This poem was inspired by something Stevens saw in Elizabeth Park.  In a letter to a friend, he wrote, “Until quite lately a group of nuns came [to Elizabeth Park] each morning to paint water colors especially of the water lilies” (L 610).  In this poem he imagines the nuns’ thoughts.  As they paint, they ponder the miraculous beauty of life which seems to them “supernatural” in origin.  This experience awakens in them a refreshing clarity of mind and spirit.  They feel that this is a “special day” and that they themselves are an integral part of it.  There were several French orders of nuns in the Hartford area, which explains all the French terms in the poem. Continue reading Nuns Painting Water-Lilies  →