Wallace Stevens

For some reason, I've been struggling with Steven's poetry. I mean, everything i read sounds very beautiful. I just struggle to piece a meaning out of it. However, I certainly appreciate what I read about Steven's literary theories in his introduction. According to Stevens, "poetry [exists] to illuminate the world's surfaces as well as its depths" and the reality depends on the human observer...the sense of an inescapable subjectivity in everything we know [demonstrates that] Stevens clearly shared a modernist ideology."

The Emperor of Ice-Cream
When I read this poem, I imagine a small town in the summertime. Everyone has their role and every role provides something beautiful for the town. However, the most important role is played by the ice cream man. I'm not sure whats going on in the second stanza, but I think its supposed to be sad.

If anyone can elaborate, that would be cool.

Sunday Morning
This poem is very beautiful and intriguing. The real meaning of the poem is clearly hit upon in the fifth and sixth stanzas, particularly in the following lines:
"Death is the mother of beauty; hence from her,
Alone shall come fulfillment to our dreams"
The speaker claims that the fact that we will not live forever gives our lives meaning. She wonders whether nothing changes in heaven and if that is the case, whats beautiful about that? I take notes in my textbook, and next to these stanzas, i simply wrote "wow."

Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird
I think this is the poem I was the most lost on. I thought it offered very pretty observations and imagery, but I wonder if the blackbird is supposed to symbolize something deeper then pretty pictures. Either way, I liked it still.