The Poem That Took The Place of a Mountain
By Wallace Stevens

There it was, word for word,
The poem that took the place of a mountain.
He breathed its oxygen,
Even when the book lay turned in the dust of his table.
It reminded him how he had needed
A place to go to in his own direction,
How he had recomposed the pines,
Shifted the rocks and picked his way among clouds,
For the outlook that would be right,
Where he would be complete in an unexplained completion:
The exact rock where his inexactness
Would discover, at last, the view toward which they had edged,
Where he could lie and, gazing down at the sea,
Recognize his unique and solitary home.

"It reminded him how he needed
A place to go in his own direction"

I believe that these two lines from Steven's poem mean that he loves to get out of the everyday hussel and bussel of city life and go somwhere where he is able to be by himself and relax. By going to the top of a mountain he is able to refect on his own life without the pressures of being an insurance salesman. I also believe that by writing poems such as this one he is able to escape even if it is only for a short time.