The Wallace Stevens reading project

The first lines of a few Stevens poems—

The whole of appearance is a toy. (The Dove in the Belly), p.366

It is an illusion that we were ever alive, (The Rock (1), p. 525

Silence is a shape that has passed. (The Green Plant, p.506

With my whole body I taste these peaches, (A Dish of Peaches in Russia), p. 224

I am what is around me. (Theory), p. 86

I have finished my combat with the sun; (From The Misery of Don Joost), p. 46

The cricket in the telephone is still. (Certain Phenomena of Sound), p.286

(First lines culled from poems ‘found’ in “The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens” (Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1999.)