Wallace Steven - The Planet on the Table - Jenna Pelosi

Wallace Stevens- The Planet on the Table, pg. 608
Beginning of the poem the speaker brings himself out in the form of the tempest tree spirit in the plays of William Shakespeare. Automatically, the speaker is able to take me into another space and time, back to “Adam and Eve” time. Throughout the poem I also placing myself in the speaker’s position, reading as if I was that tree that Ariel represented. The Typicality in the poem helped me as I read on and was able to place myself into the speaker’s words.The poem begins with the speaker mentioning, “Ariel was glad that he had written his poems, they were of a remembered time” (Stevens, pg, 609). Knowing that Ariel is the “storm” tree spirit , what were these poems he speaks of about? Were they filled with wisdom and inspiration, or of a storm of emotions, with hurricane-like affects in the aftermath? It also mentions the passion held for the pastimes, or the planet from which they were part. I feel at a loss when it comes to truly being able to understand the wisdom behind this poem, because I have not read the plays from which Shakespeare’s figures hold such poignancy to this poem.