ABSTRACT
Four poems by Wallace Stevens will be analyzed from a formal standpoint. Then an attempt will be made to show how the formal analysis is closely related to what the poem is about. The poem is one which Yvor Winters includes in a list of poems which according to him rank Stevens as being '. Probably the greatest poet of his generation'. The verbs in the poem can be divided into two distinct types, finite verbs and nonfinite verbs. Finite verbs are those which take endings that agree with their subjects in number. The verbs in the poem can be divided into two distinct types, finite verbs and nonfinite verbs. Finite verbs are those which take endings that agree with their subjects in number. The most obvious feature of the poem's tense system is that all of the verbs are in the simple present. In each of the four poems analyzed above a formal structural feature was isolated.
