Wallace Stevens' Late Poems And The Reader Poem by Dennis Ryan

Monday night, December 8,2008; revised Saturday December 20

"You know then that it is not the reason
That makes us happy or unhappy."
- Wallace Stevens, "Of Mere Being"

When wisdom comes, it comes late,
the wisdom of frailty included.
"Poor" is a fine adjective, "poverty" a fine noun.
Try them on.Get used to them.They're us.
Though he grew older, frailer, his imagination
never faltered: "How high that highest candle lights the dark."
He grew to appreciate a divergent point of view—
he grew to appreciate his daughter.
He grew to question himself at a deeper level,
in so doing reviving long-lost, long-forgotten feelings.
What more could he have asked for?
These late poems are Stevens at his finest, his most profound:
"The bird's fire-fangled feathers dangle down."
It seems especially so tonight. Yes, tonight,
before it becomes too late to say so.