STUDY IN WHITES Wax-white - Floor, ceiling, walls. Ivory shadows Over the pavement Polished to cream surfaces By constant sweeping. The big room is coloured like the petals Of a great magnolia, And has a patina Of flower bloom Which makes it shine dimly Under the electric lamps. Chairs are ranged in rows Like sepia seeds Waiting fulfilment. The chalk-white spot of a cook's cap Moves unglossily against the vaguely bright wall- Dull chalk-white striking the retina like a blow Thru the wavering uncertainty of steam. Vitreous-white of glasses with green reflections, Ice-green carboys, shifting-greener, bluer-with the jar of moving water. Jagged green-white bowls of pressed glass Rearing snow-peaks of chipped sugar Above the lighthouse-shaped castors Of grey pepper and grey-white salt. Grey-white placards: "Oyster Stew, Cornbeef Hash, Frankfurters": Marble slabs veined with words in meandering lines. Dropping on the white counter like horn notes Through a web of violins, The flat yellow lights of oranges, The cube-red splashes of apples, In high plated ??pergnes. The electric clock jerks every half-minute: Coming!-Past! Three beef-steaks and a chicken-pie, Bawled through a slide while the clock jerks heavily. A man carries a china mug of coffee to a distant chair. Two rice puddings and a salmon salad Are pushed over the counter; The unfulfilled chairs open to receive them. A spoon falls upon the floor with the impact of metal striking stone, And the sound throws across the room Sharp, invisible zigzags Of silver. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...TYRANNICK [TYRANNIC] LOVE: SONG by JOHN DRYDEN A TRIBUTE OF GRASSES by HAMLIN GARLAND SANTA FILOMENA by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW THE PHOENIX REBORN FROM ITS ASHES by LOUIS ARAGON PEARLS OF THE FAITH: 61. AL-MO'HYI by EDWIN ARNOLD TO DR. AIKIN by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD |