Disillusionment of Ten O’Clock

The houses are haunted
By white night-gowns.
None are green,
Or purple with green rings,
Or green with yellow rings,
Or yellow with blue rings.
None of them are strange,
With socks of lace
And beaded ceintures.
People are not going
To dream of baboons and periwinkles.
Only, here and there, an old sailor,
Drunk and asleep in his boots,
Catches tigers
In red weather.

—

Wallace Stevens (1879-1955)

Wallace Stevens, Collected Poems; Faber & Faber, London; ISBN 0571132146
Wallace Stevens, Opus Posthumous; Faber & Faber, London; ISBN 0571151418