n for his analogy, Stevens utilizes Jove’s incarnation myth. Similar to the story of Christ’s birth, Jove’s tale of birth, death and return to the heavens mirrors, in more familiar terms, the natural cycle of birth, death and rebirth.The poems’ similarities end, however, at the narrators’ confidence in the immortality of the cycle. While Stevens’ narrator confidently explicates the bounty of this repetition, Whitman only allows his narrator to subtly suggest its potential. He refers to the cycle only as “something”: “Something that shall endure longer even than lustrous Jupiter” (emphasis added; line 30). The narrator further whispers this intimation, as though its implications are too damning to be stated aloud. Yet, the reader is able to discern the subtext of these statements. As the narrator describes the passing of the days and nights, the certainty that the moon will shine again, the reader understands his celebration of the cyclical nature of time, of death and rebirth. Thus, the hope the narrator attempts to convey resonates within the reader’s ken.Where Whitman is hesitant, Stevens is bold. Stevens’ narrator does not hint, hedge or whisper; he proclaims. The narrator states unequivocally that “Death is the mother of beauty” (line 63), and expands the assertion by describing the many ways in which people have come to unknowingly depend upon the rebirth cycle, such as the ripening of fruit. Moreover, Stevens employs his discussion of the cycle as a direct refutation of traditional religious practices. He eschews his characters concerns about missing a Sunday morning church service with his dismissal of a religion based upon things that no longer exist: Whey should she give her bounty to the dead?What is divinity if it can comeOnly in silent shadows and in dreams? (lines 16-18)Stevens prefers the worship of nature and its eternal rotation of life a...
