Nomad Exquisite

video|right|300px right|300px 
"Nomad Exquisite," from Steven's Harmonium, explores the interrelation of nature and observer. The modified syllogistic structure of the poem--the "as" leading to the "so"--situates an unfolding and active Florida landscape in the act of "angering for life." As the natural scene unfolds in the language of the poem, it elicits a hymn from a "beholder," who observes its many facets and features. Likewise, even a "young alligator" is gifted with observational capacity, as the scene is activated for her, too. Each of these topos--unveiled nature, the human observation and response, and the projection of observational qualities into the "other" of animals--are all finally collapsed in the poem's speaker, who becomes activated by his observations. This as-so relationship creates a paradigm of necessity, suggesting that the awareness of "forms" and "flames" within the speaker is a direct result of natural emanation. Even this "nomad"--an isolated figure existing within his own awareness--is conscious of the multiplicity of perspectives existing in his natural interrelation with the world, an "exquisite"--or keenly sensitive--observation.