Quote #52

I do not know which to prefer, The beauty of inflections Or the beauty of innuendoes, The blackbird whistling Or just after.

More from Wallace Stevens

  1. A man and a woman Are one. A man and a woman and a blackbird Are one.
  2. O thin men of Haddam, Why do you imagine golden birds? Do you not see how the blackbird Walks around the feet Of the women about you?
  3. Among twenty snowy mountains, The only moving thing Was the eye of the blackbird.
  4. I know noble accents And lucid, inescapable rhythms; But I know, too, That the blackbird is involved In what I know.
  5. That tuft of jungle feathers, That animal eye, Is just what you say. That savage of fire, That seed, Have it your way. The world is ugly, A…
  6. It was evening all afternoon. It was snowing And it was going to snow. The blackbird sat In the cedar-limbs.
  7. That strange flower, the sun, Is just what you say. Have it your way. The world is ugly, And the people are sad.
  8. A few things for themselves, Florida, venereal soil, Disclose to the lover.

All Wallace Stevens quotes