“If to serenade almost to man
Is to miss, by that, things as they are,
Say that it is the serenade
Of a man that plays a blue guitar.”
The Man With the Blue Guitar (1937)
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Wallace Stevens 278
American poet 1879–1955Related quotes
Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter LI: On Baiae and Morals
“And that's life, then: things as they are,
This buzzing of the blue guitar.”
The Man With the Blue Guitar (1937)
Context: So that's life, then: things are they are?
It picks its way on the blue guitar.
A million people on one string?
And all their manner in the thing,
And all their manner, right and wrong,
And all their manner, weak and strong?
And that's life, then: things as they are,
This buzzing of the blue guitar.
“If you hand me a guitar, I'll play the blues. That's the place I automatically go.”
Characters, ch. 9 (12); translation from R. C. Jebb and J. E. Sandys (trans.), The Characters of Theophrastus (London: Macmillan, 1909), p. 75.
I am the Blues: the Willie Dixon Story (with Don Snowden, 1990), p. 2.
On female guitarists, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame interview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8EKTGlQp-c, 2016
“The blue guitar
And I are one.”
The Man With the Blue Guitar (1937)
“The uglier a man's legs are, the better he plays golf. It's almost a law.”
Bealby: A Holiday (1915)