Analysis of Two Figures in Dense Violet Light

Wallace Stevens 1879 (Reading) – 1955 (Hartford)



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.


Scheme XAX XXX XXX XXX XXX XAX
Poetic Form
Metre 1111101101001001 11111101 1111 1011010100011 11101100 1011 110111111110 1111100011 0101 1011011010 01101011 001 101101011011 0111110011 0111 11011100101 1101011111 1011
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 652
Words 127
Sentences 9
Stanzas 6
Stanza Lengths 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3
Lines Amount 18
Letters per line (avg) 29
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 86
Words per stanza (avg) 21
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

38 sec read
64

Wallace Stevens

Wallace Stevens was an American Modernist poet. more…

All Wallace Stevens poems | Wallace Stevens Books

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