Of Heaven Considered As A Tomb

"Of Heaven Considered as a Tomb" is a poem from Wallace Stevens's first book of poetry, Harmonium (1923). It was first published in 1921, so it is in the public domain.

Of Heaven Considered as a Tomb

What word have you, interpreters, of men
Who in the tomb of heaven walk by night,
The darkened ghosts of our old comedy?
Do they believe they range the gusty cold,
With lanterns borne aloft to light the way,
Freemen of death, about and still about
To find whatever they seek? Or does
That burial, pillared up each day as porte
And spiritous passage into nothingness,
Foretell each night the one abysmal night
When the host shall no more wander, nor the light
Of the steadfast lanterns creep across the dark?
Make hue among the dark comedians,
Halloo them in the topmost distances
For answer from their icy Élysée.

This is a poem about the other side of death, optimistically halloo'ing the departed ("the darkened ghosts") for news that they are still "about and still about", pessimistically anticipating that the burials that occur each day are a portal into nothingness, "the one abysmal night". It may be compared with "The Worms at Heaven's Gate", which presents death more naturalistically.

That interpretation plays a language game, but not the one Stevens invites readers to play by asking "What word have you, interpreters...?"

Famous quotes containing the words heaven, considered and/or tomb:

    “Hail, Source of Being! Universal Soul
    Of heaven and earth! Essential Presence, hail!
    To thee I bend the knee; to thee my thoughts
    Continual climb, who with a master-hand
    Hast the great whole into perfection
    touched.”
    —James Thomson (1700–1748)

    “The proclamation and repetition of first principles is a constant feature of life in our democracy. Active adherence to these principles, however, has always been considered un-American. We recipients of the boon of liberty have always been ready, when faced with discomfort, to discard any and all first principles of liberty, and, further, to indict those who do not freely join with us in happily arrogating those principles.”
    —David Mamet (b. 1947)

    “A best-seller is the gilded tomb of a mediocre talent.”
    —Logan Pearsall Smith (1865–1946)