Arts & Sciences

Metaphors of a Magnifico

by Wallace Stevens 1879–1955

From Harmonium (1923)

Arts & Sciences

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....

MLA

Stevens, Wallace. “Metaphors of a Magnifico.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/stevens/13/.

Chicago

Stevens, Wallace. “Metaphors of a Magnifico.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/stevens/13/.

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