Why read The Palm at the End of the Mind?

Book cover of The Palm at the End of the Mind: Selected Poems and a Play

Book description

This selection of works by Wallace Stevens--the man Harold Bloom has called “the best and most representative American poet”--was first published in 1967. Edited by the poet's daughter Holly Stevens, it contains all the major long poems and sequences, and every shorter poem of lasting value in Stevens' career, including…

Explore

Topics

Genres

Poetry

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

Why read it?

1 author picked The Palm at the End of the Mind as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Joseph Leo Koerner

Author

Steven’s poems have the cadence of philosophical argument. Entering into this cadence can raise one’s own writing, and thoughts, to a higher plane, without its becoming flowery or affective. For years I kept this collection open to the poem “The Poems of Our Climate,” with its consolation: “...the imperfect is so hot in us / Lies in flawed words and stubborn sounds."

From Joseph's list on The best books against writers’ block.