Disillusionment Of Ten O'Clock Poem by Wallace Stevens

Disillusionment Of Ten O'Clock

Rating: 3.3


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
Bob Johnson 20 January 2012

They made us read ths garbage.1/10

24 38 Reply
Poetry Hound 30 May 2006

This bit of puffery is in the Top 500 of poems? It's pretty silly stuff. Perhaps it has an appeal to young children.

8 37 Reply
C Carey 17 September 2006

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.

31 10 Reply
Gosia Dobosz 30 December 2007

Well, I think it's funny - not stupid at all. Poetry doesn't have to be deadly serious. Don't you think?

20 12 Reply
Carrie D'amato 09 October 2008

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.

19 12 Reply
Kat. B. 18 June 2022

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! '

0 0 Reply
Rose Marie Juan-austin 10 December 2021

A powerful and wonderful poem embellished with compelling images and great imagination.

0 0 Reply
tom billsborough 26 November 2017

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.

1 0 Reply
Subhas Chandra Chakra 26 November 2017

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.

0 0 Reply
Savita Tyagi 26 November 2017

Gloomy moments of life don’t offer rainbow of colors. Wallace’s imagination brings beauty to some some such moments. A super read.

3 1 Reply
Wallace Stevens

Wallace Stevens

Pennsylvania / United States
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