“Let’s see the very thing and nothing else.
Let’s see it with the hottest fire of sight.
Burn everything not part of it to ash.
Trace the gold sun about the whitened sky
Without evasion by a single metaphor.
Look at it in its essential barrenness
And say this, this is the centre that I seek.”

— Wallace Stevens

"Credences of Summer"
Collected Poems (1954)

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Wallace Stevens 278

American poet 1879–1955

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“Let’s see the very thing and nothing else.Let’s see it with the hottest fire of sight.Burn everything not part of it to ash.Trace the gold sun about the whitened skyWithout evasion by a single metaphor.Look at it in its essential barrennessAnd say this, this is the centre that I seek.”

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Wallace Stevens 278

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