So, this happens to be my first main post to the blog, and I had a question that I hope others can help me with that relates to my paper.
I happen to be doing a close reading of Wallace Stevens's poem "The Plain Sense of Things" and I can't come up with any reason why Stevens would choose to use the word turban in the line "No turban walks across the lessened floors," in the second stanza, last line. I was talking it over with some friends and none of us could come up with a reason for that "strange" word choice there. It appears to be a specific choice the author made and there should be a reason for that decision (I mean the guy was from CT USA in the early 20th century, how often could he have thought of turbans at random?).
Any ideas?
Tom Magrino
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Wow - since apparently nobody's taken the bait here, I'd say generally that even if there were a historically specific reference in that word (if something was happening in South Asia at the time the poem was written, e.g.), what that might be isn't so important for the purposes of this paper.
I'd say instead you might want to ask yourself: a) what does "turban" evoke to you? What resonances does it have, given the general framework of a mostly white American audience in the middle of the last century? What does it suggest in general? b) You're definitely right (I think) that "turban" is kind of a "strange" word. Why might Stevens need a "strange" word at that point in the poem? Or, put differently, what about the rest of the poem makes the appearance of "turban" seem so strange?
You're definitely right that the word is there for a specific reason, or, better, that it matters that the word used there is "turban" and that the word "turban" is used there. But you might want to explore the poem itself for clues as to what the reason it's there is, or why that word matters, before you try to link it to something specific outside the poem.
Anyone else?
Hi there. I think I might have a possible explanation for the word "turban." A turban is also a type of plant from the genus Tulipa. So, in the poem, Stevens is saying that when the leaves fall, winter arrives and "we return to a plain sense of things." During winter, a lot of plants die and a turban could be one of those. Hence, "no turban walks across the lessened floors."
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