#MIDDLEBURY
Tender Buttons [Nothing Elegant]
Gertrude Stein
A charm a single charm is doubtful. If the red is rose and there is a gate surrounding it, if inside is let in and there places change then certainly something is upright. It is earnest.
About this poem
“Tender Buttons [Nothing Elegant]” was published in “Tender Buttons” (Claire Marie, 1914).
About Gertrude Stein
Gertrude Stein was born in Allegheny, Penn., on Feb. 3, 1874. She is the author of “The Making of Americans” (Contact Editions/Three Mountains Press, 1925) and “The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas” (Harcourt, 1933). Stein died in 1946.
The Academy of American Poets is a nonprofit, mission-driven organization, whose aim is to make poetry available to a wider audience. Email The Academy at poem-a-day@poets.org.
This poem is in the public domain. Originally published in Poem-a-Day, www.poets.org. Distributed by King Features Syndicate.
