{"id":304,"date":"2015-02-27T05:39:51","date_gmt":"2015-02-27T05:39:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/englishhistory.net\/?p=304"},"modified":"2022-02-02T18:00:43","modified_gmt":"2022-02-02T18:00:43","slug":"old-philosopher-rome-wallace-stevens-selections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/keats\/old-philosopher-rome-wallace-stevens-selections\/","title":{"rendered":"To an Old Philosopher in Rome – Wallace Stevens Selections"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wallace Stevens<\/a>: Selections<\/h2>\n

To an Old Philosopher in Rome<\/h3>\n

On the threshold of heaven, the figures in the street
\nBecome the figures of heaven, the majestic movement
\nOf men growing small in the distances of space,
\nSinging, with smaller and still smaller sound,
\nUnintelligible absolution and an end –<\/p>\n

The threshold, Rome, and that more merciful Rome
\nBeyond, the two alike in the make of the mind.
\nIt is as if in a human dignity
\nTwo parallels become one, a perspective, of which
\nMen are part both in the inch and in the mile.<\/p>\n

How easily the blown banners change to wings…
\nThings dark on the horizons of perception
\nBecome accompaniments of fortune, but
\nOf the fortune of the spirit, beyond the eye,
\nNot of its sphere, and yet not far beyond,<\/p>\n

The human end in the spirit’s greatest reach,
\nThe extreme of the known in the presence of the extreme
\nOf the unknown. The newsboys’ muttering
\nBecomes another murmuring; the smell
\nOf medicine, a fragrantness not to be spoiled…<\/p>\n

The bed, the books, the chair, the moving nuns,
\nThe candle as it evades the sight, these are
\nThe sources of happiness in the shape of Rome,
\nA shape within the ancient circles of shapes,
\nAnd these beneath the shadow of a shape<\/p>\n

In a confusion on bed and books, a portent
\nOn the chair, a moving transparence on the nuns,
\nA light on the candle tearing against the wick
\nTo join a hovering excellence, to escape
\nFrom fire and be part only of that which<\/p>\n

Fire is the symbol: the celestial possible.
\nSpeak to your pillow as if it was yourself.
\nBe orator but with an accurate tongue
\nAnd without eloquence, O, half-asleep,
\nOf the pity that is the memorial of this room,<\/p>\n

So that we feel, in this illumined large,
\nThe veritable small, so that each of us
\nBeholds himself in you, and hears his voice
\nIn yours, master and commiserable man,
\nIntent on your particles of nether-do,<\/p>\n

Your dozing in the depths of wakefulness,
\nIn the warmth of your bed, at the edge of your chair,
\nalive
\nYet living in two world, impenitent
\nAs to one, and, as to one, most penitent,
\nImpatient for the grandeur that you need<\/p>\n

In so much misery; and yet finding it
\nOnly in misery, the afflatus of ruin,
\nProfound poetry of the poor and of the dead,
\nAs in the last drop of the deepest blood,
\nAs it falls from the heart and lies there to be seen,<\/p>\n

Even as the blood of an empire, it might be,
\nFor a citizen of heaven though still of Rome.
\nIt is poverty’s speech that seeks us out the most.
\nIt is older than the oldest speech of Rome.
\nThis is the tragic accent of the scene.<\/p>\n

And you – it is you that speak it, without speech,
\nThe loftiest syllable among loftiest things,
\nThe one invulnerable man among
\nCrude captains, the naked majesty, if you like,
\nOf bird-nest arches and of rain-stained-vaults.<\/p>\n

The sounds drift in. The buildings are remembered.
\nThe life of the city never lets go, nor do you
\nEver want it to. It is part of the life in your room.
\nIts domes are the architecture of your bed.
\nThe bells keep on repeating solemn names<\/p>\n

In choruses and choirs of choruses,
\nUnwilling that mercy should be a mystery
\nOf silence, that any solitude of sense
\nShould give you more than their peculiar chords
\nAnd reverbations clinging to whisper still.<\/p>\n

It is a kind of total grandeur at the end,
\nWith every visible thing enlarged and yet
\nNo more than a bed, a chair and moving nuns,
\nThe immensest theatre, and pillared porch,
\nThe book and candle in your ambered room,<\/p>\n

Total grandeur of a total edifice,
\nChosen by an inquisitor of structures
\nFor himself. He stops upon this threshold,
\nAs if the design of all his words takes form
\nAnd frame from thinking and is realized.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wallace Stevens: Selections To an Old Philosopher in Rome On the threshold of heaven, the figures in the street Become the figures of heaven, the majestic movement Of men growing small in the distances of space, Singing, with smaller and still smaller sound, Unintelligible absolution and an end – The threshold, Rome, and that more […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=304"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3284,"href":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304\/revisions\/3284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}