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Harmonium quotes

The lines readers remember from Harmonium, by Wallace Stevens.

38 quotes · About the book

Standout lines

The natives of the rain are rainy men.

IV The Idea of a ColonyRead from here

What is one man among so many men?

V A Nice Shady HomeRead from here

The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream.

The Emperor of Ice-CreamRead from here

Your world is you. I am my world.

Bantams in Pine-WoodsRead from here

Imagination is the will of things....

Colloquy with a Polish AuntRead from here

The body dies; the body’s beauty lives.

Chapter IVRead from here

All quotes

Jump to a chapter
  1. In the Carolinas
  2. Chapter I
  3. Chapter II
  4. Chapter V
  5. Chapter VI
  6. Another Weeping Woman
  7. III Approaching Carolina
  8. IV The Idea of a Colony
  9. V A Nice Shady Home
  10. Valley Candle
  11. The Silver Plough-Boy
  12. A High-Toned Old Christian Woman
  13. Banal Sojourn
  14. The Emperor of Ice-Cream
  15. Stars at Tallapoosa
  16. Chapter VI
  17. Bantams in Pine-Woods
  18. Tattoo
  19. Chapter IV
  20. Colloquy with a Polish Aunt
  21. Two Figures in Dense Violet Night
  22. Theory
  23. To the One of Fictive Music
  24. Chapter IV
  25. Chapter XIII

In the Carolinas

The lilacs wither in the Carolinas.

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The pine-tree sweetens my body.

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The white iris beautifies me.

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Chapter I

I wish that I might be a thinking stone.

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Chapter II

A red bird flies across the golden floor.

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No spring can follow past meridian.

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Chapter V

In the high west there burns a furious star.

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Chapter VI

There is a substance in us that prevails.

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Another Weeping Woman

Poison grows in this dark.

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III Approaching Carolina

He savored rankness like a sensualist.

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IV The Idea of a Colony

His western voyage ended and began.

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The natives of the rain are rainy men.

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All dreams are vexing. Let them be expunged.

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V A Nice Shady Home

The words of things entangle and confuse.

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What is one man among so many men?

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Can one man be one thing and be it long?

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For realists, what is is what should be.

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Valley Candle

My candle burned alone in an immense valley.

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The Silver Plough-Boy

A black figure dances in a black field.

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A High-Toned Old Christian Woman

Poetry is the supreme fiction, madame.

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Banal Sojourn

The sky is a blue gum streaked with rose. The trees are black.

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The grackles crack their throats of bone in the smooth air.

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Moisture and heat have swollen the garden into a slum of bloom.

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One has a malady, here, a malady. One feels a malady.

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The Emperor of Ice-Cream

Let be be finale of seem.

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The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream.

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Stars at Tallapoosa

The lines are straight and swift between the stars.

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Chapter VI

Rationalists would wear sombreros.

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Bantams in Pine-Woods

Your world is you. I am my world.

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Tattoo

The light is like a spider.

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Chapter IV

Let us build the building of light.

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Colloquy with a Polish Aunt

Imagination is the will of things....

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Two Figures in Dense Violet Night

Be the voice of night and Florida in my ear.

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Use dusky words and dusky images.

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Theory

I am what is around me.

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To the One of Fictive Music

No crown is simpler than the simple hair.

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Chapter IV

The body dies; the body’s beauty lives.

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Chapter XIII

It was evening all afternoon.

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