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Seminar paper from the year 2005 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: 2,0, University of Bayreuth, course: American Modernism, language: English, abstract: Wallace Stevens’ "The Man With The Blue Guitar" is one of his most famous long poems. For a better understanding of the poem, it is necessary to examine the art forms of Modernism that influenced him while composing this poem and to have a look at his poetic development. Only then, it becomes clear that this poem is typically modern and that at the same time Stevens’ own way of poetic composition cannot be compared to any other poet of Modernism. This is the aim of this essay.


Wallace Stevens already published his first poetic work during his College years at Harvard University (1897-1900). However, it took him many years until he could contribute himself fully to poetry. The first major collections of poetry, Harmonium, came out in 1923 when Stevens was 44 years old. Only in times of financial security, Stevens had a leading position in an insurance company did he reach his highest poetic creativity.