The World as Meditation

In Lines 2 and 10 of “The World as Meditation,” the trees have been “mended,” altered and improved. From the beginning of the poem, the “savage presence” (Line 6) on the horizon and Penelope’s “barbarous strength” (Line 21) from imagination and desire affect the landscape materially and metaphorically. Stevens’s diction indicates a deliberate but homely action; the trees could be changed or transformed, they could be revised, but mending indicates purposeful, domestic care. Within the Classical epic, Penelope’s character fashions a garment that she unravels at night, the opposite of mending. In the poem’s context, her creative energy influences a wider scope; it creates both the subject and the world around her.

The potential Ulysses figure rises from the east like the sun; this figure remains associated with the sun throughout the poem, as well as with fire and warmth. In Line 2, the figure becomes “a form of fire,” both a metaphor and an accurate visual description of a shadow on the horizon backed by the rising morning sun. In Line 16, “the warmth of the sun” on Penelope’s pillow doubles for Ulysses.