Doubting Religion in Wallace Stevens Sunday Morning Essay -- Poem Poe

Doubting Religion in Wallace Stevens Sunday MorningVoice is an integral bureau of Wallace Stevens Sunday Morning. The voice of the poem is not the womans, moreover that of an outside narrator who seems to give words to the feelings that the woman experiences. The dramatic situation is created during the first stanza. The woman, still in her peignoir, is taking late coffee and oranges in a sunny chair on a bright Sunday morning instead of attending church. The quiet of the scene is evident, and the holy hush provides the woman with the undefiled environment for introspection. The poetic problem arises when the woman, in her liminal state of mind, is troubled with conflicting emotions about life, death, and Christianity.The first thought that encroaches upon the womans daydreams and darkens the atmosphere is that of a solemn procession of the of a sudden to Palestine. Her interaction with the procession is interesting because it symbolizes the journey she is making in her mind and sets the tone for later phantasmal questioning in the poem.The second stanza begins with a series of rhetorical questions that express the womans inner struggle. The second question is her response to the dark encroachment of the procession, and the third question answers the previous two. The randomness of this questioning illustrates the disorganized personality of her thinking, and an answer finally surfaces when she decides that divinity must live within herself. A list of positive and negative emotions that she has experienced as a result of temper provides further explanation of the divinity she hopes she possesses within. The realization that these emotions are the measures destined for her soul ends the stanza with a feeling of hopefulness.Reli... ...ained in the seventh when Stevens depicts pre-Christian ideals such as the ancient faith of the sun as a god. Here, the blood of the turbulent, chanting men leaves them and returns to the sky in a process similar to the co mmingling human blood with the blood of promised land in the third stanza A few other philosophical observations result from this stanza, including the suggestion that Gods are humanly created and the idea that men are a part of nature.The last stanza of Sunday Morning reiterates the feeling of solitude that the woman experiences in the first stanza, but the tone has changed. The image of silent water again dominates the scene, and her religious questioning continues. She is still suspended in a disorganized state of mind, but there is a feeling of acceptance of the ambiguity of life that is not replaced with the peace of mind and hopes of happiness.