| Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. 1912–22. | | | | The Paltry Nude Starts on a Spring Voyage | | By Wallace Stevens |
| | From “Pecksniffiana”
BUT not on a shell, she starts, | |
| Archaic, for the sea. | |
| But on the first-found weed | |
| She scuds the glitters, | |
| Noiselessly, like one more wave. | 5 |
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| She too is discontent | |
| And would have purple stuff upon her arms, | |
| Tired of the salty harbors, | |
| Eager for the brine and bellowing | |
| Of the high interiors of the sea. | 10 |
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| The wind speeds her, | |
| Blowing upon her hands | |
| And watery back. | |
| She touches the clouds, where she goes, | |
| In the circle of her traverse of the sea. | 15 |
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| Yet this is meagre play | |
| In the scurry and water-shine, | |
| As her heels foam— | |
| Not as when the goldener nude | |
| Of a later day | 20 |
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| Will go, like the centre of sea-green pomp, | |
| In an intenser calm, | |
| Scullion of fate, | |
| Across the spick torrent, ceaselessly, | |
| Upon her irretrievable way. | 25 | | | |
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