An Introduction to Reading Wallace Stevens as a Poet of the Human Spirit

Wallace Stevens is one of the most perplexing of the major modern poets. His poetry, as even his most ardent admirers agree, is very difficult to follow, and his personal life cuts against the grain of commonplace beliefs about the lives of modern poets. Stevens was neither a bohemian, nor a drunk, nor a professor. In fact he was a successful insurance lawyer in Connecticut, and became a vice president of Hartford Accident and Indemnity Company. Socially he was elegant and polished, but he had few close friends and rarely accepted guests in his house. His business associates claimed they weren't aware that he wrote poetry, and were surprised when late in life he began to receive national awards and honors for his poetry.