William Carlos Williams is recognized as one of the most important and prominent figures of the Imagist movement. Williams was born on the 17th of September, 1883, in Rutherford, New Jersey, where he would spend the majority of his life. He was the oldest of two sons. His father was English and his mother was Puerto Rican. Williams grew up in a very literary household, being introduced to Dante and Shakespeare at a young age by his father. He attended Horace Mann High School, initially studying math and science, before developing an interest in writing and languages at a later date. Williams went on to study medicine at University of Pennsylvania, often struggling with the weight of his parents' expectations of him. They wanted him to lead a relatively conventional life and shunt his more artistic impulses. As a doctor, Williams went into private practice for forty years and claimed that his everyday interactions with his patients massively shaped and influenced his poetry. His sought to find a form that encapsulated the suffering, struggles and momentary joys in the most direct manner possible.
Williams published his first book of poems, Poems, in 1909, followed by The Tempers in 1913. However, it was not until the publication of Spring and All in 1923 that critics thought he had successfully reached the pinnacle of his formal goals. Unlike some of his contemporaries, Williams was specifically trying to strip away layers of allusion and artifice in his work. Williams was also known for his epic poem, Paterson, which detailed the daily lives of various inhabitants of the New Jersey city of the same name. His final book of poems was Pictures From Brueghel and Other Poems, for which he posthumously received the Pulitzer Prize.
After a period of declining health, Williams died on March 4, 1963. Williams received the National Book Award for Poetry in 1950 and the Bollingen Prize in 1953. He was also posthumously awarded the Gold Medal for Poetry by the National Institute for Arts and Letters in 1962. His work is remembered for its close attention to detail, commitment to formal innovation, and unvarnished evocations of commonplace beauty.
"The Use of Force" is a story first published in 1938 as part of a compilation of work by William Carlos Williams. It tells the story of a doctor who is summoned to make a house-call to a family whom he has never met before, and who finds the...
"Between Walls" is a poem by American writer William Carlos Williams about shards of a glass bottle hidden in the back area of a hospital. First published in 1938, the work, like much of Williams's poetry, focuses on the depiction of scene and the...
"Danse Russe" is an early poem by William Carlos Williams, published in 1916, about a young father dancing alone in front of a mirror. Williams was a major figure in the Imagism and Modernism literary movements. In his poetry, he focused on paring...
"Landscape with the Fall of Icarus" is a poem by American writer William Carlos Williams about the Pieter Bruegel the Elder painting of the same name. It was published in 1960 in the Hudson Review and subsequently collected in Williams's final...
"The Red Wheelbarrow" is a poem by William Carlos Williams that uses a uniquely contemplative voice to depict a wheelbarrow. It was published in 1923 as part of his collection, Spring and All. Williams was a significant twentieth-century American...
"This Is Just to Say," first published in 1934, is a poem by American author William Carlos Williams about a man who has eaten someone else's plums. Williams was a major poet commonly noted for his involvement with the Imagism and Modernism...
"The Widow's Lament in Springtime" is a poem by William Carlos Williams about a widow mourning the loss of her husband. It was published in 1921. Williams was largely noted for his importance in the Modernism and Imagism movements. He sought to...
William Carlos Williams (1883-1963) was a Puerto Rican-American poet whose work was central to the Imagism and Modernism movements. He operated in a variety of registers, from plainspoken to lyrical to darkly sardonic, but was always concerned...
