Religion vs. Nature in Wallace Stevens “Sunday Morning”

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Wallace Stevens “Sunday Morning” illustrates the battle between choosing religion or not. The Christianity faith puts you in a constant ritual of Sunday church. The woman decided to take a Sunday off to relax and take in the nature. While sitting on a Sunday morning and indulging in a late breakfast, she is overwhelmed with guilt of not attending church. “Complacencies of the peignoir, and late, Coffee and oranges in a sunny chair” (line 1-2).

Wallace uses imagery of the everyday world around as a way to show how we sometimes don’t take time out for nature. The woman may not have really paid much attention to her surroundings due to her ritual of going to church all the time. Is she wrong for wanting to see life from the window of her home, rather than from just her dreams as taught in religion? “Why should she give her bounty to the dead? What is divinity if it can come only in silent shadows and in dreams?” (line 15-16). The woman should be able to find joy and peace in the everyday nature around her.

Religion has always taught us to cherish the thought of going to hea...

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