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“So-and-So Reclining On Her Couch” by Wallace Stevens 🇺🇸 (2 Oct 1879 – 2 Aug 1955)
On her side, reclining on her elbow.
This mechanism, this apparition,
Suppose we call it Projection A.
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She floats in air at the level of
The eye, completely anonymous,
Born, as she was, at twenty-one,
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Without lineage or language, only
The curving of her hip, as motionless gesture,
Eyes dripping blue, so much to learn.
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If just above her head there hung,
Suspended in air, the slightest crown
Of Gothic prong and practick bright,
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The suspension, as in solid space,
The suspending hand withdrawn, would be
An invisible gesture. Let this be called
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Projection B. To get at the thing
Without gestures is to get at it as
Idea. She floats in the contention, the flux
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Between the thing as idea and
The idea as thing. She is half who made her.
This is the final Projection, C.
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The arrangement contains the desire of
The artist. But one confides in what has no
Concealed creator. One walks easily
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The unpainted shore, accepts the world
As anything but sculpture. Good-bye,
Mrs. Pappadopoulos, and thanks.