Theory
I am what is around me.
Women understand this. One is not duchess A hundred yards from a carriage.
These, then are portraits: A black vestibule; A high bed sheltered by curtains.
These are merely instances.
Wallace Stevens
I am what is around me.
Women understand this. One is not duchess A hundred yards from a carriage.
These, then are portraits: A black vestibule; A high bed sheltered by curtains.
These are merely instances.
Stevens offers a quiet, almost riddle-like idea: identity comes from what surrounds a person. “I am what is around me” is the core claim. The duchess line makes it concrete—without the carriage and the social world it implies, a duchess is not really a duchess.
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