Two Figures in Dense Violet Light

Two Figures in Dense Violet Light

I had as lief be embraced by the portier of the hotel
As to get no more from the moonlight
Than your moist hand.

Be the voice of the night and Florida in my ear.
Use dasky words and dusky images.
Darken your speech.

Speak, even, as if I did not hear you speaking,
But spoke for you perfectly in my thoughts,
Conceiving words,

As the night conceives the sea-sound in silence,
And out of the droning sibilants makes
A serenade.

Say, puerile, that the buzzards crouch on the ridge-pole
and sleep with one eye watching the stars fall
Beyond Key West.

Say that the palms are clear in the total blue.
Are clear and are obscure; that it is night;
That the moon shines.

-- Wallace Stevens

Comments

[Ranger]

Isn't he something. Certainly one of the most original poets the US has ever seen. Such an interesting voice. Wow for both poem and image.

[Carol]

Hi RT,

I am fascinated by the relationship in this poem. I think of it as an impatient chiding by a man to his younger male lover...but more than that--instructive, too. I remember someone calling another person "puerile" when I was a teenager, and in just the same way, as a form of address. I think the ending is beautiful.

Carol

[Aisha]

How appropriate, as we saw (well, I was asleep...) the lunar eclipse this week...

Is it your picture? Wonderful, very Florida.

I love his Sunday Morning too --

"Complacencies of the peignoir, and late
Coffee and oranges in a sunny chair,
And the green freedom of a cockatoo..."

Aisha

[Paula]

That last stanza is really something, Carol.
Love the combo poem/picture.

Aisha and Paula,

Yes, I like the ending with its almost neon brightness, "total blue." That's why I made the bitmap. I'd hoped I could paste it right next to the poem but this blog would only let me link. Maybe I'll have to upgrade? (Sounds like when we used to tech-talk.)

Carol