Faith and Mortality: The Question of Belief in Sunday Morning

What does Sunday Morning tell us about the importance of religious belief? 

Sunday Morning tells us that Greek mythology and paganism are given equal standing with Christian belief.

In the second stanza, Stevens compares Christian belief and nature beauty. The protagonist of the poem questions “Why should she give her bounty to the dead?” and then turns into that every detail of beauty in nature not only comforts her soul, but also “the measures destined for her soul”. Moreover, Stevens cites Greek gods’ inhuman birth to question Christian God, and brings a deep question, “And shall the earth Seem all of paradise that we shall know?”. He tries to give a message that no matter which god we believe in and put which religions into our mind, the nature is still there and eternity. In the sixth stanza, Stevens describes the nature in paradise: “Does ripe fruit never fall? Or do the boughs Hang always heavy in that perfect sky, Unchanging, yet so like our perishing earth,”. He uses “sky”, “sun”, and some nature scenes to compare the death in religion, and the diving paradise and death are the equal to paganism.

In conclusion, Stevens first compares nature and Christian belief of death and paradise to question human’s myth of the religion, and then brings Greek mythology to indicate that there are different gods, and the nature scenes we see are still the same. Last but least, he questions whether there is death in paradise, and the answer is yes, because the nature is sill in the paradise. Therefore, Stevens shows his romantism ideal to question religious belief.