"Floral Decorations for Bananas" by Wallace Stevens is a poem that juxtaposes the elegance of traditional floral arrangements with the crude and exotic nature of bananas. The speaker criticizes the choice of bananas as a decorative element, suggesting they clash with the refined setting symbolized by eglantine and eighteenth-century dishes. The poem uses vivid imagery to describe the bananas as insolent and hurricane-like, contrasting them with the expected decorum of plums and delicate buds. The speaker imagines the table set by an ogre, emphasizing the bananas' incongruity with the refined atmosphere. The poem concludes with a suggestion to adorn the bananas with leaves from Carib trees, further highlighting their wild and untamed nature. Through this contrast, Stevens explores themes of aesthetic discord and the tension between the exotic and the conventional.
By Wallace Stevens · First published 1935 · Genre: Modernist Poetry, Surreal Poetry, Imagist Poetry