"Gray Room" (1917)

by Wallace Stevens


Although you sit in a room that is gray,
Except for the silver
Of the straw-paper,
And pick
At your pale white gown;
Or lift one of the green beads
Of your necklace,
To let it fall;
Or gaze at your green fan
Printed with the red branches of a red willow;
Or, with one finger,
Move the leaf in the bowl--
The leaf that has fallen from the branches of the forsythia
Beside you...
What is all this?
I know how furiously your heart is beating.


Click here for a brief post-class exchange on this poem and Pound's "The Encounter."


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Last modified: Wednesday, 18-Jul-2007 16:26:09 EDT