William carlos williams
William carlos williamsWilliam Carlos Williams was one of the greatest American Poets of the 20th century whose illustrious career spanned half a century. From his beginnings as a pediatrician in Rutherford New Jersey to his Pulitzer Prize in 1963 William Carlos Williams made a lasting impact on American poetry as well as literature. He was an inspiration to many, and in his clear and profound use of contemporary language and environment was truly a poetic voice in contemporary America.
Williams was born to a British businessman and a French-Puertorican mother in 1883. He attended the Horace Mann School in New York and later graduated from Pennsylvania University Medical School. After opening his private practice Williams began his career as both a respected Pediatrician and as a prolific writer and poet.
While attending the University of Pennsylvania Williams became close friends with Ezra Pound. Though Williams disagreed with Pound when it came to poetry it was his relationship with Pound that opened the door for him into the world of contemporary poetry. Williams unlike Pound and other Imagists did not go abroad but remained at home and became one of the strongest supporters of the American Nativist movement. In fact it was Pound who published Williamss' first collection of poems (Poems) in 1909.
Williams was closely involved with the Imagist movement and it was in Imagist publications that his first works of poetry appeared. It was his relationship with the Imagist movement that taught Williams the necessity of bringing out new styles and techniques of composition that would defer sharply from the poetic styles of the 1800's. Imagism was a literary movement that focused on evoking emotions through clear, simple images presented in common language. There could be no clearer representation of this than in Williams's poetry.
Williams eloquently uses colloquial speech and simple everyday characters often set in suburban New Jersey in his poetry. Williams wrote: "By listening to the language of his locality, the poet begins to learn his craft..." In fact, one of his most memorable achievements is probably his five books of poetry about the downtrodden and humble New Jersey city of Paterson (Paterson, 5 books 1946-1958) which few would think could serve as the location for such a dramatic piece.
Other works by Williams include First Act (1937), a novel which captures the unique "americanness" of America, the short stories collected in Make Light Of It (1950), The collected Later Poems (1950), The Collected Earlier Poems (1951), Desert Music (1954), Selected Essays (1954) and Selected Letters (1957). Williams was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1962 for Pictures from Brueghel, a collection of his last three books of poems, a few months before his death in 1962.
One poem that captures Williams both in style and motif is This Is Just To Say. In his simple and clear description of what seems to be an unimportant incident Williams turns a simple everyday experience into strong poetic emotions. The poem is in fact a letter of apology but crafted into it is Williams's sense of humor as well as sarcasm. The writer of the note isn't at all sorry he ate the plums for in Williams's own words "they were delicious, so sweet and so cold.
William Carlos Williams was one of the great American poets of his time and colored the otherwise drab American landscape. He was a true Imagist but also discovered his own unique style in which he used simple colloquial language precisely and sparingly and yet was able to convey the strong emotions.