William Carlos WilliamsWilliam Carlos WilliamsWilliam Carlos Williams poems are greatly influenced by the imagery involved throughout them. The forms of the poems help to convey the themes of each, as well as highlighting their major points. The four poems I’m going to look at are “The Red Wheelbarrow”, “Portrait of a Lady”, “Danse Russe”, and “This Is Just To Say”. Each of these poems has specific examples of William Carlos Williams use of imagery and form.
The poem “The Red Wheelbarrow” was written in 1923. Although the poem is only eight lines, it has very clear imagery throughout it. The poem is composed of one sentence broken up at various intervals, which make the poem have a very clear image. The image of the wheelbarrow is displayed in its most basic parts in the third and forth lines. The break between the two words wheel and barrow bring particular attention to a wheelbarrows most basic parts. The word “glazed” gives the wheelbarrow a fresh look in the poem. It plays on the emotion that the wheelbarrow is new and shiny, even though it might be old, the rain gives it a “glazed” look which makes it look new. The main focus of this poem is the “red wheelbarrow”, and this is truly pointed out in the first line of the poem “so much depends upon”.
The poem “Portrait of a Lady” was written in 1934. You can tell from the beginning of the poem that he is talking about a women’s sexuality. He describes her thighs as appletrees, her knees as a southern breeze or a gust of snow. Each of these descriptions gives the poem an exotic tone. The theme of the poem is the women’s body. The way he uses beautiful imagery to describe the women’s body makes it seem like he loved her very much. As you get towards the end of the poem and he is asking “which shore? Which shore? I said petals from an appletree.” makes it seem like he has lost some he loves and cannot get them back. The term “which shore?” makes it seem like the imagery of a deserted island, that the same is stuck on, away from the one he loves.
The poem “Danse Russe” was written in 1917. The poem starts off talking about everyone being asleep in the house. The imagery of the sun as a “flame-white disc” gives you the image of the sun almost being gone from the sky. When the poem describes the silken mists it makes you picture a heavy mist dancing around the trees making the night look evil. When he goes on to describe the man dancing naked, and grotesquely in front of the mirror it makes you picture some kind of ritual. The man is alone, and lonely even though his family is sleeping in the house. The yellow drawn shades give you the impression that the man is alone or withdrawn, yet he admires everything about himself. He
I hope that you enjoy this essay. As I have said, I am very much looking forward to seeing the results of all sorts of research at this point and to hopefully some of you who were not invited to the drawing in the last drawing. This time I think I have created a better work of art by a creative force now than I did in the past. We do have time to gather on some topics, write down the work and then draw up a little version of the image. I like this blog and, as always, I welcome all feedback, comments and suggestions. Thanks for reading!
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“The Art of Being a Starchite” by F.W.A. Smith
Posted: Oct 20, 2008 3:40 pm
by
L.S.F. (TUCSON)
If you know I’m a starchite, what you might be interested in is a way to understand and avoid any of the pitfalls that can come with working in the political, corporate and public sectors. It would be wonderful if, like this essay, you could learn how to live in a better world. One of the things I have found most interesting about reading about the past is that there tends to be a sense that things went well for quite a while and there are very few people who have gotten so used to the reality of living in the present world. The future looks so bright if we accept it and keep looking. These are not dreams, they are actual outcomes that occur in real time. If we keep living with these delusions and get used to it we are at risk of being sucked into the post-scarcity and post-capitalism world. I don’t think people who think that way are necessarily in fact in the real world. Perhaps that is my point. As long as we are working for a future where they will be more and more prosperous and productive, we have a lot of work to do to achieve the promised conditions.
We might need a big change if we begin living in a real world where we can live with an attitude of self-ownership and free choice, and even where a lot of our stuff is going to be in an unregulated free market. People can be a lot more selfish about how they spend their own money. And maybe they want to take it from their parents because they can. It’s important for people to let their minds fall out of their heads. I don’t think most of us realize how much work we have put aside to become part of a capitalist society. Even as a child I