William Carlos Williams: “What is it that is dragging at my heart?”
A physician who was a poet, or perhaps a poet who was a physician
William Carlos Williams was a poet and a physician in Rutherford, New Jersey, one who wrote prolifically and won the Pulitzer Prize posthumously.
I love that he was a physician and a poet, two very different services to others — yet both beautiful and embodied in their own right.
Plus, a doctor’s schedule is intense! William reportedly wrote his poems on prescription slips and between patient appointments, on a typewriter he would tuck away when they arrived, and at night after long days. His persistence gives me hope that we all have enough time for poems.
One of William’s most famous poems is “The Red Wheelbarrow.” My son read this delightful and short poem in third grade. (While I was writing this, I said the first few lines aloud randomly, and he came up with the next line. Ah, the little things that make each particular mom smile in her heart.)
The Red Wheelbarrow
by William Carlos Williams
so much depends upon a red wheel barrow glazed with rain water beside the white chickens
— in the public domain, and also published here
I love the way the line breaks (enjambment! such a fun word!) build a rhythm for the reader. A poem doesn’t have to be grandiose.
Here’s one more poem, perhaps with a feeling we can all relate to, as spring arrives.
The Late Singer
by William Carlos Williams
Here it is spring again and I still a young man! I am late at my singing. The sparrow with the black rain on his breast has been at his cadenzas for two weeks past: What is it that is dragging at my heart? The grass by the back door is stiff with sap. The old maples are opening their branches of brown and yellow moth-flowers. A moon hangs in the blue in the early afternoons over the marshes. I am late at my singing.
— Source: The Late Singer, from Sour Grapes, 1921, in the public domain
More, please
Read about the life of William Carlos Williams (The Poetry Foundation)
A Poem Guide to “The Red Wheelbarrow” (The Poetry Foundation)
“The Is Just to Say” another delicious and famous William Carlos Williams poem, about eating last luscious plums from the icebox
“Blizzard,” another poem by WCW
Fun Fact: William Carlos William’s grandmother’s name was Emily Dickinson (but she was not the Emily Dickinson)
See you tomorrow with another poet!
Brianne
Welcome to Poetry Buds’ celebration of National Poetry Month! Join Brianne and Jenny as we share one beloved poet each day in April. Did you enjoy this post? (We’re so glad!) Feel free to forward it to a friend, and like blowing on a dandelion, spread the seeds of poetry love.