Twenty men crossing a bridge, <br />Into a village, <br />Are twenty men crossing twenty bridges, <br />Into twenty villages, <br />Or one man <br />Crossing a single bridge into a village. <br /> <br />This is old song <br />That will not declare itself . . . <br /> <br />Twenty men crossing a bridge, <br />Into a village, <br />Are <br />Twenty men crossing a bridge <br />Into a village. <br /> <br />That will not declare itself <br />Yet is certain as meaning . . . <br /> <br />The boots of the men clump <br />On the boards of the bridge. <br />The first white wall of the village <br />Rises through fruit-trees. <br />Of what was it I was thinking? <br />So the meaning escapes. <br /> <br />The first white wall of the village... <br />The fruit-trees...<br /><br />Wallace Stevens<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/metaphors-of-a-magnifico/
