Tender Buttons [Suppose An Eyes]
Gertrude Stein
Suppose it is within a gate which open is open at the hour of closing summer that is to
say it is so.
All the seats are needing blackening. A white dress is in sign. A soldier a real soldier has
a worn lace a worn lace of different sizes that is to say if he can read, if he can read he
is a size to show shutting up twenty-four.
Go red go red, laugh white.
Suppose a collapse in rubbed purr, in rubbed purr get.
Little sales ladies little sales ladies little saddles of mutton.
Little sales of leather and such beautiful beautiful, beautiful beautiful.
About this poem
“Suppose An Eyes” was published in Gertrude Stein’s book “Tender Buttons” (C. Marie, 1914).
About Gertrude Stein
Gertrude Stein was born in Allegheny, Penn., on Feb. 3, 1874. Her books include “Three Lives” (1909), “The Making of Americans” (1925) and “Stanzas in Meditation and Other Poems” (1956). Stein died on July 27, 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. Distributed by King Features Syndicate.
