There it was, word for word,
The poem that took the place of a mountain.
He breathed its oxygen,
Even when the book lay turned in the dust of his table.
It reminded him how he had needed
A place to go to in his own direction,
How he had recomposed the pines,
Shifted the rocks and picked his way among clouds,
For the outlook that would be right,
Where he would be complete in an unexplained completion:
The exact rock where his inexactness
Would discover, at last, the view toward which they had edged,
Where he could lie and, gazing down at the sea,
Recognize his unique and solitary home.
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Analysis
The Poem That Took The Place Of A Mountain: analysis
Introduction
This short poem describes a man and a poem he knows word for word. The poem has "took the place of a mountain" for him. It is a place he can return to, even when the book is closed and gathering dust.
The poem remembers how the man had shaped that place. He moved pines and rocks, as if rearranging a landscape, to find the right view. At its end he looks down at the sea and recognizes his home. The poem can be read as a poem about what poems do for those who make and keep them.
Summary
The first couplet points to the poem, there "word for word". It is the poem that took the place of a mountain.
In the second couplet the man breathes the poem's oxygen. He does so even when the book lies turned in the dust on his table.
The third couplet says the poem reminded him of a need. He had needed a place to go to in his own direction.
The fourth couplet recalls what he did to make that place. He had recomposed the pines. He had shifted the rocks and picked his way among the clouds.
In the fifth couplet the purpose appears. He was looking for the right outlook. There he would be complete, in a completion that needed no explaining.
The sixth couplet names that place as an exact rock. There his own inexactness would at last discover the view toward which they had edged.
The last couplet completes the long sentence. On that rock he could lie and gaze down at the sea. There he would recognize his unique and solitary home.
Themes and meaning
The central idea is that a poem can stand in for the world. The poem "took the place of a mountain". It gives the man air to breathe, as a mountain would. It also gives him a height from which to see. The poem is not a picture of a place but a place in itself.
A second theme is making as rearranging. The man "recomposed the pines" and "Shifted the rocks". These are the acts of a painter or a poet, not a climber. The real landscape is changed to make the right view possible. The poem suggests that art does not simply copy what is there.
The poem is also about finding the right place to stand. The man seeks "the outlook that would be right". The search is personal, "in his own direction". It ends in a completion that is "unexplained". The poem does not say what the completion is, only that it is felt.
Exactness and inexactness meet in line 11. An inexact person and process arrive at "The exact rock". The view is reached by edging toward it, not by plan.
The last theme is home and solitude. The man recognizes "his unique and solitary home". This can be read as contentment, a place that belongs only to him. One reader hears loneliness in the word solitary. Both readings are open in the text.
Tone
The tone is calm and reflective throughout. The opening "There it was" sounds like quiet recognition. The man returns to the poem as to something long known.
The middle couplets carry a sense of patient labor. Words like "recomposed" and "picked his way" suggest care and slow effort. The man does not conquer the landscape but works his way through it.
The ending turns toward fulfilment. The phrase "at last" marks arrival after a long search. Gazing "down at the sea" gives a feeling of peace and wide space. The word "solitary" adds a faint note of aloneness, which keeps the close from being simply triumphant.
Form and structure
The poem has 14 lines in seven unrhymed couplets. Fourteen is a sonnet's length, though the poem uses neither sonnet rhyme nor sonnet metre. It is free verse.
The lines run from six to fourteen syllables. A shorter line is often followed by a longer one, which gives each couplet a stretching motion. From line 5 to the end the poem is one long sentence. Its clauses climb, like the path the man takes toward his view.
Poetic devices
Idiom line 1
There it was, word for word The phrase stresses exact, complete knowledge of the poem. It opens the poem with a quiet sense of recognition.
Metaphor line 3
He breathed its oxygen The poem is treated as a mountain with air. It sustains the man the way thin, clear air would on a summit.
Imagery line 4
the book lay turned in the dust of his table The neglected book contrasts with the living poem. The poem lasts in the mind after the object is put away.
Metaphor line 7
How he had recomposed the pines Composing is the language of art. The landscape is treated as material the maker can arrange.
Imagery line 8
picked his way among clouds The man moves carefully at a great height. The phrase blends climbing with the work of imagination.
Polyptoton line 10
complete in an unexplained completion Two forms of the same word are set side by side. The repetition stresses a wholeness that cannot be put into words.
Paradox line 11
The exact rock where his inexactness Exact and inexact sit in the same line. An imperfect search arrives at a precise place.
Imagery line 13
gazing down at the sea The view from the height opens out to the sea. The poem ends on a wide, still image.
Words worth knowing
recomposed
Arranged again. It carries the sense of composing a painting or a piece of writing.
outlook
A place with a view, and also a way of seeing things. Both senses are active here.
edged
Moved slowly and gradually toward something.
turned
Probably lying turned over or put aside. The exact sense is not fixed by the text.
What readers have said
This reader, not a native English speaker, has never fully understood the poem, yet its lines have stayed in mind for years. Wilamu, 2005
This reader calls the poem an ars poetica, in which the poem replaces the mountain by giving back the vision that first prompted it. James M. Lawther, 2005
This reader thinks the inward reading clashes with Stevens's aim of seeing things as they are. The reader also finds solitary a lonely word. juniper, 2005
This reader believes Stevens had the painter Cezanne in mind and sees the poem as a late homage. Kevin Brady, 2008
This reader warns against fitting a poem to a poet's usual style and leaves its purpose open. Andrew, 2010
I was reading this poem for the first time in 1994 on a trip in Africa. I never understand it completely but after all these years the lines are still in my head. There is something inside this poem but I can not explain what it is....? I’m not a first English speaker and not a real poetry reader. Maybe that will explain it. Any way Thanks
James M. LawtherUnited States
Clearly this is a poem about writing a poem, what has been called Ars Poetica. The poet is aware of a mountain, seeing it or hearing of it, perhaps, and he forms an image from which he writes a poem in his own way of writing,ie., 'his voice.' Hereafter, the poem shows him not the actual mountain, but the perception in his mind that drove him to write the poem. It replaces the mountain in bringing him this vision. He…
Read the whole comment
Clearly this is a poem about writing a poem, what has been called Ars Poetica. The poet is aware of a mountain, seeing it or hearing of it, perhaps, and he forms an image from which he writes a poem in his own way of writing,ie., 'his voice.' Hereafter, the poem shows him not the actual mountain, but the perception in his mind that drove him to write the poem. It replaces the mountain in bringing him this vision. He shifted the vision aound in his mind a bit from his original perception to make it right as a poem, and to make the vision he had perfect. Maybe he even introducing false 'facts' in the process. Now the poem itself exists both in his mind and in a book. He need not see the poem any more, it, like the mountain, points to the same image in his mind. Perhaps the poem he wrote is this poem, we don't know. Having written it, he has found his voice and he is in this sense, complete. Doesn't the poem itself, once analyzed, either like this, or however, seem exactly right and beautiful?
juniperUnited States
But Stevens hates subjective thought! He wrote (and his goal in life was ) to see without bias, to be able to see things as they really were. if he was a Romantic writer this would be in character, but being a modernist this does not seem like him. And isn't "solitary" a lonely word with a negative connotation?
Kevin BradyUnited States
It's highly likely Stevens was thinking of Cezanne in this poem. It's important to note that Stevens named Cezanne as one of his favorite painters, and a key artistic forebear. It's a late homage (like "To an Old Philosopher in Rome") that expressed his affinity & gratitude to his lifelong teacher & influence.
AndrewUnited States
Trying to constrain a poet's writings into a fit or style is very dangerous. Granted, poets do often write in congruent styles with similiar structures and ideas, but who knows, maybe he just sat down and in pure bliss of poetry, wrote this one. Maybe he wrote this poem as an expression of what poets should convey in their work or maybe he wrote it as an expression of one his own works. Until we ask him, we may never know.
I was reading this poem for the first time in 1994 on a trip in Africa. I never understand it completely but after all these years the lines are still in my head. There is something inside this poem but I can not explain what it is....? I’m not a first English speaker and not a real poetry reader. Maybe that will explain it. Any way Thanks
Clearly this is a poem about writing a poem, what has been called Ars Poetica. The poet is aware of a mountain, seeing it or hearing of it, perhaps, and he forms an image from which he writes a poem in his own way of writing,ie., 'his voice.' Hereafter, the poem shows him not the actual mountain, but the perception in his mind that drove him to write the poem. It replaces the mountain in bringing him this vision. He…
Read the whole commentClearly this is a poem about writing a poem, what has been called Ars Poetica. The poet is aware of a mountain, seeing it or hearing of it, perhaps, and he forms an image from which he writes a poem in his own way of writing,ie., 'his voice.' Hereafter, the poem shows him not the actual mountain, but the perception in his mind that drove him to write the poem. It replaces the mountain in bringing him this vision. He shifted the vision aound in his mind a bit from his original perception to make it right as a poem, and to make the vision he had perfect. Maybe he even introducing false 'facts' in the process. Now the poem itself exists both in his mind and in a book. He need not see the poem any more, it, like the mountain, points to the same image in his mind. Perhaps the poem he wrote is this poem, we don't know. Having written it, he has found his voice and he is in this sense, complete. Doesn't the poem itself, once analyzed, either like this, or however, seem exactly right and beautiful?
But Stevens hates subjective thought! He wrote (and his goal in life was ) to see without bias, to be able to see things as they really were. if he was a Romantic writer this would be in character, but being a modernist this does not seem like him. And isn't "solitary" a lonely word with a negative connotation?
It's highly likely Stevens was thinking of Cezanne in this poem. It's important to note that Stevens named Cezanne as one of his favorite painters, and a key artistic forebear. It's a late homage (like "To an Old Philosopher in Rome") that expressed his affinity & gratitude to his lifelong teacher & influence.
Trying to constrain a poet's writings into a fit or style is very dangerous. Granted, poets do often write in congruent styles with similiar structures and ideas, but who knows, maybe he just sat down and in pure bliss of poetry, wrote this one. Maybe he wrote this poem as an expression of what poets should convey in their work or maybe he wrote it as an expression of one his own works. Until we ask him, we may never know.