Sunday, January 3, 2010

The Apostrophe of Vincentine, Wallace Stevens


I  

I figured you as nude between
 Monotonous earth and dark blue sky.
 It made you seem so small and lean
 And nameless,
 Heavenly vincentine.

 II
 I saw you then, as warm as flesh,
 Brunette,
 But yet not too brunette,
 As warm, as clean.
 Your dress was green,
 Was whited green,
 Green vincentine.

 III
 Then you came walking,
 In a group
 Of human others,
 Voluble.
 Yes: you came walking,
 Vincentine.
 Yes: you came talking.

 IV
 And what I knew you felt
 came then.
 monotonous earth I saw become
 illimitable sphere of you,
 and that white animal, so lean,
 turned vincentine,
 and that white animal, so lean,
 turned heavenly, heavenly Vincentine

1 comment:

  1. The title of the poem should be "The Apostrophe to Vincentine"; in literature, an apostrophe is an exclamatory passage directed to a person or thing, usually absent. (Sorry; I edit for a living, too.)

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