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William Carlos Williams Exploring New Worlds A consideration of some poems by William Carlos Williams Man on the margin, incorrigible maverick, embattled messiah 1883-1963 Paper presented at the Hamilton Literary Society By Jan Colville June 2007 Page 1 of 14 In considering the poetry of William Carlos Williams we will first consider the following: Dear bill: I’ve made a couple of sandwiches for you. in the icebox you’ll find blueberries, a cup of grapefruit and a glass of cold coffee. this is just to say I have eaten the plums that were in the icebox and which you were probably saving for breakfast Forgive me they were delicious so sweet and so cold Ah, modern poetry you might say. Just prose dressed up as poetry. Say what you want to say. Have a line break anywhere you fancy, and hey presto you have poetry. Of course you are not saying that. And nor should you. The first five lines: the Dear Bill segment is a note that Floss, the wife of William Carlos Williams, the aforementioned ‘Bill’ wrote to him. Attached it to the fridge, sorry icebox, perhaps with a fridge magnet if there were such things in the 1930’s. The second: the segment starting with this is just to say, is a poem by Bill himself. And it brings us to the very question of what is poetry? What is modern poetry? Perhaps we might ask the question: when can we say modern poetry started? What is the difference between free verse and prose? Are there varieties of free verse? Does it have rules? Was Bill following them in this little poem? Is the free verse of William Carlos Williams similar to the free verse of Ezra Pound, and TS Eliot for instance? What is the lineage that brings us to Page 2 of 14 William Carlos Williams in the United States in the first half of the twentieth century? What were the influences on Williams, and what was his influence on modern American poetry, literature, and society in general? Well I could be enrolling for a PhD to answer all of those here. So I will have to confine myself to working through some of his short poems with you, and seeking to answer a few of the above questions. Let’s think about the first five lines above: the fridge note from Flossie and the poem, whose title is actually this is just to say This famous, perhaps infamous, poem was published in the mid 1930’s. At that time, already in his fifties, William Carlos Williams, full-time doctor and energetic poet of Rutherford New Jersey was just beginning to emerge from the obscurity to which his anti-poetic style had consigned him. By the end of his life in 1963, however, he would be the recipient of many honours and remain an important influence on American poetry (and on poetry in English generally) for decades afterwards. Let us now consider exactly what makes these 33 words a ‘poem’. For those bought up on Keats or Wordsworth or Pope or Swift it’s no wonder that many readers thought that Williams was having them on, or was satirising poetry as it had previously been understood. In fact, however, Williams had a different agenda. He wanted to make poetry out of the particular everyday circumstances in which he lived as a husband, father and doctor. He did not think it was necessary to revisit Greek mythology for his themes. Or to rhapsodise about exotic landscapes with nightingales. He lived right in the middle of an industrial landscape, and like his friends, the painters, Charles Sheeler, and Charles Demuth, he saw beauty and great potential in such material for his art. As I’ve said already the title - this is just to say - is actually the first line of the poem. So Williams wastes no time. This device is one Page 3 of 14 much imitated by later modern poets. It is also a rather open statement, as the poet is going to say that a short apology to his wife can be as much a subject for a poem as the most wonderful vista in England’s Lake District. As is suitable to his theme, Williams uses only the most simple vocabulary, and employs a rhythm that is close to, but not identical with, the patterns of everyday speech. Walt Whitman, with his long quasi-biblical lines had beaten Williams to free verse by some 60 years. (As did the King James Bible in 1611). But Williams was to give this staple of American poetry his own twist. The idea was to release the poem, bit by bit in short lines, so that each component could be savoured. Though he was also fond of the run-on line – enjambment - to those of us who remember our analysis of poetry lessons - Williams also wanted us to consider each line as a unit. Thus we start with I have eaten. Then line by line, what has been eaten and where it was found. In this kind of poetry such specifics are important. The plums were in the ice box being saved for something. We go on to the next stanza for the realisation that the poet has broken a mild taboo and been a bit selfish. His wife will, quite reasonably, be put out (especially if he does not apologise). In the third stanza he asks for forgiveness, which he hopes will come, at least partly, through the understanding of how enjoyable the experience was: ‘they were delicious/so sweet/and so cold’. The lineation is important throughout, but never more so than in the last stanza. We need a whole line each to reflect on how ‘sweet’ and how ‘cold’ those plums were and perhaps to realise they could never have been so enjoyable if they were sweet and warm. Clearly too, we need a whole line for the request ‘Forgive me’. So readers of course might ask: where’s the rhyme? And where’s the rhythm? One of the great advantages of free verse is its capacity to skip over a number of unstressed syllables and land on some key ones. Thus we have in the first stanza I have eaten/ the plums/ that were in /the icebox. Page 4 of 14 Notice how all the most meaningful syllables are stressed, and what a long run of unstressed syllables there is until we land triumphantly on ‘ice’. The same thing happens in the last stanza. forgive me. they were delicious/so sweet/and so cold’. Even though this is just to say with its subtle use of lineation and rhythm is something of a free verse classic it is also one of those poems that say so much more than the sum of its words. Reading it as a poem we might surmise that the poet has to write notes to his wife because of frequent absences, or that he stays up late writing poetry, rather than being tucked up in bed with Flossie. To this extent he is apologising for rather more than just eating the plums. The poet is also saying that small sensuous delights such as eating cold plums are important to both husband and wife, or he would not need to apologise. Perhaps there’s a suggestion that this shared sensuousness applies to other aspects of their life as well. So let us now briefly consider some aspects of the life of William Carlos Williams. As mentioned earlier he was born in 1883 in Rutherford, New Jersey and died in 1963. After a traditional education he decided on a career in medicine, and was admitted to the University of Pennsylvania Medical School. In Philadelphia his interest in poetry led him into acquaintance with the poets Ezra Pound and H. D. (Hilda Doolittle), and the painter Charles Demuth, all of whom became his lifelong friends. After his graduation in 1906, he interned at the old French Hospital in New York City and later at the Nursery and Child’s Hospital. His first poems, published at his own expense, appeared in 1909, and shortly afterwards he went abroad to Leipzig where he did postgraduate work in paediatrics. In Europe he renewed his friendship with Ezra Pound and through him was introduced to the literary life of pre-war London. After a brief period of travel in Italy and Spain, he returned to Rutherford to marry a local girl, Florence Herman, the “Flossie” of the fridge magnet piece, and indeed of many others, and to begin the practice of medicine. Page 5 of 14 A very active paediatrician with a wide practice among the industrial population of the region, Williams continued to be a deeply committed poet and a literary man happily caught up in the various cliques, publishing ventures, and general creative ferment that enlivened Greenwich Village in the years of World War I and after. He and Flossie had two sons - William and Paul. In 1924 he went to Europe again; this time with Flossie for six months; a period of dazzling introductions and exhausting participation in the expatriate life of the movers and shakers of the American ‘lost generation’ and their French counterparts. Ezra Pound was again his literary guide, along with the young publisher Robert McAlmon, and through them Williams associated with such people as Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, Sylvia Beach, Kay Boyle, Man Ray, George Antheil, and members of the French literati. Williams continued for some years to write prose – short stories, essays, novels, and an autobiography – poetry, and plays. He was quite prolific.
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