Early Sunday Morning

Stone, John

Primary Category: Literature / Poetry

Genre: Poem

Annotated by:
Nixon, Lois LaCivita
  • Date of entry: Jun-25-2004
  • Last revised: Jan-23-2013

Summary

The poem was inspired by a painting of the same title by Edward Hopper (Early Sunday Morning). Stone describes what is visible in the painting and then muses about what "may be" happening. For example, in "the next block someone may be practicing the flute."

Hopper's painting, like all art and literature, is an invitation for engagement, reflection, and expansion. While Stone inventories the painting's urban terrain, he is compelled to enter into the picture with his imagination. By doing so he demonstrates our dual capacity for both the facts of science and the less precise, but equally valuable impulses of fiction.

Commentary

It is useful to have a slide or copy of the Hopper painting to show how art stirs the imagination and how it compels the human mind to make connections.

Miscellaneous

Primary Source

Renaming the Streets

Publisher

Louisiana State Univ. Press

Place Published

Baton Rouge, La.

Edition

1985