{"id":247,"date":"2025-09-24T19:30:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T19:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hartfordlit.org\/?p=247"},"modified":"2026-01-28T21:29:05","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T21:29:05","slug":"the-river-of-rivers-in-connecticut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hartfordlit.org\/?p=247","title":{"rendered":"The River of Rivers in Connecticut"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>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.<\/em><!--more--><\/p>\n<h2><strong>The River of Rivers in Connecticut<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><strong>by Wallace Stevens<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>There is a great river this side of Stygia,<br \/>\nBefore one comes to the first black cataracts<br \/>\nAnd trees that lack the intelligence of trees.<\/p>\n<p>In that river, far this side of Stygia,<br \/>\nThe mere flowing of the water is a gayety,<br \/>\nFlashing and flashing in the sun. On its banks,<\/p>\n<p>No shadow walks. The river is fateful,<br \/>\nLike the last one. But there is no ferryman.<br \/>\nHe could not bend against its propelling force.<\/p>\n<p>It is not to be seen beneath the appearances<br \/>\nThat tell of it. The steeple at Farmington<br \/>\nStands glistening and Haddam shines and sways.<\/p>\n<p>It is the third commonness with light and air,<br \/>\nA curriculum, a vigor, a local abstraction . . .<br \/>\nCall it, once more, a river, an unnamed flowing,<\/p>\n<p>Space-filled, reflecting the seasons, the folk-lore<br \/>\nOf each of the senses; call it, again and again,<br \/>\nThe river that flows nowhere, like a sea.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Glossary<\/p>\n<p><em>Stygia<\/em>: related to Styx, river between earth and the underworld (Greek myth)<\/p>\n<p><em>ferryman<\/em>: Charon, transports souls across Styx to the underworld (Greek myth)<\/p>\n<p><em>cataracts<\/em>: waterfalls or steep rapids<\/p>\n<pre>\u201cThe Rivers of Rivers in Connecticut\u201d from THE COLLECTED POEMS OF WALLACE STEVENS by Wallace Stevens, copyright \u00a9 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.<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[51,73,34,32,31],"class_list":["post-247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wallace-stevens","tag-connecticut-setting","tag-mythology","tag-nature","tag-poem","tag-poetry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hartfordlit.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hartfordlit.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hartfordlit.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hartfordlit.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hartfordlit.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hartfordlit.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hartfordlit.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hartfordlit.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hartfordlit.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}