The poem “The Idea of Order at Key West” by Wallace Stevens sets out to explore the relationship between humanity, nature and language. The poem communicates a curious moment between three characters along the coast. The speakers of the poem, who are two men, witness this curious moment between the sea and an unidentified she character. The moment becomes curious as the speakers attempt to articulate what is taking place. The she character is singing a song, but the nature of this song and its relation to the sea is ambiguous, as the sea appears to be communicating as well.
The beginning of the poem is quite clear in stating that both the sea and she are communicating. She is singing, and the sea has a “constant cry,” but the speakers choose to define and redefine what they think is taking place between the two, through the complex images and counter-images used to articulate the uncertainty of the speakers’ narrative. The poem wavers back and forth to articulate the sea’s cry as either pure sound only or as meaningful communication. This wavering also takes place with the content or origins of she’s song. Is the content or origins of the song from the sea or she? Within this interaction between the sea and she, the poem alludes to the relationship between humans and nature through the realms of language. Humans rage to order through language. The poem states, “The maker’s rage to order words of the sea.” This line suggests two things. One, the maker (she or the human) rages to order the words of nature. And two, that the sea has words, has a language. With these two languages (human and nature) defined, language itself must be explored in the poem.
The poem’s final stanza articulates the complicated notion of words and how humans attempt to order them. Though humans order words of the sea, these words are defined as “fragrant portals, dimly-starred, / And of ourselves and of our origins.” Words communicate a notion of order, but this order is a fleeting idea. This said, it is important to connote this understanding of words to a human quality. The “self” suggested in this passage as well as throughout the poem represents a human voice that contains an invisible essence (spirit). But what does the poem say of nature’s language? The poem’s imagery of the sea’s words is only through the sound that these words make. Whether it is the “grinding water and grasping wind” or “deep air,” which is “sound alone,” the poem articulates nature’s language as sheer sound. Though the she continues to project a spirit upon nature’s language, it becomes clear that this is merely the human ordering an idea of things that does not exist. Nature’s language in the poem conveys a spiritless essence that the human struggles to accept.
With the scene set, my observation points towards several larger questions within the poem’s text. The sea throughout the text resists human intentions and purpose. The wilderness will not be tamed; however, there is a clear language of nature. Then what is this nature communicating? What is the sea saying? What is the substance behind the form? With the assistance of Paul de Man and Julia Kristeva, the notion of sound and nature’s language in the poem will be fully explored.
In his essay “Phenomenality and Materiality in Kant,” de Man moves to critique Immanuel Kant’s idea of the sublime. De Man’s argues that Kant’s sublime does not address the “materialism that…is seldom or never perceived” (88). An image in the essay is the sea the seer sees through the eye. With Kant’s sublime, the looker may look at a sea and see a teleological depth (an invisible essence). However, De Man responds, “Imagination substitutes for reason at the cost of its empirical nature and, by this anti- or unnatural act, it conquers nature” (86). The speakers and she of Stevens’ poem speak of this rage to order the sea, but they have not come to terms with the depthless sea. The sea’s language is purely material. There is no substance beneath the form. Nature’s language in Stevens’ poem through the lens of de Man’s essay becomes purely material. This purely physical language finds its voice through sound alone.
The notion of sound is threaded throughout Stevens’ poem. The poetic genre and sounds of the poem will need attention, but for our purposes now, the sound of the sea should be explored. Kristeva in her work Revolution in Poetic Language explores the purely physical sense of language through sound in her idea of the semiotic. The notions of the “semiotic chora” and “symbolic” will develop Kristeva’s observations of the “genotext” and “phenotext,” which will then develop Stevens’ language within the poem. The sound of the sea and nature becomes purely physical and material. With de Man’s and Kristeva’s assistance and perspective, can we separate human language in Stevens’ poem from the conclusive materiality of nature’s language?
This final question is where my working thesis will develop for this essay. The tensions of materiality and phenomenality in human language teeter back and forth in Stevens’ poem. Not only are there questions concerning the nature of language’s cry, but the subject of the song itself. What is she singing about? To answer this question we only have the account of the speakers who attempt to communicate what is happening. And in this moment a peculiar thing happens. The poem zooms out of the moment between the sea and she, and we are left with the speakers. The speakers in this moment attempt to understand the moonlight and random assortment of visual images around them. At this moment, they realize they are doing the same act that she was doing to the sea. This conviction grips them, as they now understand how they, a part of humanity, rage to order and to know the invisible meanings behind the visible. The speakers are articulating a meaning to the empty song she sings. Thus, human language is also made up of sheer materiality.
My thesis hopes to work through the complexity of “The maker’s rage to order words of the sea.” Though it appears that I have rather quick answers to the questions I pose, this is merely to communicate my intended direction towards my argument. This said, there will be many anticipated stops along the path to my argument. These stops will construct my thoughts on Stevens’ poem and the postmodern lens that will assist the closest and liveliest understanding of what the text is saying that I can articulate through text. “The Idea of Order at Key West” will anchor or guide the reader and myself through invisible realms of the visible, if the invisible does exist.
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