Unpacking: Earthy Anecdote (1918) by Wallace Stevens

The Back Story:

The thoughtful schoolboy packed for a weekend in Oklahoma with his raucous classmates and regarded the warnings of his mother as he tried to leave the house. The schoolboy protected his careful planning; avoiding counter plans that his mother lay bare to keep him safe. The schoolboy recognized his thoughts spinning in figure eights seeking the right responses to get past his mother and out the door. The diligent thoughts came to him and his response got him past his mother and out the door with his friends whose disinterest reignited his mother's counter-warnings; which are now a lost voice as the schoolboys make their escape.

Everytime A goes mouthing off

B bristles

Everytime A moves left it is because of B

Everytime A moves right it is because of B

B = controller; A = lesser rank

The poem is written in the midst of World War I.

Can it be that this poem engages the reader from the perspective of the imagination to not think, or to think, about the orange and purple air as the framework--that preys upon lesser imaginings dancing in the dark? How many of Wallace Stevens's friends and family were killed or negatively impacted during World War I?

Unpacking considerations:

The unpacking of Earthy Anecdote could be applied, in my opinion, to piety, political positioning, or the topic of thinking itself. My thinking races to limiting factions on freedoms of expression: over-speakers; silencers; those proud of their ability to communicate using skill sets in the interest of censorship.

"Earthy" as opposed to "Earthly": Stevens uses nature as the frame of space for his conversations with the reader. "Earthy" is within nature while "Earthly" is of nature.

"Bucks": In the midst of World War I (1917-1918), bucks might be considered as the lowest rank of soldiers [I choose to define bucks as worthy thinkers yet less regarded for the point of view Wallace takes for Earthy Anecdote].

"Bucks" further research: It might be interesting to compare the roster of soldiers who died in World War I (W.M. Haulsee, et al, Soldiers of the Great War, 3 vols. Washington, D.C.: Soldiers Record Publishing Association 1920 (see Oklahoma Periodicals): perhaps Wallace Stevens lost friends or relatives in the war.

"Clattering" is talking rapidly and noisily

"Fire-cat" with closed bright eyes could be the cessation of bullets exploding

"Fire-cat" could be a domesticated entity smothering the existence of mice or rats and the lowest ranks of humankind (power or political or domesticated controller, parent, police, society)

The pouncing dominant -- vocal combatants until the end of the war, or vice versa.

Each and every time the lessers vocalize noisily and rapidly

The domesticated controller bristles in annoyance

Makes no difference the message

Silence the voice [pounce squelch censor alienate redirect]

This poem inspires me to wonder if Wallace Stevens is immune, and is not immune, to the causality and casualty of war.

Cat-and-mouse exploitation; probing for vulnerabilities = war.

When the cat sleeps the mice can play.

 

EARTHY ANECDOTE

Every time the bucks went clattering

Over Oklahoma

A firecat bristled in the way.

Wherever they went,

They went clattering,

Until they swerved

In a swift, circular line

To the right,

Because of the firecat.

Or until they swerved

In a swift, circular line

To the left,

Because of the firecat.

The bucks clattered.

The firecat went leaping,

To the right, to the left,

And

Bristled in their way.

Later, the firecat closed his bright eyes

And slept.