“Another Weeping Woman” by Wallace Stevens

In “Another Weeping Woman,” by Wallace Stevens, we are given earnest advice to move on and let go. While we at SevenPonds suggest you take your time with the grieving process and give you emotions as much attention as they require, Stevens seems to suggest in his poem that grief can take over your life unless you can learn from it.

“Another Weeping Woman” is particularly intriguing for me because the title evokes apathy while the poem itself seems like an earnest warning. “Pour the unhappiness out,” he writes, “From your too bitter heart, / Which grieving will not sweeten.
/ Poison grows in this dark.” The title, “Another Weeping Woman,” gives off the tone that the speaker is uncaring or that a weeping woman is just an everyday sight. The content, though, makes the speaker seem legitimately concerned for those grappling with grief and having a hard time moving on. The last line, “you are pierced by death,” feels very sympathetic and understanding. It doesn’t belittle the grief of a woman who might have lost her husband or a child—the kind of grief that probably seems like it’ll never go away.

Photo credit: World Bank Photo Collection

Stevens seems to have an intimate knowledge of death. The bitterness, grief, and darkness all obviously point to death as the primary subject, but other words such as sweeten, blooms, and imagination all point towards optimism and rebirth. He writes, “The magnificent cause of being, / The imagination, the one reality
/ In this imagined world
/ Leaves you / With him for whom no phantasy moves.” It seems like he’s saying that death isn’t the end, but another beginning. I imagine Stevens must have had some tragic life experiences to exude that kind of understanding.

From what I can gather, it seems he’s suggesting that wallowing in the grieving process after a loved one’s death might be no better than death itself. It seems as though he explores the frightening, finite nature of death while still saying there’s an end to grief for those of us living — that, while we will grieve after a loved one has passed, we must push ourselves to move on for the sake of their memory and our own lives. Grief has its purpose, but at some point we must let it go as selfish as that might feel. Moving on with just the memory of a loved one is impossible to imagine, and yet, many find the strength to move on and many will in the inevitable cycle of life and death.

“Pour the unhappiness out

From your too bitter heart,

Which grieving will not sweeten.

Poison grows in this dark.

It is in the water of tears

Its black blooms rise.

The magnificent cause of being,

The imagination, the one reality

In this imagined world

Leaves you

With him for whom no phantasy moves,


And you are pierced by a death.”