Stevens sketches a small, strange fable around X, an unnamed figure described only as a mighty man and a mighty thought. In his dreams, canna plants grow huge and fill the terrace of his capitol, suggesting a powerful inner world. Yet the poem hints at isolation: a thought that wakes inside sleep may never meet another thought or thing. When daybreak arrives, X walks out onto the dew-covered stones and gazes at the real cannas with a “clinging eye,” observing them and then continuing to observe. The speaker’s tone is calm and cryptic, almost riddle-like. The mood is dreamy and slightly eerie, hovering between grand mental life and the plain, almost obsessive act of staring at flowers. It leaves the reader suspended between inner vision and the physical world.
Anecdote of Canna — Summary
Huge are the canna in the dreams of X, the mighty thought, the mighty man. They fill the terrace of his capitol.
His thought sleeps not. Yet thought that wakes In sleep may never meet another thought Or thing.... Now day-break comes....
X promenades the dewy stones, Observes the canna with a clinging eye, Observes and then continues to observe.