Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). The New Poetry: An Anthology. 1917.
Homunculus et la Belle EtoileWallace Stevens
I
The young emerald, evening star—
Good light for drunkards, poets, widows,
And ladies soon to be married.
Arch in the sea like tree-branches,
Going in many directions
Up and down.
The thoughts of drunkards, the feelings
Of widows and trembling ladies,
The movements of fishes.
That this emerald charms philosophers,
Until they become thoughtlessly willing
To bathe their hearts in later moonlight,
In the night that is still to be silent,
Reflecting this thing and that,
Before they sleep.
They should think hard in the dark cuffs
Of voluminous cloaks,
And shave their heads and bodies.
Is no gaunt fugitive phantom.
She might, after all, be a wanton,
Abundantly beautiful, eager.
From whose being by starlight, on sea-coast,
The innermost good of their seeking
Might come in the simplest of speech.
That know the ultimate Plato,
Tranquillizing with this jewel
The torments of confusion.