The_Virgin_Carrying_a_Lantern
The Virgin Carrying a Lantern
Poem by Wallace Stevens
"The Virgin Carrying a Lantern" is a poem from Wallace Stevens's first book of poetry, Harmonium (1923). It was one of the few Harmonium poems first published in that volume.
The Virgin Carrying a Lantern
There are no bears among the roses,
Only a negress who supposes
Things false and wrong
About the lantern of the beauty
Who walks, there, as a farewell duty,
Walks long and long.
The pity that her pious egress
Should fill the vigil of a negress
With heat so strong!