| Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. 1912–22. | | | | Homunculus et la Belle Etoile | | By Wallace Stevens |
| | From “Pecksniffiana”
IN the sea, Biscayne, there prinks | |
| The young emerald, evening star— | |
| Good light for drunkards, poets, widows, | |
| And ladies soon to be married. | |
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| By this light the salty fishes | 5 |
| Arch in the sea like tree-branches, | |
| Going in many directions | |
| Up and down. | |
| |
| This light conducts | |
| The thoughts of drunkards, the feelings | 10 |
| Of widows and trembling ladies, | |
| The movements of fishes. | |
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| How pleasant an existence it is | |
| That this emerald charms philosophers, | |
| Until they become thoughtlessly willing | 15 |
| To bathe their hearts in later moonlight, | |
| |
| Knowing that they can bring back thought | |
| In the night that is still to be silent, | |
| Reflecting this thing and that, | |
| Before they sleep. | 20 |
| |
| It is better that, as scholars, | |
| They should think hard in the dark cuffs | |
| Of voluminous cloaks, | |
| And shave their heads and bodies. | |
| |
| It might well be that their mistress | 25 |
| Is no gaunt fugitive phantom. | |
| She might, after all, be a wanton, | |
| Abundantly beautiful, eager. | |
| |
| Fecund, | |
| From whose being by starlight, on sea-coast, | 30 |
| The innermost good of their seeking | |
| Might come in the simplest of speech. | |
| |
| It is a good light, then, for those | |
| That know the ultimate Plato, | |
| Tranquillizing with this jewel | 35 |
| The torments of confusion. | | | | |
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