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POEM OF THE DAY "A Rabbit As King Of The Ghosts" by Wallace Stevens


This is yet another classic by Wallace Stevens -- one of the more popular Stevens pieces with so much study and analysis out there for all to see. eNothing would love to hear some of what you "feel" this poem is about, so please share on this one.

This poem was picked for today's Poem of the Day entry by Mary Karr - author and poet - who has studied Wallace Stevens extensively. Thanks so much Mary; this is a wonderful piece.

A Rabbit as King of the Ghosts

By Wallace Stevens

The difficulty to think at the end of day,
When the shapeless shadow covers the sun
And nothing is left except light on your fur—

There was the cat slopping its milk all day,
Fat cat, red tongue, green mind, white milk
And August the most peaceful month.

To be, in the grass, in the peacefullest time,
Without that monument of cat,
The cat forgotten on the moon;

And to feel that the light is a rabbit-light
In which everything is meant for you
And nothing need be explained;

Then there is nothing to think of. It comes of it-
self;
And east rushes west and west rushes down,
No matter. The grass is full

And full of yourself. The trees around are for you,
The whole of the wideness of night is for you,
A self that touches all edges,

You become a self that fills the four corners of
night.
The red cat hides away in the fur-light
And there you are humped high, humped up,

You are humped higher and higher, black as
stone—
You sit with your head like a carving in space
And the little green cat is a bug in the grass.

-

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4 comments:

  1. Tell me, followers/readers; are you guys SHY??? This poem (I love Wally) has generated so many hits and retweets on Twitter and enjoyed by so many today, yet no one ventures an opinion?

    I value your opinion. Let's have it! Open up! LOL.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Tell me, followers/readers; are you guys SHY??? This poem (I love Wally) has generated so many hits and retweets on Twitter and enjoyed by so many today, yet no one ventures an opinion?

    I value your opinion. Let's have it! Open up! LOL.

    ReplyDelete
  3. "nothing need be explained" It's about images, not explications ;)

    ReplyDelete
  4. On one level, it seems to be trying to capture a rabbit's all-rabbit, expansive perception of a nice quiet day with no nemesis in sight, until night falls. What to make of the green brain? Maybe the cat is always lurking in the greenery? The cat and all the other beings that are not the rabbit, even the bug? Thanks for sharing this poem. It's a nice, peaceful way to end the day.

    ReplyDelete