Explore "O, Florida, Venereal Soil" by Wallace Stevens on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
A few things for themselves, / Convolvulus and coral, / Buzzards and live-moss, / Tiestas from the keys, / A few things for themselves, / Florida, venereal soil, / Disclose to the lover.
The dreadful sundry of this world, / The Cuban, Polodowsky, / The Mexican women, / The negro undertaker / Killing the time between corpses / Fishing for crayfish... / Virgin of boorish births,
Swiftly in the nights, / In the porches of Key West, / Behind the bougainvilleas, / After the guitar is asleep, / Lasciviously as the wind, / You come tormenting, / Insatiable,
When you might sit, / A scholar of darkness, / Sequestered over the sea, / Wearing a clear tiara / Of red and blue and red, / Sparkling, solitary, still, / In the high sea-shadow.
Donna, donna, dark, / Stooping in indigo gown / And cloudy constellations, / Conceal yourself or disclose / Fewest things to the lover -- / A hand that bears a thick-leaved fruit, / A pungent bloom against your shade.