Sun, the

The sun is a major image in Stevens, appearing no less than 233 times in his collected poems, which is to say nothing of Stevens' various references to morning, noon, day, daylight, etc. A complete listing of lines including the word sun is rather too long to include here, but can be accessed via the Online Concordance.
==What is the Sun?==
The sun is, of course, the yellow dwarf star at the center of our Solar System. It is essentially a nuclear fusion engine for the conversion of hydrogen into helium. The light energy produced by the sun supports nearly all life on earth and has profound effects on Earth's climate and weather. The central importance of the sun has long been recognized by human cultures, many of which have identified the sun as a deity. For more information about the sun in science and culture, see the extensive Wikipedia article.
==What is the Sun Doing in Stevens?==
Broadly speaking, the sun is Stevens' preferred metaphor for absolute reality, transcendental truth, and/or ultimate perception. It is frequently opposed to images of night, evening, the moon, or sleep, all of which tend to indicate perception as it has been coded, and thus dulled, by literary, linguistic, and/or social convention. The arrival of the sun in Stevens nearly always serves to announce the dawning of some sublime awareness that enables the poet, however briefly, to encounter the noumenal world of the ding an sich or thing in itself.