Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Wallace Stevens? "How to Live. What to Do" is a deeply evocative poem that meditates on humanity’s quest for meaning and transcendence in a world that remains both majestic and indifferent. The poem’s title, framed as a universal existential question, introduces its overarching concern with the search for purpose and orientation in a landscape that is both sublime and impure. Stevens crafts this exploration through his vivid imagery, interplay of contrasts, and contemplative tone, allowing the physical environment to mirror the metaphysical struggles of the human condition.

The poem begins with a scene of stark natural beauty: "Last evening the moon rose above this rock / Impure upon a world unpurged." The moon, a symbol of constancy and illumination, contrasts with the "impure" rock and the "world unpurged." This juxtaposition immediately establishes the duality that permeates the poem—a tension between aspiration and imperfection, between the ideal and the real. The rock’s impurity does not diminish its grandeur; instead, it highlights the raw, unrefined nature of the world the man and his companion inhabit. This duality frames their journey as one of confronting the sublime within the flawed, a central theme of Stevens’ work.

The man and his companion are introduced as travelers, pausing in their ascent "before the heroic height." Their journey is not just a physical one but also symbolic of humanity’s broader quest for higher understanding. The "heroic height" represents an ideal, an aspirational peak that they strive toward but have not yet reached. This pause before the pinnacle captures a moment of reflection and perhaps recognition of their own limitations in the face of something vast and overpowering.

Stevens uses the cold wind to emphasize the grandeur and indifference of the natural world. The wind "fell upon them / In many majesties of sound," a phrase that conveys both the awe-inspiring beauty and the impersonal force of nature. This imagery underscores the theme of transcendence through confrontation with the sublime. The travelers have left behind "the flame-freaked sun"—a chaotic, impassioned symbol of the world they are fleeing—to seek "a sun of fuller fire," something purer and more profound. However, instead of finding a celestial source of clarity, they encounter "this tufted rock / Massively rising high and bare." The rock’s starkness and simplicity stand in contrast to their expectations, suggesting that transcendence may not be found in the dramatic or the ethereal but in the raw, unadorned realities of the world.

The ridges of the rock are described as "thrown / Like giant arms among the clouds," an image that evokes both strength and embrace. This duality—of the rock as both monumental and potentially welcoming—parallels the human confrontation with the sublime: it is at once overwhelming and deeply resonant. Yet, there is "neither voice nor crested image, / No chorister, nor priest." The absence of divine or human intermediaries emphasizes the stark directness of the encounter. The travelers are alone with the natural world, stripped of cultural or religious frameworks that might mediate their experience. This solitude underscores the personal and existential nature of their quest.

The rock and its environment are both austere and majestic, offering no easy answers or comforting reassurances. Yet, the wind, with its "heroic sound / Joyous and jubilant and sure," introduces a note of affirmation. The sound, described as "away from the muck of the land / That they had left," represents a form of transcendence—not through escape but through a heightened perception of the world’s raw beauty and power. The "heroic sound" embodies the joy of existence itself, an affirmation that persists despite, or perhaps because of, the impure and unpurged nature of the world.

Structurally, the poem’s free verse mirrors the natural flow of thought and perception, allowing Stevens to explore his themes without the constraints of rigid form. The lack of a traditional rhyme scheme or meter reinforces the rawness and unpredictability of the world the poem describes. At the same time, the repetition of words like "heroic," "rock," and "sound" creates a rhythm that echoes the travelers’ ascent and pause, mirroring the cycles of striving and reflection inherent in their journey.

"How to Live. What to Do" ultimately offers no prescriptive answers to the questions posed in its title. Instead, it suggests that meaning may be found not in reaching a final destination or achieving a purified state but in the act of confronting the world as it is—impure, unpurged, yet undeniably majestic. The poem invites readers to embrace the dualities of existence, finding joy and transcendence in the interplay of imperfection and grandeur, silence and sound, stillness and movement. In this way, Stevens transforms a moment of pause before a "heroic height" into a profound meditation on the human condition and the enduring quest for purpose.

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