POEMS
John Hollander
THE VIEWER
In the room of your dream even
A senseless instrument like this
Seemed wholly natural: lenses,
Neat body, and squared-off sets of
Hairlines for framing a round world
Within right angles. The problem
When you awoke was not the room
Of joy you had been in but what
Was given you there to perceive
It with-and what to do with it.
First, it mattered that it took no
Photos , like the dream itself had
Needs be used only then and there;
It was no mirroring globe which
Seemed a world of glass, like the round
Mirror Britomart found waiting
In her father's closet; it was
No teloptic pictute like the
One from which Pamina peered out
At her seer; was no window
Into a small, bright room in which
A passerby might see held in
The momentary mullions of
Its frame young Van Dyke promising
