The Motive for Metaphor by Wallace Stevens
I really liked this poem when I read it in an anthology. I especially think the title is fantastic.
The Motive for Metaphor
By Wallace Stevens
You like it under the trees in autumn,
Because everything is half dead.
The wind moves like a cripple among the leaves
And repeats words without meaning.
In the same way, you were happy in spring,
With the half colors of quarter-things,
The slightly brighter sky, the melting clouds,
The single bird, the obscure moon—
The obscure moon lighting and obscure world
Of things that would never be quite expressed,
Where you yourself were never quite yourself
And did not want nor have to be,
Desiring the exhilarations of changes:
The motive for metaphor, shrinking from
The weight of primary noon,
The A B C of being,
The muddy temper, the hammer
Of red and blue, the hard sound—
Steel against intimation—the sharp flesh,
The vital, arrogant, fatal, dominant X.
A beautiful poem that teeters of the edge of diving into but in keeping with the poem skirts the development of any single metaphor, but rather plays with the motive. Very evocative of the richness and depth of an individual, defying “the hammer of red and blue”.
Very nice collection of poems -
Thanks,
Big Frank
Thanks for commenting! I haven’t read a whole lot of Stevens’ work, but I’ve been really impressed with what I have read. He’s definitely a very intellectual poet.