Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). The New Poetry: An Anthology. 1917.
The Paltry Nude Starts on a Spring VoyageWallace Stevens
From “Pecksniffiana”
B
Archaic, for the sea.
But on the first-found weed
She scuds the glitters,
Noiselessly, like one more wave.
And would have purple stuff upon her arms,
Tired of the salty harbors,
Eager for the brine and bellowing
Of the high interiors of the sea.
Blowing upon her hands
And watery back.
She touches the clouds, where she goes,
In the circle of her traverse of the sea.
In the scurry and water-shine,
As her heels foam—
Not as when the goldener nude
Of a later day
In an intenser calm,
Scullion of fate,
Across the spick torrent, ceaselessly,
Upon her irretrievable way.