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by Wallace Stevens (1879 - 1955)

Final soliloquy of the interior paramour
Language: English 
Chosen for Diff
Light the first light of evening
In which we rest and, for small reason, think
The world imagined is the ultimate good.

This is, therefore, the intensest rendezvous.
It is in that thought that we collect ourselves,
Out of all the indifferences, into one thing:

Within a single thing, a single shawl
Wrapped tightly round us, since we are poor, a warmth,
A light, a power, the miraculous influence.

Here, now, we forget each other and ourselves.
We feel the obscurity of an order, a whole,
A knowledge, that which arranged the rendezvous.

Within its vital boundary, in the mind.
We say God and the imagination are one...
How high that highest candle lights the dark.

Out of this same light, out of the central mind,
We make a dwelling in the evening air,
In which being there together is enough.

Text Authorship:

  • by Wallace Stevens (1879 - 1955), "Final soliloquy of the interior paramour" [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

  • by Augusta Read Thomas (b. 1964), "Final soliloquy of the interior paramour", 2004, first performed 2005 [mezzo-soprano, counter-tenor, and instrumental ensemble (1.1.1.asx.1/1.Ctpt.00/2perc/pf/vn.va.vc.db)], from Final Soliloquy of the Interior Paramour, no. 1. [
     text verified 1 time
    ]

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2010-07-19
Line count: 18
Word count: 141

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