Footnotes

1. The speaker leads me to believe that she is no longer complacent. She seems to want more of something. She is curious about religion and her view of God has perhaps been warped by the opinions of those around her. In the seventh stanza she refers to the devotion of men to the sun "not as a god, but as a god might be" which is her way of saying that her god would be approachable and on the same level as his people. While eating her late brunch, she speaks of the "freedom of a cockatoo", yet she continues to feel the weight of things from her past. The speaker would like to do something differently with her Sundays, but she is hesitant about what exactly she should do. ▲
2. In the beginning of the first stanza, the woman is connecting the beautiful sunny day and the surrounding nature to origin of her spirituality, where she can reach by crossing "wide water" (line 12), the ocean. According to the speaker, this place is "over the seas to Palestine" (line 14), where Jesus was crucified. Therefore, the line 15 refers to the celebration of the Last Supper, Jesus' final Passover dinner shortly before his Crucifixion. The "blood" (line 15) symbolizes the wine he shared with his disciples, and "sepulchre" (line 15) refers to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where he was crucified and buried. --- Jung Hong ▲
3. Sunday Morning is a poem about a woman questioning Christianity and instead looking towards the spiritual aspects of nature. Birds are often a symbol for freedom, and I think the birds of this poem represent a freedom from Christianity. The first bird presented to the reader is a bright green cockatoo. When we initially see this bird the woman in the poem is skipping church and distancing herself from church on a larger scale. Its bright coloring comes across as garish, and out of place in the discussion of religion. In the second stanza there is more mention of the cockatoo as she begins to question finding comfort in nature's beauty. The 4th stanza also brings more discussion of birds which are this time in a sort of paradise. The last birds shown to the reader are pigeons flying down and away from the sky. The sky had earlier been associated with Christian heaven. The birds like the woman, are free to choose their own course. – Jasmine Jenkins ▲
4. The oranges and green cockatoo are instrumental pieces in the first two parts of “Sunday Morning.” The first thing I noticed about the oranges and the cockatoo were the effect they had on religion. Stevens’ says they “dissipate the holy hush,” which means that they cause the holy hush to disappear or fade away. Stevens next mentions the oranges and cockatoo in line nine, he uses the adjectives “pungent,” and “bright” to describe these two things respectively. The diction in this illustration of the orange and the cockatoo gives us a sense that the fruit and the bird are very vibrant. However in the woman’s dream about the crucifixion and religion, their lively qualities cannot prevent them from being a part of “some procession of the dead.” Also in lines nineteen through twenty-two in part two, the woman mentions she cannot find the same preciousness in the sun, cockatoo, or the oranges as she finds in the idea of heaven. These three parts of the poem show that she does not believe the things she encounters in reality and the idea of divinity can co-exist. This confliction causes her to continually doubt the existence and the certainty behind the notion of divinity. -Marcus Patterson ▲
5. Here is a shift in tone and content. The poem starts out on a Sunday morning and Stevens goes to debunk our preconceptions about the day of Sabbath and Christianity. His pleasant description of "coffee and oranges in a sunny chair" set a relaxed and complacent mood, which contradicts the social convention of Sunday as Sabbath where reservedness and respect is stressed . Only once the mysterious woman in the first stanza "dreams a little," or literally dozes off, she is reminded of the "old catastrophe," which is referring to the "ancient sacrifice," or crucifixion of Jesus. Christianity is a religion born from the idea of death and resurrection but Stevens adheres to a secular and hedonistic lifestyle rather than one so preoccupied with death. It's as if Christianity or the idea of religion and death is an intruder disrupting the woman's peace and enjoyment, particularly in nature - from water, green freedom (trees/grass), to the seas, Stevens evokes many images from nature. Perhaps he wants to reshape the idea of religion to one that stresses hedonism and nature instead of self effacement, sacrifice, and death. - Brandon ▲
6. The euphonic 'w' sound serves as auditory imagery in these lines. It adds depth to the image of the water; not only can the reader visualize the water, he can also hear the water. The repetition of the "without sound" parallels the theme that death gives meaning to life; that death gives meaning to life just as sound gives meaning to water. This makes these two lines almost ironic; the meaning of the lines contrasts the "water" sounds of the lines. ▲
7. Imagery is a really clear tool used by the poet. The images of "coffee and oranges" in the ""sunny chair" are made to be obvious and very clear to the reader. There is also great use of colors for the imagery provided by the speaker. There is "green freedom," "pungent oranges and bright," and "green wings." In addition, many references are made to the "sea" in the last few lines. Each line has ten syllables, which fits with the ability of the poem to flow well, in accordance with the flow of the water. This stanza is very abstract, making it hard for the reader to grasp what the speaker is trying to get across. The vocabulary is not simple; it is clearly intended for a mature reader. It is difficult to follow the plot of the poem, but there is no doubt that the reader at least will have a picture in their mind of the setting.. -Cara Weiner ▲
8. In the second stanza, Stevens leads the reader to pause and think critically by using rhetorical questions that suggest that the woman doubts religion. Steven's diction in these three questions seems to form a contrast between the supernaturalness of religion and the tangibleness of nature. In line 16, he questions ''Why should she give her bounty to the dead?''. Here, Stevens critiques the religious idea of giving something earthly, ''her bounty,'' to an entity, ''the dead'' that no longer physically lives. He also describes divinity as coming ''Only in silent shadows and in dreams'' (line 18), which suggests that divinity appears in a mysterious and inexplicable form that is difficult to perceive. The last question in the second stanza (lines 19-22) compares the ambiguity of religious conventions to the tangibleness of objects in nature. Stevens contrasts the sun, green wings, and fruit to ''the thought of heaven'' (lines 19-20, 22), which again suggests the supernaturalness of religion, particularly heaven, because it can only be experienced as a thought. Stacey Elkhatib ▲
9. Here, the author shows the speaker's concern for divinity. The speaker is obviously questioning the ideals and wondering if God is in fact real; especially with the mixed images of "silent Palestine" and the rhetorical questions received throughout. There is the repetition of the idea of memory and dreams: "...gusty emotions on wet roads on autumn nights; all pleasures and all pains, remember the bough of summer and the winter branch" (26-28). The speaker also realizes at the end of the second stanza that she must create divinity within herself, and that there is no one or no thing that would be able to persuade her otherwise. This shift in the second stanza of her decision to instill divinity in herself is seen through the rest of the poem, especially in stanza four where she again questions herself: "...where, then, is paradise?" (47). The struggle to conform to her own ideals of religion as well as the world's view of religion and sacrifice is repeated throughout the poem. ▲
10. The speaker is reflecting on religion and its place in her life. She is content at the moment to maintain everything she has and enjoy it without having to sacrifice for the outside. I feel lines17-18 allude to the methods of prayers and communication in religion, usually in the shadows of a structure (church) and through prayer or dreams. The speaker is contesting that the same idea of a religious connection can be made outside in the sun in her own way. There is a whole nature and basic truth in the outside world that should be celebrated..and how can this Eden not mirror the goodness that must be in heaven? If she has the chance to experience this heaven on Earth the speaker would rather be there in her own bliss than miss it. Line 23 "divinity must live within herself" furthers this idea that the speaker can be content and spiritual solely through herself. She can experience the world, the spectrum of emotions, nature, happiness and pain to a full extent when she lives this way. ▲
11. The consonance in line 3 of the 3rd stanza gives strength to the overall eloquent diction of the poem. The line, "Large-mannered motions to his mythy mind," seems to assign a negative connotation to "Jove," (Stanza 3, line 1) who is an inferior god-like figure The poem as a whole uses elevated language to achieve a somewhat stream of consciousness questioning of the speakers’ religious beliefs. ▲
12. I agree with the reference to the questioning of religion. I am more interested however, in why Stevens chose to use birds instead of something else to show the questioning of religion. I think he picked this specific animal, because they have the ability of flight, which so often seems to test realities like gravity. The poet even uses the words, "Before they fly, test the reality," to emphasize this specific and unique characteristics birds have. I also believe there is a reference to migration another quality, which applies to many types of birds. I believe the poem tries to convey that just as birds question whether it is time to migrate to a warmer place, people question religion and the existence of god. I made this inference from, "by their sweet questionings; but when the birds are gone." Overall, I think the poet uses birds rather than anything else, because they, like humans, question and test reality. -Shahnaz Rahman ▲
13. After conducting some outside research on the poem, I have found that Stevens is looking to propose paganism as a replacement or substitute for Christianity. This theme of losing religion appears throughout the poem, especially with reference to the woman. I found this particularly interesting in the 4th stanza when the woman is quoted as saying “I am content when wakened birds, Before they fly, test the reality Of misty fields, by their sweet questionings; But when the birds are gone, and their warm fields Return no more, where then, is paradise.” Throughout the poem, the woman seems to be close to death and loss of religion. She has many dark references including her “[feeling] the dark,” not finding “comforts in the sun,” and “she hears…cries.” Her quote in the 4th stanza strikes important questions about the symbols of Christianity in the poem, mainly birds and paradise. Furthermore, she mentions the birds “sweet questions” and their departure resulting in the question “where…paradise?” I believe these questions work to establish the point that the woman is losing faith towards Christianity and general belief in anything. It furthers her disillusionment and disagreement with reality. -Michael Solomon ▲
14. To me this poem is a questioning of religion and its reality in many ways. The dark and unknown of god and heaven is contrasted against the bright and vibrant world around the woman with her oranges and cockatoo. This section of the poem is a metaphor for her questioning and wondering about the reality of religion. As the "wakened birds" test the morning with its "misty fields" with their songs, so do people question the unknown of religion. The birds’ songs are similar to the musings of humans everywhere that wonder if there is a god and question their faith. For this woman she is unsure about her own faith and the promises of heaven are misty and shrouded with mystery. There are no guarantees that there is a life after death. But if as a people we abandon religion and the hope of heaven there will be no paradise for us in the future. Without a hope and faith there will be no reason to continue onward and no paradise to hope for. -Zack Roward ▲
15. The speaker and the woman in this poem questions the idea of a religion that finds the most peace with death and immortality. There is an internal conflict within her as she tries to decide if it is right to take more pleasure in earthly nature than to turn to religion (more specifically, Christianity, a religion fixated on immortality granted at death). While she is happy to listen to birds sing before they fly, she questions if she can find "paradise" when they leave and "their warm fields/Return no more". The speaker replies that by enjoying earthly pleasures, there is no "haunt of prophecy" or illusion of immortality that will endure as long as the "green" of April does. He argues that we should find pleasure in life and not death, although he acknowledges that death will overtake us through the bird/wing motif. The description of "swallow's wings" relates to the bird/wing motif found in the poem. Birds are seen as lively animals that are associated with freedom, and the speaker repeatedly mentions them to get across the point that we should live in the moment and be free. In the last lines of the poem, the speaker describes a flock of pigeons that "make/Ambiguous undulations as they sink,/Downward to darkness, on extended wings". The "darkness" represents death, to which the pigeons are flying, but we take joy in the flight itself. Ginny (Kyuhee) Chae ▲
16. In the previous sections of the poem leading to this line, the speaker(s) are explaining or rhetorically asking why can't a sense of divinity be achieved through what is apart of nature. In section II, the narrator (a male voice) asks why can't the "beauty of the earth" be "cherished like the thought of heaven" which emphasizes the female voice's debate whether or not to go to church since the nature scenes seem to "dissipate the holy hush of ancient sacrifice." Then again in section IV, it says nature provides her with contentment, which could parallel to the contentment people seek or achieve with religion. The speaker continues to convince oneself how nature provides a sense of "divinity... within herself." However, as we approach section V, the speaker realizes that nature does provide contentment and that she would like to skip services that embrace nature but even with that, there is something missing. The speaker after trying to convince herself about all that nature is doing for her kind of backtracks and feels that she "need"s something more. -Seema Jabbar ▲
17. Stevens posits on questions of what is the appropriate to follow religion, why can’t one reach contentment through their own methods of following religion, and what can one make of death and the results of death. I find the last one most intriguing as in stanzas 5 and 6, Stevens relates that something is only beautiful because it is impermanent. The fact that something will inevitably die allows for the beauty of the moment. The woman wishes for “imperishable bliss” which cannot exist because in order for something to be truly amazing, it must at some point end. This is explained by the condition that “death is the mother of beauty” so that something beautiful can only come out of mortality. Stanza 6 then questions how paradise can then exist, since nothing in paradise can grow old, decrepit, or die…then there follows that there cannot be any beauty in paradise…which of course would mean it is not a paradise. While it possible to argue that the religious paradise may exist as a counter for the death that exists in the living world, Stevens figures that probably then, if a paradise were to exist at all, it must be frozen in time so that it can be “unchanging.” ~Kristen Williams ▲
18. In stanza 5 the woman says that even though she is content and at peace, without religion, she still has a desire for some eternal paradise, which religion could offer. “Death is the mother of beauty” could mean that because of death and its imposition of a limit on life things a found to be beautiful. With unlimited time nothing would be valued as much because it would always be available. With death and impermanence in mind, people seek things that a beautiful or impose beauty on things because they will not always be around. The speaker says that in death everyone’s dreams and desires will be fulfilled, which has very religious undertones suggesting some sort of paradise. It seems that the speaker and the woman do not share the same religious beliefs or convictions. The remainder of the verse describes death’s relation to all of life. It is the ultimate end for the sick, for lovers and for champions. It is death that causes unused things to be bequeathed to a younger generation. The final line is ambiguous in what the maidens taste. It may be death or the plums and pears, or both. Whichever it is it excites them and they wander off to be surrounded by death, both due to their beauty as maidens and due to death as an ending to life. ▲
19. Apparent throughout the poem, the speaker is seen questioning Christianity. In stanza 6, Stevens specifically structures a line in order to exemplify the main argument of the poem. Referring to the lack of death in paradise, the speaker asks: "Does the ripe fruit never fall? Or do the boughs / Hang always heavy in that perfect sky," (Line 77-78). The line breaks after "boughs," putting "Hang," "heavy," and "perfect" all in the same line. Hang and heavy suggest a burdening feeling, or being weighed down, in paradise. These words do not seem to fit the description of a "perfect sky." Furthermore, when referring to Heaven, Stevens calls it "that perfect sky." Using the word "that" connotes a feeling of separation and isolation, suggesting the speaker's distance from the "perfect sky." The connotations of these words provide a contrast of what is normally thought of when referring to paradise. With this in mind, the structure of line 78 illustrates the speaker’s skepticism of Christianity. Patrick McFarland ▲
20. The speaker uses various elements of nature throughout the poem in her questioning of religion. Birds were the most significant element of nature in the poem. They are used several times but the use of birds in the last stanza to refute the belief is the most important. The speaker also hears from "that water without sound" in the last stanza. Earlier in the poem, the speaker describes day as having this same feature. This leads one to believe that something in reality or some external factor is keeping her from believing in religion. -Kendrick Daniel ▲
21. This poem is somewhat related to the "carpe diem" theme of many other poems, in which time to accomplish everything one wishes to accomplish is limited and one must "seize the day." The speaker in the poem, a female who is conflicted between religion and earthly pleasure/nature, ultimately chooses to enjoy a sort of pagan lifestyle in which she abandons religion for earthly things. Initially, she chooses to enjoy her Sunday morning instead of attending church, and struggles to come to terms with this decision. Near the end of the piece she contends that spirituality in the Christian sense is only applicable in the grave, and that she must seize the day, the time she has on earth. She chooses to enjoy nature and things like "coffee and oranges" instead of giving her "bounty to the dead." Diana Fridlyand ▲
22. In the second stanza of the poem the speaker strays from the toughts of "pungent" smells and "coffee and oranges in a sunny chair" and begins to doubt divinity. The drastic change in tone is highlighted when the speaker ponders" What is divinity if it can come only in silent shadows and in dreams?". The change in the speaker's mindset is also obvious from the change in punctuation. The first stanza makes statements that end in periods, while the second stanze asks a series of question and end in question marks. It is here that the duality of the speaker is displayed. There seems to be a battle between the spiritual and the physical sides of the speaker. One side emphasizes the goodness of life, while the other questions the possibility of life after death. ▲