Homunculus et La Belle Etoile Lyrics

In the sea, Biscayne, there prinks
The young emerald, evening star
Good light for drunkards, poets, widows,
And ladies soon to be married.


By this light the salty fishes
Arch in the sea like tree-branches,
Going in many directions
Up and down.

This light conducts
The thoughts of drunkards, the feelings
Of widows and trembling ladies,
The movements of fishes.

How pleasant an existence it is
That this emerald charms philosophers,
Until they become thoughtlessly willing
To bathe their hearts in later moonlight,

Knowing that they can bring back thought
In the night that is still to be silent,
Reflecting this thing and that,
Before they sleep.

It is better that, as scholars,
They should think hard in the dark cuffs
Of voluminous cloaks,
And shave their heads and bodies.

It might well be that their mistress
Is no gaunt fugitive phantom.
She might, after all, be a wanton,
Abundantly beautiful, eager.


Fecund,
From whose being by starlight, on sea-coast,
The innermost good of their seeking
Might come in the simplest of speech.

It is a good light, then, for those
That know the ultimate Plato,
Tranquillizing with this jewel
The torments of confusion.

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About

Genius Annotation

A homunculus is the Latin for, literally, a “small man”. Miniature humans came out of the alchemical tradition of the 16th century, when the creation of one was thought to be possible.

“Belle Etoile” is French for “beautiful star”. Stevens is likely contrasting these two images as he paints a scene of Floridian life: the little people living out little lives contrasted with the star of philosophical “good”, mentioned later on in the poem.

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Credits
Release Date
October 1, 1919
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