a pair of pears

Study of Two Pears
- by Wallace Stevens -

1
Opusculum paedagogum.*
The pears are not viols,
Nudes or bottles.
They resemble nothing else.

2
They are yellow forms
Composed of curves
Bulging toward the base.
They are touched red.

3
They are not flat surfaces
Having curved outlines
They are round
Tapering toward the top.

4
In the way they are modelled
There are bits of blue.
A hard dry leaf hangs
from the stem.

5
The yellow glistens.
It glistens with various yellows,
Citrons, oranges and greens
flowering over the skin.

6
The shadows of the pears
Are blobs on the green cloth.
The pears are not seen
As the observer wills.