Saturday, May 2, 2009

Great Poem: William Carlos William's "The Red Wheelbarrow"

Slowly but surely this is turning into a poetry blog, it seems. But it's probably what I love most in this world, so I think it will continue to be a poetry blog with a few random links here and there.

Anyway, here's another WCW classic. As I said about another WCW poem, I did not understand the brilliance of this poem until I aged. But now I realize that WCW challenges us to do through the use of line breaks and rhythm is to savor each image. He wants to look at each image in the poem and movement of the poem and appreciate it just for the language and nothing else. So try reading it aloud and slowly. Savor each syllable and and be in the moment with it. 

The Red Wheelbarrow
By William Carlos Williams

so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens.

1 comment:

Carla said...

I could not agree with you more. I had a stroke two years ago, and afterwards, this poem suddenly meant so much more to me. It is the small images in life that stick with us and become a piece of our shadow.

Carla