Description without Place [Poem]

Author(s): Wallace Stevens

Source: The Sewanee Review, Vol. 53, No. 4 (Autumn, 1945), pp. 559-565
Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27537622 .
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DESCRIPTION

WITHOUT

By WALLACE

PLACE

STEVENS

I
It is possible
that to seem?it
is to be,
sun
As the
is something
and it is.
seeming
The

is an example.
in such seeming

sun

It is and
Thus
Or
Or
By
Her
The

it seems

What
all

a seeming
things are like
of the moon
like a seeming
It was
sleep.
the illustrious
mind

green

or night

that made

nothing

of her

it seem

name.

the world

made

sun

the

of

a queen

around

. . .This

is an example.

queen

are.

things

green

her

green.

queen

of the summer
of her sun
seeming
the summer
her own seeming made
change.

In the
By

In the golden
vacancy
to be on
seems
And
becomes

Her

time

The

crown

she came,
the saying

and

comes,
of her name.

as

it became,
coronal of her

again,

and week-day

fame.

II
are the actual ones:
seemings
look each day, each morning,
Things
Such

Peculiar
The

to the queen,

lesser

seeming

the way
or the style

this queen or that,

in the blind
original

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560

DESCRIPTION

Forward
The

WITHOUT

PLACE

sees

of the eye

that, in its backward,

of the major
mind.
seeming

greater

An

age

is a manner

An

age

is green

or

An

Or

it denies.

Or

a barricade

By
Its

the

collected

from

red.

age

age

An

believes

is a solitude
the

against

a queen.

man

singular

Hence
plural.
a thing that seems,

incalculably
is merely
identity

in the eye,
In the seeming
of an original
In the major manner
of a queen,
the green
the blue,
the argent queen.
would
haver
subtlety
apparition

The

If not,

red,

What

In flat
Except

appearance
for delicate

we

These

are

Hear,

feel and know.

should

clinkings

the actual

seemings
We
feel

be
not

and

be,

explained.

that we
and know

see,
them

Ill
are

There
To

be,

in the dark musician,

Or
To

arrogant
seemings,
potential
as on the youngest
poet's page,

hear more

There

brightly

listening
the contriving

are potential
seemings
of a soldier,
like

In the death

chords.

turbulent
the utmost

will,

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so.

WALLACE

more

The
The

than human
that gushes

breath
another

breath

That

speaks

for him

There

might

And

STEVENS

poet's

too,

be,

metaphors

of blood,
is gone,

commonplace
and
upward

out
emerging
such seemings

of death,
as death
gives.

a change
immenser
in which
being would

than

a point in the fire of music where

to a clarity and we observe,
yields

Come

true,

Dazzle

is completing
and we are content,
observing
a
an
to
In
that shrinks
world
immediate
whole,

And

we

That

do

There
A

not

secret

Without

might

purple-leaping

Would

froth

The

intentions

be

to understand,
complete
of it in the mind.
arrangements
need

in the curling-out
of
that forth
element

the whole

spring

heaven

with
its seeming-so
as yet unknown,

of a mind

in a seed,
spirit of one dwelling
that seed's
Itself
ripe, unpredictable

The

are as they

Things

seemed

to Calvin

Of England,

to Pablo Neruda

To Nietzsche

in Basel,

But

the

integrations

A Museo
So

little,

to Lenin
of the past

fruit.
or to Anne

in Ceylon,
by a lake.
are like

so much,
Ol?mpico,
our affair, which
is the affair

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562

WITHOUT

DESCRIPTION

PLACE

that are to be,

the possible:
seemings
that it is possible may
be.
Seemings

Of

IV

in Basel studied the deep pool

Nietzsche
Of

these

discolorations,

mastering

and the moving

moving
motion
In the much-mottled

His

was

revery

The

very

The

eccentric

pool,

the deepness
his thoughts

In a kind
All

final,

To

an

of

colors

of blank

time.

the pool,
colored
forms,

of
the

affluence,

subjected

shapes,
on curious

crowd

seemings,

total

forms

of human

souvenirs

in their

Wrapped

their

of

The

all

first,
in revery

The

an innate
grandiose,
light,
sun of Nietzsche
the pool,
gildering

Yes:

gildering

innate

In perpetual
Lenin

the

He

manias

swarm-like

beside
was

and

round

revolution,

on a bench
swans.

The

crowd,

not

round.

. . .

a lake disturbed
the man

for

swans.

The slouch of his body and his look were not

In suavest

Suited
In which

The

keeping.

the decadence
he sat.

All

of

shoes,

those

chariots

the clothes,

silences,
were drowned.

the hat

The

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swans

on the buried

Moved
Lenin

took bread

swans

The
As

eye
mind

His

And

they lay.
scattered

his pocket,
to remoter

of distant

beaches;

The

distances

of

one and

The

from

where

knew

Dissolved.
Were

water

outward

fled

if they

563

STEVENS

WALLACE

of Lenin
raised

kept
up,

reaches,
and were

space and
swans
far off were

swans

the

far-off

down-drowned,

time
to come.

shapes.
the chariots.

tomorrow's
beaches,
regions
of
legions.
thinking
apocalyptic

reaches,

One

it

became

V
If seeming
The
spirit's
Even

is description
universe,

of
seeming
Is description
without

To

the

which

Incognito,

we
the

without
then

place,
a summer's
day.

a summer's
place.

a
experience,
knowledge
in the desert,
column

refer

On which the dove alights.

Composed
It
A

day,
It is a sense

of a sight

Description

a desire,
is an expectation,
palm that rises up beyond

is

to the eye.

indifferent

the sea,

A little different from reality:

The

difference

that we make

in what

we

see

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DESCRIPTION

5 64

WITHOUT

our memorials

And

difference,
from
particulars

Sprinklings
The

future

is description

The

categorical

In which

In

place,

of new
descriptions
the just anticipation

it comes,

creatures,
appropriate
forms that are attentive

The

sky.

the arc.

the

Of

the

young,
growing
starlight
stars are planets
of morning,

brilliantest

Before

without

predicate,

old

the

that

of

of bright

It is a wizened

PLACE

fresh

day,

jubilant,
in thin air.

VI
Description
The
thing

described,

is an artificial

It

its own

In

not

Yet

Intenser

is revelation.

text we

More

thing

seeming,

It

nor

false

that

plainly

is not
facsimile.

exists,
visible,

too closely
the double
of our lives,
than any actual
life could be,
should

explicit

that we might
read,
the experience
of sun

be born

than

the book of reconciliation,

moon,
Book of a concept only possible

And

In description,
thesis of
The

canon

central

the plentifullest

in itself,
John.

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WALLACE

565

STEVENS

VII
most.

matters
the theory of description
It is the theory of the word
for those

Thus

For whom
The

buzzing

It

is a world

the word
world

is the making
of the world,
and lisping firmament.
to the end

of words

of

it,

In which nothing solid is its solid self.

themselves
As, men make
Lives
in the mountainous

And
The

in that mountainous

mirror

of Spain

knowledge

of
seeming
The
invention
In a description

The

speech: the hard hidalgo

character of his speech ;
their

and

the Spaniard,
of a nation

hallowed

Spain acquires
hat?
of the hidalgo's

a style of
in a phrase,
out

of hollow-bright,

artificer of subjects still half night.

we
It matters,
because
everything
without
Of
the past is description
Of
And

say
place,

a cast

in sound;
made
imagination,
we
because what
say of the future must

the

Be alive with
Like

life,

rubies

its own
reddened

portend,

to be
seemings,
seeming
by rubies reddening.

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