Imagining William Carlos Williams

William Carlos Williams has a unique place in the pantheon of Modernist poets. It is interesting to note that Williams’ belief that poetry and the written word was shared by many of his peers at the time. Yet what sets Williams apart is his obsession to distill meaning in fewer words while building up and glorifying the mundane, everyday in his works. In this essay, we will be taking a look at The Young Housewife, This Is Just to Say, and his most popular work, The Red Wheelbarrow.

The Young Housewife presents the reader with the image of young woman who is being observed by the narrator. This poem describes an active housewife juxtaposed against the passive, watching narrator. As the housewife “moves about in negligee,” the narrator states that “I pass solitary in my car” and when “again she comes to the curb” and the narrator feels it necessary to “compare her to a fallen leaf.” In effect, the housewife is portrayed in a not so positive light as she stands outside “shy, uncorseted” while she attempts “to call the ice-man, the fish-man.” This moral judgment passed by the narrator seems unapologetic – matter-of-factly in its nature, yet the narrator does not seem to feel that his actions warrant judging as well. In the entirety of the ‘interchange’ between the voyeuristic narrator and the housewife, the narrator remains a passive force – avoiding actual contact with the housewife up until the last verse driving by her “as I bow and pass smiling.”

This Is Just to Say comes could be interpreted by reader as a note one might find on a refrigerator or table. In just a few words, Williams conjures up an entirely humorous scenario in which the narrator finds the unattended “plums that were in the icebox” and proceeds to eat them. The narrator then notes that the individual saving them was probably doing so for breakfast, and despite his apology, he then proceeds to describe how “delicious so sweet and so cold” they were – essentially mocking the reader of the note.

The Red Wheelbarrow appears to be very simplistic at first, almost overly so. Yet upon closer examination, the reader has an entire farm scene built around the wheelbarrow. What stands out about this poem in particular is its stark use of color – “a red wheelbarrow” and “the white chickens.” The scene seems sparse in comparison to some of his other works, yet it requires that the reader actively participate in the creation of the scene. A great deal is left for the reader to picture for themselves, but Williams manages just create the framework upon which the reader may build upon in order to create the entire picture.

If the purpose of poetry is to evoke feeling and imagery in the reader, William Carlos Williams is a master of his craft. All of his poems conjure up images for the reader to see, yet some of them require that the reader actively pursue the complete image that Williams only hints at.