Danse Russe

William Carlos Williams 1883 (Rutherford) – 1963 (Rutherford)



If I when my wife is sleeping
and the baby and Kathleen
are sleeping
and the sun is a flame-white disc
in silken mists
above shining trees,—
if I in my north room
dance naked, grotesquely
before my mirror
waving my shirt round my head
and singing softly to myself:
"I am lonely, lonely.
I was born to be lonely,
I am best so!"
If I admire my arms, my face,
my shoulders, flanks, buttocks
against the yellow drawn shades,—

Who shall say I am not
the happy genius of my household?

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 30, 2023

28 sec read
501

Quick analysis:

Scheme AXAXXXXBXXXBBXXXX XX
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 472
Words 97
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 17, 2

William Carlos Williams

William Carlos Williams was a Latino-American poet closely associated with modernism and imagism. more…

All William Carlos Williams poems | William Carlos Williams Books

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