Stevens, Germany, and the Churches

Abstract

Wallace Stevens's "Credences of Summer" (1947), in particular section IV's articulation of "the limits of reality," may be read as significantly German-influenced by connecting two distinct lines of inquiry: the poet's personal connection to Henry and Barbara Church, and his increased interest, from 1944, in genealogical researches on Pennsylvania. By 1947, Stevens's engagement with Germany had evolved from his early, romanticized identifications with a native peasantry to engage with post-WWII Germany as a concept of pure imagination.