THE IDEA OF ORDER AT KEY WEST

She sang beyond the genius of the sea. The water never formed to mind Of man; so he was free As to her inverted heart As to the hermit who, alone In the mountains, watched them rise And fall and roll.

She sang of the world and he heard. He could only think of the clear sky And the unique waves of the sea. They came together, in the flow Of her lovely song and the rain. The world was never a world Without her song, without the waves Hearing her note beyond the sea.

• Wallace Stevens