Metaphors of a Magnifico
By Wallace Stevens
Twenty men crossing a bridge, Into a village, Are twenty men crossing twenty bridges, Into twenty villages, Or one man Crossing a single bridge into a village. This is old song That will not declare itself . . . Twenty men crossing a bridge, Into a village, Are Twenty men crossing a bridge Into a village. That will not declare itself Yet is certain as meaning . . . The boots of the men clump On the boards of the bridge. The first white wall of the village Rises through fruit-trees. Of what was it I was thinking? So the meaning escapes. The first white wall of the village . . . The fruit-trees . . .

      As suggested by Sexson I decided to just read Wallace Stevens. I didn't try to analyze or even make the smallest attempt to engage the poems for deeper meaning. I just read. I read one poem after another for about ten minutes and I was really starting to get into a rhythm and enjoy the words for just words and the way the poems were each so different and yet they all link together in a pleasant way. Then I came to "Metaphors of a Magnifico" and I paused. Not a pause in a bad or abrupt way but this poem struck me in a way the others had not. I really liked it. I like the metaphor, I like the juxtaposition, I like the ellipses that leave the reader wondering and yet satisfied. I can not claim to have grasped some deeper meaning from the poem or that after reading it a few times I now know exactly what Stevens is trying to convey to the reader, because i don't.  I am just saying that I liked it.
    I just finished writing a short response paper for my literary criticism class and it was on Robert Scholes and how he defines what literature is. In that class we discussed Wallace Steven's poem "The Man With the Blue Guitar". Scholes defines literature in part as something that can be recovered or is repeatable. I felt that as I was reading "The Man With the Blue Guitar" that I could hear a song melody in it. This for me is a part of what makes literature, the ability to engage the reader and cross over to a different medium. "Metaphors of a Magnifico" struck me because I was engaged, I had a mental picture of men crossing the bridge then just one man then a white wall. If I were more artistically adept I may be inclined to paint a rendition of this poem just because its overflowing with imagination and as the tittle gives aways, metaphor.
    I feel sometimes as a reader I try to do too much with the words, but letting my mind relax and just read was really nice and I think helped me to get more enjoyment from the poems.