William Carlos Williams

William Carlos Williams (1883 - 1963)

Born in Rutherford, New Jersey, near the city of Paterson, William Carlos Williams studied medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. There he became friends with Ezra Pound and Hilda Doolittle (later known as H. D.) and started to think of his medical career as a means of supporting himself while he composed poetry, even as he interned in New York City and pursued postgraduate studies in Germany. Williams made Rutherford his lifelong home and practiced medicine until he retired, writing at night and spending weekends in New York City with other writers and artists.

Williams consciously wrote poetry that provided a counterpoint to that of Frost, Pound, and Eliot. In his work, he wished to speak like an American within an American context of small cities, immigrants, and workers. He wanted his poetic line to reflect the rhythm of everyday speech and drew his subject matter from ordinary surroundings — a painting, a red wheelbarrow, a dish of plums. Williams’s collections include Spring and All (both poetry and prose; 1923); Paterson, which was published in five books (1946, 1948, 1949, 1951, 1958); and Pictures from Brueghel (1962). Williams also wrote essays, some of which are collected in In the American Grain (1925).

Poems By William Carlos Williams

Miscellaneous

A Sort Of A Song (9 Comments »)
Après le Bain (1 Comment »)
April Is The Saddest Month (3 Comments »)
Aux Imagistes (3 Comments »)
Berket And The Stars (1 Comment »)
Complaint (2 Comments »)
Danse Russe (3 Comments »)
Dedication For A Plot Of Ground (3 Comments »)
from “Asphodel, That Greeny Flower” (1 Comment »)
Heel & Toe To The End (No Comments »)
Landscape With The Fall Of Icarus (3 Comments »)
Love Song (3 Comments »)
Muier (No Comments »)
Nantucket (7 Comments »)
Pastoral (2 Comments »)
Poem (As the cat) (13 Comments »)
Portrait Of A Lady (1 Comment »)
Spring And All (10 Comments »)
Sympathetic Portrait Of A Child (5 Comments »)
The Crowd At The Ball Game (11 Comments »)
The Dance (4 Comments »)
The Desolate Field (2 Comments »)
The Great Figure (2 Comments »)
The Hunters in the Snow (1 Comment »)
The Red Wheelbarrow (64 Comments »)
The Term (2 Comments »)
The Thing (16 Comments »)
The Widow’s Lament In Springtime (8 Comments »)
The Young Housewife (8 Comments »)
This Is Just To Say (92 Comments »)
To A Poor Old Woman (3 Comments »)
To Elsie (1 Comment »)
To Waken An Old Lady (2 Comments »)
Tract (5 Comments »)
Willow Poem (2 Comments »)

An Early Martyr

. Item (No Comments »)

Journey to Love

. The Ivy Crown (2 Comments »)

Poems

. The Uses Of Poetry (1 Comment »)

Sour Grapes

. A Celebration (No Comments »)
. A Goodnight (No Comments »)
. Approach Of Winter (No Comments »)
. Light Hearted Author (No Comments »)
. Light Hearted William (1 Comment »)
. Overture To A Dance Of Locomotives (1 Comment »)
. Romance Moderne (1 Comment »)
. The Cold Night (No Comments »)
. The Disputants (1 Comment »)
. The Late Singer (1 Comment »)
. The Soughing Wind (1 Comment »)
. To A Friend (1 Comment »)
. To A Friend Concerning Several Ladies (No Comments »)
. Youth And Beauty (No Comments »)

Sour Grapes: A Book of Poems

. Blizzard (1 Comment »)
. Complete Destruction (3 Comments »)
. Winter Trees (5 Comments »)

The Broken Span

. The Last Words Of My English Grandmother (No Comments »)

The Clouds

. Suzanne (No Comments »)

The Complete Collected Poems 1906-1938

. The Defective Record (2 Comments »)

The Wedge

. The Poem (2 Comments »)