Gray Room

      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.

      (1917)


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