Ortiz Valera Alejandra
H. L VII
William Carlos Williams (1883- 1963)
A modernist writer who “thought of himself as the most underrated poet of his
generation” (TNAOAL, 1462.) Nowadays, he is thought of as one of the most
important writers between the wars. He was the second generation of his family
settled in America –his paternal grandmother was an English woman, his father
lived in Puerto Rico; and William‟s mother descended from French Basque
people and from Dutch Jews. This mix of origins made that Williams felt
fascinated since he did not belong to the mainstream of what became to be
Americans, i. e., Northeasterners or Midwesterners from England. Williams
enroled medical school at University of Pennsylvania, where he became
acquainted with Ezra Pound, Hilda Dooolittle (poet H. D.,) and the painter
Charles Demuth; these friendships influenced in his decision for becoming a
poet. Later on, he made the decision that medicine would be the means to
support his passion for writing. He spent his nights writing; on weekends he
went to New York with his artists and poets friends. In those gatherings he had
the reputation for being outspoken about his “hostility to most of the „-isms‟ of
the day” (TNAOAL, 1463.)
“Himself a second-generation American, Williams was fascinated by the
process through which men and women became natives of America, discovered
the New World, and then more or less successfully possess ed it for their own
uses.” (Guimond, 109). His mixed origins, sense of being part of America, and
his interest for making a new kind of poetry made Williams‟s writing style
simplistic in his verse form; his poetry has a detailed observation of things;
everyday language (spoken speech;) “matter-of-factness of both his subject
matter and his means of describing it” (TNAOAL, 1462;) he also wanted that his
writing portrayed an American context. He rejected “free verse as an absurdity;
rythm within the line, and linking one line to another was the heart of poetic craft
to him” (TNAOAL, 1963.) His characteristic style sprang on the book Spring and
All.
Imagism and Objectivism
It was in the 1920‟s that Williams was part of the Imagist movement, and ten
years later he would embrace the Objectivist movement.
Imagism
It was a movement that included English and American poets; it flourished in
the early twentieth century. Its credo was the use of precise images by means
of the clarity of expression; use of language of common speech; free verse;
creation of new rythms; the exactness of the use of words and the “absolute
freedom in choice of subject matter” (Hart, 401.) The movement was based
upon the ideas by T. E. Hulme who proposed a poetry that presented accurately
the subject of the poem “with no excess of verbiage.” Some of the poets who
were part in the Imagist movement were Hilda Doolittle, Ezra Pound, Richard
Aldington, F.S. Flint, D. H. Lawrence, James Joyce, John Gould Fletcher, Amy
Lowell, and William Carlos Williams.
Williams and Pound were the principal poets of this movement; however,
as time went by, Williams started to disagree the values that were in the work of
Pound and especially Eliot, since they were “too attached to European culture
and traditions” (TNAOAL, 1963.) Williams style writing during this time was the
avoidance of similes and “assertive statements” (Guimond, 96). One of the most
important examples of Imagism in the writings of William Carlos Williams is
within
the
book
Spring
and
All,
which
included
the
poem
“The
Redwheelbarrow:”
so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain
water
beside the white
chickens.
Objectivism
“Williams poetry during the 1930‟s is best understood as a continuation of his
work of the 1920‟s with the important modifications that were related to his
development as an „objectivist‟ – the name which he, Louis Zukofsky, and a
number of other poets used for their poetic movement during the late 1920‟s
and early 1930‟s” (Guimond, 93.) This movement acquired its name due to
Harriet Monroe‟s request for giving a certain group of writers a title (she was
then editor of the magazine Poetry where many of the writers within this
movement published their works;) its name describes the poets connections to
each other. Furthermore, Objectivism‟s credo, according to Zukofsky, was
sincerity and objectification, the treatment of the poem as an object,
emphasizing the ability of the poet to look clearly at the world; this means “to
objectify an image means both to intensify its qualities and to blur or eliminate
the features of its surroundings. In the same way a person who is „objective‟
eliminates all irrelevant or accidental responses in order to „focus‟ his mind
more entirely on the subject of his experience” (Guimond, 96.)
It is interesting that one of the influences of this movement was the early poetry
of William Carlos Williams; still, the Objectivist principles given by Zukofsky are
useful in order to understand his development as a poet. The Objectivist poets
were Louis Zukofsky, William Carlos Williams, Carl Rakosi, George Oppen,
Bassil Bunting, Kenneth Rexroth, and Charles Reznikoff.
The Ekphrastic Wind
I want us to discuss the next poems, “The Wind Increases” and “Landscape
with the Fall of Icarus.” The former was published in 1930 –the time when
Williams was imbued with the Objectivist movement; and the latter was
published during his last years active as a poet and of his life (1962.) Regarding
these two poems I want you to comment (if you wish) if the Imagist style of
Williams is still present in these two poems; also, think to what extent “The Wind
Increases” portrays the objective movement. W hat can you tell me about the
way the poems are arranged? Do you think that “Landscape with the Fall of
Icarus” adds meaning to Brueghel‟s picture?
In the poem “The Wind Increases” we can see the relationship
“between the human and the natural” (Guimond, 105,) or put in other words, the
mingling of nature and of man, more specifically a poet. The union of nature and
man starts with the title, which is the framework for all the descriptions said in
the poem, later on, the image of a tree and that of the poet come together as
one.
From beginning to end there are specific images of what this wind
makes to nature “the tulip‟s bright/ tips/ sidle and/ toss;” still, there is a change
in the things described, since nature (and the movement that provokes the
wind) mixes for the first time with a subjective thing thought of to be only of
human nature “Loose your love/ to flow/ Blow!” It is in the use of verbs where
the image of nature can be seen (loose, flow, blow) and the, the word “love” is
the connection in order to think of human beings, for the feeling of love is only
felt by humans.
Nonetheless, this movement provoked by the wind halts so that it is
introduced the core of the poem –the existence of someone like a poet and the
function he is supposed to do “Good Christ what is/ a poet–/ if any exists?” By
answering this question within the poem, we are led to the union of man and
nature (in fact it seems that man evolves into a tree ;) this is done by the words
used that create this image and mingling “a man/ whose words will/ bite/ their
way/ home –being actual/ having the form/ of notion/ At each twigtip/ new.”
From now on the juxtaposition of images and words is reinf orced in order to
bring together man and nature “upon the tortured/ body of thought/ gripping/ the
ground/ a way/ to the last leaftip.”
Perhaps, it could be that nature adapts the words to convert them into
nature; at the same time, the words are put down by a poet that transforms his
words into nature.
“Landscape with the Fall of Icarus” will be discussed in terms of ekphrasis.
According to Luz Aurora Pimentel article “Ecfrasis y lecturas iconotextuales,”
there are three ways to understand what ekphrasis is: “Leo Spitzer la definía
hace cuarenta años como „la descripción poética de una obra pictórica o
escultórica‟ (1962, 72); James Heffernan, de manera más abstracta, define la
ecfrasis como „la representación verbal de una representación visual‟ (1993, 3),
y Claus Clüver como „la representación verbal de un texto real o ficticio
compuesto en un sistema sígnico no verbal‟(1994, 26)” (205.) Therefore, we
must take into consideration that this poem is the reinterpretation and narration
of a painting based upon a narrative, the story of Icarus.
The title, which is the same title of the painting, is one of the things that
makes us be aware of the fall of Icarus, but Icarus‟s fall is relegated to a second
level in the title, in the painting, and in the poem, since the first thing we read in
the title is “Landscape” and then as a second subject “with the Fall of Icarus.”
As the title already links the painting and the poem, the first line of the poem
makes more evident this “intertextuality” within the poem “According to
Brueghel/ when Icarus fell/ It was spring.” Moreover, the poem describes the
painting from the general events painted to the particular event. This makes that
our focalisation of the poem, and at the same time of the painting, shifts to
different things –first, we are approached to the description of spring and “a
farmer, who is ploughing his field;” next, our focalisation is moved due to the
description of the pageantry “awake tingling;” this pageantry leads us to the
edge of the sea, where the sun and the wings‟ wax appear; and then, it is
described the particular place where Icarus is going to fall –“off the coast;”
finally our focalisation shifts to the particular event: “a splash quite unnoticed/
this was/ Icarus drowning.”
Though it may seem even sadder that neither the painting nor the
poetic voice make relevant the fall of Icarus; it is the opposite in the poem, for
the poetic voice does take notice from the beginning, and makes us be aware of
Icarus‟s drowning in the second line of the poem “when Icarus fell;” still, by the
way it is being narrated the painting and thus the story of the poem it would look
like he is also not paying much attention to the fall of Icarus but at the other
events that are occurring. Moreover, the awareness of the poetic voice of
Icarus‟s drowning is reinforced by the choice of words when he describes Icarus
fall “a splash quite unnoticed.”
Thus, the ekphrasis taking place in the poem adds and gives another
meaning to the painting. The painting may be read the next way: human beings
are so immersed in their daily life that they are oblivious to events such as the
fall of Icarus. On the other hand, the poem, by making almost imperceptible the
drowning of Icarus reflects upon the banality of human events; however, from
the beginning of the poem we are acquainted with his fall; hence, the
unawareness is not in the poem per se but on the painting, which portrays the
drowning as quite unnoticed.
The Wind Increases
The harried
earth is swept
The trees
the tulip‟s bright
tips
sidle and
toss–
Loose your love
To flow
Blow!
Good Christ what is
a poet – if any
exists?
a man
whose words will
bite
their way
home – being actual
having the form
of motion
At each twigtip
new
upon the tortured
body of thought
gripping
the ground
a way
to the last leaftip
Landscape with the Fall of Icarus
According to Brueghel
when Icarus fell
it was spring
a farmer was ploughing
his field
the whole pageantry
of the year was
awake tingling
near
the edge of the sea
concerned
with itself
sweating in the sun
that melted
the wings' wax
unsignificantly
off the coast
there was
a splash quite unnoticed
this was
Icarus drowning
Landscape with the Fall of Icarus
Bibliography
Caws, Mary Ann. “A Double Reading by Design: Brueghel, Auden, and
Williams.” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Vol. 41, No. 3. (Spring,
1983.) JSTOR. 24 August 2011. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/430109>
Guimond, James. The Art of William Carlos Williams. A Discovery and
Possession of America. United States of America: University of Illinois Press,
1968. (65-127.)
Hart, James D. The Concise Oxford to American Literature. 4th ed. New
York: Oxford University Press, 1965. (401-402.)
Pimentel, Luz Aurora. “Ecfrasis y lecturas iconotextuales”. Poligrafías:
Revista de literatura comparada Núm. 4 (2003). Repositorio de la facultad de
Filosofía y Letras. 21 agosto 2011. <hdl.handle.net/10391/868>
Williams, Carlos William. The Norton Anthology of American Literature.
Vol. D. 7th Ed. United States of America: Norton and Company. 2007. (14621464; 1466, 1470, 1475.)
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/wcwil/