Poem by Wallace Stevens

Re-Statement of Romance

The night knows nothing of the chants of night.
It is what it is as I am what I am:
And in perceiving this I best perceive myself

And you. Only we two may interchange
Each in the other what each has to give.
Only we two are one, not you and night,

Nor night and I, but you and I, alone,
So much alone, so deeply by ourselves,
So far beyond the casual solitudes,

That night is only the background of our selves,
Supremely true each to its separate self,
In the pale light that each upon the other throws.

1. Phases
2. Anecdote of the Prince of Peacocks
3. Two Figures in Dense Violet Light
4. It Must Give Pleasure
5. Study of Two Pears

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