A SENSE OF PLACE IN THE POETRY OF ROBERT FROST, WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS, AND WALLACE STEVENS

This study attempts to demonstrate that understanding a poet's sense of place is an important aid to understanding his poetry. The study uses selected poems from the work of Robert Frost, William Carlos Williams, and Wallace Stevens to show that a poet's sense of place is an individual characteristic of his work and that the sense of place is revealed in patterns of perception and function of place in the poems.;Chapters, II, III, and IV are immediately concerned with sub-theses which identify characteristic patterns of perception and consciousness in each of the three poets whose work is considered here. In Chapter II, Robert Frost is seen as a poet whose perception of place is regional (approximate) and topographical and whose consciousness of place proceeds toward enclosure. In chapter III, William Carlos Williams is seen as a poet whose perception of place is local and whose consciousness of place proceeds toward disclosure. In Chapter IV, Wallace Stevens is seen as a poet whose perception of place is essential and whose consciousness of place oscillates between poles of physical sensation and figurative invention. These conclusions grow from discussions of selected poems. They suggest an interrelation between characteristic patterns of perception and consciousness of place and the dominant functions of place in the poet's work. Those dominant functions are as setting and subject in the poetry of Frost, as subject (locus) in the poetry of Williams, and as vehicle in the poetry of Stevens.;The present study is not, strictly speaking, a study of spatial form, but it shares with works which are the assumption that ideas may be configured in a mental space in a way similar to the configuration of topographical elements in a physical landscape. From this assumption, the conclusion offers a brief figurative mapping of each poet's sense of place.;Chapter I explains what is meant by "sense of place" and introduces some basic terms and functions of place. Place may be perceived in geographical, topographical, climatological, or spatial terms; the perception of place involves attention to both physical and mental elements of place. The functions of place in poetry are as setting, as subject, or as vehicle (usually a figurative or symbolic mirror for the poetic consciousness).