Stevens is on record as saying that he "intended something quite concrete: actual animals, not original chaos", commenting on Walter Pach's illustration for his poem, which he judged "just the opposite of my idea". If chaos is just the opposite of his idea, Nicholson's astronomical interpretation might fall under the same censure, and perhaps Vendler's "poet's struggles" reading as well. Martha Strom's approach may be more in line with Stevens' idea. She explains the position of the poem at the beginning of "Harmonium" as signifying Stevens' departure from the dominant 'local' school, which enjoined the poet to stay close to his roots and locale. She writes,