Nuances of a Theme by Williams

Wallace Stevens

It’s a strange courage

you give me, ancient star:

Shine alone in the sunrise

toward which you lend no part!

                          I

Shine alone, shine nakedly, shine like bronze,

that reflects neither my face nor any inner part

of my being, shine like fire, that mirrors nothing.

                         II

Lend no part to any humanity that suffuses

you in its own light.

Be not chimera of morning,

Half-man, half-star.

Be not an intelligence,

Like a widow’s bird

Or an old horse.