transfiguration of Milton's Satan in the poetry of Wallace Stevens

The allusions to Paradise Lost in the poetry of Wallace Stevens--specifically the journey through Chaos--reveal an underlying allegory in which Satan as the symbol of imperfect man is transformed through the powers of poetry and grace to emerge from the darkness of fear and superstition a redeemed figure made vibrant through a more vital understanding of himself, his world, and his place in it. Through the powers of decreation he comes to realize that the imperfect is synonymous not only with the possibilities of change but also with the cycles of life itself; like Job, he finds that the only truth worth having is one affirmed through his own experience and through the realizations of a love far greater than himself.