"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.
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