{"id":235,"date":"2025-09-22T17:23:30","date_gmt":"2025-09-22T17:23:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hartfordlit.org\/?p=235"},"modified":"2026-01-28T21:33:28","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T21:33:28","slug":"earthy-anecdote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hartfordlit.org\/?p=235","title":{"rendered":"Earthy Anecdote\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Consider these questions as you work your way through this poem. What is the effect of this imaginary \u201cfirecat\u201d on the clattering bucks?\u00a0 Why do they form a neatly geometric \u201ccircular line\u201d when trying to avoid the firecat?\u00a0 Does this interaction remind you of any similar pattern in your own life?<\/em><!--more--><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Earthy Anecdote<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><strong>by Wallace Stevens<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Every time the bucks went clattering<br \/>\nOver Oklahoma<br \/>\nA firecat bristled in the way.<\/p>\n<p>Wherever they went,<br \/>\nThey went clattering,<br \/>\nUntil they swerved<br \/>\nIn a swift, circular line<br \/>\nTo the right,<br \/>\nBecause of the firecat.<\/p>\n<p>Or until they swerved<br \/>\nIn a swift, circular line<br \/>\nTo the left,<br \/>\nBecause of the firecat.<\/p>\n<p>The bucks clattered.<br \/>\nThe firecat went leaping,<br \/>\nTo the right, to the left,<br \/>\nAnd<br \/>\nBristled in the way.<\/p>\n<p>Later, the firecat closed his bright eyes<br \/>\nAnd slept.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Glossary<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Anecdote<\/em>:\u00a0 a short, entertaining story<br \/>\n<em>bucks<\/em>:\u00a0 male deer<br \/>\n<em>firecat<\/em>:\u00a0 an imaginary animal; or may refer to a cougar or mountain lion<\/p>\n<pre>Wallace Stevens, \"Earthy Anecdote\" from <i>Harmonium<\/i>. (New York:<strong>\u00a0<\/strong>Alfred A. Knopf, 1923. Public domain.)<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Consider these questions as you work your way through this poem. What is the effect of this imaginary \u201cfirecat\u201d on the clattering bucks?\u00a0 Why do they form a neatly geometric \u201ccircular line\u201d when trying to avoid the firecat?\u00a0 Does this interaction remind you of any similar pattern in your own life?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[34,32],"class_list":["post-235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wallace-stevens","tag-nature","tag-poem"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hartfordlit.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hartfordlit.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hartfordlit.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hartfordlit.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hartfordlit.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hartfordlit.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hartfordlit.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hartfordlit.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hartfordlit.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}