Everything is complicated; if that were not so, life and poetry and everything else would be a bore.
Wallace StevensRead
I can't make head or tail of Life. Love is a fine thing, Art is a fine thing, Nature is a fine thing; but the average human mind and spirit are confusing beyond measure. Sometimes I think that all our learning is the little learning of the maxim. To laugh at a Roman awe-stricken in a sacred grove is to laugh at something today.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Life is complex and confusing, yet love, art, and nature bring value amid this confusion.
Wallace Stevens expresses the bewilderment of the human experience, highlighting that while life can be confounding, there are elements like love, art, and nature that are inherently beautiful and meaningful. He suggests that our attempts to understand and articulate our experiences may seem trivial compared to the vastness of life's mysteries, drawing a parallel between historical contexts and contemporary observations.
Themes
LifeLoveArtNatureConfusionUnderstanding
In practice
Example use cases
During a speech about the complexity of the human condition.
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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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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