# Opus Posthumous

- Author: [Wallace Stevens](https://www.leafyquotes.com/wallace-stevens.md)
- Quotes: 23
- Book page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/wallace-stevens/opus-posthumous

## Quotes

> To see the gods dispelled in mid-air and dissolve like clouds is one of the great human experiences. It is not as if they had gone over the horizon to disappear for a time; nor as if they had been overcome by other gods of greater power and profounder knowledge. It is simply that they came to nothing.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/wallace-stevens/opus-posthumous/to-see-the.md)

> To have nothing to say and to say it in a tragic manner is not the same thing as having something to say.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/wallace-stevens/opus-posthumous/to-have-nothing.md)

> A poem should be a part of one's sense of life.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/wallace-stevens/opus-posthumous/a-poem-should.md)

> The number of ways of passing between the traditional two fixed points of man’s life, that is to say, of passing from the self to God, is fixed only by the limitations of space, which is limitless. The eternal philosopher is the eternal pilgrim on that road. It is difficult to take him seriously when he relies on the evidence of the teeth, the throat and the bowels. Yet in the one poem that is unimpeachably divine, the poem of the ascent into heaven, it is possible to say that there can be no faults, since it is precisely the faults of life this poem enables us to leave behind. If the idea of God is the ultimate poetic idea, then the idea of the ascent into heaven is only a little below it.

p. 369 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/wallace-stevens/opus-posthumous/the-number-of-ways.md)

> Poetry is a search for the inexplicable.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/wallace-stevens/opus-posthumous/poetry-is-a-search.md)

> Let wise men piece the world together with wisdom
>
> Or poets with holy magic.
>
> Hey-di-ho.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/wallace-stevens/opus-posthumous/let-wise-men.md)

> God is in me or else is not at all (does not exist).

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/wallace-stevens/opus-posthumous/god-is-in.md)

> A grandiose subject is not an assurance of a grandiose effect but, most likely, of the opposite.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/wallace-stevens/opus-posthumous/a-grandiose-subject.md)

> All poetry is experimental poetry.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/wallace-stevens/opus-posthumous/all-poetry-is-experimental.md)

> The imagination is one of the forces of nature.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/wallace-stevens/opus-posthumous/the-imagination-is-one.md)

> Style is not something applied. It is something that permeates. It is of the nature of that in which it is found, whether the poem, the manner of a god, the bearing of a man. It is not a dress.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/wallace-stevens/opus-posthumous/style-is-not.md)

> Man is an eternal sophomore.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/wallace-stevens/opus-posthumous/man-is-an-eternal.md)

> In the world of words, the imagination is one of the forces of nature.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/wallace-stevens/opus-posthumous/in-the-world.md)

> The poet is the priest of the invisible.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/wallace-stevens/opus-posthumous/the-poet-is-the.md)

> After one has abandoned a belief in God, poetry is that essence which takes its place as life’s redemption.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/wallace-stevens/opus-posthumous/after-one-has.md)

> The poet makes silk dresses out of worms.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/wallace-stevens/opus-posthumous/the-poet-makes.md)

> Poetry is a purging of the world's poverty and change and evil and death. It is a present perfecting, a satisfaction in the irremediable poverty of life.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/wallace-stevens/opus-posthumous/poetry-is-a-purging.md)

> The poet is a god, or, the young poet is a god. The old poet is a tramp.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/wallace-stevens/opus-posthumous/the-poet-is-a-god.md)

> Sentimentality is a failure of feeling.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/wallace-stevens/opus-posthumous/sentimentality-is-a-failure.md)

> A poet looks at the world as a man looks at a woman.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/wallace-stevens/opus-posthumous/a-poet-looks.md)

> All history is modern history.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/wallace-stevens/opus-posthumous/all-history-is-modern.md)

> To a large extent, the problems of poets are the problems of painters, and poets must often turn to the literature of painting for a discussion of their own problems.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/wallace-stevens/opus-posthumous/to-a-large.md)

> The world is a force, not a presence.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/wallace-stevens/opus-posthumous/the-world-is-a-force.md)