William Carlos Williams
For an individual who enjoys writing poetry I must say that I am very bad about reading other poets. However, last week, while I was browsing the library’s online databases, I found one, the ”Granger’s Poetry Database” which has a huge collection of full text poems. I found myself reading a lot of William Carlos Williams poems as I looked around in the database. I believe my favorite poem by Williams is the short little verse entitled “The Red Wheelbarrow” which reads:
so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain
water
beside the white
chickens
It is such a simple, subtle, and short piece of literature and yet to me it paints this beautiful image. I remember when I first encountered it junior year of college, in Poetry Workshop, wanting very badly to be able to emulate the precise physical simplicity of it. I tried on a number of my own poems but feel that I repeatedly fell short. I am certain that some critics are not big fans of either “The red Wheelbarrow” or William Carlos Williams but to me both are genius. I find Williams’ verses to be very relaxing, they remind me, in some ways, of pieces of soft quiet piano music that one can feel comfortable falling asleep to.
Tags: poetry, the red wheelbarrow, William Carlos Williams, writing
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