Theme Sunday Morning

To briefly summarize “Sunday Morning” the poem by Wallace Stevens is about a woman who is describing her thoughts and feelings as she sits in a chair and enjoys her coffee. The persona of this poem is against attending church every Sunday and she contemplates about heaven being better than what humans have on Earth. After searching for spiritual fulfillment, the woman figures death is permanent and death is what makes life so beautiful. Here on Earth true paradise will exist until the end of time. A conversation between the woman and her soul throughout this leads one to believe the theme of “Sunday Morning” is the woman’s belief and disbelief to spiritually fulfill herself.

I noticed during the first stanza that this woman begins taking pleasure in "complacencies of the peignoir, and late / Coffee and oranges in a sunny chair" on this Sunday away from church. This day could possibly be Easter stating in line 5 “holy hush of ancient sacrifice.” Eventually, her conscience gets the best of her during this time of delight and she ponders about the church she is no longer attending. Perhaps this leads her to consider if she is spirituality satisfied and decide whether the earth or heaven is the best place to be after death. It seems that only after two stanzas, the author; Wallace Stevens has portrayed the woman as having two extremely opposing emotional states. Her soul then asks "Why should she give her bounty to the dead?" She then asks herself “What is divinity if it can come / Only in silent shadows and in dreams?” Should she worship someone that died thousands of years ago? This is where her belief is going in opposite directions. Now, for a second there is a thought that she can possibly satisfy her destiny by simply looking within herself and forgetting the thought of her potential place in paradise with the statement “Divinity must live within herself / Passions of rain, or moods in falling snow”. I now think the woman is starting to get confused and considers if she should attend church often in order to be sent to heaven? Or, believe in her own religion and be one with nature not to redefine her self as supernatural. Now, there is dispute and she questions whether earthly contentment (nature) is where she can find paradise. The woman now believes she feels “the need of some imperishable bliss” that can be found with attending and dedicating herself to the church. With that thought her soul replies “death is the mother of beauty” Steven is expressing the idea that from the death and loss of the old, new life will be renewed. I think the woman needs to rise out of her dream in order to get her thoughts straight and think seriously about her future. Indeed, the woman can only experience true contentment through gratitude of which is temporary.