The Red Wheelbarrow
William Carlos Williams
| so much depends upon a red wheel barrow glazed with rain water beside the white chickens. |
The Great Figure
William Carlos Williams
5 10 |
Among the rain and lights I saw the figure 5 in gold 5 on a red fire truck moving tense unheeded to gong clangs siren howls and wheels rumbling through the dark city. |
Spring and All
William Carlos Williams
5 10 15 20 25 |
By the road to the contagious hospital° under the surge of the blue mottled clouds driven from the northeast—a cold wind. Beyond, the waste of broad, muddy fields brown with dried weeds, standing and fallen patches of standing water the scattering of tall trees All along the road the reddish purplish, forked, upstanding, twiggy stuff of bushes and small trees with dead, brown leaves under them leafless vines— Lifeless in appearance, sluggish dazed spring approaches— They 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 wildcarrot 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 |
Making Meanings
Poems by William Carlos Williams
1. In “The Red Wheelbarrow” Williams says “so much depends” on an ordinary, workaday wheel-barrow. Do “The Great Figure” and “Spring and All” also focus on the very ordinary things in life? Explain.
2. The painter Charles Henry Demuth (1883–1935) was so moved by the dynamic imagery in “The Great Figure” that he painted The Figure Five in Gold (see the Image Gallery). What movement do you see in the painting? What do you hear in the poem itself?
3. How would the feeling of “The Great Figure” change if the colors were different? Try it.
4. What significance can you find in the title “Spring and All”?
5. The first three stanzas of “Spring and All” are about plants. The pronoun in line 16, however, may refer to more than plants. What broader meaning might the word they have?
6. Reread the last stanza of “Spring and All.” Which two meanings of the word still make line 25 a paradox ? (A paradox is a statement that appears self-contradictory but that reveals a kind of truth.)
7. As a physician, Williams delivered thousands of babies. Can you see any connections between that fact and the last three stanzas of “Spring and All”? What references would apply equally to the coming of spring and the birth of an infant?
8. The famous opening of The Waste Land, by T. S. Eliot, declares that “April is the cruelest month.” Would the speaker of “Spring and All” agree with this view of the start of spring? Explain.
9. If you were an artist and wanted to paint what you see and feel in any of these poems by Williams, what images and feelings would you focus on? What colors would you use?
Choices
1. Collecting Ideas for an Interpretive Essay
Jot down some notes about Williams's use of concrete objects to make you think in new ways about people, art, or life in genera.
2. An Imagist Poem
Write a brief imagist poem describing some subjects from your everyday life. Before you write, reread what Williams says in his comments on poetry on page 780. Strive to capture a thing and a moment as precisely as you can.
3. Picture Poem
Find a painting or photograph that interests you (perhaps one from this book). Write a six-line poem describing the images you see in the picture. Try to record details exactly as they are, without using them as symbols or ascribing any significance to them beyond the fact that they simply are what they are.