Continual Conversation With A Silent Man

The old brown hen and the old blue sky,
Between the two we live and die–
The broken cartwheel on the hill.

As if, in the presence of the sea,
We dried our nets and mended sail
And talked of never-ending things,

Of the never-ending storm of will,
One will and many wills, and the wind,
Of many meanings in the leaves,

Brought down to one below the eaves,
Link, of that tempest, to the farm,
The chain of the turquoise hen and sky

And the wheel that broke as the cart went by.
It is not a voice that is under the eaves.
It is not speech, the sound we hear

In this conversation, but the sound
Of things and their motion: the other man,
A turquoise monster moving round.

Analysis, meaning and summary of Wallace Stevens's poem Continual Conversation With A Silent Man

1 Comment

  1. Jackie Engle says:

    First how do we die in between a hen and the sky It’s just alittle wierd but you get past that as you start going through the poem and you start to relize waht the poem really means.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Do you have any comments, criticism, paraphrasis or analysis of this poem that you feel would assist other visitors in understanding the meaning or the theme of this poem by Wallace Stevens better? If accepted, your analysis will be added to this page of American Poems. Together we can build a wealth of information, but it will take some discipline and determination.