STUDY IN WHITES Wax-white - Floor, ceiling, walls. Ivory shadows Over the pavement Polished to cream surfaces By constant sweeping. The big room is coloured like the petals Of a great magnolia, And has a patina Of flower bloom Which makes it shine dimly Under the electric lamps. Chairs are ranged in rows Like sepia seeds Waiting fulfilment. The chalk-white spot of a cook's cap Moves unglossily against the vaguely bright wall- Dull chalk-white striking the retina like a blow Thru the wavering uncertainty of steam. Vitreous-white of glasses with green reflections, Ice-green carboys, shifting-greener, bluer-with the jar of moving water. Jagged green-white bowls of pressed glass Rearing snow-peaks of chipped sugar Above the lighthouse-shaped castors Of grey pepper and grey-white salt. Grey-white placards: "Oyster Stew, Cornbeef Hash, Frankfurters": Marble slabs veined with words in meandering lines. Dropping on the white counter like horn notes Through a web of violins, The flat yellow lights of oranges, The cube-red splashes of apples, In high plated ??pergnes. The electric clock jerks every half-minute: Coming!-Past! Three beef-steaks and a chicken-pie, Bawled through a slide while the clock jerks heavily. A man carries a china mug of coffee to a distant chair. Two rice puddings and a salmon salad Are pushed over the counter; The unfulfilled chairs open to receive them. A spoon falls upon the floor with the impact of metal striking stone, And the sound throws across the room Sharp, invisible zigzags Of silver. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...TO A FRIEND I CAN'T FIND by JAMES GALVIN AN ODE, PARAPHRASED: THE CUP by ANACREON THE VOLUNTEER by HERBERT HENRY ASQUITH THE WRECK OF THE DEUTSCHLAND by GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS THE RAGGEDY MAN by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY THE PROSPECTOR by ROBERT WILLIAM SERVICE SONNET TO MASTER GABRIELL HARVEY, DOCTOR OF LAWES by EDMUND SPENSER THE LOVE SONNETS OF PROTEUS: 50. FAREWELL TO JULIET (12) by WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT |