From Class

"In an age of disbelief, or, what is the same thing, in a time that is largely humanistic, in one sense or another, it is for the poet to supply the satisfactions of belief, in his measure and in his style... I think of it as a role of the utmost seriousness. It is, for one thing, a spiritual role... To see the gods dispelled in mid-air and dissolve like clouds is one of the great human experiences... It was as if they had never inhabited the earth. There was no crying out for their return. They were not forgotten because they had been part of the glory of the earth." (Stevens)

Walter Ong - Orality and Literacy

Stevens - Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird