1.

The Romantics’ use of musical form in poetry: Theme and

variations in Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven

Despite the frequent use of soundscape and musical metaphors, Romantic poets also

incorporated the structure of few well-known musical forms in their poetry. This tendency

toward formal experimentation was motivated by the desire to reject the formal restrictions

imposed by their predecessors, as well as the philosophical and aesthetic opinions that

considered music as one of the most Romantic artform:

Some discussions of Romanticism suggest that its essence can best be captured in music because it is the only
art that is “immaterial,” that is, it has no physical substance. Therefore, music is the best means to reach the
infinite (although many poets and painters would disagree with that statement). This debate about music’s
special quality began with theoretical writings that defined Romanticism early in 1800’s, particularly E.T.A
Hoffmann’s essays. He claimed the new music, with its emotional inclination, captured man’s essential
dilemma: the desire to be part of this world but also the wish to escape. 1

Because they were motivated by the solipsist desire to transcend reality and achieve the

absolute, some Romantic poets shared the opinion that music was the most desirable art for

its non-referential, and “immaterial,” quality. In this regards, the attitude of Romantic composers to

strive for formal liberation accentuated this understanding as their new techniques of

compositions favored expression and emotions over the systematized rules of the Baroque

and classical eras. Hence, as much as F. W. J. Schelling, Hegel, and Schopenhauer, these poets

viewed music as higher form of art for its ability to capture the essence of Romantic aesthetic

philosophy.

Among those poets, Edgar Allan Poe exhibited a strong belief in the imaginative power of

music. In the following quote, Poe demonstrates his love for both music and verse and shows

his preference for those poets who are closely attached to musical forms and expressions:

1
https://books.google.dz/books?
id=3KufWEGkhZsC&printsec=frontcover&dq=romanticism+in+music+imagination&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahU
KEwi7wan9hcvrAhUL1RoKHVxFACQ4ChDoATAAegQIAxAC#v=onepage&q=romanticism%20in
%20music%20imagination&f=false
 I am profoundly excited by music, and by some poems – those of Tennyson especially – whom, with Keats,
Shelley, Coleridge (occasionally) and a few others of like thought and expression, I regard as the sole poets.
Music is the perfection of the soul, or idea, of Poetry. The vagueness [and] exultation arouse[ed by] a sweet air
(which should be strictly indefinite & never too strongly suggestive) is precisely what we should aim at in
poetry... 2

Poe explains here that the vagueness of music is a condition that poetry should strive for.

Using his own terminology, Poe agrees here with F. W. J. Schelling, Hegel, and

Schopenhauer on their views on music as a higher form of art that gives access to the

absolute.3 In this section of my chapter, I would like to relate the concern of my interest to the

study of Edgar Allan Poe’s use of “Theme and Variation” in his poem “The Raven” and

discuss how such musical structure contributes at highlighting the poet’s interest in musical

form in his poetry .To achieve this goal, I first review how Romantic composers sought to

liberate themselves from Baroque and Classical chains through “Themes and Variations”,

follows a structural analysis of Poe’s “The Raven” where Theme and Variations” technique

of composition is successfully achieved.

a. Themes and Variations in Romantic music:

Just like poets, Romantic composers of the 19th century sought to liberate themselves from

the restrictions imposed by their predecessors. Indeed, unlike the strict formalities that

characterized classical and baroque music, musicians and composers of the 19th century broke

free from traditions, as they focused their attention on personal expression and emotions,

instead of blindly reformulating the traditional musical forms in their compositions. This

stylistic evidence can be noticed from their innovative compositional techniques found in

their “Theme and Variation “pieces. Though this form of music existed before19th century,

2
https://books.google.dz/books?id=0ajYl9fPDfMC&pg=PA429&dq=I+am+profoundly+excited+by+music,
+and+by+some+poems+edgar+allan+poe&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjQoZS-
28zrAhUFJhoKHTNaBPwQ6AEwAHoECAIQAg#v=onepage&q=I%20am%20profoundly%20excited%20by
%20music%2C%20and%20by%20some%20poems%20edgar%20allan%20poe&f=false
3
I details this subject in the first chapter of this Thesis. Go to page….
Romantic musicians explicitly focused their attention on expression and emotions, over the

strict structural symmetry that originally characterized this form of music.

In Musical Terms, Symbols and Theory: An Illustrated Dictionary, the term variation is

defined as: “a modified version of a previously stated theme” (C. Thomsett 238), While

“theme and variations” is defined as:

A musical form with multiple developmental treatment on a single theme. Variations may
include modification to melody, harmony, key, rhythm, contrapuntal accompaniment,
ornamentation, mode, and combination of changes. A theme may be performed in the style of a
different composer or musical period. (223)

Hence, a “Theme and Variations” piece originally consists of a musical idea played

repeatedly in many different ways, including consecutive changes and modifications. At the

close of the musical performance, the listener may recognize how each variation differs from

the other, yet he/she is still capable to trace back the original theme according to some

melodic or thematic resemblance.

During the Baroque era (c.1600 - c.1750), composers working on this form followed a

compositional technique which favored the implementation of a fixed melodic line. By

maintaining the same bass and melody, they ensured a systematic sense of organization

which characterized the pragmatic thinking of the time, known as the age of reason or

enlightenment:

Throughout the Baroque era, composers preferred the fured-bass, fixed-melody, and harmonic
forms of variation. The crowning achievement of Baroque keyboard music, Bach's Goldberg
Variations, contains examples of the "constant harmonic" method in its collection of 30
variations.” (Jin Kwon 1).

Because the Romantics broke free from these over-systematized rules of composition, their

Theme and Variations included elaborated melodic changes that captured their desire for

aesthetic liberation: “Rather than sectionalizing the emotions into objective experiences,

romantics frequently embraced a large gamut of feelings, often accepting the highs and lows
of emotional experience simultaneously” (Pepple 69). Accordingly, their use of Theme and

Variations displayed some formal features that made it clearly different from the Classical

and Baroque styles: “The nineteenth century produced numerous compositions that display

variation techniques, some based on such older, classical models as melodic-outline variation

and hybrid variation, others in the style of the character variation or free variation” (Jin Kwon

02).

Johannes Brahms’ “Variations on a Theme of Haydn” represents a straightforward

illustration of “Theme and Variations” in the tradition of Romanticism. In The Language of

Johannes Brahms: A Study of his Chamber Works for Strings, Joanna Pepple explains how

Brahms implemented this technique to his compositions, yet asserting his individual voice:

The variation movements of Johannes Brahms portray a continuous development of

his musical discourse…By challenging the historic aesthetics of variation technique
through a progressive release of structure, Brahms establishes a discursive, goal-
directed language within a recurring framework. He thus asserts his individual voice
within a traditional form, contributing to the genre of theme and variation with an
ongoing, teleological dialogue. (Pepple 01)

As commonly practiced in Romantic variations, Brahms’ “Variations on a Theme of Haydn”

is based on a previous musical idea. Brahms borrowed the main theme from "Chorale St.

Antoni" found in a wind ensemble previously composed by Joseph Haydn. After a complete

exposition of the theme, the first variation recaptures the two last notes of the initial theme

with a faster tempo than the original theme. The second variation represents a modal

modulation to the minor relative key. The two fingerprints observed in the first variation

continue to be played in this part of the piece, yet with variant dynamics. Following the

modal and dynamic change, the third variation represents a contrapuntal episode. A

contrapuntal musical construction means that two completely independent melodies are

played simultaneously to achieve polyphonic results. The last bars of this variation represent

a kind of a reminder, as they recall the melodic line of the original theme to preserve
continuity. The fourth variation, like the preceding one, is contrapuntal. The piece jumps

once again into the minor relative key with a slower tempo then the preceding variation. The

fifth variation is played mainly with rhythmic patterns. Short and separated notes in the

melodic line give the impression of quickness without displaying the fast tempo of the second

variation. The sixth variation returns more explicitly to the St. Antoni’s melody in the horns,

yet in a faster tempo than the original and in subdivided notes. In the same way, the eighth

and final variation of the piece introduces the original five measures of the main theme in the

bass line. This thematic re-exposition occurs after revisiting the minor mode in a rapid tempo.

Accordingly, the bass keeps repeating those five measures, while the rest of the orchestra

plays counter-melodies to that stable "ground."  The work closes with the original form of St.

Anthony Chorale, played by the entire orchestra in a triumphant fortissimo.

Unlike the systematic organizational variations that characterized Baroque and Classical

styles, one would argue that Chorale St. Antoni" retains little from the original theme along

its variations. Such attitude typically characterizes the vision of the Romantic composers in

their quest to liberate their music from the restrictions of the classists. Hence, although it

follows the traditional musical idea of continuous variations, Braham’s theme and variations

still translates freedom of expression Romantic composers and poets sought to achieve in

their artistic creations.

Theme and Variations in Poe’s “The Raven”

In order to demonstrate the poetic use of “Theme and Variation” in verse form, as well at its

imaginative connotation that makes it one of the famous Romantic form, I would like to

illustrate Edgar Allan Poe’s adaptation of this musical form in his poem “The Raven”, and
show how “Theme and Variation” form enables the poet to aesthetically represent the

solipsist tendencies of the main protagonist featured in the poem.

In The Poetic Use of Musical Forms, Calvin S. Brown describes the method used for

applying a musical Theme and Variations structure in poetry: “The usual method of the

poetic theme and variations is identical with that of the musical form: a theme is given out

simply and directly, and then followed by a series of reworking in different moods emphases,

and sometimes meters.” Thus, technically speaking, the analogy to this formal structure in

poetry would be the exposition of a theme, situation, or set of images, followed by variations

through repetitions that would allow the reader to distinguish the initial exposition from its

chronological variations in a versified formula.

Despite sharing the desire to emulate the condition of music in verses, one should further

investigate for the reasons that motivate poets to appropriate such aesthetic formula into

poetry. In “Variations on a Theme as the Crux of Creativity”, Douglas R.Hofstadter shows an

aesthetic parallel that strongly links “theme and Variations’ method of expression to the

patterns of imagination at transforming and shaping material grasped from the real world.

More precisely, Douglas R.Hofstadter tackles the way in which some patterns of thinking are

formulated by one’s mind when looking at something physical, and how those new patterns

are naturally perceived as a variation on that theme:

The brain revises the ‘raw datas’ of the images seen, making them its own. It is fundamental for the perception,
and invention of meaning, to see things that visible are not, and to dream things that never were… in looking
directly at something solid and real on a table, people can see far beyond that solidity and reality --can see an
"essence", a "core", a "theme" upon which to devise variations (Douglas 267).

Accordingly, despite illustrating an aesthetic desire to emulate the condition of music in

poetry, theme and variations would enable poets to demonstrate poetically the different

patterns through which reality is manipulated and transcended via imagination. Hence, as

much as Braham’s variations on a theme, using this form of expression in poetry would
coincide and aesthetically capture the solipsist philosophy of Romantic poets of the 19th

century.

It is important to mention that comparable Woodsworth, Keats, and other British Romantic

poets, Poe demonstrates the same interest in poetic imagination. Although influenced by

gothic elements, Poe strives to define a poetic method that would enable him to broke free

from the physical limitation of the real world. Hence, altough his aesthetic seems to

differ from British Romantics on the surface, his interest in imagination places him in

the same category of solipsist poets who sought for transcendence and elevation. In the

following quote Poe demonstrates the ability of ‘dreamers’ to transcend the rigid limitation of

reality, and metaphorically illustrates the same interest other Romantic poets share for poetic

imagination and solipsism :

They who dream by day and cognizant of many things which espace those who dream only by night. In
their grey visions they obtain glances glimpses of eternity, and thril, in awaking, to find that theyr have
been upon the verge of the great secret. In snatches, they learn something of the wisdom whichis of good,
and more of the mere knowledge which is evil. They penetrate, however rudderless or compassless, into
the vast ocean of the “light ineffable”4

Citing him as one of his literary influences, the French poet Charles Baudelaire illustrates

more explicitly Poe’s interest in imagination for its ability to broke free from the

physical limitation of the real world:

For him [Poe],imaginaiton is the queen of faculties ; but by this he understands something greater than
that which is understood by the average reader. Imaginaiton is not Fantasy ;nor it is sensibility…
Imagination is almsot a divine faculty which perceives immediately and without philosophical methods
the inner and secret relations of things, the corespondances and analogies.5

In “The Raven”, Edgar Allan Poe illustrates his thematic interest in imagination and dream

via an aesthetic formal integration of “Theme and Variation”. Following the same structural
4
https://books.google.dz/books?
id=2F5pqu2SRrUC&pg=PA468&dq=who+dream+by+day+are+cognizant+of+many+things+which+escape+th
ose+who+dream+only+by+night.&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwji1uHP5MzrAhXPxoUKHQJUAeEQ6AEwA
HoECAUQAg#v=onepage&q=who%20dream%20by%20day%20are%20cognizant%20of%20many%20things
%20which%20escape%20those%20who%20dream%20only%20by%20night.&f=false
5
https://books.google.dz/books?id=tZQ7DgAAQBAJ&pg=PA376&dq=Poe+
+imagination&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiBpbCOktDrAhUnzYUKHUecCjYQ6AEwAHoECAIQAg#v=one
page&q=Poe%20%20imagination&f=false
 organization of a “theme and variation” musical piece, the poem once considered closely,

represents repetitive patterns through which the protagonist attempts to quit his painful reality

through different imaginative scenarios.

The poem first introduces us to a half-asleep, half-awake speaker, reading books in a dready

night. As he informs us that his insomnia is the results of the loss of his lover Lenore, the

protagonist hears tapping at the door:

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,

Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore—
     While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
…
    Eagerly I wished the morrow;—vainly I had sought to borrow
    From my books surcease of sorrow—sorrow for the lost Lenore—
For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore—
             Nameless here for evermore. (Poe “The Raven”21)

Because he is half asleep, half awake, the speaker is not quite sure whether the sound he

hears is real or imaginary. After the speaker confirms that the taping was produced by a raven

hanging at his window, the remaining verses of the poem chronicles a conversation between

the bird and the main protagonist. The conversation takes the form of speculations,

wondering, and questions formulated by the speaker, followed by the raven’s constant

answer “nevermore” that closes each variation. As much as a “theme and variation” musical

piece, the verses feature a repetitive structure that flows along the poem which constitute its

different verses.

In the first stanza of the conversation, the poet reveals how the blackbird captures the

imagination, or the “fancy”, of the speaker’s mind. As the speaker’s asks for the Raven’s

name, the Raven’s answer "Nevermore" closes the stanza, before giving place to a subsequent

variation that will follow this same basic structural form:

Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,

By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore,
“Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou,” I said, “art sure no craven,
Ghastly grim and ancient Raven wandering from the Nightly shore—
Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night’s Plutonian shore!”
            Quoth the Raven “Nevermore.”

Intrigued by the raven’s ability to speak, the speaker tries to understand the Raven’s constant

answer “Nevermore.” Following the same formal structure, the upcoming verses illustrate some

speculations assumed by the speaker, followed by the raven’s unchanged answer. The

speaker actually points out that no one before has ever had a bird named "Nevermore".

Overwhelmed by incertitude and wonder, he starts to imagine a scenario that makes it

possible for a raven to talk. He actually supposes that the bird had a depressed former owner,

whose life was such a disgrace that all what he could say was "Nevermore." As much as the

previous variation, each of following stanzas closes with the raven’s answer “nevermore”,

confirming the repetitive formula used along the lines:

    For we cannot help agreeing that no living human being

    Ever yet was blessed with seeing bird above his chamber door—
Bird or beast upon the sculptured bust above his chamber door,
             With such name as “Nevermore.”
…

   
“Doubtless,” said I, “what it utters is its only stock and store
    Caught from some unhappy master whom unmerciful Disaster
    Followed fast and followed faster till his songs one burden bore—
Till the dirges of his Hope that melancholy burden bore
             Of ‘Never—nevermore’.”

I betook myself to linking

Fancy unto fancy, thinking what this ominous bird of yore – 
What this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt and ominous bird of yore
Meant in croaking "Nevermore." (Poe 424)

As the variations folow one after the other, the speaker’s solipsism becomes further evident.

If the previous lines catches the reader on the form of the repetitive variations, along with the

speaker’s imaginative poetential, the remaining variations clearly confirms the speaker’s

solipsist desire to releif his pain through different imaginative scenarios. Hence, using
 “Theme and variation” form, not only Poe works on a poetics that strives towards the

condition of musical variations, but he also adapts the adequate form of expression to

illustrate his poetic interest with the theme of imagination, dream and reality.

In the following variation, the speaker actually imagines the air filling with perfume. He

assumes that such perfume thickening the air was sent from God to help him forget Lenore.

He compares this perfume to nepenthe, a mythological drink that was supposed to comfort

grieving people. He tells himself to "quaff" (drink) this potion and forget Lenore. Just as the

speaker starts to be elevated with his imaginative mind, the raven cuts him off via his

repetitive answer "Nevermore". As much as previous stanzas, the raven’s

answer confirms the close of the variation and takes the speaker back to

his fearful reality:

the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen censer

Swung by Seraphim whose foot-falls tinkled on the tufted floor.
"Wretch," I cried, "thy God hath lent thee – by these angels he hath sent thee

Respite – respite and nepenthe, from thy memories of Lenore;

Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe and forget this lost Lenore!"
Quoth the Raven "Nevermore." (Poe 424)

Along his fancy imagination, the speaker identifies the raven as a "Prophet" and a "thing of

evil", asking him for any chance to meet his lover once again. Such attributions on the behalf

of the bird connotes the speaker’s depiction of the raven as a creature holding some super

natural powers that may enable him to release his suffering. As the protagonist asks the

prophetic bird for any possibility to meet his lover , the Bird’s answer “nevermore” closes

each of the Stanzas confirming the variations on the main theme:

“Prophet!” said I, “thing of evil!—prophet still, if bird or devil!—

Whether Tempter sent, or whether tempest tossed thee here ashore,
    Desolate yet all undaunted, on this desert land enchanted—
    On this home by Horror haunted—tell me truly, I implore—
Is there—is there balm in Gilead?—tell me—tell me, I implore!”
            Quoth the Raven “Nevermore.”

    “Prophet!” said I, “thing of evil!—prophet still, if bird or devil!

By that Heaven that bends above us—by that God we both adore—
    Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant Aidenn,
    It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels name Lenore—
Clasp a rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore.”
            Quoth the Raven “Nevermore.” (Poe 425).

the formal design of each of those stanzas presents the speaker’s wondering on any

imaginative possibility to transcend his pain, along with the constant negative answer of the

raven. Accordingly, The variations displayd here consists of the speaker’s imaginative attempt to

transcend his painful reality, followed by the raven’s answer that takes the speaker back to

his factual reality. Hence, despite working on the form, the poem meets Douglas R.Hofstadter

view on “Theme and variations” as an aesthetic formula that enables to treat diferent patterns that relates
imagination to the real world.

Beside the repetitive use of variations that calls for a musical analogy, Poe demonstrates the same

growing mood and tension that develops along musical repetitions. While the first question

answer stanza simply shows the curiosity of the speaker to know the Raven’s name, the

variations that follow gradually translates the growing tension of the speaker’s desire to meet

his lover.

In the first stanzas, these questions are quite clear and simple: ―Tell me
what thy lordly name is on the Night‘s Plutonian shore!‖ (Poe, ―The Raven‖
4). Towards the end of the poem, the growing despair of the student can be
felt: ―Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant Aidenn, / it shall
clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels name Lenore – / Clasp a rare and
radiant maiden, whom the angels name Lenore'‖ (Poe, ―The Raven‖ 6). The
answer of the raven, however, never changes. This particular construction
also affects the reader: as the questions get more and more complex, the
reader senses the growing tension and is more drawn into the actual story.
(Hemerijckx “53)
Following the same aesthetics organization used in a musical variation on a theme, the

speaker’s questions are organized chronologically from the simplest to the most complicated,

conveying the same growing mood conveyed in “Theme and Variations” musical piece.

Working on this aesthetic musical appropriation, Poe’s poem, like Brahms’ theme and

variations, recapitulates to the initial exposition depicted in the introductory scene. After his

attempts to drink poison, enter paradise and to evoke the power of evil in order to meet his

lover Leonore, the last stanza of the poem actually confirms that the protagonist’s

conversation with the raven is just the product of his imagination. As the Raven finally

disappears, turning into a statue, one would assume that the figure of the bird is the product

of the speaker’s tortured mind observing the statue referred to at the beginning of the poem:

And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting

On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;
And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming,
And the lamp-light o'er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor;
And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor
Shall be lifted – nevermore! (Poe 425)

Using the structure of Theme and Variation, the poem explores the solipsist attitudes of the

speaker and his attempt to transcend his suffering through imagination. Just like a musical

Theme and Variations, after exploring such possibilities through different variations, the

poem returns to the initial scene, as the speaker finally remains lonely in his dark and gloomy

room.
 1. Ironic Borrowing: Eliot’s Use of Romantic Forms of Music

Despite the use of musical metaphors and references, Eliot responds musically to the

Romantics by subverting some of their prevailing musical forms. As much as his handling of

nature’s sound and musical metaphors, Eliot used some established Romantic forms of music,

such like The Rhapsody, and The Nocturne to illustrate his rejection of Romantic ideals and

to depict the sordidness of modern times. In this perspective, while some Romantic poets

used musical forms to foreground imagination and solipsism, Eliot ironically uses

Romantic musical forms to show the invalidity of Romanticism in modern times.

In his poem “Nocturne”, Eliot subverts the romantic idea of the night via the use of a

romantic musical form (“The Nocturne”) in conjunction with an ironic handling of Romantic

images and metaphors .The title of the poem, “Nocturne,” refers back to a short-form musical

genre for piano that came into the Romantic era with Chopin’s ‘Nocturnes’. These musical

pieces were typically slow and dreamy, and were thematically inspired by the night, as the

term suggests:

A nocturne (night piece) is a slow, dreamy genre of piano music that came into favor
in the 1820s and 1830s. It suggests moonlight nights, romantic longing, and a certain
wistful melancholy, all evoked through slightly chromatic melodies and softly
strumming harmonies. To set a nocturnal mood, Chopin usually lays out a very
regular accompaniment, either as an arpeggio going up and down or as chords going
low-middle-high. Above this support he places a sensuous melody that plays around
and against the very square accompaniment… 6 (Wright “Listening to Music” 279)

Through the use of such Romantic musical term to title the poem, one may deduce that the

main content of its verses would connote a quiet, dreamy and sensual scene. However, Eliot’s

poem “Nocturne” does not evoke these connotations. Indeed, through different ironic

descriptions and evocations, Eliot seems to be mocking the nocturnal romantic scenes

adopted by romantic poets and composers like Chopin:

Romeo, grand sérieux, to importune 

Guitar and hat in hand, beside the gate 
With Juliet, in the usual debate 
6
 Of love, beneath a bored but courteous moon; 
The conversation failing, strikes some tune 
Banal, and out of pity for their fate 
Behind the wall I have some servant wait, 
Stab, and the lady sinks into a swoon. 
Blood looks effective on the moonlit ground-- 
The hero smiles; in my best mode oblique 
Rolls toward the moon a frenzied eye profound, 
(No need of "Love forever?"--"Love next week?") 
While female readers all in tears are drowned:-- 
"The perfect climax all true lovers seek!" ( Eliot “Complete Poems and Plays”)

The opening lines set the scene at night, with Romeo importuning Juliet “beneath a bored but

courteous moon”. The moon, personified here, is not taking part in what would be a romantic

scene. Instead, it is merely polite but bored. Romeo and Juliet, the clichéd symbol of love,

are described as having a “usual debate,” implying that such Romantic love stories are no

more valid, as they represent banal clichés illustrative of an old tired trend. This idea is

further highlighted as music, interestingly enough, is used to fill the silence when the

conversation fails: “conversation failing, strikes some tune /Banal, and out of pity for their

fate”.

The scene moves drastically to a dramatic situation that presents a “servant stab Romeo” with

a lady who “sinks into a swoon.” This dramatic murder scene, has in reality little effect and

lacks any deep meaning, besides saying that the “blood looks effective on the moonlit

ground”. It is important to mention that Chopin, in his Nocturne, is acclaimed for such

dramatic modulations. Through the use of key changes, Chopin creates tension in ‘The

Nocturne’ to expand and increase the dramatic tone and feeling of the musical piece:

Each switch of key seems to bring with it a miraculous change of color or hue… op.9,
no.01 being just one outstanding example. In those nocturnes with dramatic shifts of
 mood—op.15, nos. 1 and 2, or op.62, no.2—the contrast is dramatic but never sounds
forced or self conscious7 (Rye and Isserlis 265)

Spurred by his rejection of the Romantic cliché, Eliot imitates Chopin’s Nocturnes skillfull

rendering mood and changes in keys. Yet, the scene Eliot sketches here is meaningless as it is

just meant to convey a dramatic effect. Accordingly, Eliot is ironic about such use of the

formula since his own “Nocturne” moves from a boring conversation with banal tunes filling

in silence, towards a meaningless dramatic scene without any deep or symbolic connotation.

In fact, while Chopin’s music conveys such genuine dramatic modulations seriously, Eliot

chooses to modulate the conventions and to accentuate their romantic stereotyping. In view of

this argument, the romantic love of Romeo and Juliet, as well as the romantic nocturnes that

visibly attracted people’s feelings, cease to mean anything to the author.

Hence, it can be inferred that Eliot’s use of Romantic musical titles in his poems obviously

represents an ironic attitude that implicitly demonstrates his aesthetic rejection of Romantic

style.

While “The Nocturne” plays with the mood and dramatic changes used in Romantic music,

Eliot’s poem “Rhapsody on a Windy Night” expands the musical literary analogy to formal

and structural considerations. Indeed, in this poem, Eliot uses the rhapsody, a Romantic

musical genre, to express the sordidness and the chaos experienced in modern times. While

the form is analogous to a Romantic music, the themes and motifs displayed in the poem are

rather unromantic. Hence, it can be deduced that such musical borrowing shows Eliot’s use of

Romantic musical aesthetics to mean the irrelevance of Romantic ideals in modern times.

From a musical perspective, the Rhapsody refers to “a free style”8 (Johnson ,“A Night at the

7
8
Symphony” 51) characterized by improvisation. Such form was favored by 19th century

composers for its free formal structure and expression of powerful feelings :

The Rhapsody was one of a number of free forms of music that became increasingly popular

in the nineteenth century and in which the display of performer’s emotional intensity, and,

therefore, a revelation of personality, was as much the purpose of the musical occasion as the

making of music for its own sake. (Cooper “T.S. Eliot's Orchestra”93)

The Rhapsody can be seen as a way by which Romantic composers expressed their strong

desire for liberation against classical restrictions. Just like Romantic poets, Romantic

composers of the 19th century sought to find different strategies to achieve artistic freedom of

expression.

The earliest occurrence of the term 'Rhapsody' in the nineteenth century includes “Rhapsody

for Piano Forte” , op.3 (1802) by the Prince of Gallenburg. This piece was written in

virtuosic, improvisatory style and evocation of passion9 (Maurice “The New Groove” 3). Yet,

it was not until the second half of the 19th century that the popularity of the Rhapsody highly

increased. Eventually the term was applied to instrumental compositions other than piano

pieces, particularly in orchestral works.

Because of its improvisational quality, the Rhapsody gave composers the opportunity to

compose freely, with irregularity, by mingling different contrasting moods and rhythms.

Liszt’s “Hungarian Rhapsody N.02” is a good illustration of a Romantic Rhapsody

displaying a free play of rhythm and moods. It consists of a “Lassan” section, i.e. a slow

section, followed by a “Friska” section, i.e. a fast section. Each section modulates from a key

to another. The Lassan section moves from C sharp Major to C sharp Minor, whereas the

Friska section moves from F sharp Major to F sharp Minor. In Franz Liszt's minor and

unfamiliar piano compositions, Ming Ge describes Liszt’s “Hungarian Rhapsodies” as having

improvisational qualities such as change of tempos, abrupt rhythms, and change of keys:
9
 In the nineteen Hungarian Rhapsodies, Liszt presents so-called "Hungarian" melodies, some of
which are originally of gypsy origin. These virtuoso showpieces consist of both the slow and
pathetic Lassan, and the wild dance Friska, and in form they are free improvisations or
fantasies. Characteristic of the "Rhapsodies" are scale work, augmented intervals, abrupt
rhythms, accented weak beats, bold changes of key and tempo, and imitation of the gypsy
violin and cimbalom. Although, Bartok denigrates the Hungarian Rhapsodies as "his least
successful works," having no real ethnomusicological value, nonetheless Chopin and Liszt
were pioneers in exploring the music of their native countries. 10 (Ming 44).

Such use of improvisation and freedom makes The Rhapsody an iconic Romantic musical

form, for it expresses the liberation and expressions the Romantics sought for. Visibly,

Eliot’s use of The Rhapsody form in his poem aims to express the invalidity of Romantic

ideas in modern time. Indeed, just like a musical Rhapsody, Eliot makes “Rhapsody on a

Windy Night" free in form, with an arrangement of irregular stanza patterns. Composed of

strophes, which are irregular rhetorical units of free verse, the form of the poem is determined

by rhythmic or emotional completeness rather than by metrical patterns.

Just like a Rhapsody musical composition, the images displayed in the poem are disjointed

and interconnected to create a play of associations between different fragmented parts to

generate meaning. While such free play of associations creates harmony in Romantic

Rhapsodies, Eliot deliberately fails to conceive such harmonic completeness. Indeed, the final

thematic result evokes a rather nonromantic idea about the squalor of urban life.

Intentionally, such aesthetic fusion between Romantic rhapsody and anti-Romantic content

results in a mockery of the previous generation of Romantic poets and their aesthetics.

Formally, the fragmentation of the poem is constructed by associating a set of random and

mingled images from the speaker’s mind with some other scenes observed during his actual

walk. It is the arbitrary association between the actual scenes and the fragmented memories

of the speaker that makes the poem rhapsodic in its form: concerning the formal construction

of the rhapsody, Cooper writes, “The rhapsody as a free form of self-expression, as an

10
occasion for the display of personality, spreads a sympathetic coloring across … the

bleakness of a fallen world” (Cooper, 95).

The first stanza clearly introduces the concept of association and relationship that we may

encounter in a rhapsody piece of music. Under the effect of lunar synthesis and its

incantations, the speaker informs us that he is about to remember past memories with clear

“relations”, “divisions” and “precisions.”

Twelve o'clock. 
Along the reaches of the street 
Held in a lunar synthesis, 
Whispering lunar incantations 
Dissolve the floors of memory 
And all its clear relations, 
Its divisions and precisions, (Eliot “Rhapsody”16)

Accordingly, although scattered and divided, the memories of the speaker are about to

recall a precise relationship between them that may allow for a logical understanding. Despite

this connotation, those opening lines evoke those romantic poems where the speaker, under

the effect of nature, is able to recall past happy memories. Wordsworth’s “Lines Composed a

Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, On Revisiting the Banks of the Wye during aTour. July 13,

1798” is an example of such aesthetic choice:

Therefore let the moon 

Shine on thee in thy solitary walk; 
And let the misty mountain-winds be free 
To blow against thee: and, in after years, 
When these wild ecstasies shall be matured 
Into a sober pleasure; when thy mind 
Shall be a mansion for all lovely forms, 
Thy memory be as a dwelling-place 
For all sweet sounds and harmonies; oh! then, 
If solitude, or fear, or pain, or grief, 
Should be thy portion, with what healing thoughts 
Of tender joy wilt thou remember me, (Wordsworth: “With Pastoral and
Other Poems” 198)

Much like Eliot’s Rhapsody, those lines open on a scene that presents a solitary walker under

the moon-light. Those lines bring to mind the inspiring effect of nature as the moon and the
mountains, once matured in the mind of the speaker, construct memories of “dwelling-place /

For all sweet sounds and harmonies.” In the opening of his poem, Eliot presents us to the

same scenario, yet, in an ironic and parodical way. While the allusion of the first lines refers

to the power of the moon as able to “Dissolve the floors of memory /And all its clear

relations” , the speaker informs us that it is under the influence of the street lamp that he is up

to recall some of his past memories:

Every street lamp that I pass 

Beats like a fatalistic drum, 
And through the spaces of the dark 
Midnight shakes the memory 
As a madman shakes a dead geranium. (Eliot “Rhapsody”16)

Eliot’s evocation of the street lamp gives the Romantic image of the moon a quite obsolete

connotation. Although the speaker recalls the power of the moon (“Held in a lunar

synthesis, / Whispering lunar incantations  /Dissolve the floors of memory”) brings back his

past souvenirs, it is the crude artificial light of the street lamp that awakes in him glimpses

of flashbacks. Following this parodic style, far from evoking good memories from the past,

the recalled scenes are merely fragmented information and disjointed images with rather

negative connotations, that evoke the sordidness of modern existence. Accordingly, the

narator’s romantic night walk becomes a metaphor for a journey toward modern

fragmentation.

Eliot is able to create aesthetically rhapsodic associations by combining what the street

lamps “observes” and what the speaker recalls when he observes the same scenes. When the

speaker notices what the street lamp is observing, his mind recalls simultaneously some
images from his past via analogical associations. Such combination creates fragmentation as

the poem formally duplicates a Rhapsodic musical Romantic arrangement :

Half-past one, 
The street lamp sputtered, 
The street lamp muttered, 
The street lamp said, "Regard that woman 
Who hesitates towards you in the light of the door 
Which opens on her like a grin. 
You see the border of her dress 
Is torn and stained with sand, 
And you see the corner of her eye 
Twists like a crooked pin." (Eliot “Rhapsody”16)

In those lines, the street lamp first spotlights a woman. The street lamp asks the speaker to

“Regard that woman / Who hesitates towards you in the light of the door”(16). Throughout

the description, the lamp focuses mainly on the woman’s eye that “twists like a crooked pin.”

This particular detail brings to the observer to recall a “crowd of twisted things”:

The memory throws up high and dry 

A crowd of twisted things; 
A twisted branch upon the beach 
Eaten smooth, and polished 
As if the world gave up 
The secret of its skeleton, 
Stiff and white. 
A broken spring in a factory yard, 
Rust that clings to the form that the strength has left 
Hard and curled and ready to snap. (Eliot “Rhapsody”16-17)

The lamp’s description enables the speaker to remember a set of past scenes that

evoke “A crowd of twisted things;”. His mind focuses on the “twisted branch upon the

beach”, “as if the world gave up / The secret of its skeleton, / Stiff and white”. From the

beach, the narrator’s mind returns to the city, to evoke “broken spring in a factory yard”. The

twistedness the speaker perceives and recalls is universal. It occurs on the beach, on the

image of the broken woman, as on the factory yard. This could be interpreted as a symbolic

representation of modern brokenness in nature, people’s lives, and the city. As much as the

opening lines of the poem, the images are dissociated, yet they share some common grounds
that allow for their association. Following the same technique of free association used in the

Romantic rhapsody, the poem leads in to a theme that evokes twistedness, brokenness and

desolation:

Half-past two, 
The street lamp said, 
"Remark the cat which flattens itself in the gutter, 
Slips out its tongue 
And devours a morsel of rancid butter." 
So the hand of a child, automatic, 
Slipped out and pocketed a toy that was running along the quay. 
I could see nothing behind that child's eye. 
I have seen eyes in the street 
Trying to peer through lighted shutters, 
And a crab one afternoon in a pool, 
An old crab with barnacles on his back, 
Gripped the end of a stick which I held him. 
(Eliot “Rhapsody”17)

Just like the first lines of the poem, this second stanza opens on some observation evoked by

the street lamp. This time, the lamp observes a cat that “slips out its tongue / And devours a

morsel of rancid butter” (17). The scene of a cat devouring the left over “of rancid butter”

makes the narrator remember the “hand of a child, automatic,” pocketing a toy. The child and

the void behind his eyes make the narrator think of “eyes in the street / Trying to peer through

lighted shutters”. Once again, although the images recalled are disconnected, they evoke

something that links them back the theme of isolation. The child has “nothing” behind his

eyes, and thus fails to make a connection with both the narrator nor someone else. In the

same way, the eyes in the street, “outside,” seem to attempt to make a connection with the

people behind the “lighted shutters” of someone else’s home, or “inside”. While the images

are intentionally free and disconnected, their association generates a mood of isolation.

Duplicating a rhapsodic piece of music, the poem freely handles some images to construct

themes. In the next stanza, Eliot carries on subverting Romantic images through rhapsodic

associations. After a rather romantic representation of the moon, this image is associated to a

non-romantic connection of a woman with dust and lowliness:

Half-past three, 
 The lamp sputtered, 
The lamp muttered in the dark. 
The lamp hummed: 
"Regard the moon, 
La lune ne garde aucune rancune, 
She winks a feeble eye, 
She smiles into corners. 
She smoothes the hair of the grass. 
The moon has lost her memory.
A washed-out smallpox cracks her face, 
Her hand twists a paper rose, 
That smells of dust and old Cologne, 
She is alone 
With all the old nocturnal smells 
That cross and cross across her brain." 
The reminiscence comes 
Of sunless dry geraniums 
And dust in crevices, 
Smells of chestnuts in the streets, 
And female smells in shuttered rooms, 
And cigarettes in corridors 
And cocktail smells in bars." 
(Eliot “Rhapsody”17-18)

After depicting the moon as a figure that retains “aucune rancune”, the speaker finally

informs us that “ it has lost her memory”. Losing memory may connote that all past positive

evocations associated with moonlight have been forgotten and are irrelevant in present time.

Indeed, the personal pronoun “She” used to describe the moon is associated in those lines to

the description of a woman with “A washed-out smallpox cracks her face, / Her hand twists a

paper rose, / That smells of dust and old Cologne” (18). After this unromantic image of dust,

we are informed that the woman is alone, remembering “sunless dry geraniums / And dust in

crevices” (18). The paper rose she twists may refer to what Eliot has done with Romantic

metaphors and the Rhapsody in this poem. Accordingly, the paper rose, as a meaningless

mockery of a real rose, is a twisted romantic metaphor, just as the entire poem is a twist use

of the romantic rhapsody. The action of twisting a banal and futile paper rose is evocative of

Eliot’s own twisting of the Romantic metaphor, both literary and musical, to show that such

metaphors have lost all their meaning and substance.

Hence, through his skillful twisting of romantic metaphors, and efficient handling of image

fragmentation, Eliot shows a great ability to create links and associations between those
materials in order to parody the Romantic rhapsody. Just like a musical romantic rhapsody,

Eliot establishes free associations in his poem to create meaning. Yet, far from sustaining

their ideas, Eliot uses such romantic style to express his rejection of conventional Romantic

Aesthetics and its failure to cope with modern reality.

………………………………………………………………..

1. Theme and variations applied: musical order in Stevens’ verses

Further to his use of musical metaphors, Stevens used “theme and variations” musical form in

his poetry. Such formal and structural borrowing is visible in the chronological organization

of the materials and imagery used to convey the theme of the poem. The aesthetic result

shows Stevens’ use of the form to convey the thematic content of his poem. With regards to

Stevens’ poetics, “Theme and Variations” represents an adequate structure that enables the

poet to conceive, through formal organization, the interrelatedness of imagination and reality.

Through the exposition of a main theme, and its different variations, Stevens progressively

shows the continual transformation of reality under the influence of imagination.

In "Sea Surface full of Clouds," the speaker captures successive observations over a sea

setting, resulting in five different variations of the same visual perception. The final structure

of the whole poem, along with its organization, gives a perfect theme and variation set that

conveys the power of imagination at transforming external, perceived reality.

Because of its high visual quality and display of repetitive visual depictions, this poem has

been associated to the impressionist movement in painting. Accordingly, the variations

displayed have been interpreted as the speaker’s personal impressions about the setting.

Much like Stevens’ poem, the Impressionists aimed to capture the sensory effect of a scene,
as well as the impression objects made on the eye in a fleeting instant. In Wallace Stevens:

The Making of Harmonium, Robert Buttel associates a number of Stevens’ poems, including

"Sea Surface full of Clouds", to Stevens’ interest in painting in general, and mentions the

poem’s connection to impressionism:

In his dept to painting, Stevens seriously risked the fallacy of imitative form. Indeed, the
surface of Harmonium nearly persuades the reader that one of his aims was to abolish the
distinction between poetry and painting. Many of his titles – “ Flora Decorations for Bananas,”
“Of the Surface of Thinks,” “Domination of black,” “Sea Surface Full of Clouds”- declare
Stevens’ for still lifes, landscapes, and sea scapes and are obvious signs of his determination to
carry over to his poetry the visual impress of painting. “Sea Surface Full of Clouds” (1924) is
as close as poetry can be to a series of Impressionistic landscapes… 11 ( Buttel, 148)

Although such interpretation is coherent, more can be said about Stevens’ style in this regard.

As a matter of fact, considering Stevens’ focus on repetition offers the opportunity to further

explore the poem’s connection to musical forms such as the “theme and variations”. As

previously mentioned, the composer in “theme and variations” uses the kind of structural

repetitions that enable the listener to follow the continual modifications made on an original

theme, yet with the ability to retain the roots of the original melody in mind.

In “Sea Surface full of Clouds", Stevens’ use of recapitulations and repetitions in each

opening stanza provides the opportunity to consider “theme and variations” as an original

form used to give a final shape to the poem Thus, despite previous impressionist

interpretations, the use of repetitions, recapitulations, and variations opens the door for a

musico-literary analysis of the poem.

In this concern, the existence of “theme and variations” in painting represents a key element

to consider in our inter-disciplinary study. Whether impressionist or not, “theme and

variations” in panting represents the reworking of the same scene, with varying elements such

as the dominance of colors, moods, seasons, and atmosphere. For example, painting the same
11
natural scene under the effect of autumn, summer, winter, and spring, would result in a

variation on the same scene under the natural effect of changing seasons. In Paradoxes: The

Theme and Variations in the Visual Arts — False-color Cartography and the Grainstacks of

Claude Monet , Gary Storm explains the possible use of theme and variations in painting:

Applying a musical term to the visual arts is perfectly sensible. Both forms are compositional -
they are composed of structures, contrasts, and motifs. The theme and variations is a device
used by the artist and map maker to reveal the truth about a particular subject. In this art form
there are two types of truth: One is the truth of the theme - the unchanging nature of a thing, a
distillation of its essence from multifarious renderings. The other is the truth of the variations
the diverse versions of the theme, each unique in color, each isolating an instant in time
( storm 46).

In the same article, Gary Storm provides illustrative examples of painting that use theme and

variations concept. As explained above, theme and variations represent “multiple images,

acquired at different times, of a single region of the earth” ( Storm 46), illustrating different

variations of colors and moods: “ in Claude Monet's theme-and-variations sequence, are

colored - brown, purple, blue, gold, black - revealing the ever-changing effects of light at

different times of the day, different seasons of year” ( storm 46). Indeed, Monet’s

Grainstack series is an example of a theme and variations technique applied into painting.

The title refers primarily to a twenty-five canvas series  in which Monet repeated the same

subject to show the differing light and atmosphere at different times of the day, across

the seasons and under many types of weather.

However, the connection between theme and variations method in impressionist painting and

Stevens’ poetry lacks some structural considerations. Indeed, comparable to musical

variations, the poem displays the same repeated pattern in each part, following an arranged

structural logic. Because both literature and music are temporal arts, the comparison between

Stevens’ poem and theme and variations applied to music is more pertinent than the

comparison with painting. Because painting is not a temporal art, as it expands through

space, theme and variations can be then understood more like a concept rather than a
technique of composition. In fact, it is only through the observation of different paintings

displaying a common theme that variations can be revealed to the audience. Subsequently,

the temporality of poetry makes the adaptation of musical theme and variations not only

conceptual, but also structural and chronological. Properly speaking, the temporality of

poetry allows to adapt “theme and variations” form in different parts of the same poem,

making the variations flow chronologically along the lines, in the same way as in a musical

theme and variations piece. Simply put, while ‘theme and variations’ in painting is used as a

concept to associate thematically and stylistically a series of painting, it directly intervenes as

a technique in the formal and structural construction of poems.

In this respect, the fact that the speaker tells us that the initial scene “made one think” of

different perceptions, instead of visually observing them, highlights the transformation of the

physical setting through imagination. Accordingly, far from a mimetic representation of the

same scene at successive nights, the poem thematically suggests how the same scene can be

depicted differently through imagination. On those grounds, while variations of ” sea surface”

can be viewed like Monet’s variations, that is, as observations of the same setting on

successive mornings, they can also be interpreted as successive observations made on the

same day of November, yet under different imaginative influences. The fact that all those

perceptions occur in one single night : “The slopping of the sea grew still one night” makes

this second supposition more credible. As a matter of fact, following Stevens’ notion of

reality and imagination, one may interpret the poem as the speaker’s ability to perceive the

same setting in several different manners through imagination, rather than a mimetic process

of recording the same scene over different nights.

To achieve this aim, Stevens uses a structural pattern in the poem comparable to a theme and

variations musical piece, in order to display his manipulation and transformation of the same

physical scene, thematically conveying the power of imagination at transforming reality.

Accordingly, to analyze Stevens’ use of theme and variations musical form is to deal

thematically with his poetic notions of reality and imagination.

The poem is divided into five parts, each part containing six distinct verses. Comparable to a

musical “theme and variations”, each of those parts visualizes a different development of the

same exposed theme. Indeed, to preserve thematic continuity, each opening of the five parts

uses the following exposition: “In that November off Tehuantepec, /The slopping of the sea

grew still one night”. (Stevens TCP 98). Each opening part, or variation, reintroduces the

same exposition, a sea setting in November night, where “the slopping “ or the flow of sea

water “grew still”, but develops and modulates in in different manners.

In the first part of the poem, the opening scene is followed by the lines:

And in the morning summer hued the deck

And made one think of rosy chocolate
And gilt umbrellas. Paradisal green
Gave suavity to the perplexed machine(Stevens TCP 98-99).

The speaker conveys how his perception of the scene makes him feel positive and cheerful.

The "rosy chocolate" and "gilt umbrellas" are playful analogies connoting emotional

elevation. The color of the sea under the reflection of the light is described as a paradise

green that “Gave suavity to the perplexed machine” (Stevens TCP 99). One may assume that the

“machine” represents the working of imagination over such perceived reality. Stanza three

and four further develop this idea of imaginative transformation. In those verses, the speaker

ironically questions the origins of the beauty perceived. The last line in French connotes the

speaker’s answer to his questioning and tells the reader that it is thanks to imagination that

this beautiful perception is made possible:

Who, then, in that ambrosial latitude

Out of the light evolved the morning blooms,
Who, then, evolved the sea-blooms from the clouds
Diffusing balm in that Pacific calm?
C'etait mon enfant, mon bijou, mon ame. (Stevens TCP 99)
The same calm and elevated attitude evoked in the opening part is translated in those lines.

The speaker asks who evolved the mourning bloom into “ambrosial latitude” and who

“evolved the sea-blooms from the clouds / Diffusing balm in that Pacific calm?” (Stevens TCP

99) Following the same tone, the speaker refers to his power of imagination as his own

child, his jewelry, his soul.

The remaining four parts, i.e. variations, follow the same thematic and chronological

development. Using the same visual exposition, the speaker introduces the element of

imagination into the perceived setting, using the “machine” metaphor. This metaphor

conveys the mood of the respective variation. Following this sequence, the third and fourth

stanzas of each part introduce a set of ironical questions on the origins of the perceived

beauty, leading to the conclusion that imagination plays a crucial part in shaping reality.

Although the formal structure remains the same, each variation is distinct from the other at

the level of the mood and attitude of the speaker, leading to a perfect “theme and variations”

poem that treats the power of imagination at shaping reality.

While the first variation conveys a stable and quiet mood, the second variation transforms

the “paradise green” of the first variation into a sham-like green that “Capped summer-

seeming on the tense machine.”(Stevens TCP 99). Though the introduction of the setting

remains the same, the depiction of the ocean shifts to a sinister tableau “Of ocean, which in

sinister flatness lay..”(Stevens TCP 99). Such sinister representation can be linked to

Stevens’ tendencies to depict the chaos of external reality when deprived from any sense of

poetic imagination. The question/ answer pattern of the third and fourth stanzas of this

variation emphasizes on mortality of “mortal massives of the blooms” ( Stevens TCP 100).

The scene described by the speaker thematically insists on the temporality of the moment

experienced. Accordingly, the speaker in this variation refers to his imagination as “mon frere

du ciel, ma vie, mon or”.

The third variation presents the external surrounding as fragile and uncertain. Following the

same visual introduction, the paradise green of the first variation is described as “An

uncertain piano polished green” (Stevens TCP 100), that holds the tranced machine of

imagination. The fragility of the perception is thus evoked through images of "porcelain

chocolate," "pied umbrellas," "uncertain green," and "piano polished." (Stevens TCP 100).

At this point , the water clouds are described as “silver petals of white blooms” that make

the speaker imagination unfold like “milk within the saltiest spurge, heard” (Stevens TCP

100) This fragile description comes to a conclusion in the speaker’s affirmation that “Oh!

C'etait mon extase et mon amour.’

The fourth variation represents the pragmatic minds that reject imagination. Accordingly,

because the speaker’s mind, is at this point, over relying on factual reality to depict the

external setting, the former described green light is now presented as a too-fluent green. In

this context, the machine of imagination is suggesting malice instead of inspiration:

In that November off Tehuantepec

The night-long slopping of the sea grew still.
A mallow morning dozed upon the deck

And made one think of musky chocolate

And frail umbrellas. A too-fluent green
Suggested malice in the dry machine (Stevens TCP 101).

Because of the purely factual depiction of reality, the ocean, as well as the machine of

imagination are now presented as “dry". The "pondering" and the "thinking green" are

intentionally used to accentuate this connotation. Furthermore, while previous variations

insist on the fusion of the clouds with the sea surface, this time the speaker refers to the

clouds as simple damasks, fabric figures that were shaken off. The description, this time,

focus on the physical representation of the perception, rather than the imaginative

transformation of the mind. Following this imagery, the speaker expresses his discontentment

by referring to it as “la nonchalance divine” i.e. divine disinterest:

 Who then beheld the figures of the clouds
Like blooms secluded in the thick marine?

Like blooms? Like damasks that were shaken off

From the loosed girdles in the spangling must.
C'etait ma foi, la nonchalance divine. (Stevens TCP 101).

In this situation, it is the speaker’s faith in humanity and the creative power of man that

bring resolution. The sheer chaos referred to in lines 13 and 14 “The nakedness would rise

and suddenly turn /Salt masks of beard and mouths of bellowing,” (Stevens TCP 101) is

transformed into a human and poetic reality . The nakedness of reality becomes “the broadest

blooms, / Mile-mallows that a mallow sun cajoled.” (Stevens TCP 101).

The fifth and last variation of the poem asserts Stevens’ departure from Romantic

imagination. While the previous variation expresses Stevens’ rejection of pure rationalism,

this last variation affirms his distinct notion of imagination. The first lines of this variation

use some Romantic cliché imageries that Stevens rejects in his poetry. Although the image of

“"Chinese chocolate," has an association with the "porcelain" of section three and the "chop-

house" of section two, it stylistically appears to be used more for “its alliterative value than

for any necessary connotations” (Riddel 185). Furthermore, though the "large umbrellas,"

describe a rolling sea, it “does not have the force of diction which characterizes similar

images” 12 used in the previous variations (Riddel 185).

Thus, although the structure of the verses remains unchanged, the imagery displayed is

different. Stevens’ use of such kind of romantic style in those lines is intentionally meant to

express his rejection of Romantic aesthetics. The description of the sea and the clouds that

follows connotes the Romantics’ divorce of imagination from reality :

Of ocean, perfected in indolence.

What pistache one, ingenious and droll,
Beheld the sovereign clouds as jugglery
And the sea as turquoise-turbaned Sambo, neat
At tossing saucers-doudy-conjuring sea?
C' etait mon esprit bfttard, l'ignominie.

The sovereign clouds came clustering. The conch

12
 Of loyal conjuration trumped. The wind
Of green blooms turning crisped the motley hue

To clearing opalescence. Then the sea

And heaven rolled as one and from the two
Came fresh transfigurings of freshest blue. (Stevens 102)

In line with this concern, the ocean as an element belonging to external reality is

described as passive and indolent, as it is perfected in the speaker’s imagination. The ocean is

depicted as an observer as it “beheld sovereign clouds as jugglery”. The sovereignty of the

clouds further connotes the complete separation of imagination from reality. Because

imagination is totally independent from the real, the speaker refers to it as his “esprit bfttard,

l'ignominie.”

To find resolution, and in order to convey his poetics of imagination and reality, Stevens

transforms the chaos evoked through the "motley hue," as displayed in the last lines of this

variation into the "clearing opalescence." Thus, the imaginative faculty conjoins with the

physical to give "fresh transfigurings of fresh est blue"( Riddel 185).

Hence, it can be deduced that the striking differences in mood and imagery in the different

movements convey five different intellectual and imaginative transformations of the same

physical scene. Thus, although they share a structural similarity, each individual variation

expands its own thematic meaning. Like a musical composition, each variation can be

understood isolated from the others. The summing up of the five different variations

constructs the whole theme and variations composed by Stevens. In "Disguised

Pronounciamento : Wallace Stevens, "Sea Surface Full Of Clouds" , Joseph N. Riddel

proposes an extensive explanation of each part of of the poem, displaying how each

individual part holds meaning by itself :

Each of the poem's five sections, then, is a psychological moment in the

consciousness of an observer, the poet, at a more or less specific time and place. Yet,
November and Tehuantepec are important for what they connote, not what they
denote; hence all of Stevens' work has, in a sense, enriched this poem. The setting is
only an illusion of dramatic place, and the action, if it can be termed action, is in the
poet's mind, his imagination embellishing his perception (Riddel 179).
In line with Joseph Riddel argumentation, we notice that using different kinds of imagery in

each individual variation shows how Stevens’ notion of imagination is bound to reality. In the

following passage, the critic explains how Stevens illustrates his abstraction from imagination

via the manipulation of physical scenes in his poetry:

Stevens concretizes his abstract theory (of the imagination metamorphosing the physical into a
new reality) by projecting it as a drama of the mind and placing it in a physical setting. And by
his manipulation of the imagery, which takes its basis in the physical scene but shows the
physical in a unique perspective, through analogies and suggestive connotations, he creates the
"poem of the act of the mind."13 (Riddel 177)

Thus, using theme and variations as a structuring element, Stevens shows the inter-

relatedness of imagination with reality. The application of such structural pattern, to

illustrate different manipulations of physical scenes, represents an aesthetic evidence of

Sevens’ poetics of imagination and reality.

V. Conclusion:

The analysis conducted throughout this chapter shows that musical aesthetics, skillfully used

in the poetry of T.S Eliot and Wallace Stevens, clearly illustrate two distinct reactions

assumed by the poets toward Romantic aesthetics. If musical metaphors and sound imagery

in the poetry of Eliot and Stevens explicitly display intertextual relationships with the

Romantics’ use of the same auditory materials, those very same devices and elements of

comparison further illustrate Eliot’s and Stevens’ divergent attitudes in terms of their

aesthetic choices in their respective poetry. Eliot explicitly rejects Romantic solipsism by

exploring the cacophony of the city, the invalidity of the romantic musical agenda in modern

times, as well as the impossibility of using imagination to achieve musical harmony. Stevens’

reconciliation between imagination and reality is evident in his ability to display a possible

musical harmony out of the cacophony of factual reality. Far from the idea to escaping

reality through imagination, Stevens’ handling of musical metaphors and sound imagery

explicitly illustrates the inter-connectedness of reality and imagination inherent to his poetics.
13
These same thematic and literary elements allow us to interpret Eliot’s and Stevens’ use of

musical aesthetics from the perspective of their respective theory of poetry. Accordingly,

Eliot’s and Stevens’ use of musical forms represents an aesthetic manifestation of their poetic

ideas that illustrates their antagonism as modernist poets. Eliot expresses his total rejection of

Romanticism by parodying famous Romantic forms of music, such as the Nocturne and the

Rhapsody. Stevens uses “theme and variations” musical form in his poems as a formal

musical device that enables him to illustrate his original reformulation of imagination and its

relation with reality. Hence, far from being a random and casual use of formal devices,

Eliot’s and Stevens’ musical experimentations represent conscious aesthetic decisions aimed

to illustrate their poetic and literary tendencies as modernist poets. By comparing Eliot and

Stevens’ use of musical elements to respond to the Romantics, one gets a clear picture of

their poetics, as well as of their antagonism as modernist poets belonging to two different

trends: paleo-modernism and neo-modernism.