Wallace Stevens (October 2, 1879 – August 2, 1955 / Pennsylvania / United States)

I like the relationship between this poem and 'The Reader, ' also by Stevens:


The Reader

All night I sat reading a book,
Sat reading as if in a book
Of somber pages.

It was autumn and falling stars
Covered the shriveled forms
Crouched in the moonlight.

No lamp was burning as I read,
A voice was mumbling, “Everything
Falls back to coldness,

Even the musky muscadines,
The melons, the vermilion pears
Of the leafless garden.”

The somber pages bore no print
Except the trace of burning stars
In the frosty heaven.

Wallace Stevens