stars at tallapoosa

The lines are straight and swift between the stars.
The night is not the cradle that they cry,
The criers, undulating the deep-oceaned phrase.
The lines are much too dark and much too sharp.

The mind herein attains simplicity,
There is no moon, no single, silvered leaf.
The body is no body to be seen
But is an eye that studies its black lid.

Let these be your delight, secretive hunter,
Wading the sea-lines, moist and ever-mingling,
Mounting the earth-lines, long and lax, lethargic.
These lines are swift and fall without diverging.

The melon-flower nor dew nor web of either
Is like to these.  But in yourself is like:
A sheaf of brilliant arrows flying straight,
Flying and falling straightway for their pleasure,

Their pleasure that is all bright-edged and cold;
Or, if not arrows, then the nimblest motions,
Making recoveries of young nakedness
And the lost vehemence the midnights hold.

(from Stevens, Collected Poetry & Prose, p. 57)

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I find this to be one of Stevens’ spiritual-poetic poems.  I haven’t read any of the critics on it yet, but to me it goes like this: in the west, we think of stars as messengers of truth (‘it’s written in the stars’), and even though the shortest distance between two points (two stars) is a straight line, the lines of poetic truth are ‘too dark and much too sharp.’  Poetic truth emerges from the depths of consciousness: ‘the mind herein attains spimplicity, / there is no moon, no single, silvered leaf./ The body is no body to be seen / but is an eye that studies its black lid.’  The poet seeks his truths in these dark depths and also along the ‘sea-lines’ and the ‘earth-lines.’  The insights fall fast like ‘a sheaf of brilliant arrows,’ and the depths of the poet resemble the night sky more than anything else on earth.  It’s a lovely poem about the power and uniqueness of the soul. 

I’ve decided to skip some of the poems, because there is possibly an issue with reproducing all of them.  So I chose to skip ‘The Virgin Carrying a Lantern.’

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