The Meaning of Color in Stevens' Disillusionment of Ten O' Clock

Upon first reading this poem my initial reaction was huh? It appeared to me that Stevens placed random thoughts upon a piece of paper. However, this poem really caught my interest, and I decided to analyze it.
The poem itself is filled with many colors. The opening line of the poem creates an eerie feeling, as if it is Halloween with haunted houses filled with ghosts in white night-gowns. But then as the poem continues it becomes sillier and the eerie feeling vanishes. “None are green, /Or purple with green rings, /Or green with yellow rings, /Or yellow with blue rings” (lines 3-6). The first color mentioned is green. Green symbolizes harmony, freshness, rest, growth, and safety. Therefore, the houses are not haunted with safety and rest. The poem then states that the night-gowns are not purple with green wings. Purple represents power, luxury, mystery, and ambition. When placing this color with green there is an image of restfulness as the purple and green are luxurious and safe. The next line places green and yellow together. Yellow symbolizes joy, intellect, and happiness. When combining this with green there is an image of growth and joy. The following line combines yellow and blue. Blue represents trust, wisdom, faith, and calmness. The image of yellow with blue creates a happy and faith filled image. All of these mentioned color combinations are positive and create a calming and restful image in the reader’s mind.
The poem continues by stating, “none of them are strange, / With socks of lace/ And beaded ceintures (lines 7-9). These lines specify that the night-gowns are simple and ordinary. The speaker then states that “People are not going/ To dream of baboons and periwinkles” (lines 10-11). Both the baboons and periwinkles create an image of the color blue as the Mandrill Baboon has a blue face, and the perwinkles are associated with a blue flower. Once again, blue represents calmness and faith. However, the people in this poem are not dreaming of these pleasant things: “Only, here and there, an old sailor, / Drunk and asleep in his boots, / Catches tigers/ In red weather” (lines 12-15). These last few lines are so direct and straightforward leaving both the positive imagery and the imaginative world of ghosts and haunted houses behind. The truth is revealed here as there is a drunk sailor asleep, dreaming of catching tigers surrounded in red weather. The sailor represents the color white, which stands for innocence and purity. It is ironic then that the sailor would be drunk and dreaming of a tiger and the color red. Red symbolizes passion, blood, danger, and power and the tiger is a fierce and powerful animal. This red imagery abandons all of the positive calmness the other colors represented. It seems as if the speaker of the poem were listing positive and calming images to show the major contrast of what is actually happening as the sailor is dreaming of ferocity. The poem is simply about a house that is haunted by a drunk sailor who is dreaming of a powerful dangerous life but the way it’s presented is very interesting. I really like this poem!