The river of rivers in Connecticut is both the Connecticut River that flows through Hartford and the invisible river of life that flows endlessly through all living things. Haddam is a town on the Connecticut River. The town of Farmington is located on the Farmington River, a tributary of the Connecticut River.
The River of Rivers in Connecticut
by Wallace Stevens
There is a great river this side of Stygia,
Before one comes to the first black cataracts
And trees that lack the intelligence of trees.
In that river, far this side of Stygia,
The mere flowing of the water is a gayety,
Flashing and flashing in the sun. On its banks,
No shadow walks. The river is fateful,
Like the last one. But there is no ferryman.
He could not bend against its propelling force.
It is not to be seen beneath the appearances
That tell of it. The steeple at Farmington
Stands glistening and Haddam shines and sways.
It is the third commonness with light and air,
A curriculum, a vigor, a local abstraction . . .
Call it, once more, a river, an unnamed flowing,
Space-filled, reflecting the seasons, the folk-lore
Of each of the senses; call it, again and again,
The river that flows nowhere, like a sea.
Glossary
Stygia: related to Styx, river between earth and the underworld (Greek myth)
ferryman: Charon, transports souls across Styx to the underworld (Greek myth)
cataracts: waterfalls or steep rapids
“The Rivers of Rivers in Connecticut” from THE COLLECTED POEMS OF WALLACE STEVENS by Wallace Stevens, copyright © 1954 by Wallace 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.