find a new God
as the earth empties out
into the gnarled hands of the old redeemer.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“The obvious parallels between Star Wars and The Wizard of Oz have frequently been noted: in both there is the orphan hero who is raised on a farm by an aunt and uncle and yearns to escape to adventure. Obi-wan Kenobi resembles the Wizard; the loyal, plucky little robot R2D2 is Toto; C3PO is the Tin Man; and Chewbacca is the Cowardly Lion. Darth Vader replaces the Wicked Witch: this is a patriarchy rather than a matriarchy.”
—Andrew Gordon, U.S. educator, critic. “The Inescapable Family in American Science Fiction and Fantasy Films,” Journal of Popular Film and Television (Summer 1992)