WALLACE STEVENS
897
This contains the possibilities of a complex idea, no doubt; but
in itself there is little to invite the exploration of those possibilities.
Yet nearly twenty years later in another poem called "The Pastor
Caballero"
(Transport to Summer),
Stevens took up the same idea,
and the poem became a reflection of his deepest attitudes:
The importance of a hat to its form becomes
More definite. The sweeping brim of the hat
Makes of the form Most Merciful Capitan
If the observer says so: grandiloquent
Locution of a hand in rhapsody.
Its line moves quickly with the genius
Of its improvisation until, at length
Tt
enfolds the head in a vital ambiance,
A vital linear ambiance. The flare
In the sweeping brim becomes the origin
Of a human evocation, so disclosed
That, nameless, it creates an affectionate name,
Derived from adjectives of deepest mine.
The actual form bears outwardly this grace,
An image of the mind, an inward mate,
Tall and unfretted, a figure meant to bear
I ts poisoned laurels in this poisoned wood,
High in the height that is our total height.
The formidable helmet is nothing now.
These two go well together, the sinuous brim
And the green flauntings of the hours of peace.
The bouncy observation of the first poem has gradually moved
towards this subtle statement of spiritual poise, and that Stevens is
consciously aware of the transition is strongly suggested by the "be–
comes" of the first line. The form of a deeply complex attitude or
grace is metamorphosed into the form of a particular hat, and the
images that cluster around this central symbol do a good deal towards
elucidating other poems in
Harmonium.
But first take the hat itself:
