How we cite our quotes: (Line)
Quote #1
Then the theatre was changed
To something else. Its past was a souvenir (5-6)
At some point in modernity, something changed for human consciousness. At least Stevens says it did. He's not totally clear about what changed. But based on what he writes about in this poem, it must've been something big.
Quote #2
It has to be living, to learn the speech of the place. (7)
Modern minds aren't the same as minds in Shakespeare's time. If we're going to respond to poetry, then poetry's going to have to meet us halfway. It needs to change with the changing times and do what it has to if it wants people to stay interested. No more of this timeless stuff. We need poetry that changes, because people's minds change over time.
Quote #3
It has to face the men of the time and to meet
The women of the time. (8-9)
In order to be relevant, poetry needs to crawl into the minds of men and women of a certain historical moment. It needs to figure out what their fears and desires are, and it needs to speak to those things if it's going to be meaningful for people.
Quote #4
The actor is
A metaphysician in the dark. (19-20)
If a modern poem is an actor, and an actor is a metaphysician in the dark, then poetry is a metaphysician in the dark. That means that poetry has to get to the core of our beliefs. It has to get behind our eyes and see the world through our perspective. It needs to make us ask basic questions about how we look at the world around us and how truthful our senses actually are.
Quote #5
Containing the mind, below which it cannot descend,
Beyond which it has no will to rise. (24-25)
It doesn't do modern poetry any good to shoot for something above the human mind (like God) or something below it (like physical objects). In the end, the modern poem has to be about the mind itself. It has to be about the mind searching for some sort of spiritual fulfillment.
Quote #6
The poem of the act of the mind. (28)
Well, this just about sums it up. It makes sense that Stevens makes this the final statement of the whole poem. Just remember: he's not just talking about a poem of the mind. He's talking about a poem "of the act of the mind." The difference is that he wants to talk about the process that the mind goes through when it thinks about something beautiful or something that gives us spiritual comfort. Different people like different things, but the mental processes we go through when we find meaning in the world are the same. At least for Stevens, they are.