Just Being

The poem "Of Mere Being" by Wallace Stevens was surprisingly really good. We discussed it in class quite a while ago and then i decided that i should go back and look at it since Justin and I got into such a heated battle over whether the bird on the tree was merely being or whether it meant so much more than that.

In my opinion this poem is just about being. Maybe its because i like the sense of just being and it makes the poem much simpler than it should be, but thats what i take away from the poem, is that it is ok to just be, and that there is absolutely nothing wrong with just being the way you are. Just like nature IS, so can we all be.

In the poem Wallace paints a picture of beauty with the description that he gives of the bird and of the palm, "The palm...rises in the bronze decor," or "A gold feathered bird sings in the palm..." or "The bird's fire-fangled feathers hang down." All of these sentences give such a vivid image of such a simple thing, but thats just it, none of the things that we see as just simple are simple, they can be things of beauty and that is a message that i got out of this poem, i mean the author also says that the bird sings, without human meaning, or human feeling. Without us imposing our views onto that bird we are making it beautiful, because it just is. Looking from a structural point of view in the third stanza in line 3 the sentences are short and punctual, they hit short and fast; "The bird sings. It's feathers shine." Thats it. "The bird sings. It's feathers shine." It is in its purest form, its most beautiful form, and i for one have to learn that nature is beautiful on its own.