Stevens and Simile

Book excerpt: Brogan traces in detail the Wallace Stevens increasingly sophisticated use of similes in order to demonstrate how they satisfied both his own intellectual needs and the needs of modern poetry. While thoroughly grounded in the poetry of Stevens, her book also explores the nature of language itself by demonstrating the possibilities, as well as the limitations, of either a romantic or a deconstructive conception of language. Originally published in 1986. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.