This poem imagines that the sun, making its daily westward journey to Hartford, brings with it all the appealing aspects of Europe. The warm “purple” light of late afternoon in Hartford reminds Stevens of the romantic allure of Paris, with the legendary beauty of its women and its rich cultural atmosphere (for instance, the elaborate architecture and musical splendor of the Paris Opera House). He jokingly compares the sun to a French poodle, wet from its trip over the ocean, shaking off a shower of iridescent drops that transform Hartford (“the town, the river, the railroad”) into a sparkling paradise.
Of Hartford in a Purple Light
by Wallace Stevens
A long time you have been making the trip
From Havre to Hartford, Master Soleil,
Bringing the lights of Norway and all that.
A long time the ocean has come with you,
Shaking the water off, like a poodle,
That splatters incessant thousands of drops,
Each drop a petty tricolor. For this,
The aunts in Pasadena, remembering,
Abhor the plaster of the western horses,
Souvenirs of museums. But, Master, there are
Lights masculine and lights feminine.
What is this purple, this parasol,
This stage-light of the Opera?
It is like a region full of intonings.
It is Hartford seen in a purple light.
A moment ago, light masculine,
Working, with big hands, on the town,
Arranged its heroic attitudes.
But now as in an amour of women
Purple sets purple round. Look, Master,
See the river, the railroad, the cathedral .
When male light fell on the naked back
Of the town, the river, the railroad were clear.
Now, every muscle slops away.
Hi! Whisk it, poodle, flick the spray
Of the ocean, ever-freshening,
On the irised hunks, the stone bouquet.
Glossary
Havre: Le Havre, a city in France
Soleil: sun (French)
parasol: umbrella for shading the sun
amour: secret love affair or lover
irised: made iridescent (a play of color caused when light refracts)
“Of Harford in a Purple Light” from THE COLLECTED POEMS OF WALLACE STEVENS by Wallace Stevens, copyright 1942 by Wallace Stevens, copyright © renewed 1970 by Holly Stevens. Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved.