The Planet On The Table

Wallace Stevens 1879 (Reading) – 1955 (Hartford)



Ariel was glad he had written his poems.
They were of a remembered time
Or of something seen that he liked.

Other makings of the sun
Were waste and welter
And the ripe shrub writhed.

His self and the sun were one
And his poems, although makings of his self,
Were no less makings of the sun.

It was not important that they survive.
What mattered was that they should bear
Some lineament or character,

Some affluence, if only half-perceived,
In the poverty of their words,
Of the planet of which they were part.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 26, 2023

28 sec read
146

Quick analysis:

Scheme XXA BCA BXB XXC XXX
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 507
Words 96
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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