Wallace Stevens is starting to piss me off. He won't tell me what he's trying to say. And I'm getting the sneaking suspicion that he's trying to say that I shouldn't be worried about what he's trying to say. But how do I figure that out if he won't tell me?

At least I know that the guy who checked out this library book before me was having as much trouble as me. Check out this poem:

The Virgin Carrying a Lantern

There are no bears among the roses,
Only a negress who supposes
Things false and wrong

About the lantern of the beauty
Who walks there, as a farewell duty,
Walks long and long.

The pity that her pious egress
Should fill the vigil of a negress
With heat so strong!

...Now check out his annotations, roughly approximated in italics where he wrote them:

The (only one?) Virgin (Mary?)(Why virgin?) Carrying (who is she lighting?) a Lantern (DARK vs. LIGHT)

There are no bears (?) among the roses, -->(GARDEN civ *winner* vs. FOREST wild)
Only a negress who supposes -->(female black stupid?)
Things false and wrong (no punct.)
(Thinking about lantern of virgin?)

About the lantern of the beauty
Who walks there, as a farewell duty, -->(byby?)(duty. drudgery?)
Walks long and long. <---(hard work? forced?)

The pity that her pious egress (Not a sentence: il n'y a pas verbe)
Should fill the vigil of a negress (what is she leaving? Eden?)(what's the negress doing?)
With heat so strong!
---> (is she angry at things which she has mistaken or are the falsities made to shelter some prejudice?)

I hear ya, buddy. Hope you're on the right track.