The Plot Against the Giant by Wallace Stevens
I’m reading The World According to Garp by John Irving (and quite enjoying it). This poem was quoted therein.
The Plot Against the Giant
By Wallace Stevens
FIRST GIRL
When this yokel comes maundering,
Whetting his hacker,
I shall run before him,
Diffusing the civilest odors
Out of geraniums and unsmelled flowers.
It will check him.
SECOND GIRL
I shall run before him,
Arching cloths besprinkled with colors
As small as fish-eggs.
The threads
Will abash him.
THIRD GIRL
Oh, la…le pauvre!
I shall run before him,
With a curious puffing.
He will bend his ear then.
I shall whisper
Heavenly labials in a world of gutturals.
It will undo him.
