Sunday Morning (poem)
Sunday Morning is a poem by Wallace Stevens from his first book, Harmonium. It was first published in Poetry in November 1915 and later included in Harmonium in 1923. The poem is now in the public domain.
Critic Yvor Winters called it “the greatest American poem of the twentieth century” and “one of the greatest contemplative poems in English.”
The poem opens with domestic images: coffee and oranges in a sunny chair and a green cockatoo on a rug, breaking the quiet of an ancient sacred moment. The speaker, a woman, dreams a little and feels the approach of some old catastrophe; in the evening sky, pigeons circle as they drift downward toward darkness.
Stevens said the poem is “simply an expression of paganism.”
Helen Vendler says the poem shows Stevens searching for a truth to replace the Christianity of his childhood. She notes that he uses a female voice, writing “Divinity must live within herself” as the woman decides to celebrate Sunday at home with “Coffee and oranges” instead of going to church.
Robert Buttel sees a connection to the French painter Matisse, suggesting both transform a pagan joy of life into highly civilized terms.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 12:52 (CET).