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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


TEA AT THE PALAZ OF HOON by WALLACE STEVENS

Poem Explanation Poet Analysis

First Line: NOT LESS BECAUSE IN PURPLE I DESCENDED
Last Line: AND THERE I FOUND MYSELF MORE TRULY AND MORE STRANGE.

Not less because in purple I descended
The western day through what you called
The loneliest air, not less was I myself.

What was the ointment sprinkled on my beard?
What were the hymns that buzzed beside my ears?
What was the sea whose tide swept through me there?

Out of my mind the golden ointment rained,
And my ears made the blowing hymns they heard.
I was myself the compass of that sea:

I was the world in which I walked, and what I saw
Or heard or felt came not from myself;
And there I found myself more truly and more strange.



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