William Carlos Williams Poetry Flashcards
State William Carlos Williams Poems
- The Red Wheelbarrow
- This is Just to Say
- Landscape with the Fall of Icarus
- The Great Figure
- The Hunters in the Snow
What is Williams ‘The Red Wheelbarrow’ centred around?
Williams’ cryptic poem consists of a single sentence describing a red wheelbarrow, wet with rain, sitting beside some chickens. The only other information given is vague, and when speaker says that “so much depends upon”
The poem focuses above all on conveying a precise depiction of, well, an image. However, this does not suggest that the poem lacks meaning.
The Red Wheelbarrow is Imagist poetry, which focuses on using language to convey vivid, precise images to the reader. At a glance it appears somewhat vague however the speaker’s focus on the red wheelbarrow suggests the poem is a sentimental meditation on the use of common objects.
There is a sense of wonder—and tenderness, even—as the speaker pauses to take stock of a common, simple item whose value people rarely notice or consider.
State the key poetic devices Williams utilises in ‘The Red Wheelbarrow’
Lacks punctuation + capitalization further emphasising the speaker is in a thoughtful and reflective state.]
- Assonance
- Enjambement
- Symbolism
- ‘Sonic bursts’ (which draws our attention toward these chickens)
- Juxtaposition
What is Williams This is Just to Say centred around?
Within ‘This is Just to Say’ Williams implicitly implies that things/objects don’t need to possess explicit meaning, there’s zero punctuation throughout and no grammar which creates a very casual + simplistic tone.
There’s a conversation element to the poem + free verse attributed to it because of this, and yet despite this flow it in no way seems disorderly or confusing. There’s mondanity attributed to it.
Overall its a poem about the simple pleasures of everyday life.
State the key poetic devices Williams utilises in ‘This is Just to Say’
“the plums that were in the icebox”
The pairing of these consonant and sibilant sounds is very euphonic, creating an almost tactile sound that reflects the pleasure the speaker seems to have derived from eating the plums.
- Symbolism
- Sibilance
- Euphony
- Enjambement
- Allusion to biblical references
What is Williams ‘Landscape with the Fall of Icarus’ centred around?
The poem is a work of ekphrasis (writing about a piece of visual art) Inspired by the paintings of 16th-century artist Pieter Bruegel.
Both Bruegel’s painting and this poem depict the death of Icarus, the mythological figure who died after flying too close to the sun, in a rather unusual way: in both works, Icarus’s death—caused by a fall from the sky after the wax holding his artificial wings together melted—is hardly a blip on the radar of the nearby townspeople, whose attention is turned instead toward the rhythms of daily life.
Like most Greek tragedy, the myth seems epic, profound, and, above all, meaningful. In other words, it’s a story worthy of people’s attention, a tragedy with a purpose that contains a lesson about youthful arrogance.
But here, in the poem, Icarus’s death is “quite unnoticed.” The majority of this short poem does not discuss Icarus’s death at all, focusing instead on nearby activity.
A farmer ploughs his field, for example, getting on with the economic work that life demands of him. There’s no mention of whether he even sees Icarus highlighting just how irrelevant his death is, and arguably how irrelevant our deaths will be given time. There’s an implied learning opportunity exhibited through the painting , arguably Williams pleas with us to concrete less on the paintings/ myths + instead take attention in what’s going on around us _ the world around is rather than the unnecessary so could be criticising consumerism.
State the key poetic devices Williams utilises in ‘Landscape with the Fall of Icarus’
Its a work of ekphrasis + is written in free verse, however there’s an interesting metrical effect in the opening:
“According to Brueghel, when Icarus fell”
‘Brueghel’ is pronounced with stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable. The second line picks up on the sound of the artist’s name, rhyming “-ghel” with “fell” (though given that the “-ghel” in “Brueghel” isn’t stressed, as the rhyme is subtle) “fell” takes on a heavy stress after the unstressed “-us” in “Icarus,” meaning that, even in the seeming simplicity of the opening lines, the poem represents the myth in miniature.
The heaviness of that stressed beat on “fell” subtly reflects the way that gravity brings Icarus crashing down to earth.
- Allusion
- Alliteration
- Enjambement
What is Willaims ‘The Great Figure’ centred around?
There’s only 31 words in the poem, divided across 13 very short lines. This is a representation of the rapidness of the firetruck speeding through the city. There is no time to stop, and the poem similarly does not slow down.
The poem is quite literally a flash in the dark. Taking maybe 15 seconds to read through, the poem is a direct reflection of its content, with the firetruck appearing and rapidly disappearing into the night. The poem can be read as a critique of how quickly life can pass us by. The transience of time is compounded into this image of a speeding firetruck. Indeed, the firetruck never stops, and we are only a witness to its passing.
State the key poetic devices utilised by Williams in ‘The Great Figure’
- Enjambement
- Extensive juxtaposition between the gold + redness of the fire truck
- Onomatopoeic ‘siren howls’
What is Williams ‘The Hunters in the Snow’ centred around?
‘Hunters in the Snow’ is a mostly straightforward description of a painting by the same name created by Pieter Brueghel.
Williams did not imbue this piece with a specific pattern of rhyme of rhythm. As was common in his work, there is no punctuation in the text. Rather than pauses created through the use of commas or semicolons, Williams uses line breaks to separate sections which makes them even more significant.
The poem begins with the speaker describing the ice mountains in the background. They are one of the first elements of the painting a viewer is drawn to. From there he moves forward to address the sturdy, but still tired, hunters.
They are leading their dogs from the woods, down a snowy hill and back into town. Alongside the hunters is an inn, the sign for which Williams expresses interest in. The yard holds a big fire and women tending it. From there he moves down into the valley to mention the silhouetted skaters. Then finally, the poem concludes with what Williams states is Brueghel’s final touch, the bush in the foreground.
