Comparing Two Contradictory Voices In Wallace Stevens 'Gubbinal'
In a time of despair after the war, poet Wallace Stevens uses metaphors to differentiate between two contradictory voices through his poem “Gubbinal,” Stevens establishes these opinions to show the distinction between optimists and pessimists. In the poem Stevens sees himself as the optimist that paints the world in a very beautiful light versus the pessimists who retorts with “The world is ugly, and the people are sad,” refusing to acknowledge the gifts the world is offering them. Stevens compares the sun to a “strange flower”, assuming that the word strange has the same meaning as extraordinary. The sun itself is a light which can be linked to the idea of purity and enlightenment. After correlating the sun to a flower, Stevens states “Have