"There is a sense in sounds beyond their meaning". Armonia e opacità in Harmonium (1923) di Wallace Stevens

Stevens' poetry is often defined by a deliberate pursuit of refined musicality, frequently paired with an indeterminacy of meaning. The two elements—musicality of sound and opacity of meaning—are deeply intertwined in both the implicit and explicit poetics of the poet. In this essay, I will trace the relationship between these components, beginning with the expressive noise effects of certain alliterative and onomatopoetic techniques, and progressing to more intricate structures where the primacy of the acoustic signifier is orchestrated to produce genuine musical effects. This progression extends to the adaptation of musical forms, such as the sonata or variation, for poetry. As we move from the first mode to the second, we will see how Stevens' musicality reflects a philosophy of poetry in which textual opacity results from the poet’s effort to distance his lyrical subjectivity, allowing signifiers to combine freely in a unique interpretation of Modernist theories of impersonality.