Tea at the Palaz of Hoon by Wallace Stevens
"Tea at the Palaz of Hoon" is a poem by Wallace Stevens that delves into the relationship between imagination and reality through the character of Hoon, a ruler who constructs his own world. Hoon embodies a solipsistic perspective, suggesting that the self is the only true reality. The poem juxtaposes the lavish imagery of Hoon's royal existence, marked by "purple" trappings and divine recognition, with the idea that this recognition comes solely from his imagination. The narrative unfolds in two parts: the first raises questions about the nature of Hoon's self-created world, while the second reveals that this world is an expression of his inner psyche. Stevens does not seem to advocate for solipsism but rather uses Hoon to explore the complexities of a mind fully engaged in its imaginative capabilities. The poem is notable for its structure, featuring three-line sections that approach iambic pentameter, and it reflects Stevens's early formal style. This exploration invites readers to consider the balance between personal experience and external reality, encouraging a deeper understanding of self-conception and creativity.
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Tea at the Palaz of Hoon by Wallace Stevens
Excerpted from an article in Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition
First published: 1921 (collected in Harmonium, 1923)
Type of work: Poem
The Work
Although many of the poems of Harmonium preach a yielding to reality, “Tea at the Palaz of Hoon” is an exception. Hoon is a vaguely Eastern potentate who creates a world from his mind and takes pleasure in inhabiting it.
“Hoon” may suggest “hero-moon”; in Stevens’s early poems, moon and sun translate very roughly into imagination and reality. Hoon speaks about his sense of self and world, which is virtually solipsistic—he concludes that the self is the only reality. He is enclosed in trappings of royalty, “in purple.” His majesty, even his divinity, is recognized by the world in which he moves: Ointment is sprinkled on his beard, and hymns are sung. The second part of the poem, however, explains the source of the recognition: “Out of my mind the golden ointment rained,/ And my ears made the blowing hymns they heard.” He is enclosed in his self-made world, creator of his own landscape:
what I saw
The solipsistic world is not limited and limiting, as one might expect. Rather, to live in a world of one’s own making results in a rediscovery, or reinvention, of self.
One cannot conclude, however, that Stevens is advocating solipsism in this poem. The persona of Hoon represents an extreme position on the scale of relations between imagination and reality; Stevens explores the world of a mind given over wholly to the imagination. Moreover, the speaker insists on the primacy of the imagined world, rather than the merely demonstrated. “Not less was I myself,” he claims in the first stanza, and “I found myself more truly” in the last line.
This poem anticipates Stevens’s later comfortable style of three-line sections. It approaches iambic pentameter, often his preferred meter, in most of the lines, but it does not use rhyme. Like others of Stevens’s earlier, more formal poems (including “The Emperor of Ice-Cream”), it is divided into two rhetorical parts; in this poem, the first part poses questions about the origin of Hoon’s world, and the second answers them.
Bibliography
Bates, Milton J. Wallace Stevens: A Mythology of Self. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985.
Bloom, Harold. Wallace Stevens. Philadelphia: Chelsea House, 2003.
Cleghorn, Angus J. Wallace Stevens’ Poetics: The Neglected Rhetoric. New York: Palgrave, 2000.
Critchley, Simon. Things Merely Are: Philosophy in the Poetry of Wallace Stevens. New York: Routledge, 2005.
Ford, Sara J. Gertrude Stein and Wallace Stevens: The Performance of Modern Consciousness. New York: Routledge, 2002.
Leggett, B. J. Late Stevens: The Final Fiction. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2005.
Morse, Samuel F. Wallace Stevens: Poetry as Life. New York: Pegasus, 1970.
Santilli, Kristine S. Poetic Gesture: Myth, Wallace Stevens, and the Motions of Poetic Language. New York: Routledge, 2002.
Sharpe, Tony. Wallace Stevens: A Literary Life. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2000.