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“Poem with Rhythms” by Wallace Stevens 🇺🇸 (2 Oct 1879 – 2 Aug 1955)
The hand between the candle and the wall
Grows large on the wall.
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The mind between this light or that and space,
(This man in a room with an image of the world,
That woman waiting for the man she loves,)
Grows large against space:
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There the man sees the image clearly at last.
There the woman receives her lover into her heart
And weeps on his breast, though he never comes.
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It must be that the hand
Has a will to grow larger on the wall,
To grow larger and heavier and stronger than
The wall; and that the mind
Turns to its own figurations and declares,
“This image, this love, I compose myself
Of these. In these, I come forth outwardly.
In these, I wear a vital cleanliness,
Not as in air, bright-blue-resembling air,
But as in the powerful mirror of my wish and will.”