Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665) was a French Baroque painter who worked most frequently in Rome and painted mythological or religious subjects. Poussin favored line and order in his art and inspired many classically oriented artists, including Paul Cezanne. [1] Poussin is referenced in Wallace Stevens' poem "Tradition," a title that was later changed to "Recitation After Dinner" for the "Easter Monday Festival of the Saint Nicholas Society of 1945." Stevens significantly was interested in genealogy and wanted to join the society because of his "desire to make a record, or, rather, to take advantage of a repository of the family line." Stevens believed that "such societies serve to keep alive something that is worth keeping alive." [2] The poem specifically addresses "the character / Of tradition" which "does not easily take form" (5-6). [3] While [t]radition wears . . . / The solid shape, Aeneas seen, perhaps, / By Nicolas Poussin" (46-48), tradition more significantly takes on the lasting form offered by a family line when the "father keeps on living in the son," and "the world / Of the father keeps on living in the world / Of the son" (50-52). [3]
Notes[]
2. Bates 611.
3. Stevens in Kermode and Richardson 595.
References[]
Bates, Milton J. "To Realize the Past: Wallace Stevens' Genealogical Study." American Literature 52.4 (Jan. 1981): 607-27.
Stevens, Wallace. "Tradition." Wallace Stevens: Collected Poetry and Prose. Ed. Frank Kermode and Joan Richardson. New York: Library of America, 1997. 595-6. Print.