“Begin, ephebe, by perceiving the idea
Of this invention, this invented world,
The inconceivable idea of the sun.”

— Wallace Stevens

Notes Toward a Supreme Fiction (1942), It Must Be Abstract
Context: p>Begin, ephebe, by perceiving the idea
Of this invention, this invented world,
The inconceivable idea of the sun.You must become an ignorant man again
And see the sun again with an ignorant eye
And see it clearly in the idea of it.Never suppose an inventing mind as source
Of this idea nor for that mind compose
A voluminous master folded in his fire.</p

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Wallace Stevens 278

American poet 1879–1955

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