There are those who maintain that both the aesthete and sensualist readings overlook the American burgher in Stevens, the successful insurance executive possessed of "something of the mountainous gruffness that we recognize in ourselves as American—the stamina, the powerful grain showing in a kind of indifference". This character trait may be reflected in the element of anti-poetry in Stevens' work, as in his choice of the word 'stupid' in "Hibiscus on the Sleeping Shores", or the "tink and tank and tunk-a-tunk-tunk" of "A High-Toned Old Christian Woman".