Wallace Stevens’s Earthy Anecdote Analysis
In “Earthy Anecdote”, Stevens presents his readership with an essential element of human existence, change. “Every time the bucks went clattering / Over Oklahoma / A firecat bristled in the way”. Stevens equates the relationship of the clattering bucks over Oklahoma, being opposed by a firecat, to reveal that change is always an obstacle that we must confront head on.
Wherever they went,
They went clattering,
Until they swerved
In a swift, circular line
To the right,
Because of the firecat.
Stevens portrays how we go “clattering” along with our lives until we are skewed by change, the firecat represents change. We are “swerved in a swift circular line to the right” representing an aspect of human nature that we try ways to change things and so often we find ourselves returning to what we once changed from. Respectively, the “circular line to the left”, in the following stanza, is simply a different form of change yet we still return to the same starting point.
The bucks clattered.
The firecat went leaping,
To the right, to the left,
And
Bristled in the way.
In the fourth stanza Stevens reiterates the previous two. We go clattering about our lives and change always comes “leaping” in. Furthermore, Stevens says that change will still follow us whether we go left or right, “The firecat went leaping / To the right, to the left”. The final line depicts the restfulness we find at the end of the day when all the change is over and have finally re-settled. “Later, the firecat closed his bright eyes / And slept” The act of sleeping by the firecat reflects upon the previous point of how often we find ourselves returning to what we once changed from. Sleep, along with change, happens in cycles.
The vivid imagery and sound values that Stevens uses helps us to really grasp the poem and its meaning. The three syllable word “clattering” supports a visual image of the bucks’ hooves trotting across the plains of Oklahoma. Likewise, “firecat” rolls off the tongue with a certain quickness reflecting the speed of not only a wild cat, but change itself. In the fourth stanza when “The firecat went leaping / To the right, to the left”, we see a vigorous image of the firecat’s agility in full force slashing back and forth hounding the bucks that are clattering across the plains of Oklahoma; just as we can be hounded by change. The “bright eyes” of the firecat is another image that brings the poem further to life. Stevens uses these images about the firecat throughout the poem and makes them a focal point, reflecting on the big role changes plays in out lives.
The other focal point in the poem are the bucks “clattering over Oklahoma”, the bucks are people who must confront change, the firecat. Stevens allows us to focus on this by use of repetition. Use of the word “they” is found throughout the poem in reference to the bucks. Either, “they went” or, “they swerved”, the bucks are always on the move responding to the constant change that occurs. “The circle must be abandoned as a faulty principle of return; we must abandon our tendency to organize everything into a sphere. All thing return on the straight and narrow, by way of a straight and labyrinthine line” (Question of Belief, 68)
When looking at the title “Earthy Anecdote” we can understand Stevens’s purpose. Earthy, relating to the Earth, we all belong to the Earth and there is a certain universality about that; we all must go through change no matter who you are or where you live under the sun. Anecdote, a humorous incident, echoes how often we find ourselves returning to what we once changed from. This is humorous because during the time of change we feel it’s so vital to do so, and then upon reflection, we sometimes see that what we once had was best after all.
1. Jarraway, David R. Wallace Stevens and the Question of Belief. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1993.
2. Stevens, Wallace. Collected Poetry and Prose. New York, N.Y.: Literary Classics of the United States, Inc, 1997.
