"The Virgin Carrying a Lantern" is a poem from Wallace Stevens's first book of poetry, Harmonium (1923). It was one of the few Harmonium poems first published in that volume.
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!