Everything is complicated; if that were not so, life and poetry and everything else would be a bore.
Wallace StevensRead
After the leaves have fallen, we return To a plain sense of things. It is as if We had come to an end of the imagination, Inanimate in an inert savoir.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on the transition from imagination to reality after a period of change.
Wallace Stevens suggests that the falling leaves symbolize a letting go of creativity and inspiration. This return to a 'plain sense of things' marks a point where one confronts the stark reality devoid of the embellishments of imagination, leading to a state of passivity and acceptance.
Themes
ImaginationRealityTransformationNatureAcceptance
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about embracing reality after challenging times, one might say, 'After the leaves have fallen, we learn to accept what is real.'
More from Wallace Stevens
All quotes →Most modern reproducers of life, even including the camera, really repudiate it. We gulp down evil, choke at good.
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After one has abandoned a belief in God, poetry is that essence which takes its place as life's redemption.
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Why should she give her bounty to the dead? What is divinity if it can come Only in silent shadows and in dreams?
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LIGHT FROM WITHIN my friend, cancer got you damn it: you had it beat for seven years at least. how did it come back? Why all that pain. again. and you, such a fighter you fought me over and over with tears and words and promises. you fought for me with honesty and a light so bright it hurts my heart. sweet lorna. at peace now finally no more battles, just light from within a flickering candle in the dark burns with you.
Wallace StevensRead
Unfortunately there is nothing more inane than an Easter carol. It is a religious perversion of the activity of Spring in our blood.
Wallace StevensRead
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