er man’s reality. 4a. Sunday MorningWallace Stevens1923 Sunday Morning by Wallace Stevens is a powerful poem of one woman’s attempt to find a spiritual life. Through the first section of the poem the woman enjoys life and at times finds herself casually thinking about the afterlife. A sense of guilt enters her because her enjoyment of life causes her to push thoughts of another life away: “She dreams a little, and she feels the dark (line 6).” She thinks about how Sunday is the holy day but it feels so empty to her; “The day is like wide water, without sound, (line 12).”The second section is an argument of another voice in her head. This voice is asking why should she dedicate herself spiritually: “Why should she give bounty to the dead? (line 16).” She doesn’t understand why she must have a sense of commitment to a world she cannot see. She feels perfectly content with the world she lives in. She rejects this spiritual world but at the same time she wants something to believe in: “Divinity must live within herself (line 23).”The third section is the history of divinity. Mythology is mentioned with reference to Jove, who is a non-human supreme god: “Jove in the clouds had his inhuman birth.” This section also explores the birth of Christianity: “Until our blood, commingling, virginal, With heaven, brought such requital to desire (lines 36-37).” The main idea of the first three stanzas is this woman trying to establish a sense of spirituality. She wrestles with the idea if any of this does exist. In her dreams she feels a sense of longing to a spiritual world, but the physical pleasures of the world causes her to ignore those feelings....
