On the Manner of Addressing Clouds
On the Manner of Addressing Clouds - context Summary
Published in Harmonium, 1923
Published in Stevens's 1923 collection Harmonium, this short poem frames clouds as objects to which human language and thought make ceremonial addresses. It reflects Stevens's ongoing philosophical concern with how imagination names and sustains the world, treating speech as a kind of music that both dignifies and limits perception. The tone is dryly ceremonial, suggesting that poetic language offers consolation and order amid nature's indifferent procession.
Read Complete AnalysesGloomy grammarians in golden gowns, Meekly you keep the mortal rendezvous, Eliciting the still sustaining pomps Of speech which are like music so profound They seem an exaltation without sound. Funest philosophers and ponderers, Their evocations are the speech of clouds. So speech of your processionals returns In the casual evocations of your tread Across the stale, mysterious seasons. These Are the music of meet resignation; these The responsive, still sustaining pomps for you To magnify, if in that drifting waste You are to be accompanied by more Than mute bare splendors of the sun and moon.
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