Table Talk

Wallace Stevens 1879 (Reading) – 1955 (Hartford)



Granted, we die for good.
Life, then, is largely a thing
Of happens to like, not should.

And that, too, granted, why
Do I happen to like red bush,
Grey grass and green-gray sky?

What else remains? But red,
Gray, green, why those of all?
That is not what I said:

Not those of all. But those.
One likes what one happens to like.
One likes the way red grows.

It cannot matter at all.
Happens to like is one
Of the ways things happen to fall.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 30, 2023

26 sec read
576

Quick analysis:

Scheme AXA BXB CDC EXE DXD
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 442
Words 89
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 3, 3, 3, 3, 3

Wallace Stevens

Wallace Stevens was an American Modernist poet. more…

All Wallace Stevens poems | Wallace Stevens Books

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