"Disillusionment of Ten O'Clock" was first published by the American poet Wallace Stevens in 1915, and later reprinted in Stevens's 1923 collection, Harmonium. The poem is at once whimsical and serious as the speaker describes a group of people whose plain white nightgowns match the plainness of their dreams. The dullness and conformity of these people's lives disappoint the speaker, and contrast with the colorful, vivid dreams of an old, drunken sailor. The poem's exploration of the relationship between the real world and the world of the imagination makes "Disillusionment of Ten O'Clock" an important example of Stevens's contribution to American Modernism.
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The Full Text of “Disillusionment of Ten O'Clock”
1The houses are haunted
2By white night-gowns.
3None are green,
4Or purple with green rings,
5Or green with yellow rings,
6Or yellow with blue rings.
7None of them are strange,
8With socks of lace
9And beaded ceintures.
10People are not going
11To dream of baboons and periwinkles.
12Only, here and there, an old sailor,
13Drunk and asleep in his boots,
14Catches tigers
15In red weather.
The Full Text of “Disillusionment of Ten O'Clock”
1The houses are haunted
2By white night-gowns.
3None are green,
4Or purple with green rings,
5Or green with yellow rings,
6Or yellow with blue rings.
7None of them are strange,
8With socks of lace
9And beaded ceintures.
10People are not going
11To dream of baboons and periwinkles.
12Only, here and there, an old sailor,
13Drunk and asleep in his boots,
14Catches tigers
15In red weather.
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“Disillusionment of Ten O'Clock” Summary
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“Disillusionment of Ten O'Clock” Themes
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Conformity vs. Imagination
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Disillusionment of Ten O'Clock”
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Lines 1-2
The houses are haunted
By white night-gowns. -
Lines 3-6
None are green,
Or purple with green rings,
Or green with yellow rings,
Or yellow with blue rings. -
Lines 7-9
None of them are strange,
With socks of lace
And beaded ceintures. -
Lines 10-11
People are not going
To dream of baboons and periwinkles. -
Lines 12-13
Only, here and there, an old sailor,
Drunk and asleep in his boots, -
Lines 14-15
Catches tigers
In red weather.
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“Disillusionment of Ten O'Clock” Symbols
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White Nightgowns
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“Disillusionment of Ten O'Clock” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Alliteration
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Consonance
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Assonance
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Parallelism
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Enjambment
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Anadiplosis
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“Disillusionment of Ten O'Clock” Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Disillusionment
- Rings
- Ceintures
- Periwinkles
- Catches
- Red Weather
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- See where this vocabulary word appears in the poem.
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Disillusionment of Ten O'Clock”
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Form
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Meter
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Rhyme Scheme
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“Disillusionment of Ten O'Clock” Speaker
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“Disillusionment of Ten O'Clock” Setting
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Literary and Historical Context of “Disillusionment of Ten O'Clock”
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More “Disillusionment of Ten O'Clock” Resources
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External Resources
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The Poem Out Loud — Listen to a reading of "Disillusionment of Ten O'Clock."
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Stevens's Life and Work — A short biography of Wallace Stevens.
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What is Modernism? — A brief explanation of Modernist poetry.
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Harmonium — An electronic edition of Stevens's 1923 book Harmonium, in which "Disillusionment of Ten O'Clock" was published.
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Wallace Stevens as an American Poet — A lecture on Stevens by prominent poetry critic Helen Vendler.
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LitCharts on Other Poems by Wallace Stevens
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