Slide 1

Slide 1			Williams Carlos Williams
Slide 2			Williams was born on 17 Sept., 1883 in Rutherford, NJ. He was half Puerto Rican, which must be remembered in relation the aggressively "American" ideals of his poetry. His mother was a painter; he tried painting when he was younger. This is experience is reflected in his poetry, as he uses words to paint images of things. Short Bio important events: He studied in Paris and Switzerland from 1897 to 1899. Returned to the U.S. and went to medical school at the Univ. of Pennsylvania. He did medical internships in NY from 1906 to 1909. His first work was published in 1909. During this time he courted Florence Herman. After his internships, he studied pediatrics for a year in Germany. When he returned in 1910, he set up a practice in Rutherford. He married Florence in 1912, and the eventually had two sons.
Slide 3			Williams was a member of the Imagist movement in poetry. The Norton says of imagism, “Rather than generalizing about it, imagist poets attempted to present the object directly. In doing so, they had to avoid the ornate diction and complex but predictable verse forms of traditional poetry, elements that supposedly distracted the reader from the impact of the pure image (1232).” His painting background aided him in this style. “No images but in things (Norton, 1216),” Williams wrote in his autobiography. This summarizes his strategy for poetry. Although he and Frost were thought to capture American sentiments, Frost's poetry was focused on New England, while Williams captured the feelings of the entire nation. Williams is most comparable to Whitman. “But William’s work is more expressive of American sensibility, and more saturated with American speech and its rhythms, than any poet’s since Whitman,” says M.L. Rosenthal, a Modern American Poetry website biographer. In college he met Ezra Pound and H.D., with whom he remained friends throughout his life. Pound and he especially influenced each other.
Slide 4			He wrote poetry and short stories. I an amusing note, he wrote a story called “The Five Dollar Guy” that was published in New Masses. He had to pay $5000 in an out-of-court settlement, because he named a fictional character after a real person’s name. He was a serious physician as well as a writer. He actually brought his typewriter to his office so he could write between appointments.
Slide 5			While "The Red Wheelbarrow" is very simple, there are many things that we can discover about it by looking closely at the diction. For example, in order for the wheelbarrow to be “glazed,” there must be sunlight. So we know that although it rained, time has passed and the sun has come out. Because it has rained, we can assume that it is not winter, probably summer or spring. Since chickens are running about, this poem is not in an urban setting, but in a more rural area. We may also infer something about the speaker. He or she may be a child, whose summer fun depends upon a wheelbarrow. Or he or she may be a farmer, contemplating the importance of this one little tool.
Slide 6			Hugh Kenner suggested that in order to see the power of Williams’ poetry, we contrast it by writing it in prose form. In doing so, the words lose their impact. Thus we can see the artful use of line breaks and the way that Williams builds this image so carefully.
Slide 7			“Not what a poet says, but what he makes,” a Williams' quote typifying his style. “This Is Just to Say,” on p.1224 in the Norton, is another great example of his style. In presenting the words only a few at a time, he gives us the chance to picture each line. “The plums” bring images of purple. “The icebox” suggests cold and ice. We may also notice things about the poem that are not written. Because someone was “saving / for breakfast” these plums, the eater is probably eating them in the night. These people obviously live together since they are sharing an icebox. Also the passage of time is noted; someone had put them in the icebox at one point, and now someone else is eating them.
Slide 8			Williams died in 1963 after a series of strokes. He left his medical practice to one of his sons, and to American he left a brilliant collection of writing. William Carlos Williams sources: http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/s_z/williams/bio.htm http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/s_z/williams/wheelbarrow.htm Other useful sites for Williams and other poets: http://poetry.about.com http://www.poets.org --created by Brittany Doyle; lightly edited by LG.