-Anne Stevenson, who was raised in both the UK and the United States for the first part

of her
life, was born in Cambridge, England. Stevenson described herself as an American but added, "I
belong to an America which no longer actually exists." She has resided primarily in the UK since
1962, including Cambridge, Scotland, Oxford, and, for the most part, North Wales and Durham.

-She was born on Jan 3rd , 1933 and died on Sep 14th , 202o. Anne Stevenson, a married woman
with three adult children and six grandchildren, resides in Durham City, England, with her
husband, Peter Lucas. In 2002, she won the first Northern Rock Foundation Writers Award.

TODAY’S POEM
The Spirit Is Too Blunt an Instrument BY ANNE STEVENSON
 Stevenson first studied music but switched to poetry after studying under Donald Hall at the
University of Michigan, where she also received her undergraduate and master's degrees.
Stevenson developed her craft independently of many of her contemporaries but within the
greater dialogue of the genre. She resisted affiliations with any certain school of modern
poetry. According to her, "I wouldn't be able to hear what I have to say if I couldn't overhear
the rhythms and tones created by the vast, variegated history of English poetry—say by
Donne, Blake, Keats, Dickinson, Whitman, or Frost.

 Poems that merely emerge from a thin layer of corrupted, modern language are rootless.
They remind me of the mass-produced, chemically grown veggies sold in supermarkets.
Stevenson received the Poetry Foundation's Neglected Masters Award and the Lannan
Lifetime Achievement Award for Poetry in 2007. The Northern Rock Foundation Writer's
Award was also given to her. Stevenson is the author of more than a dozen collections of
poetry and several collections of prose, including two anthologies and books of criticism,
radio plays, essays, and biographies. Bitter Fame, her biography of Sylvia Plath, was
controversial both among critics and the general public due to its favorable treatment of Ted
Hughes. Despite living a life aside from the writers' circle as a new wife and mother,
Stevenson was a peer of Plath and Hughes.

 Stevenson's poetry remained to be influenced by sound even as she gradually lost her
hearing. Stevenson stated, "Even though I no longer often write in predetermined shapes,
poems still occur to me as tunes in the head. Words have a rhythm before they have a
meaning. I frequently learn the meaning of a poem by paying attention to what its rhythms
are trying to tell me. I've been aware of living at what E.M. Forster called "a slight angle" to
the universe ever since I can remember, she claims. "I've always been forced to make my own
angular habitat, or I'd die. But that is the very purpose of boundaries. It's the ideal vantage
point for seeing both sides.
The story behind the poem & Summary:
 The strange poetry "The Spirit is too Blunt an Instrument" by Anne
Stevenson examines the distinction between the physical body and the
soul. Stevenson, who is captivated by the intricate science that underlies
human biology, considers the soul to be a basic, primitive concept in
comparison.

 The spirit is too crude a tool to have brought forth this child. Therefore, bones are
in harmony with their tendons, the knee and knucklebones, the robust and yet
delicate ganglia and vertebrae, and the train of the tough spine. Nothing as
primitive as human passions could have imagined such perfection. The ear
resembles a shell and is constructed of strong layers joined by small ossicles. Look
at the clean eyelashes and crescent-shaped fingernails. Consider the vast number
of capillaries, the flawless operation of the lungs, and the durable neuronal
filaments that connect the entire body to the brain.

 Any human impulse that exhibits any degree of accuracy? No, through the body's
naive sense, feeling or attachment would appropriately perceive how habits act,
albeit impartially. Every mental condition is free to discover love and suffering,
dread and their pain.
Vocabulary used in the poem :
 Ganglia – nerve cell structures
 Vertebrae – sections of the spinal column
 Involutions – shrinkage of an organ because of old age or inactivity
 Concentric – having a common center
 Ossicles – small bones in the middle ear responsible for the
transmission of sounds from the air to the cochlea
 Knucklebones – bones located in the hands and feet
 Infinitesimal – very small in size, minute
 Neural – concerning the nerves and nervous system
 Indifferently – not caring, especially in a way where someone seems
cold and distance
 Precision – being very precise, generally having good attention to
detail
 Vagaries – unexpected and unpredictable changes
 Speaker/Voice

 Although the writer accentuates the idea of human weakness, the

human body is also depicted as being lovely and infinitely intricate. She
seemed amazed that the human body is a work of art created by an
almost effortless process, despite the fact that most people also appear
to be unaware of their own inner workings. Right away, the speaker
creates a negative atmosphere. Her doubts about human potential are,
however, eclipsed by passages that extol the greatness of people.

 The poet successfully establishes a good mood by referring to the human

body as a distinctive creation and using adjectives like "sentimental." The
speaker appears to be bemoaning how the human race is so ignorant
that they fail to appreciate the beauty both within and around them. We
all have bodies, but it seems that the more we analyze ourselves, the
more we try to break down who we are, the more complicated and
perplexing we become!
 Souce ,Websites :
1) 'The Spirit is too Blunt an Instrument' - What i
s it about? (scrbblyblog.com)
2) The Spirit is too Blunt an Instrument.pdf
3) Anne Stevenson | Poetry Foundation