Poems

by William Carlos Williams, Virginia M. Wright-Peterson (Introduction)

Before William Carlos Williams was recognized as one of the most important innovators in American poetry, he commissioned a printer to publish 100 copies of Poems (1909), a small collection largely imitating the styles of the Romantics and the Victorians. This volume collects the self-published edition of Poems, Williams's foray into the world of letters, with previously unpublished notes he made after spending nearly a year in Europe rethinking poetry and how to write it. As Poems shows his first tentative steps into poetry, the notes show him as he prepares to make a giant transformation in his art. Shortly after Poems appeared, Williams went through a series of experiences that changed his life--a trip to Europe, a marriage to the sister of the woman he genuinely loved, and the establishment of his medical practice. In Europe he was introduced to a consideration of an unlikely Heinrich Heine, Martin Luther, and Richard Wagner, resulting in an exposure that subsequently influenced his developing style. Williams looked back on Poems as apprentice work, calling them, "bad Keats, nothing else--oh well, bad Whitman too. But I sure loved them. . . . There is not one thing of the slightest value in the whole thin booklet--except the intent," and never republished the collection. Now that Williams's work is widely read and appreciated, his reputation secure, his development as a poet is a matter worth serious study, Poems can be seen as a point of departure, a clear record of where Williams began before his life and ideas about poetry made seismic shifts. Virginia M. Wright-Peterson's succinct introduction puts Poems in the context of his life and times, discusses the reception of the volume, his reconsideration of the poems, and what they reveal about his poetic ambitions.

Genres: Poetry

80 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1974

About the author

William Carlos Williams was an American poet closely associated with modernism and Imagism. He was also a pediatrician and general practitioner of medicine. Williams "worked harder at being a writer than he did at being a physician," wrote biographer Linda Wagner-Martin. During his long lifetime, Williams excelled both as a poet and a physician.

Although his primary occupation was as a doctor, Williams had a full literary career. His work consists of short stories, poems, plays, novels, critical essays, an autobiography, translations, and correspondence. He wrote at night and spent weekends in New York City with friends—writers and artists like the avant-garde painters Marcel Duchamp and Francis Picabia and the poets Wallace Stevens and Marianne Moore. He became involved in the Imagist movement but soon he began to develop opinions that differed from those of his poetic peers, Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot. Later in his life, Williams toured the United States giving poetry readings and lectures.

In May 1963, he was posthumously awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Pictures from Brueghel and Other Poems (1962) and the Gold Medal for Poetry of the National Institute of Arts and Letters. The Poetry Society of America continues to honor William Carlos Williams by presenting an annual award in his name for the best book of poetry published by a small, non-profit or university press.

Williams' house in Rutherford is now on the National Register of Historic Places. He was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame in 2009.

Reviews

[Felipe · Rating 5 out of 5]

flowers throught the window
lavender and yellow

changed by white curtains -
Smell of cleanliness -

Sunchine of late afternoon -
On the glass tray

------

sorrow is my own yard

[Alessandro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sorrow is my own yard
where the new grass
flames as it has flamed
often before, but not
with the cold fire
that closes round me this year.
Thirty-five years
I lived with my husband.
The plum tree is white today
with masses of flowers.
Masses of flowers
load the cherry branches
and color some bushes
yellow and some red,
but the grief in my heart
is stronger than they,
for though they were my joy
formerly, today I notice them
and turn away forgetting.
Today my son told me
that in the meadows,
at the edge of the heavy woods
in the distance, he saw
trees of white flowers.
I feel that I would like
to go there
and fall into those flowers
and sink into the marsh near them.

------

You are lovely as a river
under tranquil skies —
There are imperfections
but a music overlays them —

telling by how dark a bed
the current moves
to what sea that shines
and ripples in my thought

[poetry chamame · Rating 4 out of 5]

Me encanta su estilo. Seco, subyacente, simple.
‘El término’ fue mi favorito. Al igual que ‘This is just to say’.
Sabe utilizar el humor como recurso que favorece. Me gustó porque pude encontrar algo diferente en cada lectura.

[Daniel De La Torre · Rating 4 out of 5]

Es un libro cortísimo pero no tiene pierde. Un estilo muy accesible para todos los lectores, muy humanitario, empático, el poema que dedica a su abuela (Emily Dickenson) es un homenaje lleno de fuerza y emotividad.

[Brenda · Rating 1 out of 5]

¿Sabéis esos collages de palabras bonitas que no expresan más que ideas vacías y banales y se hacen llamar poemas? Pues W. C. W. ni siquiera utiliza palabras bonitas. Ezra Pound lo elogiaba, así que supongo que el problema será mío.
Lo único que he podido extraer (y no estoy muy segura de que sea destacable):


Por debajo de los susurros
de las noches tropicales
hay un susurro más tenebroso
que la muerte inventa especialmente
para los hombres nórdicos
a los que el trópico
ha llegado a agarrar.

[Julia · Rating 3 out of 5]

To przegląd twórczości z różnych okresów. Niektóre wiersze zupełnie mi się nie podobały, ich forma zbyt dominowała nad treścią, inne bardzo ciekawie opisywały zwykłe historie. Na 26 zawartych w tomiku zanotowałam 8: "Gwałciciel z Passenack", "Jachty", "Traktat", "Danse russe", "Zagłada całkowita", "Czerwone taczki", "Paryż, na piątym piętrze pokój, chleb...", "Pejzaż z Ikarem".
Przeczytałam, bo usłyszałam o Williamie Carlosie Williamsie w filmie Jima Jarmuscha "Paterson".

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Picked this up after coming across this line:

It is difficult
to get the news from poems
yet men die miserably every day
for lack of what is found there.

Didn’t live up to the promise of that snippet, but he is always a pleasure.

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

poems of their time, some felt like good hymns but that was the best I could say.