Hello and welcome to the Discourse. Disillusionment of Ten O’Clock is a poem by Wallace Stevens that was first published in 1915 and then included in his poetic collection Harmonium published in 1923. It is a short poem consisting of 15 lines composed in free verse and thus lacks any systematic rhyming scheme or rhythm. Wallace used metaphor, repetition, anaphora, epistrophe, allusion, personification, alliteration, enjambment, imagery, assonance, consonance, and symbolism in this poem.
Themes of Disillusionment of Ten O’Clock :
Like many other poems by Wallace Stevens, this poem can be interpreted in many ways. The most obvious interpretation is the theme of Conformity and Creativity or Imagination. The poet is trying to excite and inspire common people to get rid of their monotonous conformist lifestyle and make their life a bit more interesting, To do so, the poet offers a contrast between the two lifestyles. First is the lifestyle of people living in simple houses conforming to the same ideas and lacking any creativity, imagination, or individuality. They wear similar weary white nightgowns and dream alike. Their dreams are also ordinary and boring. They are so monotonous and disillusioned that they lack the kind of creativity and imagination necessary to add color (that is, excitement and interest) to their lives. The other lifestyle is that of an old sailor, a free person with a free mind. He keeps innovating ways to create excitement in his life. He can color his life with numerous experiences of traveling abroad.
The theme of the poem is the importance of having a meaningful life full of positive experiences and motion. The poet argues that to do so, one doesn’t need to live the life of a sailor, but one needs to think like that sailor, one needs to give importance to their freedom, their individuality, and their imagination that will bring colors, excitement, and happiness in their life. The old sailor signifies a rebellion against conformity. The poet stresses that the boring reality of ordinary men is way too dangerous that the colorful and often reckless dreams of the old sailor. Ordinary men are not poor or middle-class people, and the sailor is no high-class person. Ordinary men are those who lack imagination.
Summary of Disillusionment of Ten O’Clock :
Lines 1-2
The houses are haunted
By white night-gowns.
The title of the poem is Disillusionment of Ten O’Clock. Ten O’Clock suggests nighttime when ordinary people leading a mundane life are at their homes and have had their dinner. They are preparing for their night's sleep and they all appear similarly disillusioned, lacking coherent creative thoughts.
The poet begins with a strangely absurd metaphor and compares these ‘ordinary people’ with “white ‘night-gowns.” The word haunted in the first line offers an expectation of ghosts, but the houses are haunted by white nightgowns. Generally, ghosts are depicted in white clothes and thus it maintains curiosity. Moreover, ordinary people lacking individuality and imagination, lacking any sense of creativity while conforming to the social trends at every instance are no different than the non-living.
The first line offers alliteration with the sound of -h while ‘white’ and ‘night’ offers internal rhyming in the second line.
Lines 3-6
None are green,
Or purple with green rings,
Or green with yellow rings,
Or yellow with blue rings.
The next four lines make it clear that the poet isn’t talking of anything paranormal but he is talking about the conformist ‘ordinary people’ who are normal because they adhere to normal conditions. These ordinary people live in houses in every city in the world. They lead the same monotonous life. The monotonicity of their lives is represented by ‘white night-gowns.’ The poet uses ‘white’ color to compare it with the conformist tendency of these ‘ordinary people.’ These nightgowns are the plainest, simplest item an ordinary person may use. ‘Haunting’ is a word with negative connotations and thus, it is clear that the poet is criticizing the conformity of people.
The poet says that all people in all the houses are wearing white night-gowns and none of them is using green, purple with green polka dots, green with yellow polka dots, or yellow with blue polka dots. All the gowns are simplest, colorless, lifeless, and funless. There is no diversity and all appear the same with no difference, no distinction, no individuality, and imagination of their own.
The words ‘none’ and ‘or’ offer more negative connotations to the mundane life of these people who resist any colorful imagination for their conformist ideas. They are all ordinary, no one is strange. The poet uses Anaphora (lines 4-5-6 begin with ‘Or’) and Epistrophe (lines 4-5-6 ends with ‘Rings’).
Lines 7-11
None of them are strange,
With socks of lace
And beaded ceintures.
People are not going
To dream of baboons and periwinkles.
The dresses of these people are not only of the same white color but they are made exactly the same way, with the same design. There is no strangeness, no abnormality, all of them are eerily normal. Nobody has decorated their “white night-gown” with socks of lac or beaded ceintures or decorative buttons, they all wear plain white night-gown as a symbol of uniformity, and collectivism. None respects individualism and the poet is disappointed by that. The poet is sure that even if all the night-gown were white with no other color, still, if the people had different designs, and different decorative accessories with their gowns, he would have appreciated it, what he is criticizing is slavery to conformity, uniformity, slavery to collectivism. And then, the poet offers the ill-effect of that conformity, the ill-effect of lack of imagination
Even if these white nightgowns had different designs and simple decorative accessories, the people might have had simple rudimentary dreams of baboons and/or periwinkles. They could have dreamt though not very vividly and enthusiastically. But since there is no distinction, no strangeness, they are not able to have these rudimentary dreams and visions too.
Lines 11-15
Only, here and there, an old sailor,
Drunk and asleep in his boots,
Catches tigers
In red weather.
In these lines, the poet says that despite all this gloominess in these haunted houses by “white night-gowns,” there occurs a slim ray of hope occasionally. Among all these duplicitous conformist ‘ordinary people with no individual essence or imaginative creation, there are a few interesting people, like the old sailor. He is abnormal, he doesn’t adhere to conformity. He drinks and sleeps in his boots. He dares, he imagines, he hopes, and he dreams. And his dreams are way too different than those rudimentary dreams that these ordinary people could have had they accepted some distinction, some respect for individual imagination and creativity. This old sailor doesn’t see a foolish baboon or periwinkle. He sees vivid, daring, romantic dreams of red weather in which he courageously catches tigers. The sailor faces all sorts of dangers courageously and this lets him have a rush of adrenaline in his dreams, and that is what life is all about.
The poet says that to have a better, more meaningful, satisfactory life, the only thing one needs is a sense of individual existence, imagination, and creativity. The only limit on a person's life is a weak imagination.
So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of American English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!
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