Poem by Wallace Stevens

Men Made out of Words

What should we be without the sexual myth,
The human revery or poem of death?

Castratos of moon-mash—Life consists
Of propositions about life. The human

Revery is a solitude in which
We compose these propositions, torn by dreams,

By the terrible incantations of defeats
And by the fear that defeats and dreams are one.

The whole race is a poet that writes down
The eccentric propositions of its fate.

1. Phases
2. The Revolutionists Stop for Orangeade
3. Two Figures in Dense Violet Light
4. It Must Give Pleasure
5. Farewell to Florida

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