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About this quote

What does it mean?
Specific details reveal deep truths only to those ready to see them.
In plain terms
Small details show truth only to lovers.
What can you take from it?
Attention to detail reveals truth for the attentive.

Where it applies

  • observation
  • romance
  • study

Putting it to work

  • study closely
  • love deeply
  • notice details

Questions to consider

  • What is revealed?
  • Who is the lover?

Another view

Details do not always reveal truth.

More from Wallace Stevens

  1. It was evening all afternoon. It was snowing And it was going to snow. The blackbird sat In the cedar-limbs.

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  2. Donna, donna, dark, Stooping in indigo gown And cloudy constellations, Conceal yourself or disclose Fewest things to the lover - A hand that bears a thick-leav…

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  3. I know noble accents And lucid, inescapable rhythms; But I know, too, That the blackbird is involved In what I know.

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