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In his book Natural Supernaturalism, M. H. Abrams draws a parallel between the poetry of Wallace Stevens and that of William Wordsworth (69). Abrams notes that in a poem entitled "Of Modern Poetry," Stevens wrote that the purpose of poetry is to find "What will suffice" (line 2). That sufficiency, or "satisfaction," as he calls it in line 24 of the poem, is a sense of meaning in life or a sense of faith in some kind of ideology. According to Abrams, Wordsworth's poetry is just as much a search for sufficiency as is that of Stevens. It may seem odd to mention the American Wallace Stevens in a discussion of British Romantic poetry, but Stevens's philosophy of poetry helps to elucidate many Romantic texts. One such text is a long narrative poem by Caroline Bowles called Ellen Fitzarthur. The poem is essentially a retelling of the biblical tale of the prodigal son as recounted in Chapter 15 of the Book of Luke. However, Bowles's version deviates from the original story while merging pagan imagery with the Christian allegory. Ulitmately, the poem does not offer its readers sufficiency. Instead, it suggests that in a post-revolutionary world, both Christianity and paganism may be inadequate providers of the "satisfaction" that Stevens and the Romantics sought. Ellen Fitzarthur is thus a statement of skepticism about the values of the Romantic age.
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