an always incipient cosmos, a reading of wallace stevens total of 10 ...

250
still 'Looking for what was, where it used to be' for
he is still the Bon ot Adam ",ho 'awoke in metaphor' •
It Is this sad figure that the young 'ephebe' is
challenged to transform into a 'final elegance't that
image at the 'major lllan'. The transformation must be
accomplished, however, without providing consolation
for his plight or sanctlf';ying his weaknesses as religion
and sentimentality have done. The duty of the poet Is : ~
'plainly to propound I •
The second characteristic of the supreme fiction
is that 'It l'1uat Change' and this section opens with a
scene in whicb all the elements have been &rraJ:lged, troc
which all sense pf spontanelty has been removed.
The
'old seraph, parcel-gilded' appears as a rigid, static,
lifeless ornament surrounded by odours, doves, girls,
jonquils and ~cinth8 that are a protusion of colour,
but are, nonetheless, merely repetitions of what ",as
here last ;rear or in the previous generation.
The
recurrence of natural cycles gives the effect of permanence
even though all these items 'Are inconstant objects
of inconstant cause I In a universe of inconstanc:r.'
Even the 'seraph is satyr in Saturn'; even a being to
all appearances coapletel:r imperVious to cbaI!g~ alters
!!
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