Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). The New Poetry: An Anthology. 1917.

Man in a Room

William Carlos Williams

HERE, no woman, nor man besides,

Nor child, nor dog, nor bird, nor wasp,

Nor ditch pool, nor green thing. Color of flower,

Blood-bright berry none, nor flame-rust

On leaf, nor pink gall-sting on stem, nor

Staring stone. Ay de mí!

No hawthorn’s white thorn-tree here, nor lawn

Of buttercups, nor any counterpart:

Bed, book-backs, walls, floor,

Flat pictures, desk, clothes-box, litter

Of paper scrawls. So sit I here,

So stand, so walk about. Beside

The flower-white tree not so lonely I:

Torn petals, dew-wet, blotched yellow my bare instep.