"Sunday Morning" was one of my favorite poems of Wallace Steven's in out anthology. In trying to find a poem to write about and relate to this class, I was struck by the "ordinariness" of the first stanza, particularly the first few lines where "she" is simply sitting with her coffee and thinking. What could possibly be more ordinary than a sitting on Sunday morning in your nightclothes, drinking coffee and thinking? However, what she thinks about seems to be anything but ordinary. "Death is the mother of beauty; hence from her, / Alone, shall come fulfillment to our dreams / And our desires." It's hard to see the ordinariness of sitting and contemplating both death and happiness in the face of religion and Heaven on a Sunday morning.
I was also curious at the juxtaposition of Wallace's many biblical references and themes ('serafin', 'silent Palestine' and 'sepulchre') with more Greek or pagan allusions ('Jove', 'golden underground', 'chimera'). Was this to highlight the difference and underscore the woman in the poem's view of happiness or divinity on Earth? For the Greeks believed the gods walked among them but it's fairly Christian ideal to feel very removed from God and Jesus-- it is the aspiration of life to feel close to them in Heaven after all.
I have to agree with you Kat about the "ordinariness" of the first stanza of this poem. When I read it, I found myself relating to that type of Sunday Morning. It is the perfect, ordinary Sunday morning.
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