The Well Dressed Man With A Beard

Wallace Stevens 1879 (Reading) – 1955 (Hartford)



After the final no there comes a yes
And on that yes the future world depends.
No was the night. Yes is this present sun.
If the rejected things, the things denied,
Slid over the western cataract, yet one,
One only, one thing that was firm, even
No greater than a cricket's horn, no more
Than a thought to be rehearsed all day, a speech
Of the self that must sustain itself on speech,
One thing remaining, infallible, would be
Enough. Ah! douce campagna of that thing!
Ah! douce campagna, honey in the heart,
Green in the body, out of a petty phrase,
Out of a thing believed, a thing affirmed:
The form on the pillow humming while one sleeps,
The aureole above the humming house...
It can never be satisfied, the mind, never.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 29, 2023

41 sec read
556

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABCDCEFGGHIJKLMNO
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 717
Words 136
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 17

Wallace Stevens

Wallace Stevens was an American Modernist poet. more…

All Wallace Stevens poems | Wallace Stevens Books

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