Sunday Morning (III) by Wallace Stevens

Jove in the clouds had his inhuman birth. No mother suckled him, no sweet land gave Large-mannered motions to his mythy mind. He moved among us, as a muttering king, Magnificent, would move among his hinds, Until our blood, commingling, virginal, With heaven, brought such requital to desire The very hinds discerned it, in a star. Shall our blood fail? Or shall it come to be The blood of paradise? And shall the earth Seem all of paradise that we shall know? The sky will be much friendlier then than now, A part of labor and a part of pain, And next in glory to enduring love, Not this dividing and indifferent blue. This poem is very sad to me through a numerous of aspects. Although it is not explicitly said, the speaker of the poem speaks of a child that nearly reminds me of Frankenstein’s Creation, in that his birth is characterized as an “inhuman” one. Likewise, the fact that he is born motherless, not only lends itself back to Frankenstein’s creation, but also to Ibsen’s A Doll House in that merely the fact of being born without a mother is nearly dehumanizing to the individual in that it impacts their respect by other members of society and also, levels them to an unequal footing with other members of society. Moreover, there is also a sense of isolation in this poem that speaks as it is written “No mother suckled him.” Hence in a sense, this poem reads to me another universal theme that we have encountered in Winesburg, Ohio—that people become grotesque after they possess a certain truth, which causes them from interacting with other members of society completely. Moreover, the child in this novel further reminds me of Nora in that both characters will be degraded by others due to some factor that is out of their control. There is also a sense of abandonment in the first two lines, and a feeling of loss. Furthermore, there is perpetual suffering for “no sweet land gave” as if the child was not blessed with nutrition or nurture, so that he is weak both physically and emotionally. Yet despite the negative associations of the child’s birth condition he is described as “a muttering king,/ Magnificent,” I thought that this juxtaposition between the hardships ensued and the place in society that the child has now evolved into and earned is very significant in that it’s unexpected, therefore creating the heroic archetype. This is the classic archetypical image of the underdog, and thus the reader is more attracted to the hero’s accomplishment, from transferring from victim to hero. Still further into the poem there is also a trend towards this talk of ‘paradise’ and whether it’s in our blood or “the earth,” perhaps even “the sky.” The speaker seems to be questioning the sky’s role, and ironically, it directly contrasts with that of Grendel’s perspective nearly word-for-word but the antithesis of the argument, the speaker writes, the sky is “Not this dividing and indifferent blue,” instead the speaker contends that there is value in our blood, in the sky, in the Earth, itself. To me, part three nearly infers that there is a greater dimension, possibly even a moral argument that can be used to center the point that there is something greater than simply birth or monarchy, such is illustrated in the phrase “With heaven, brought such requital to desire/ The very hinds discerned it, in a star.” There is nearly a religious undertone in this statement, again illustrating the stark contrast that divides Grendel and “Sunday Morning” in their beliefs. Thus through this poem, one can denote the fact that “Sunday Morning” possess Shaper tendencies that highly argue for the deeper morality argument of God, birth, and religion.