The Poem That Took the Place of a Mountain and Genesis

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Date: April 8, 2014 There are an abundance of similarities between Biblical passages and The Poem That Took the Place of a Mountain. The parallels drawn between the Creation Story in Genesis (chapters one to three), and the work by Wallace Stevens primarily concern language. By comparing the language used in the Jahwist (“J”) and Priestly (“P”) accounts of the Creation Story with the language in The Poem That Took the Place of a Mountain, one can conclude that Wallace Stevens intended for his work to mirror the Biblical text to produce his own version of a Creation story. Chapters 1-2:4 of Genesis are commonly referred to as the “P,” or Priestly, account of the Creation Story. In it, the origins of the world are told. That is to say, its story is one of how God created the universe, told in a structured and chronological order of events. To create the world and all things within it, God simply speaks it, and it is formed. “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.... God said, Let there be light: and there was light” (Gen, 1:1-3). Stevens uses the same technique to commence his poem, saying, “There it was, word for word,/ The poem that took the place of a mountain” (1-2). The language used here is reminiscent of the Genesis passage before it. In both cases, the creation of the thing in question is simply spoken into being, and is then observed. During the process of creation, both works appear to pay close attention to the details of their world. In Genesis, it is said, “And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth... I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so. And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good” (1:29-31). The

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