The World as Meditation

Wallace Stevens

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1952

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Form and Meter

“The World as Meditation” consists of eight three-line stanzas of varying length, as well as a three-line epigraph. One of Stevens’s most preferred forms, three-line stanzas, or tercets, offer a flexible structure. The speaker in “The World as Meditation” maintains a deliberate, contemplative pace with mostly end-stopped lines and interior punctuation for numerous pauses in the meter. Lines vary between four and six accented syllables per line, with more variation in the number of unaccented syllables, though the overall effect resembles a loose pentameter. The varying line lengths and metrical pauses create a tone between prose and poetry, one that suits the poem’s themes of waiting and uncertainty.

Alliterative Patterns

Instead of end rhyme, “The World as Meditation” relies on internal rhyme and alliteration for its structure and music. Nearly every line features at least one repeated consonant sound within the line, sometimes in complex cross or mirror patterns. For instance, in the poem’s first tercet, Line 1 echoes with “s” sounds, while Lines 2 and 3 have stronger alliterative patterns—“t” and “m” in Line 2 and “w” in Line 3. More complex arrangements come up in passages like this one from Line 7, with heavy “s” and “w” alliteration: “She has composed, so long, a self with which to welcome him.” Later, the same “w” and “s” sounds—the poet’s initials—mirror each other in a chiastic pattern in the crucial Line 16: “But was it Ulysses? Or was it only the warmth of the sun.” Recurring consonance and assonance reinforce the central theme of inevitable arrival and coordinate with multiple examples of mirroring and doubling in the poem’s imagery.

Classical Allusion

An allusion in literature mentions or indicates another work of art, historical event, or individual of significance, or any shared cultural idea the audience would be expected to recognize. Classical allusion specifically refers to plots, events, or characters from ancient Greek or Roman texts. In “The World as Mediation,” Stevens uses characters from Homer’s The Odyssey to establish both a rational and an emotional connection with the reader. Classical allusions include readers in an assumed community, bringing an immediate intimacy and connection to the story. The gesture of Classical allusion in “The World as Meditation” reinforces the inextricable relation between reason and feeling, a theme to which Stevens consistently returns. Understanding “The World as Meditation” does not require knowledge of Classical texts, but aspects of The Odyssey unmentioned in the poem, such as Penelope’s practice of unraveling at night the garment she wove during the day, provide useful additional context.