The Well Dressed Man with a Beard
The Well Dressed Man with a Beard - meaning Summary
Affirmation Overcomes Denial
The poem contrasts a definitive past refusal with a present affirmation that shapes the future. Stevens suggests that even if everything denied were lost, a single steadfast belief or small inner affirmation could sustain the self and create a vital, generative world. He evokes pastoral images of sweetness and humming form to show how that inner conviction animates life. The closing line insists the mind remains perpetually unsatisfied.
Read Complete AnalysesAfter the final no there comes a yes And on that yes the future world depends. No was the night. Yes is this present sun. If the rejected things, the things denied, Slid over the western cataract, yet one, One only, one thing that was firm, even No greater than a cricket's horn, no more Than a thought to be rehearsed all day, a speech Of the self that must sustain itself on speech, One thing remaining, infallible, would be Enough. Ah! douce campagna of that thing! Ah! douce campagna, honey in the heart, Green in the body, out of a petty phrase, Out of a thing believed, a thing affirmed: The form on the pillow humming while one sleeps, The aureole above the humming house... It can never be satisfied, the mind, never.
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