A Disillusionment Of Ten O'Clock Poem by Wallace Stevens

A Disillusionment Of Ten O'Clock

Rating: 3.2


The houses are haunted
By white night-gowns.
None are green,
Or purple with green rings,
Or green with yellow rings,
Or yellow with blue rings.
None of them are strange,
With socks of lace
And beaded ceintures.
People are not going
To dream of baboons and periwinkles.
Only, here and there, an old sailor,
Drunk and asleep in his boots,
Catches Tigers
In red weather.

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Michael Walker 30 July 2019

A poem which is like a painting using bright colors-purple, green' blue. The people about to fall asleep to have exotic dreams, There is just 'an old sailor, / Drunk and asleep in his boots'. There are many connotations packed into these fifteen lines, I find.

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Barry Middleton 17 November 2013

People do not have much imagination except for occasional drunken sailors. I think poets in general are very like drunken sailors. Stevens' love affair with imagination is succinctly expressed here and I love catching tigers in red weather as an image and a metaphor for a man of imagination.

5 0 Reply
Gary Witt 18 April 2010

I'm afraid the title is not 'A' Disillusionment. It is simply 'Disillusionment of Ten O'Clock.' -G

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Wallace Stevens

Wallace Stevens

Pennsylvania / United States
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