Stevens Explanation

"Explanation" is a poem from Wallace Stevens's first book of poetry, Harmonium (1923). It was first published in 1917, so it is in the public domain.

Explanation

Ach, Mutter,
This old, black dress,
I have been embroidering
French flowers on it.

Not by way of romance,
Here is nothing of the ideal,
Nein,
Nein.

It would have been different,
Liebchen,
If I had imagined myself,
In an orange gown,
Drifting through space,
Like a figure on the church-wall.

This poem may be an explanation of the difference between conventional decoration and artistic imagination, the latter represented, as Buttel proposes, by an allusion to Chagall and the otherworldly charm of his paintings.

Famous quotes containing the words stevens and/or explanation:

    “Cloud-clown, blue painter, sun as horn,
    Hill-scholar, man that never is,
    The bad-bespoken lacker,
    Ancestor of Narcissus, prince
    Of the secondary men. There are no rocks
    And stones, only this imager.”
    —Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)

    “Auden, MacNeice, Day Lewis, I have read them all,
    Hoping against hope to hear the authentic call . . .
    And know the explanation I must pass is this
    MYou cannot light a match on a crumbling wall.”
    —Hugh MacDiarmid (1892–1978)