Wednesday, May 18, 2005

The Blue Guitar

The man bent over his guitar,
A shearsman of sorts. The day was green.

They said "You have a blue guitar,
You do not play things as they are."

The man replied, "Things as they are
Are changed upon the blue guitar."

by Wallace Stevens

The Man With The Blue Guitar
(1937)
Found in The Optimistic Child


I'm going to use that for one of my albums someday. Don't steal it! (First recording session on Saturday. :)

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3 comments:

Joel said...

I always liked Wallace Stevens....

Braidwood said...

This is the only one of his poems I've seen. Now I'm interested in looking at the rest. Do you know what a "shearsman" is?

Joel said...

I'd guess that he was someone who sheared sheep. I can see the motions as being similar. Watching an expert do that is quite a wonder to behold. So effortless and so cleanly done.