Nemerov argues that the difficulty in Stevens's poetry lies in “the moments of greatest simplicity” (Nemerov 3). In the French language, the verb “to be” or “être,” is arguably the most important verb, complementing countless verb tenses throughout the modern language. A similar idea is seen in Stevens’s poetry. With a verb such as “to be,” there are endless possibilities that explicate the meaning behind each poem, yet the verb itself is remarkably simple. Nemerov demonstrates that with this verb, Stevens’s captures his audience in a philosophical trance of subjective judgement. The complications in this simplicity, however, begin and end with the one reading and interpreting it. Nemerov suggests that when reading Stevens’s poetry, there are
