Disillusionment at Ten O'Clock -- Poetry Response #13

This poem is confusing and nonsensical at first glance. It might be talking about conformity. It talks about the color of night gowns at the beginning, saying that they are all uniform and none of them are weird. Stevens was of upper class, and married a woman that his parents considered of a lower class. She worked as a saleswoman, milliner and stenographer. This was not normal for an upper class woman in the early 1900's. Even though he was an educated man, Stevens felt that poets should "avoid intelligence" and write something from the imagination. This poem is very much about imagination, or the lack there of, in society. This poem is a comment on the fact that many people are unimaginative and boring. This idea comes off as negative. Stevens says that a drunk that is asleep in his boots has a much better imagination than normal people. Stevens is saying that being imaginative is more important than being accepted in high society.