Study of Two Pears
I
Opusculum paedagogum.
The pears are not viols,
Nudes or bottles.
They resemble nothing else.
II
They are yellow forms
Composed of curves
Bulging toward the base.
They are touched red.
III
They are not flat surfaces
Having curved outlines.
They are round
Tapering toward the top.
IV
In the way they are modeled
There are bits of blue.
A hard dry leaf hangs
from the stem.
V
The yellow glistens.
It glistens with various yelllows,
Citrons, oranges and greens
Flowering over the skin.
VI
The shadows of the pears
are blobs on the green cloth.
The pears are not seen
as the observer wills.
by Wallace Stevens
from Collected Poems, 1923
Random House