Wallace Stevens: Poems Lesson Plan

What do you think is the purpose of the sections in "Peter Quince at the Clavier?" How does each section function?

Each section focuses on a different part of the story/scene. The first section sets up the conceit of the poem, introducing us to Peter Quince and showing him playing the piano and beginning to think of Susanna. The second section puts us in Susanna's realm, showing her laying in the pool of water and only noticing, at the end, the elders watching her ("a cymbal crashed/and roaring horns" (29-40)). In the third section, Susanna's attendants come to see what is wrong, and then flee when they realize she has been shamed. The fourth and final section turns to...