The great poems of heaven and hell have been written and the great poem of earth remains to be written. Wallace Stevens More Quotes by Wallace Stevens More Quotes From Wallace Stevens The imagination is one of the forces of nature. Wallace Stevens forces-of-nature force imagination The essential fault of surrealism is that it invents without discovering. To make a clam play an accordion is to invent not to discover. The observation of the unconscious, so far as it can be observed, should reveal things of which we have previously been unconscious, not the familiar things of which we have been conscious plus imagination. Wallace Stevens essentials imagination play The way through the world is more difficult to find than the way beyond it. Wallace Stevens journey way world The most beautiful thing in the world is, of course, the world itself. Wallace Stevens beautiful inspirational travel The summer night is like a perfection of thought. Wallace Stevens perfection summer night I thought how utterly we have forsaken the Earth, in the sense of excluding it from our thoughts. There are but few who consider its physical hugeness, its rough enormity. It is still a disparate monstrosity, full of solitudes, barrens, wilds. It still dwarfs, terrifies, crushes. The rivers still roar, the mountains still crash, the winds still shatter. Man is an affair of cities. His gardens, orchards and fields are mere scrapings. Somehow, however, he has managed to shut out the face of the giant from his windows. But the giant is there, nevertheless. Wallace Stevens crush garden men Perhaps the truth depends on a walk around the lake. Wallace Stevens hiking truth lakes It is not everyday that the world arranges itself into a poem. Wallace Stevens everyday world They said, 'You have a blue guitar, / You do not play things as they are.' / The man replied, 'Things as they are / Are changed upon the blue guitar.' Wallace Stevens play blue men Sentimentality is a failure of feeling. Wallace Stevens sentimentality emotion feelings I have said no Wallace Stevens mud rejection order It's not always easy to tell the difference between thinking and looking out of the window. Wallace Stevens entrepreneur differences thinking Human nature is like water. It takes the shape of its container. Wallace Stevens shapes water people A poet looks at the world the way a man looks at a woman. Wallace Stevens poetry writing men Perhaps it is of more value to infuriate philosophers than to go along with them. Wallace Stevens philosopher philosophy science How has the human spirit ever survived the terrific literature with which it has had to contend? Wallace Stevens humans literature spirit The world about us would be desolate except for the world within us. Wallace Stevens desolate would-be world The imagination loses vitality as it ceases to adhere to what is real. When it adheres to the unreal and intensifies what is unreal, while its first effect may be extraordinary, that effect is the maximum effect that it will ever have. Wallace Stevens vitality real imagination The only emperor is the emperor of ice cream. Wallace Stevens ice-cream cooking food Reality is a cliché from which we escape by metaphor. Wallace Stevens metaphor reality
