Table Talk - Analysis

Introduction and tone

The poem speaks in a conversational, contemplative tone that accepts mortality as a premise and turns quickly to the small contingencies of taste. Mood shifts from resigned ("Granted, we die for good") to curious and almost playful about preference ("Do I happen to like red bush"). The voice is reflective and mildly ironic, treating liking as a kind of accidental fact rather than a moral choice.

Context and authorial stance

Wallace Stevens often blends philosophical thought with ordinary observation; this short poem follows that pattern by using a domestic image to probe larger metaphysical questions. There is no need for specific historical detail to read the poem: its focus is timeless—how mind and world meet in preference and perception.

Main theme: contingency of taste

A central theme is that preferences are contingent: phrases like happens to like and One likes what one happens to like emphasize chance over reason. The repetition of "happens" and "happen" frames liking as an accidental event, undermining any claim that tastes are chosen or morally grounded.

Main theme: mortality and perspectival limitation

The opening acceptance of death ("we die for good") sets limits: if life is finite, values and choices take on a lighter, descriptive quality. The poem implies that, given mortality, worrying about why one likes specific colors is less important than noticing that one does.

Imagery and symbolism of color

Colors—red bush, grey grass, green-gray sky—are recurring images that stand for the particularities of perception. They are concrete but partly ambiguous: the conjunctions and repetitions ("red, Gray, green") foreground their materiality and rhythm rather than symbolic clarity. One might read the colors as signifying facets of experience that resist generalization: they are simply those.

Form supporting meaning

The poem's short, clipped lines and repeated phrases reinforce its conversational acceptance and the small certainties of taste. The refrain-like returns to "happens" and "like" mirror how preferences recur without explanation.

Conclusion and final insight

Stevens offers a modest philosophy: given death and the randomness of experience, much of what we call preference is accidental and need not be rationalized. The poem invites a gentle attentiveness to particulars—to the way "red grows"—as a defensible way of living within life's limits.