Danse Russe
Danse Russe - fact Summary
First Printed in Sour Grapes
Published in 1921 in the collection Sour Grapes, the poem stages a private domestic moment: with wife and children sleeping, the speaker dances naked before a mirror and sings of being born to be lonely. The speaker frames this odd, comic self-display as both confession and claim to authority, naming himself the household’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’ the "happy genius" of his home, emphasizing ordinary intimacy and personal freedom.
Read Complete AnalysesIf I when my wife is sleeping and the baby and Kathleen are sleeping and the sun is a flame-white disc in silken mists above shining trees,— if I in my north room dance naked, grotesquely before my mirror waving my shirt round my head and singing softly to myself: "I am lonely, lonely. I was born to be lonely, I am best so!" If I admire my arms, my face, my shoulders, flanks, buttocks against the yellow drawn shades,— Who shall say I am not the happy genius of my household?
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