Harmonium (Stevens)

by Wallace Stevens

For works with similar titles, see Harmonium.

Harmonium

by Wallace Stevens

 

 

New YorkAlfred • A • Knopf Mcmxxiii

COPYRIGHT, 1923, BY ALFRED A. KNOPF, INC.

To

MY WIFE

The poems in this book, with the exception of The Comedian as the Letter C and a few others, have been published before in Others, Secession, Rogue, The Soil, The Modern School, Broom, Contact, The New Republic, The Measure, The Little Review, The Dial, and particularly in Poetry: A Magazine of Verse, of Chicago, edited by Harriet Monroe.

Contents

Earthy Anecdote		15
Invective against Swans		16
In the Carolinas		17
The Paltry Nude Starts on a Spring Voyage		18
The Plot against the Giant		20
Infanta Marina		21
Domination of Black		22
The Snow Man		24
The Ordinary Women		25
The Load of Sugar-Cane		27
Le Monocle de Mon Oncle		28
Nuances of a Theme by Williams		34
Metaphors of a Magnifico		35
Ploughing on Sunday		36
Cy Est Pourtraicte, Madame Ste Ursule, et Les Unze Mille Vierges		37
Hibiscus on the Sleeping Shores		39
Fabliau of Florida		40
The Doctor of Geneva		41
Another Weeping Woman		42
Homunculus et la Belle Etoile		43
The Comedian as the Letter C		46
The World without Imagination		47
Concerning the Thunderstorms of Yucatan		50
Approaching Carolina		54
The Idea of a Colony		58
A Nice Shady Home		62
And Daughters with Curls		66
From the Misery of Don Joost		70
O, Florida, Venereal Soil		71
Last Looks at the Lilacs		73
The Worms at Heaven's Gate		74
The Jack Rabbit		75
Valley Candle		76
Anecdote of Men by the Thousand		77
The Silver Plough-Boy		78
The Apostrophe to Vincentine		79
Floral Decorations for Bananas		81
Anecdote of Canna		83
Of the Manner of Addressing Clouds		84
Of Heaven Considered as a Tomb		85
Of the Surface of Things		86
Anecdote of the Prince of Peacocks		87
A High-Toned Old Christian Woman		89
The Place of the Solitaires		90
The Weeping Burgher		91
The Curtains in the House of the Metaphysician		92
Banal Sojourn		93
Depression before Spring		94
The Emperor of Ice-Cream		95
The Cuban Doctor		96
Tea at the Palaz of Hoon		97
Exposition of the Contents of a Cab		98
Disillusionment of Ten O'clock		99
Sunday Morning		100
The Virgin Carrying a Lantern		105
Stars at Tallapoosa		106
Explanation		107
Six Significant Landscapes		108
Bantams in Pine-Woods		111
Anecdote of the Jar		112
Palace of the Babies		113
Frogs Eat Butterflies. Snakes Eat Frogs. Hogs Eat Snakes. Men Eat Hogs		114
Jasmine's Beautiful Thoughts underneath the Willow		115
Cortège for Rosenbloom		116
Tattoo		118
The Bird with the Coppery, Keen Claws		119
Life is Motion		120
Architecture		121
The Wind Shifts		124
Colloquy with a Polish Aunt		125
Gubbinal		126
Two Figures in Dense Violet Night		127
Theory		128
To the One of Fictive Music		129
Hymn from a Watermelon Pavilion		131
Peter Quince at the Clavier		132
Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird		135
Nomad Exquisite		138
Tea		139
To the Roaring Wind		140

Harmonium