The_Apostrophe_to_Vincentine
The Apostrophe to Vincentine
Poem by Wallace Stevens
"The Apostrophe to Vincentine" is a poem from Wallace Stevens's first book of poetry, Harmonium (1923). It was first published before 1923 and is therefore in the public domain according to Librivox.[1]
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.