The quiet Wallace Stevens writes of here is quite different from that we are experiencing now—for the world is certainly not calm. But the connection between reading and the world may still be present.
The House Was Quiet and The World Was Calm
BY WALLACE STEVENS
The house was quiet and the world was calm.
The reader became the book; and summer night
Was like the conscious being of the book.
The house was quiet and the world was calm.
The words were spoken as if there was no book,
Except that the reader leaned above the page,
Wanted to lean, wanted much most to be
The scholar to whom his book is true, to whom
The summer night is like a perfection of thought.
The house was quiet because it had to be.
The quiet was part of the meaning, part of the mind:
The access of perfection to the page.
And the world was calm. The truth in a calm world,
In which there is no other meaning, itself
Is calm, itself is summer and night, itself
Is the reader leaning late and reading there.
This poem also reflects the current status quo and is very sad. The same is true of our immediate environment. The streets have lost their former prosperity and become quiet, like a city without people
“A city without a psyche.” Nice!
This poem reminds me of the situation in the United States. There are almost no people on the streets, and all places are quiet. “And the world was calm. The truth in a calm world,
In which there is no other meaning, itself “, this sentence makes me feel that everything has a cause-and-effect relationship with everything. Because COVID-19 makes the United States quiet.
It is. Isn’t it funny how appropriate to today an old poem can be?
For me this poem is related to current situation Covid-19. “The house was quiet and the world was calm”. The world is now calm. Most of the people are stuck in the home and scare to go out. Flights are cancel with that less cars on the road…makes world less sound pollution. “The reader became the book; and summer night Was like the conscious being of the book”.
Deep reading in the midnight is the best because that moment everything is calm and it helps the reader to understand every single word meaning deeply. The reader could imagine himself in the book story.
Reading and the world, yes, come together in quiet and imagination.
This poem is basically a motto for everything going on. The streets are quiet, people are at home improving their self worth by reading books and learning new things. People are figuring themselves out and spending time with family. It can be a blessing in disguise for the people who are financially stable and aren’t dealing with any obstacles. But for the people who are dealing with obstacles, this must be terrible and raising anxiety in them.
You hit that on the head… “for the people who are financially stable.”
The poem is reflecting on how people is dealing with the virus and on distance learning for schools in U.S.
Yup. Even though the poem is decades old!
I agree with them. The street is very quiet and empty, but I believe that it wo n’t take long before he will resume his previous prosperity.
I hope you are right.
I feel like this poem is talking about what is happening now a days in the world. Everything is quiet and calm but it’s really not. Hundreds are people are dying everyday. It’s only calm for the people who’s inside not for the people that are outside fighting for their life very second and for the people who are trying to save a life every second.
That is an excellent, and important, point.