Metaphors of a Magnifico

Wallace Stevens 1879 (Reading) – 1955 (Hartford)



Twenty men crossing a bridge,
Into a village,
Are twenty men crossing twenty bridges,
Into twenty villages,
Or one man
Crossing a single bridge into a village.

This is old song
That will not declare itself . . .

Twenty men crossing a bridge,
Into a village,
Are
Twenty men crossing a bridge
Into a village.

That will not declare itself
Yet is certain as meaning . . .

The boots of the men clump
On the boards of the bridge.
The first white wall of the village
Rises through fruit-trees.
Of what was it I was thinking?
So the meaning escapes.

The first white wall of the village...
The fruit-trees...

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 30, 2023

32 sec read
128

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABccxb xD ABxAB De xaBfex Bf
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 585
Words 107
Stanzas 6
Stanza Lengths 6, 2, 5, 2, 6, 2

Wallace Stevens

Wallace Stevens was an American Modernist poet. more…

All Wallace Stevens poems | Wallace Stevens Books

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