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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

REPETITIONS OF A YOUNG CAPTAIN by WALLACE STEVENS

Poem Explanation Poet Analysis

First Line: A TEMPEST CRACKED ON THE THEATRE. QUICKLY
Last Line: Walked toward him on the stage and they embraced
Subject(s): WAR;
A tempest cracked on the theatre. Quickly,
The wind beat in the roof and half the walls.
The ruin stood still in an external world.

It had been real. It was something overseas
That I remembered, something that I remembered
Overseas, that stood in an external world.

It had been real. It was not now. The rip
Of the wind and the glittering were real now,
In the spectacle of a new reality.

II

The people sat in the theatre, in the ruin,
As if nothing had happened. The dim actor spoke.
His hands became his feelings. His thick shape

Issued thin seconds glibly gapering.
Then faintly encrusted, a tissue of the moon
Walked toward him on the stage and they embraced.



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