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Stephen Bann

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Private Tutor Issue 7 (text only)

February 1968

In his book The Necessary Angel, the American poet Wallace Stevens includes
a long poem bearing the titles 'Someone puts a pineapple together'. Les us
assume, on the grounds that this is a collection of 'Essays on Reality and the
Imagination', that the poem turns upon the relationship between the two. The
pineapple, in that case, would be the work which flowers in between.


1. On this assumption, what poets would you most readily associate with the
following: a) oranges, mulberries (and other things),  b) a pear as it might
appear in the work of Juan Gris?

2. Which of the following, in your view, is the least applicable to the case of
John Keats: a) quince,  b) fig,  c) crab-apple,  d) strawberry,  e) lychee?

3. To which French poet would you assign the fruit which you have just rejected?

4. At the end of Luis Bunuel's film Nazarin, an old woman offers a pineapple
to the hero. Compare this scene with Wallace Stevens' poem, and use your
comparison to establish as many general principles as you like on the
relationship between surrealist and symbolist uses of imagery.

Stephen Bann.

 

Tarasque Press The Trent Book Shop Trent Bridge Nottingham

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