The Revolutionists stop for Orangeade

"The Revolutionists stop for Orangeade" is a poem from the second, 1931,edition of Wallace Stevens's first book of poetry,"Harmonium." It was firstpublished in 1931, [Bates, p. 235] so it is restricted by copyright until 2025 inAmerica and similar jurisdictions, because of legislation like the
Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act.

Although the poem's title is not atypical in being gaudy, it may be anexception to the rule that the titles of Stevens's poems are notguides to their content. The revolutionists are imploringthier leader to let them stop singing in the sun, or at least toresume singing in the shade. And while the captain starts the singingin a voice rougher than a grinding shale, orangeade all around wouldnot be amiss.

The poem reflects Stevens's affection for the Carribean, and it is aslight as a feather compared to other poems added to the 1931 editionof "Harmonium", like "Sea Surface full of Clouds".

Direct address and imperative mood ("Ask us not....", "Sing asong....", "Wear the breeches...", "Hang a feather....") keeps thepace brisk in the poem's four stanzas, enhanced in the fourth by theunusual rhyming.

Notes

References

• Bates, Milton J. "Wallace Stevens: A Mythology of Self". 1985: University of California Press.