Saturday, July 9, 2011

The Man with the Blue Guitar (XXV)


XXV

He held the world upon his nose
And this-a-way he gave a fling.

His robes and symbols, ai-yi-yi --
And that-a-way he twirled the thing.

Sombre as fir-trees, liquid cats
Moved in the grass without a sound.

They did not know the grass went round.
The cats had cats and the grass turned gray

And the world had worlds, ai, this-a-way:
The grass turned green and the grass turned gray.

And the nose is eternal, that-a-way.
Things as they were, things as they are,

Things as they will be by and by...
A fat thumb beats out ai-yi-yi.

---
Wallace Stevens
from The Man with the Blue Guitar, 1937

[Poem is in the public domain in Canada]


No comments:

Post a Comment