Metaphors of a Magnifico
Metaphors of a Magnifico - context Summary
In Harmonium, 1918
Published in Wallace Stevens's debut collection Harmonium (1918), this short poem uses a simple, repetitive scene—men crossing a bridge into a village—to explore how singular and multiple perspectives coexist and how meaning resists full articulation. Its looping lines and elliptical ending reflect Stevens's early modernist interest in consciousness and language, presenting perception as both certain and evasive rather than resolving into a fixed statement.
Read Complete AnalysesTwenty men crossing a bridge, Into a village, Are twenty men crossing twenty bridges, Into twenty villages, Or one man Crossing a single bridge into a village. This is old song That will not declare itself . . . Twenty men crossing a bridge, Into a village, Are Twenty men crossing a bridge Into a village. That will not declare itself Yet is certain as meaning . . . The boots of the men clump On the boards of the bridge. The first white wall of the village Rises through fruit-trees. Of what was it I was thinking? So the meaning escapes. The first white wall of the village... The fruit-trees...
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