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.
This bit of puffery is in the Top 500 of poems? It's pretty silly stuff. Perhaps it has an appeal to young children.
Not silly at all. The world is all too utterly without imagination. Boring as white nightgowns, without color or vigor or life. Thank goodness for the old drunk who at least has an imagination. That's it, pure and simple, gracefully told.
Well, I think it's funny - not stupid at all. Poetry doesn't have to be deadly serious. Don't you think?
I have to agree with C Carey. Stevens was most noted for his exploration of reality and the imagination, and how they are reconciled. This poem is more about the reality of the world lacking an imagination except for a drunk, or rather a man not who is not perceived as part of the mainstream.
I vision the white gowns, the other colors and the socks and Sailor. But...I have no idea what all the hype is about aside from the fact that it caught my 'eye! '
A powerful and wonderful poem embellished with compelling images and great imagination.
What a fine description of disillusionment by one of USA's greatest ever poets. Dreams cocooned in a white world. Magnificent technical quality especially in the last four lines.
None are green, Or purple with green rings, Or green with yellow rings, Or yellow with blue rings. None of them are strange Beautiful description of disillusionment.
Gloomy moments of life don’t offer rainbow of colors. Wallace’s imagination brings beauty to some some such moments. A super read.
They made us read ths garbage.1/10