Literary Analysis Sample: "The Disillusionment of Ten O'Clock" Explication

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.



“Disillusionment of Ten O’ Clock” By Wallace Stevens

In his poem, “Disillusionment of Ten O’ Clock” poet Wallace Stevens observes and comments upon the empty and meaningless lives that many people lead. Stevens accomplishes this through the use of repetition and comparison, and more importantly metaphysical and artistic imagery.

Throughout the first part- a shift occurring between lines 11 and 12 –words with negative connotations are used to build the empty and disillusioned tone that emanates through the poem and to set the context of the poem. The poem begins with Stevens describing the setting as houses “haunted/By white night-gowns.” The use of “haunted” implies the existence of ghosts or other otherworldly beings in the houses. Since Stevens does not mean that actual ghosts abide in the houses, by implying that they do he is suggesting that the human inhabitants of the houses hold traits that people associate with ghosts: cold, empty and dead. The ghost imagery is furthered by the second line where the haunting figures are “white night-gowns,” which are usually rather ghostly attires. Also, the fact that the figures are wearing “white” suggests a dullness in their lives- or lack thereof. Stevens continues to stress the importance of the lack of color in lines 3 to 9. Stevens repeats the words “none” and “not” which advance the negative and dark tone. The speaker states what colors the night-gowns are not- “none are green… purple with green…. green with yellow… yellow with blue…”- to stress that they lack color and- since color often symbolizes passion and life –meaning. Since the night-gowns symbolize the inhabitants of the houses, one can say that it is the inhabitants of the houses that live the meaningless lives. The use of the ghostly imagery in the first two lines and in the lines up to line 12 sets the tone of the poem and begins to characterize its inhabitants.

Stevens also describes “an old sailor” in order to contrast the sailor’s way of life with the inhabitants of the houses by contrasting the different dreams that both have and their different personas. The “people” of the houses, Stevens writes, are not going “to dream of baboons and periwinkles,” unlike the sailor who in his dreams “catches tigers/in red weather.” The people not dreaming about baboons and periwinkles suggests that they are incapable of enjoying the beauty and exotic appeal of the two items. The sailor, on the other hand, is the only one in the poem who dreams of color and unusual situations. The vibrant “red weather” in the sailor’s dreams contrasts the pale “white night-gowns” of the houses’ inhabitants. Also, the connotative meaning held in describing the character as an “old sailor” gives the impression that the man is well traveled and has experienced much in his life, unlike the residents of the houses who spend their time, even their dreams, inside of their houses. While the sailor is able to escape the house that he is physically in through means of his dreams, the houses’ residents are incapable of doing so and thus lead dull and uninteresting lives.

In describing the “houses” and the “people” that abide in them, poet Wallace Stevens comments on the hollow lives led by assumedly many people but gives hope in showing that not everyone is lost to this passionless life. Stevens ends on a relatively positive and hopeful note suggesting that all one needs to do to escape living a drab life is use ones imagination and have an open mind.