Two Pears

Study of Two Pears

BY WALLACE STEVENS

I

Opusculum paedagogum.   

The pears are not viols,   

Nudes or bottles.

They resemble nothing else.

            II

They are yellow forms   

Composed of curves

Bulging toward the base.   

They are touched red.

            III

They are not flat surfaces   

Having curved outlines.

They are round   

Tapering toward the top.

            IV

In the way they are modelled   

There are bits of blue.

A hard dry leaf hangs

From the stem.

            V

The yellow glistens.

It glistens with various yellows,

Citrons, oranges and greens   

Flowering over the skin.

            VI

The shadows of the pears   

Are blobs on the green cloth.   

The pears are not seen

As the observer wills.

Wallace Stevens, “Study of Two Pears” from Collected Poems. Copyright 1923, 1951, 1954 by Wallace Stevens. Reprinted with the permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc.