DANSE RUSSE William Carlos Williams

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

again the yellow drawn shades,--

Who shall say I am not

the happy genius of my household?

c. 1917 Robert Zverina's "Danse Russe" as part of his picture of the day site.

Document URL: http://www.english.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88/wcw-danse-russe.html

Last modified: Wednesday, 18-Jul-2007 16:29:15 EDT