...The Red Wheelbarrow so much depends upon a red wheel barrow glazed with rain water beside the white chickens. -- William Carlos Williams (1923) To Paint a Picture Just as the opening line of William Carlos William’s 1923 poem “The Red Wheelbarrow” reads, “So much depends.” So much depends on the reader’s interpretation of this poem. How was the author intending his work to be read? One can argue that Williams wished his audience to paint a mental picture of the poem, and then draw their own conclusions based on the imagery contained therein. The poem, consisting of only sixteen words, follows a basic metrical structure. It consists of eight lines, which are broken into four verses. Each verse consists of a dimeter, followed by a monometer. At first reading, the student may want to read the two lines of each verse together as one. Reading the poem in this fashion does not bring attention to its individual parts. The student should focus on the lineation of the poem while reading it, and follow the metrical structure that is laid out. By slowing down and taking in the poem on line at a time, the reader will more easily be able to paint a mental picture of the poem. This seems to have been how the author intended the poem to be read. The imagery of “The Red Wheelbarrow” can be compared to that of a classic painting. The painting is easy on the eyes, nice to look at. If the viewer can picture himself inside the canvas setting, he may be able to...
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...William Carlos Williams’ poem The Red Wheelbarrow is a very meaningful poem. Since Williams only wrote it with 16 words, it is a poem that is looked passed for its size. The way that Williams arranges those 16 words though, is the reason why it is extremely powerful. The Red Wheelbarrow is filled with images and ideas that made it very easy to visualize. After reading the poem a couple of times, my first thought was to write about perfection. The second and third lines of the poem gave me the idea that the “the red wheelbarrow glazed with rain” signifies a large amount of water. With a large amount of water, there is no need to worry about dry crops on a farm. The “white chickens” in the fourth line also portray perfection because chickens are expected to lay perfect eggs. The first line of the poem took a while to decode the images. When the poem says, “so much depends upon a red wheelbarrow” it struck me that a wheelbarrow is a very popular tool in farming. A wheelbarrow is used for transporting all sorts of things on the farm. The poem itself could also be a form of imagery. The structure of the poem and the stanzas, in my eyes, are shaped like wheelbarrows. Williams is a poet who doesn’t have to try very hard to paint a picture in somebody’s mind. My second thought about the meaning of the poem was that it was a metaphor for appreciating the little things in life. I feel as if Williams is trying to say that the little things matter in life just...
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...The content and form can influence our perception of what art is or what can be considered as art. Two poems that capture the concept of content and form and how it influences what we see as art are: “The Red Wheelbarrow” by William Carlos Williams and “l(a” by E.E. Cummings. Williams’s poem really captures the essence of how simple the content can be but at the same time, captures the essence of how meaningful simple content can be. Simple content, written by Williams, refers to content that is about quotidian things or objects in our everyday lives. In the case of this poem, the quotidian object is the wheelbarrow. This shows that anything can be art. In Cummings’s...
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...The “Wheelbarrow” poem from Williams Carlos Williams might intrigued the readers at first with the extreme short length of the poem, its stanzas, as well as the clarity of the language. Williams wants to celebrate the simplicity and purity surrounding everyday life. This poem is indeed only composed of four two lines stanzas with 3 words on the first line and only one word on the second line, giving the reader the time to slowly appreciate and reflect each of the words carefully chosen by the author. Each stanza also uses the enjambement technique, which highlights a single word at the end of each stanza. The author thus invites the reader to meditate and honor these four words: “upon,” “barrow”, “water” and “chickens”, which appears the pillars of the poem. This one sentence long poem adopts an simplistic and straightforward...
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...As literature evolved over time, different styles of writing emerged in response to societal changes that occurred in each individual writer’s lifetime. One style of writing that emerged in the early 1900’s was described as Imagism. This style of writing is in which a writer writes in a specific way that evokes an image within the audience’s minds. Two writers from this time period that wrote in the imagism style were William Carlos Williams and Ezra Pound. Williams became known for his imagism works such as “The Red Wheelbarrow” and “This is Just to Say,” both of which are forms of imagism but in far different ways. A work that stood out from the imagism works was “In a Station of the Metro,” by Ezra pound which is a simplistic poems with a deep meaning behind it. These three works describe the many differences and similarities that imagism writing style encompass....
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...enter the new world naked, cold uncertain of all save that they enter. All about them the cold, familiar wind- Now the grass, tomorrow the stiff curl of wild carrot leaf, One by one objects are defined- It quickens: clarity, outline of leaf. But now the stark dignity of entrance-Still, the profound change has come upon them: rooted, they grip down and begin to awaken” (pg.1012). Williams was saying of how it expands the addition of natural life to include humanity as well. Out of all of the poems that I read from William Carlos Williams, Two poems that stands out to me the most was “The Red Wheelbarrow” and “The Great Figure” “The Red Wheelbarrow” poem was not an ordinary poem because he wrote it in Haiku style. This poem was talking about how an ordinary red wheelbarrow looks like. However when the rain arrives, and the wheelbarrow was wet, there were white chickens on top of the wheelbarrow. Another poem I like as well was “The Great Figure”, this poem was really intriguing because it only mentions about the number five, but when I finish reading the poem, the poet make it real with the theme of how he visions for America. The number seems to claim very slight notification in relation to all the brash sounds emitted by the truck. ...
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...poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”, Prufrock personifies the feelings that people of that time had. Prufrock expresses the chaos and hopelessness that the people felt after the war. He is a pessimistic and unconfident man who lives in fear. Modernists sought to reflect the modern world and culture, while imagists tried to give readers a clear image of what they were trying to express in their writings. Imagists used clear and sharp language to produce images in readers’ minds. They were strongly against sentimentality, and they did not follow the traditional forms of poetry. Imagism was also strongly influenced by traditional Chinese and Japanese poetry. “The Red Wheelbarrow” by William Carlos Williams is an example of imagist poetry. In this poem, Williams manages to convey a sharp image of a red wheelbarrow that is glazed with rain, next to the white chickens. He uses this simple image to say that life depends on...
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...William Carlos Williams and His Imagist Poetry Modernism and Imagism, two movements in literature ,which were developed in the 20th century .At the beginning of the decade ,modernism was a revolution of style .Crime, depression, and materialism filled this era. Musician, artists,and writers broke away from technique to create a new art.Also, imagism brought fragmental and chaotic life where nobody felt secure and happy.After that,modernism was related with decent and realistic art form.The modernist artists like Edwin Dickinson and a painter Arthur Dove looked for an object of inspiration ,individual vision and the value of immediate observation where they emphasized on surroundings around them in everyday life.Some modernists were supported by photographer and gallery owner Alfred Stieglitz who obtained the power to change the drift of American art. Moreover,art,drawing and painting were based on subjects describing actual world ideas.Also, modernism was a variety of ‘’-ism’’ such as Fauvism,Cubism,Dadaism and Futurism to break away the previous rules of orientations,color,and writing in order to their own visions. Some time after modernism,the imagist poets began to gain importance.They wrote short poems that their work would be rich and direct.They focused on individual...
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...African’s ways of life and didn’t want anything to do with the Congo which is obvious when she says, “I stared out the window, -wondering who wouldn’t want to leave the Congo before you could say Jack Robinson if they had half a chance.” She let us in on a more pessimistic view of their new lives and a deeper look at the problems they faced. Adah takes another outlook on their time at the Congo. The backward reading, crippled, and smart twin sister of Leah has an almost poetic view on life. She uses lots of metaphors and allegories when she narrates and takes advantage of her time there to truly grow into her own. “So much depends on a red wheelbarrow glazed with rain water standing beside the white chickens. That is one whole poem written by a doctor named William C. Williams. Chickens white beside standing water rain, with glazed wheelbarrow. Red on! Depends much. So?” Adah narrates in a much different way than her three sisters. The youngest of the three, named Ruth May, is an adventurous little girl that has a thirst to explore all that the Congo has to offer. She helps introduce us to the children of Africa and reveals some secrets, kept not well hidden, by being the sneaky young spy she is. This is shown when she says, "The very day Mama said, You’re going to crack your head wide open, but no sir. I broke my arm instead. How I did it was spying on the African Communist Boy Scouts. Way up there in the tree I could see them but they couldn’t see me.” Each of these four young...
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...14 March 2012 ENH 242 The British American Conversion American writer William Carlos Williams widely recognized for a frugal use of lexicon stands apart as one of the most significant forces of twentieth-century poetry. A myriad of ingredients, including people, experiences, and circumstances, combined to influence Williams’ poetry and prose. Williams’ writing, along with that of many of the emerging American Modernist poets, is also considered to be a reaction to the verbose poetry and prose he had been exposed to growing up. “The ‘New Poetry,’ as it was called, was largely a revolt against the Romanticism of the previous decades” (Scott 18). In addition, Williams’ poetry was inspired by societal and cultural changes occurring during the early twentieth century. William Carlos Williams led the way into an Americanized style of poetry, diverging from the grandiloquent manner of European writers, to create a form of modernist poetry that remains as relevant today as it did when it was written. The essence of William Carlos Williams’ innovative style of writing derives from his remarkably plebian upbringing. Born in 1883 to an English father and Puerto Rican mother in Rutherford, New Jersey, Williams was exposed to art, literature, and the Bible by his family. His father and mother instilled in him a sense of idealism and moral perfectionism that terrified Williams. In 1904 Williams wrote “I never did and never will do a premeditated bad deed in my life,” (Williams Carlo...
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...Joseph Fitzpatrick 4/22/2015 Poetry Analysis 1.Gretel in Darkness Listening to Gretel voice I believe she may have post-traumatic stress disorder. She cannot get the idea of the killing out of her head. She seems like she is praying to Hansel to help her with her guilt. She seems to want to wash away the pain of killing even though she knows what she did was right. 2. Suicide Note The speaker apologizes to her parents for not being a strong man. She believes that if she were a boy her parents would not have been disappointed with her less than perfect grade point average. The attitude she displays to her parents is on of despair and resignation. 3. The World is Too Much With Us The speaker feels that people have lost touch with nature because of modernization of the world. He thinks that man is wasting away because of how he has touched every piece of land the eye can see. 4. Porphyrias Lover This poem reminded me a lot of the short story “The Lottery” in regards to situational irony. The poem begins with the narrator observing a beautiful woman who he wants very much to love him. He then changes from the observer to a crazed psycho participant. 5. Ozymandias This is a different type of situational irony. The irony here is one of beliefs. That a boastful king can build a monument that will last forever. The poem shows that the king is silly to believe he can stop time. 6. Pied Beauty The poet uses words to describe...
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...CHN: 388W February 18th, 2014 About two pages into the section titled Smashing the Four Olds of Gao Yuan’s book Born Red, I came across two sentences that really caught my attention. This part of the section highlighted a conversation between a group of Red Guards who had gone into a small town and came across some peasants selling various home-grown vegetables out of wheelbarrows on the street. These Red Guards proceeded to ask each other “Aren’t they [the peasants] making capitalism?” (pg. 87) At first glance, I attributed the odd wording of the sentence to be an example of what I would call “Chinglish” which can be described as a poor translation from a Chinese word or phrase into English. However, as I read down the page a bit more, I came across another instance of this odd phrasing where the Red Guards referred to those peasants as “making” capitalism; they had approached a man selling eggplants from the man’s own garden and proceeded to ask him directly, “Who allowed you to make capitalism?” (pg. 87) I surmised at this point that Gao Yuan had not merely translated his choice of words poorly but had in fact used the phrasing “making capitalism” intentionally. Gao Yuan’s deliberate description of the peasants to be “making” capitalism made me question whether or not there was any significance behind his particular choice of words. What did the Red Guards mean by saying that those peasants were “making” capitalism? Can capitalism be “made” as something such as a bowl...
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...Ancient Chinese Contributions Humanities 111 World Cultures 1 05/27/2012 In the days of Ancient Chinese, inventions were created using different techniques and styles by using things that we use in our everyday living. There are many contributions that I thought were important. Those inventions that were created by the Ancient Chinese were Umbrella’s. Umbrellas were invented by the Chinese. They made umbrellas from oiled paper. It was made from oiled paper because it repelled water. The frames of the umbrellas were made from mulberry bark and bamboo. Chinese used the umbrellas to keep the sun off of their skin. The common people used blue umbrellas and people that were of royal used red and yellow umbrellas. (This was cited from The Ancient Chinese Contributions, published by Deng Yinke. Information came from pages 1-23). The Seismograph was created by an astronomer during the Han Dynasty. The astronomer created the seismograph to give warning of an earthquake. The seismograph color was bronze and the vase was covered with dragons and toads. A long medal pendulum hung inside the vase. On the outside it had eight dragon heads; each was mounted onto its sides. Each dragon had a ball in its mouth and the dragon’s head was mounted onto its side as well. The pendulum swung in the direction in which the earthquake occurred. The pendulum would strike a rod inside the vase, the rod would then knock a ball out of the dragon’s mouth, and then it would drop into the...
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...LOVE THAT DOG #1 pages 1-24 Whose poem is this? Who is telling this story? What does “anonymous” mean? Use only the context; do not go to the dictionary. Read the following four poems from the back of this book: The Red Wheelbarrow Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening The Tiger dog Which poem do you like the best? Why? On page 20, our narrator complains that he doesn’t know who the YOU is in the pasture poem (you need to read it now—it’s right after “dog”). Who do you think is the YOU in the poem? Why? On pages 23 and 24, our narrator is puzzling over what makes a poem. He wonders if it’s just typing something in poem form. What do you think? What makes a poem a poem? LOVE THAT DOG #2 pages 25-41 On page 25, we have a line that is an echo from one of the poems we just read. What is the line? The same line shows up again, in capital letters, on page 29. Why do you think this author keeps using that line? Read the poem “Street Music.” What is the music of your street? What sounds do you hear on your street? Once again, the author uses a line from one of the poems in the book. It’s on page 34. What is the line? Why do you think the author used it here? Extra Credit: Write a “Street Music” poem about your own street right here: Read “Apple.” Write your own shape poem in the space below. You may write about anything you like. Use the back if you don’t have room here. Why do you think that Jack has not wanted his name on his poems...
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...Harrington offers a narrative in how poetry’s entity to the public shifted from rather an everyday outlet or enjoyment to that of a scholarly, more objectified and purposeless craft. He starts his overview explaining how F.O. Matthiessen is left having “discovered a renaissance for American Literature that did not include poets,” (Harrington P.496) besides a sole exclusion: Walt Whitman. Poetry has always hung on the precipice of whether being literature or not; swayed, back and forth, by the changing movements of the decades. I’ve come to understand after reading Harrington that poetry is constantly being redefined and reorganized by its place in society and its critics. Yet generally over the last several or more decades its’ art has remained secular from what is knows as ‘American Literature’. Harrington believes “the institutional history of poetry in the US suggests both the importance and the genealogy of the literary- critical split between American poetry and American literature,” (Harrington P. 496.). He notes that poetry used to play a crucial role in cultural conflicts and almost digesting the current day-to-day. He then goes on to argue in which I agree, that by now holding aside poetry as something less in turn stripping its influence on us, literature to us is a contradictory thing. Not including poetry in literature for the people reading it is silly for the two are so intertwined. So much fiction has taken from or found inspiration from poetry. Harrington states...
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