A Plate
An occasion for a plate, an occasional resource is in buying and howsoon does washing enable a selection of the same thing neater. If theparty is small a clever song is in order.
Plates and a dinner set of colored china. Pack together a string andenough with it to protect the centre, cause a considerable haste andgather more as it is cooling, collect more trembling and not any eventrembling, cause a whole thing to be a church.
A sad size a size that is not sad is blue as every bit of blue isprecocious. A kind of green a game in green and nothing flat nothingquite flat and more round, nothing a particular color strangely, nothingbreaking the losing of no little piece.
A splendid address a really splendid address is not shown by giving aflower freely, it is not shown by a mark or by wetting.
Cut cut in white, cut in white so lately. Cut more than any other andshow it. Show it in the stem and in starting and in evening comingcomplication.
A lamp is not the only sign of glass. The lamp and the cake are not theonly sign of stone. The lamp and the cake and the cover are not the onlynecessity altogether.
A plan a hearty plan, a compressed disease and no coffee, not even acard or a change to incline each way, a plan that has that excess andthat break is the one that shows filling.
Words in this poem
- resource n.
- That to which one resorts orr on which one depends for supply or support; means of overcoming a difficulty; resort; expedient. [F. ressource, fr. OF. ressourdre, resourdre, to spring forth or up again; pref. re- re- + sourdre to spring forth. See Source.]
- enable v. t.
- To give strength or ability to; to make firm and strong.
- centre v. i.
- To be placed in a center; to be central.
- cooling a.
- Adapted to cool and refresh; allaying heat.
- strangely adv.
- As something foreign, or not one's own; in a manner adapted to something foreign and strange.
- altogether adv.
- All together; conjointly. [OE. altogedere; al all + togedere together. See Together.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Plate is in the public domain. This text is taken from Tender Buttons: Objects, Food, Rooms, Project Gutenberg ebook #15396; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Gertrude Stein, A Plate, in Tender Buttons (1914), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #15396, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/stein-tender-buttons/objects-a-plate.html, id L28642.
About this section
A Plate is prose, printed in 7 paragraphs. It is part of the edition and is kept for reading, but nothing here is measured: the line breaks are the printer's, so no metre, rhyme scheme or scansion is stated.
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