Quote #137

Eye without lid, mind without any dream - These are of minstrels lacking minstrelsy, Of an earth in which the first leaf is the tale Of leaves, in which the sparrow is a bird Of stone, that never changes. Bethou him, you And you, bethou him and bethou. It is A sound like any other. It will end.

More from Wallace Stevens

  1. There was such idiot minstrelsy in rain, So many clappers going without bells, That these bethous compose a heavenly gong. One voice repeat…
  2. Tonight the lilacs magnify The easy passion, the ever-ready love Of the lover that lies within us and we breathe An odor evoking nothing, a…
  3. Bethou me, said sparrow, to the crackled blade, And you, and you, bethou me as you blow, When in my coppice you behold me be.
  4. The fluctuations of certainty, the change Of degrees of perception in the scholar's dark.
  5. An unaffected man in a negative light Could not have borne his labor nor have died Sighing that he should leave the banjo's twang.
  6. I am the spouse. She took her necklace off And laid it in the sand. As I am, I am The spouse. She opened her stone-studded belt. I am the s…
  7. On a blue island in a sky-wide water The wild orange trees continued to bloom and to bear, Long after the planter's death.
  8. Clothe me entire in the final filament, So that I tremble with such love so known And myself am precious for your perfecting.

All Wallace Stevens quotes