One of Those Hibiscuses of Damozel

    I randomly opened my Stevens book and ended up on the page with the poem One of Those Hibiscuses of Damozels which is apart of the Uncollected Poems section. I chose this poem and not one of the others on this page for the simple fact that I have always loved hibiscus flowers. After reading the poem however, I think that this flower may not have been the meaning desired in the poem. That fact aside, I really enjoyed this poem and the way it read like a Dr. Seuss work, with an interesting rhythm and repetition that I liked. Beyond the surface level the poem is talking about a woman and her being and what she is made up of. As we talked about in class a few times the poem is about poetry, but it is also about this damsel being made of the air and the things that she wears being made of her and also making her. I took away from the poem the idea of actually seeing this woman. Stevens seems to be questioning the actuality of seeing her and how that can change from seeing to really seeing for the first time. A line in the last stanza really solidified this for me:

  "This was not how she walked for she walked in a way And the way was more than the walk and was hard to see." 

    I feel like this line really summarizes a main feeling of Stevens, that you can see her walking, and recognize it is her; because each person walks in their own way, but it is never just walking to walk, people are always walking in a way that means a variety of other things both consciously and unconsciously navigating the world around them in a certain way, all because of how they are walking. I know that that definition is just about as confusing as the line from Stevens poem, but it is an idea that resonates with me because people have frequently commented on the way in which I walk. I tend to walk with purpose and direction, I am not someone who will idle passively on my way to somewhere. I want to get to where I am going and be there. I also tend to walk somewhat assertively and it has drawn more than a few comments from people who walk next to me. I walk like I walk and that is something which defines me as an individual.  Just as this woman's walk helps contribute to her being.

    After reading the poem I wanted to look a little more into the title, and that lead me to the poem The Blessed Damozel written by Dante Gabriel Rossetti. An interesting poem in itself about a young girl, or damozel, and what seems to be a love trial intermix with the ideas of youth and beauty and life and death. What I found more interesting was the poet, Rossetti and how he painted a picture to go along ith the poem. He seems to have done this with several poems and paintings. This again ties back into Stevens and his interest in art and the correlation from paintings to poems. 

   I again have the notion that Steven's poem One of Those Hibiscuses of Damozel could be transformed into a very interesting painting. He seems to be able to create such an amazing visual from the words he uses that a tremendous 2d visual could quite fluidly be created to go along side the poem, just as Rossetti's painting and poem flow together, to enhance the experience of the audience. 

The Blessed Damozel 

by 

Dante Gabriel Rossetti