A High-Toned Old Christian Woman

Wallace Stevens * Track #36 On Harmonium

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ALBUM

Wallace Stevens

1923

A High-Toned Old Christian Woman by Wallace Stevens

Release Date

Mon Jan 01 1923

Performed by

Wallace Stevens

About

The poem addresses the “high-toned old Christian woman” of the title.

“High-toned” has various meanings:
1. high-pitched musically: that lady who sings like that at church.
2. high-principled: morally elevated, refined
3. high-class: stylish and tasteful, or pretentious and snobby
4. high-strung: t...

A High-Toned Old Christian Woman Annotated

Poetry is the supreme fiction, madame.
Take the moral law and make a nave of it
And from the nave build haunted heaven. Thus,
The conscience is converted into palms,
Like windy citherns hankering for hymns.
We agree in principle. That's clear. But take
The opposing law and make a peristyle,
And from the peristyle project a masque
Beyond the planets. Thus, our bawdiness,
Unpurged by epitaph, indulged at last,
Is equally converted into palms,
Squiggling like saxophones. And palm for palm,
Madame, we are where we began. Allow,
Therefore, that in the planetary scene
Your disaffected flagellants, well-stuffed,
Smacking their muzzy bellies in parade,
Proud of such novelties of the sublime,
Such tink and tank and tunk-a-tunk-tunk,
May, merely may, madame, whip from themselves
A jovial hullabaloo among the spheres.
This will make widows wince. But fictive things
Wink as they will. Wink most when widows wince.

A High-Toned Old Christian Woman Q&A

When did Wallace Stevens release A High-Toned Old Christian Woman?

Wallace Stevens released A High-Toned Old Christian Woman on Mon Jan 01 1923.

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