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"The consolations of space are nameless things.
It was after the neurosis of winter. It was
In the genius of summer that they blew up
The statue of Jove among the boomy clouds.
It took all day to quieten the sky
And then to refill its emptiness again...."
Wallace Stevens (1879-1955), U.S. poet. "An Ordinary Evening in New Haven." |
"The archbishop is away. The church is gray.
He has left his robes folded in camphor
And, dressed in black, he walks
Among fireflies."
Wallace Stevens (1879-1955), U.S. poet. "Gray Stones and Gray Pigeons." |
"The poem of the mind in the act of finding
What will suffice. It has not always had
To find: the scene was set; it repeated what
Was in the script.
Then the theatre was changed
To something else. Its past was a souvenir."
Wallace Stevens (1879-1955), U.S. poet. Of Modern Poetry (l. 1-6). . .
Collected Poems [Stevie Smith]. James MacGibbon, ed. (1976) New Directions. |
"The words of things entangle and confuse.
The plum survives its poems."
Wallace Stevens (1879-1955), U.S. poet. "The Comedian as the Letter C.." |
"Sure enough, moving, the thunder became men,
Ten thousand, men hewn and tumbling,
Mobs of ten thousand, clashing together,
This way and that."
Wallace Stevens (1879-1955), U.S. poet. "Thunder by the Musician." |
"Professor Eucalyptus said, "The search
For reality is as momentous as
The search for god." It is the philosopher's search
For an interior made exterior
And the poet's search for the same exterior made
Interior: breathless things broodingly abreath...."
Wallace Stevens (1879-1955), U.S. poet. "An Ordinary Evening in New Haven." |
"That tuft of jungle feathers,
That animal eye ..."
Wallace Stevens (1879-1955), U.S. poet. "Gubbinal." |
"And it has to find what will suffice. It has
To construct a new stage."
Wallace Stevens (1879-1955), U.S. poet. Of Modern Poetry (l. 10-11). . .
Collected Poems [Stevie Smith]. James MacGibbon, ed. (1976) New Directions. |
"What is one man among so many men?
What are so many men in such a world?
Can one man think one thing and think it long?
Can one man be one thing and be it long?"
Wallace Stevens (1879-1955), U.S. poet. "The Comedian as the Letter C.." |
"It is poverty's speech that seeks us out the most.
It is older than the oldest speech of Rome.
This is the tragic accent of the scene."
Wallace Stevens (1879-1955), U.S. poet. "To an Old Philosopher in Rome." |
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Wallace Stevens
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