So much just to be seen—a purpose, empty
Perhaps, absurd perhaps, but at least a purpose,
Certain and ever more fresh. Ah! Certain, for sure…
THE PLANET ON THE TABLE
Ariel was glad he had written his poems.
They were of a remembered time
Or of something seen that he liked.
Other makings of the sun
Were waste and welter
And the ripe shrub writhed.
His self and the sun were one
And his poems, although makings of his self,
Were no less makings of the sun.
It was not important that they survive.
What mattered was that they should bear
Some lineament or character,
Some affluence, if only half-perceived,
In the poverty of their words,
Of the planet of which they were part.
THE RIVER OF RIVERS IN CONNECTICUT
There is a great river this side of Stygia,
Before one comes to the first black cataracts
And trees that lack the intelligence of trees.
In that river, far this side of Stygia,
The mere flowing of the water is a gayety,
Flashing and flashing in the sun. On its banks,
No shadow walks. The river is fateful,
Like the last one. But there is no ferryman.
He could not bend against its propelling force.
It is not to be seen beneath the appearances
That tell of it. The steeple at Farmington
Stands glistening and Haddam shines and sways.
It is the third commonness with light and air,
A curriculum, a vigor, a local abstraction…
Call it, once more, a river, an unnamed flowing,
Space-filled, reflecting the seasons, the folk-lore
Of each of the senses; call it, again and again,
The river that flows nowhere, like a sea.
NOT IDEAS ABOUT THE THING BUT THE THING ITSELF
At the earliest ending of winter,
In March, a scrawny cry from outside
Seemed like a sound in his mind.
He knew that he heard it,
A bird’s cry, at daylight or before,
In the early March wind.
The sun was rising at six,
No longer a battered panache above snow…
It would have been outside.
It was not from the vast ventriloquism
Of sleep’s faded papier-mâché…
The sun was coming from outside.
That scrawny cry—it was
A chorister whose c preceded the choir.
It was part of the colossal sun,
Surrounded by its choral rings,
Still far away. It was like
A new knowledge of reality.
INDEX OF TITLES OF POEMS
Academic Discourse at Havana
Add This to Rhetoric
Adult Epigram
American Sublime, The
Analysis of a Theme
Anatomy of Monotony
Anecdote of Canna
Anecdote of Men by the Thousand
Anecdote of the Jar
Anecdote of the Prince of Peacocks
Angel Surrounded by Paysans
Anglais Mort à Florence
Another Weeping Woman
Anything Is Beautiful if You Say It Is
Apostrophe to Vincentine, The
Arcades of Philadelphia the Past
Arrival at the Waldorf
Asides on the Oboe
Attempt to Discover Life
Auroras of Autumn, The
Autumn Refrain
Bagatelles the Madrigals, The
Banal Sojourn
Bantams in Pine-Woods
Bed of Old John Zeller, The
Beginning, The
Bird with the Coppery, Keen Claws, The
Blue Buildings in the Summer Air, The
Botanist on Alp (No. 1)
Botanist on Alp (No. 2)
Bouquet, The
Bouquet of Belle Scavoir
Bouquet of Roses in Sunlight
Brave Man, The
Burghers of Petty Death
Candle a Saint, The
Celle Qui Fût Héaulmiette
Certain Phenomena of Sound
Chaos in Motion and Not in Motion
Chocorua to Its Neighbor
Colloquy with a Polish Aunt
Comedian as the Letter C, The
Common Life, The
Completely New Set of Objects
Connoisseur of Chaos
Continual Conversation with a Silent Man
Contrary Theses (I)
Contrary Theses (II)
Cortège for Rosenbloom
Country Words
Countryman, The
Creations of Sound, The
Credences of Summer
Crude Foyer
Cuban Doctor, The
Cuisine Bourgeoise
Curtains in the House of the Metaphysician, The
Cy Est Pourtraicte, Madame Ste Ursule, et Les Unze Mille Vierges
Dance of the Macabre Mice
Death of a Soldier, The
Debris of Life and Mind
Delightful Evening
Depression before Spring
Description without Place
Dezembrum
Dish of Peaches in Russia, A
Disillusionment of Ten O’Clock
Doctor of Geneva, The
Domination of Black
Dove in the Belly, The
Dry Loaf
Dutch Graves in Bucks County
Dwarf, The
Earthy Anecdote
Emperor of Ice-Cream, The
Esthétique du Mal
Evening without Angels
Examination of the Hero in a Time of War
Explanation
Extracts from Addresses to the Academy of Fine Ideas
Extraordinary References
Fabliau of Florida
Fading of the Sun, A
Farewell to Florida
Final Soliloquy of the Interior Paramour
Fish-Scale Sunrise, A
Floral Decorations for Bananas
Flyer’s Fall
Forces, the Will & the Weather
Frogs Eat Butterflies. Snakes Eat Frogs. Hogs Eat Snakes. Men Eat Hogs
From the Misery of Don Joost
From the Packet of Anarcharsis
Gallant Château
Ghosts as Cocoons
Gigantomachia
Girl in a Nightgown
Glass of Water, The
God Is Good. It Is a Beautiful Night
Golden Woman in a Silver Mirror, A
Good Man Has No Shape, The
Gray Stones and Gray Pigeons
Green Plant, The
Gubbinal
Hand as a Being, The
Hermitage at the Centre, The
Hibiscus on the Sleeping Shores
High-Toned Old Christian Woman, A
Holiday in Reality
Homunculus et La Belle Étoile
House Was Quiet and the World
Was Calm, The
How to Live. What to Do
Human Arrangement
Hymn from a Watermelon Pavilion
Idea of Order at Key West, The
Idiom of the Hero
Imago
In a Bad Time
In the Carolinas
In the Clear Season of Grapes
In the Element of Antagonisms
Indian River
Infanta Marina
Invective against Swans
Irish Cliffs of Moher, The
Jack-Rabbit, The
Jasmine’s Beautiful Thoughts underneath the Willow
Jouga
Jumbo
Lack of Repose, The
Landscape with Boat
/> Large Red Man Reading
Last Looks at the Lilacs
Late Hymn from the Myrrh-Mountain
Latest Freed Man, The
Lebensweisheitspielerei
Less and Less Human, O Savage Spirit
Life Is Motion
Like Decorations in a Nigger Cemetery
Lions in Sweden
Load of Sugar-Cane, The
Loneliness in Jersey City
Long and Sluggish Lines
Looking across the Fields and Watching the Birds Fly
Lot of People Bathing in a Stream, A
Lunar Paraphrase
Madame La Fleurie
Man and Bottle
Man Carrying Thing
Man on the Dump, The
Man Whose Pharynx Was Bad
Man with the Blue Guitar, The
Martial Cadenza
Meditation Celestial & Terrestrial
Men Made out of Words
Men That are Falling, The
Metamorphosis
Metaphor as Degeneration
Metaphors of a Magnifico
Monocle de Mon Oncle, Le
Montrachet-le-Jardin
Motive for Metaphor, The
Mountains Covered with Cats
Mozart, 1935
Mrs. Alfred Uruguay
Mud Master
Negation
New England Verses
News and the Weather, The
No Possum, No Sop, No Taters
Nomad Exquisite
Not Ideas about the Thing but the Thing Itself
Note on Moonlight
Notes toward a Supreme Fiction
Novel, The
Nuances of a Theme by Williams
Nudity at the Capital
Nudity in the Colonies
O Florida, Venereal Soil
Oak Leaves Are Hands
Of Bright & Blue Birds & the Gala Sun
Of Hartford in a Purple Light
Of Heaven Considered as a Tomb
Of Modern Poetry
Of the Surface of Things
Old Lutheran Bells at Home, The
Old Man Asleep, An
On an Old Horn
On the Adequacy of Landscape
On the Manner of Addressing Clouds
On the Road Home
One of the Inhabitants of the West
Ordinary Evening in New Haven, An
Ordinary Women, The
Our Stars Come from Ireland
Owl in the Sarcophagus, The
Page from a Tale
Paisant Chronicle
Palace of the Babies
Paltry Nude Starts on a Spring Voyage, The
Parochial Theme
Pastor Caballero, The
Pastoral Nun, A
Pediment of Appearance, The
Peter Quince at the Clavier
Phosphor Reading by His Own Light
Pieces
Place of the Solitaires, The
Plain Sense of Things, The
Planet on the Table, The
Pleasures of Merely Circulating, The
Plot against the Giant, The
Ploughing on Sunday
Plus Belles Pages, Les
Poem that Took the Place of a Mountain, The
Poem with Rhythms
Poem Written at Morning
Poems of Our Climate, The
Poesie Abrutie
Poetry Is a Destructive Force
Postcard from the Volcano, A
Prejudice against the Past, The
Prelude to Objects
Primitive Like an Orb, A
Prologues to What Is Possible
Public Square, The
Puella Parvula
Pure Good of Theory, The
Questions Are Remarks
Quiet Normal Life, A
Rabbit as King of the Ghosts, A
Reader, The
Red Fern, The
Repetitions of a Young Captain
Reply to Papini
Re-statement of Romance
Revolutionists Stop for Orangeade, The
River of Rivers in Connecticut, The
Rock, The
Sad Strains of a Gay Waltz
Sailing after Lunch
St. Armorer’s Church from the Outside
Saint John and the Back-Ache
Sea Surface Full of Clouds
Search for Sound Free from Motion, The
Sense of the Sleight-of-hand Man, The
Six Significant Landscapes
Sketch of the Ultimate Politician
Snow and Stars
Snow Man, The
So-And-So Reclining on Her Couch
Some Friends from Pascagoula
Somnambulisma
Sonatina to Hans Christian
Song of Fixed Accord
Stars at Tallapoosa
Study of Images I
Study of Images II
Study of Two Pears
Sun This March, The
Sunday Morning
Surprises of the Superhuman, The
Tattoo
Tea
Tea at the Palaz of Hoon
Theory
Things of August
Thinking of a Relation between the Images of Metaphors
Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird
This Solitude of Cataracts
Thought Revolved, A
Thunder by the Musician
To an Old Philosopher in Rome
To the One of Fictive Music
To the Roaring Wind
Tom McGreevy, in America, Thinks of Himself as a Boy
Two at Norfolk
Two Figures in Dense Violet Night
Two Illustrations That the World Is What You Make of It
Two Tales of Liadoff
Two Versions of the Same Poem
Ultimate Poem Is Abstract, The
United Dames of America
Vacancy in the Park
Valley Candle
Variations on a Summer Day
Virgin Carrying a Lantern, The
Waving Adieu, Adieu, Adieu
Weak Mind in the Mountains, A
Weeping Burgher, The
Well Dressed Man with a Beard, The
Westwardness of Everything, The
What We See Is What We Think
Wild Ducks, People and Distances
Wind Shifts, The
Winter Bells
Woman in Sunshine, The
Woman Looking at a Vase of Flowers
Woman Sings a Song for a Soldier Come Home, A
Word with José Rodríguez-Feo, A
World as Meditation, The
World without Peculiarity
Worms at Heaven’s Gate, The
Yellow Afternoon
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
WALLACE STEVENS was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, on October 2, 1879, and died in Hartford, Connecticut, on August 2, 1955. Although he had contributed to the Harvard Advocate while in college, he began to gain general recognition only when Harriet Monroe included four of his poems in a special 1914 wartime issue of Poetry. Harmonium, his first volume of poems, was published in 1923, and was followed by Ideas of Order (1936), The Man with the Blue Guitar (1937), Parts of a World (1942), Transport to Summer (1947), The Auroras of Autumn (1950), The Necessary Angel (a volume of essays, 1951), The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens (1954), and Opus Posthumous (first published in 1957, edited by Samuel Freud Morse; a new, revised, and corrected edition by Milton J. Bates, 1989). Mr. Stevens was awarded the Bollingen Prize in Poetry of the Yale University Library for 1949. In 1951 he won the National Book Award in Poetry for The Auroras of Autumn; in 1955 he won it a second time for The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens, which was also awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry in 1955. From 1916 on, he was associated with the Hartford Accident and Indemnity Company, of which he became vice-president in 1934.
WALLACE STEVENS
Harmonium (1923, 1931, 1
937)
The Man With the Blue Guitar INCLUDING Ideas of Order
(1936, 1937; IN ONE VOLUME, 1952)
Parts of a World (1942, 1951)
Transport to Summer (1947)
The Auroras of Autumn (1950)
The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens (1954)
(INCLUDES ALL TITLES LISTED ABOVE)
Opus Posthumous: Poems, Plays, Prose (1957; 1989)
(REVISED, ENLARGED, AND CORRECTED EDITION EDITED BY MILTON J. BATES)
The Palm at the End of the Mind: Selected Poems and a Play (1971)
(EDITED BY HOLLY STEVENS)
The Necessary Angel: Essays on Reality and the Imagination (1951)
Letters of Wallace Stevens (1966)
(SELECTED AND EDITED BY HOLLY STEVENS)
Souvenirs and Prophecies: The Young Wallace Stevens (1977)
(BY HOLLY STEVENS)
Wallace Stevens, The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens
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