IN THE SACRED PARK
89
mur, and a section of his essay is devoted to a detailed argument
for this wrong contention, as I see it. Obviously these words were
chosen for themselves, not only functionally. They express a certain
taste for p1'eciosity
which cannot be denied, as Blackmur tries to do,
by showing that
in
satisfying this taste they are employed master–
fully. The fact is that Stevens likes words of rare effect; moreover
he has a predilection for long, many-syllabled words like
titivating,
idiosyncratic, titillations,
etc. Now I submit that the association of
such long, even superfluously syllabic words with the verbal oddi–
ties Blackmur has catalogued, produces an effect of linguistic opu–
lence. This is fine, fancy and expensive language. It is not the
speech of a poet seeking the
mot juste,
but the right speech for the
poet Stevens, who happens to have been extremely well-to-do in
words.
Contributing to this effect of richness is a less analyzable but
equally effective factor, the way in which the words are held to–
gether in combination, the textures produced by the manner of
juxtaposition:
In that November off Tehuantapec
The night-long slopping of the sea grew still.
A mallow morning dozed upon the deck
And made one think of musky chocolate
And frail umbrellas.
When we read such a passage we feel confronted with
<II
veritable
cake of language, ornamented with the most costly and unprocur–
able trimmings, and however much we may admire the skill needed
to concoct the cake we cannot fail to take on an added pleasure in
its ingredients. Shall we suppose that Stevens did not?
The verbs in Stevens's poems should show the kind of activities
he
is
interested in describing. They turn out to be of a supremely
comfortable sort. Such verbs as
rumble, flutter, nibble, jig, jollify,
gobble, gloze, dawdle, undulate
and
mulct
are highly typical. It
will
be observed that the above verbs-which I have chosen more or
less at random-describe activities which, with one exception, in–
volve neither the infliction nor the experiencing of pain. Except for
one verb, they may all be said to be at the very opposite pole from
the compulsive or the violent. The one exception, is of course, the
