Poem

Banjo Boomer

A poem

By Wallace Stevens
A survey photograph of a mulberry, at Cooper River, West Branch, Moncks Corner, Berkeley County, SC
Historic American Buildings Survey / Library of Congress

THE mulberry is a double tree.
Mulberry, shade me, shade me awhile.

A white, pink, purple berry tree,
A very dark-leaved berry tree.
Mulberry, shade me, shade me awhile.
A churchyard kind of bush as well,
A silent sort of bush, as well.
Mulberry, shade me, shade me awhile.
It is a shape of life described
By another shape without a word.
Mulberry, shade me, shade me awhile —
With nothing fixed by a single word.
Mulberry, shade me, shade me awhile.